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Dear lady, please excuse me. It must have been just coincidence that you felt in accord with me, it can only be a coincidence; otherwise it is impossible to feel in accord with me.

And don’t decide so soon. You have heard me only once: just be here a little longer, and you will see so many contradictions! Wait a little, give me a little more time, and you will not feel in accord with me at all. In fact, this time too, it was not you feeling in accord with me, but me somehow appearing in accord with you.

You already have great ideas; you are very knowledgeable. Your question is not out of innocence, it is out of knowledge.

So many people are here. I cannot say things which will shatter everybody’s mind. If I say something and it shatters one person’s mind, it may be in accord with somebody else’s mind. For him I will work tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but sooner or later, the hammer comes down on everybody – and then you will not feel so inspired. In fact, answering your question, I will make you very much uninspired. Wait!

What do you mean by inspiration? It seems you already know; otherwise, what do you mean by inspiration? What do you mean by accord? You already know, and you say “Yes, this man is talking sense” – sense, because this is what you have always believed in.

I am not here to support your belief; I have to take your beliefs away. I am not here to inspire you, because all inspiration creates slavery. If you are inspired by me, you will become a slave to me; you will become dependent on me. I don’t inspire you, I simply go on shattering, shocking you. Sooner or later, I am here, you are here and we are tremendously connected, but there is no slavery, no dependence. We relate, but there is no question of inspiration, because one who inspires you automatically becomes important for you – so much so that you start feeling dependent.

You are searching for a father figure who can inspire you, who can put a little fire in your dull and dead life. But if somebody else puts fire into your life, he becomes powerful over you.

I am not here to put any fire into you; I am just here to help you to see your own fire. Be a light unto yourself. Inspiration means you will follow somebody else; you will imitate them, you will become a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan. Sannyas is a declaration that you are no longer a Hindu, no longer a Christian, no longer a Mohammedan, that you don’t belong to any creed or any dogma. I have no creed, no dogma. Becoming a sannyasin simply means that you have declared your freedom.

Certainly, the question arises: why the orange, the mala, and the photograph? Why? This is a device, dear lady, to keep unwanted people out. This is not for the crowds, it is not for the mob; it is only for the chosen few. The ultimate – call it God, enlightenment – is only for those who are really courageous, immensely courageous – because the ultimate becomes available only to those who can drop the mind and move into the immediate. The immediate is the door to the ultimate. To drop the mind needs great courage – it is not for everybody.

This is just a device. Orange is as good as any other color, or no color. It has nothing special about it. I could have chosen any – green, black, that would have done, but its purpose is that it is a device. It is for people who are ready to do a few mad things – because later on, bigger and bigger mad things are waiting. If you cannot do such a simple, silly thing as wearing orange, a locket and a mala, if you can’t gather enough courage to look foolish, a laughingstock wherever you go, and feel absurd and ridiculous – if you cannot do this much, then this place is not for you, because bigger and bigger things will have to be done.

As you move deeper into intimacy with me, I will demand more and more illogical things, because only through those demands can the mind disappear. There is no other way. Those demands are like electric shocks. Only then, can your cultivated mind, cultivated for centuries, be shaken to the foundations.

This is just a simple device to help freak out people who are not meant to be here. They simply escape. Seeing such a mad crowd, seeing people in orange, they become afraid and they escape.

This is deliberately done. I could have made it easier for you to be here, to gather more knowledge, and be inspired, and things like that. But this is not Christian Science. I am not Billy Graham, I am not here to inspire you. This is a totally different phenomenon. In fact, I am not even religious; I am not spiritual at all. All these labels are utterly irrelevant. This is just a device to choose those who are ready to go with me, who are ready to go with me to absurd limits. This is just a device.

But you are cleverer. You say, [“I can have you in my heart, entrenched deep in my being”] – as if you know what being is and what depth is. You are cunning and clever. You say, [“I can conjure you up”] but whatsoever you conjure up will be your own mind, a figment of your own mind; it will not be me, it cannot be me.

You can have me only if you move with me unconditionally. No condition from your side can be accepted. And sometimes I demand things which are patently absurd, and I know that they are absurd.

