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White clouds are not directed by the wind. The phenomenon of direction exists only when there is resistance. If the white cloud wants to go east and the wind blows to the west, then there is direction – because resistance is there. But the cloud is not going anywhere, east and west mean the same, there is no resistance. If there is no will on the part of the cloud, then the wind cannot direct it.

You can direct only when somebody is not ready to float, to relax, to let go. But the phenomenon of the cloud means it is the very let-go. If the wind says east the cloud is ready; it is already on the move toward the east. There has not been a single thought of no; there has not been a single denial. If the cloud was moving to the west and the wind starts blowing east, the cloud moves to the east. The wind is not directing, direction is needed only when someone is against.

People come to me and they say: “Direct us” – and I know what they are saying; “Guide us” – and I know what they are saying. They are not ready; otherwise, what is the need of being directed and guided? It is enough that you are here with me, and everything will happen. The wind blows to the east and you start floating toward the east. But you say: “Guide;” you say: “Direct.” You are saying that you are against. You have denial, you have rejection; you will fight – one thing. And if there is no will on the part of the cloud, how can you make a distinction – which is the cloud and which is the wind? The boundary exists with the will.

Remember this; this must become your foundational insight: the boundary between you and me exists because of your will. You are there, surrounded by a will. Then I come and then there is conflict. A cloud has no will, so where is the boundary? Where does the cloud end and the wind begin? The wind and the cloud are one. The cloud is part of the wind; the wind is part of the cloud. The phenomenon is one, undivided.

And the wind goes on blowing in all directions. So the problem is not to choose the direction; the problem is how to become the cloud. The wind goes on blowing in all directions, it moves, it changes. It is always running from this corner to the other. Really, there is no direction. There is no map; the whole thing is uncharted. There is no one guiding it and saying: “Now go to the east, now go to the west.” The whole of existence waves it. It is a waving existence – all directions belong to it. And when I say all directions, I mean both the good and the bad, I mean both the moral and the immoral. When I say all directions, I mean all. The wind is blowing in all directions. This has always been so.

So remember: there has not been a specifically religious age nor an anti-religious age, there cannot be. People think so because that too gives them ego-trips. In India, people think that in the old days, in ancient days, there was a religious age on the earth and now everything has gone rotten – this is the darkest age. This is all nonsense. No age is religious, no age is anti-religious. Religiousness is not concerned with the time, it is concerned with the quality of the mind.

So it is not a question of whether the cloud is going to the east, then it will be religious, or going to the west and it will be anti-religious. No. If the cloud has no will, the cloud is religious wherever it goes. And if the cloud has will, then wherever it goes it is irreligious. And there are both types of clouds: very few who are will-less, millions who have their wills and projections and desires and ideas. They fight with the wind. The more they fight, the more anguish is created. And fighting leads nowhere, because nothing can be done. Whether you fight or not the wind will go to the east and you will have to go to the east. You can only carry a notion that you have been fighting and you are a great warrior, that’s all.

One who understands, stops fighting. He is not even trying to swim, he simply goes with the flood. He uses the very current as a vehicle; he becomes one with it and moves with it. This is what I call surrender, and this is what old scriptures called the attitude of the devotee. When surrendered, you are not. Now wherever the wind leads you, you will go. You don’t have any will of your own. And this has always been so. In the past there were buddhas, floating white clouds; in the present there are buddhas, floating white clouds. In the past there were mad black clouds filled with will, desire, future; they are there today also. With will and desire you are a black cloud – heavy. With no will, no desire, you are a white cloud – weightless. And the possibility for both these is always open. It is up to you whether to allow the let-go or not.

Don’t think of time and age. Time and age are indifferent. They don’t force anyone to become a buddha; they don’t prevent anyone from becoming a buddha. Time and age are just indifferent. Allow yourself to be empty and this is the golden age. Allow yourself to be too much filled with desire and this is the darkest age possible, the Kali Yuga. You create your time and age around you. You live in your own age and time.

Remember, we are not contemporaries in that way. A person like Jesus is ancient; he may be just here, but he is ancient. He lives so eternally, you cannot call him modern. He lives so totally that you cannot say that he belongs to a fragment of time. He is not part of the world of fashions which come and go. Living with the absolute, you become absolute. Living with the eternal, you become eternal. Living with the timeless, you become timeless.

But the question is still pertinent in another sense also. All over the world people have the feeling that a certain age, a certain time, a certain climax, a crescendo, is nearing – something is going to explode, as if we are reaching a particular point in human evolution. But I would like to say to you: this is again the ego-trip for the age. Every age thinks that way: something is reaching a climax with us; we are here, something special is going to happen on the earth.

This has always been so. It is reported that when Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden, just as they passed through the door Adam said to Eve: “We are passing through the greatest transformation ever known in history.” The very first man saying and thinking: “The greatest transformation….”

Every age thinks that things are reaching to a crescendo, to an ultimate point, to an omega point, where everything will explode and a new being will be born. But these are hopes, ego-trips, not very meaningful. You will be here for a few years; then others will be here and they will be thinking the same. The crescendo is reached, not with the age but with the individual being. The climax is reached but it is always reached with a consciousness, not with a collective unconscious.

You can become a religious person. And the time is good, the time is always good. And don’t think of others too much because this may be just an escape from yourself. Don’t think of the age and don’t think of humanity – because mind is so cunning, human mind is so cunning, you don’t know.

I have been reading a letter from a friend, and he says that he became so frustrated with all his love affairs, whenever he was in love it was such misery that he stopped loving any individual and started to love the whole of humanity. Now, the whole of humanity is easy to love; and those who cannot love will always love the whole of humanity, there is no problem. To love an individual is very, very difficult; it can be hell itself. It can be hell itself because it can become heaven.

We go on avoiding. People start thinking about others just to avoid thinking about themselves. They start thinking about the age, the time, the planets, and what is going to happen to human consciousness, just to avoid encountering the basic problem: What is going to happen to my consciousness?

Your consciousness should be the target. And every time is good, all times are good for it.