My people slowly, slowly start understanding that if you can do something absurd, that helps you become a little looser, out of your minds. Once you are unconditionally with me, if I say, “Go and move naked in the streets,” you say, “Okay.” If you can say that, simply and innocently, I am not going to send you to move naked in the streets; the purpose is fulfilled. If you hesitate, if you say, “What do you mean?” then you will have to go.

These are small devices, and sometimes, small devices work very deeply, because you cannot detect them. Big devices you can detect – they are so big, any stupid person can see them.

Just the other day, Krishna Prem wrote a letter to me saying that he remembers many times, that in many, many past lives he has been related to Divyananda, with who he is in love. In the past life, he was the mother and Divyananda was the son. He could not fulfill all the motherly duties in that life, that’s why he is in love with Divyananda now. “But now it seems that the debts are paid, and Divyananda is hurting me in many ways, so should I finish the relationship?”

I sent him a message, “Go and talk to Teertha.” He was very much hurt. Naturally. He was talking about such big things: he must have been waiting for me to say, “Krishna Prem, you have arrived. Remembering your past lives, this is great! This is your first satori, Krishna Prem.” Deep down, he must have waited for this. Rather than saying anything about his great experience, I told him to go to Teertha and talk. That must have hurt him deeply because I am not directly answering him; I am sending him to Teertha. I am not paying direct attention to him, I am sending him to Teertha. And who is this Teertha, anyhow? Krishna Prem being sent to Teertha? Krishna Prem is as highly evolved as Teertha, so why? Or maybe he is even higher and holier. Why? Why to Teertha?

For two days, he lived in great despair. Now, such a small thing, and he could not detect it. It took forty-eight hours for him to detect it; then he understood: “This is just a shock to my ego.” Then immediately, in that understanding, all despair disappeared. In that understanding, just that moment, all darkness was gone and he was light, happy, and back to his natural being again. But it took him forty-eight hours to detect it. Now there is no need: Krishna Prem, you need not go to Teertha. Now I will find something else.

Small, very small things are more difficult to detect, for the simple reason that they are small. Big things you can see. When there are mountains you can see them, but just a small grain of sand is undetectable.

If you want to be here, if you really want to relate with me, you will have to learn a totally different way of relating. I am not a teacher, so if you are only a student here to be inspired, and all that… I am not a missionary, either; I am not here to convert you to some philosophy.

If you are really to relate with a master – who has no knowledge but who knows, who has knowing but no knowledge – then you will have to relax a little. You will have to drop your ideas of how things should be. Remember always, many times it happens: you want to become a sannyasin, but you forget who is the master and who is the disciple, and deep down you start expecting things to be fulfilled by the master. He has to be according to you, then he is right.

But any master, worth the name, can never be according to you. People who are according to you are politicians. They know that you will follow them only if they are according to you: that is a mutual arrangement. They have to follow you to make followers out of you: that is a mutual exploitation. That’s what political leaders are, followers of the followers. They go on looking at you, at what your expectations are, and they go on fulfilling them.

I offend in every way. I cannot fulfill your expectations. If I start fulfilling your expectations, I will not be of any use to you. Then really you will be the master and I will be the disciple.

Who is taking sannyas from whom? This has to be decided in the beginning. Am I taking sannyas from you, or are you taking sannyas from me? Let it be very clear. Many times you take sannyas and it is not clear, and you want me to be this way or that way, to live this way or to live that way. And if I am not according to you, then you are disappointed.

The real master will always disappoint you. He has to disappoint you. This is how, slowly, slowly, chunks of your mind will be broken off and taken away from you. I have to continuously hammer you, and I have to be absolutely clear about it from the very beginning. The orange, the mala, the picture, have no other purpose. The purpose is that you have to know clearly that it is you who have to be unconditionally in accord with me, and that you have to drop all expectations of my being in accord with you. Only then can the work start. For those who are ready for it, sannyas is only for them. Those who are not ready for it, sannyas helps them to run away, to get lost.

You say, [“Why are you so against the mind?”]

- I am not against the mind; I am simply stating the fact – what the mind is. If you see what the mind is, you will drop it. When I say, “Drop the mind,” I am not against the mind. I am simply making it clear to you what the mind is, what it has done to you, how it has become a bondage. It is not a question of using it or abusing it. The mind itself is the problem, not its use or abuse.

And remember, you cannot use the mind till you know how to be without the mind. Only people who know how to be without the mind, are capable of using the mind, otherwise the mind uses them. It is the mind that is using you, but mind is very clever, it goes on deceiving you. It goes on saying, “You are using me.”

It is the mind that is using you. You are being used; the mind has become the master of you, you are a slave, but the mind is very clever, it goes on buttressing you. It says, “I am just an instrument, you are the master.” But watch, look into the mechanism of the mind, how it goes on using you. You think you are using it. You can use it only when you know that you are separate from it; otherwise how will you use it? You are identified with it.

If you say, “I am a Christian,” you are identified with the Christian mind. If you say, “I am a Hindu,” you are identified with the Hindu mind. If you say, “I am German,” you are identified with the German mind. This identification has to be broken. You have to know that you are not the mind. Only in moments when the mind is not functioning – when you are unoccupied, when there is a gap, stillness, silence, when the mind has ceased – will you be able to know whom you are, to know yourself as consciousness. Then you can use the mind.

I am using the mind, you are not using the mind. So how can I be against the mind? I am not against the mind. I may appear to be, but the whole effort is to disconnect you from the mind so that you can know your separation from it, your freedom. Once you know your freedom, you can use the mind. Then it is a beautiful instrument, one of the most beautiful instruments. Man has not yet been able to make something better. Even the biggest computer, the most efficient computer, is not yet capable of doing the things that the mind can do. A single mind can contain all the libraries of the world.

It is tremendous to think of the powers of the mind, but because those powers are great, there is danger also: they can overpower you. That’s what has happened: because the mind is such a beautiful, powerful instrument, you have become possessed by it. You cannot use it anymore. It uses you, it directs you, it gives you programs. It goes on goading you in directions which it has decided to follow. It does not allow you any freedom, it does not leave you any choice. Unless it is convinced, it won’t allow you to move even a single inch.

So who is the master? You cannot be the master unless you have come to know that you are not identified with the mind. The man who is identified with his car cannot drive it; the car will drive him, and then some accident is bound to happen. You have to be separate from the car; you have to know that you are separate, that the car is beautiful, a beautiful mechanism to be used, and it can perform many things. But you have to be separate.

You say, [“Why are you so against the mind? Surely we all use it.”]

- No. All cannot use it. Only very rarely is there a person who uses the mind: a Buddha, a Jesus, an Atisha, a Tilopa – only very rarely, and few and far between; otherwise you are used by the mind. No, all are not using the mind; otherwise what will the difference be between a Buddha and you? There will be no difference. You use the mind and Buddha uses the mind – what is the difference? Buddha uses the mind; you are used by the mind – that’s the difference. Buddha can use the mind because he knows he is utterly separate.

Remember, it is not a question of abuse. If you cannot use the mind, how can you abuse it? It is the mind; whether it uses you or abuses you, you cannot abuse it.

When scientists discovered atomic energy, do you think they used the mind, or abused it? When the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Albert Einstein could not sleep the whole night; for days, his nights were disturbed. He could not sleep, he could not rest; he was really terribly disturbed. He had been instrumental in creating the atom bomb. It was he himself who wrote the letter to the president of America, saying that the atom bomb was possible.

Now the question arises: was Einstein consciously using his mind writing the letter to the president of America releasing this powerful information to the politicians? Was he aware of the consequences? Did he ever think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – that thousands of people, innocent civilians, would be burned within seconds, for no fault of their own. No, he had not thought about it, he was not conscious of it. In fact, he was not even alert to what use atom bombs would be put.

Before he died, somebody asked him, “If you are born again, what would you like to be? A great mathematician again, a great physicist, a great scientist?” He is reported to have said, “No, never! Rather, I would like to be a plumber. But now it is too late.” Einstein had one of the most beautiful minds. Did he abuse it? Do you think the scientists who have created great technology and destroyed the whole ecology of the earth, used their minds or abused them?

If one day this planet earth is going to die, it will be because of the great minds of the twentieth century – because if in the whole history of humanity there have been a hundred scientists, ninety-nine happen to be alive in the twentieth century. In fact, seventy-five percent of the great scientists of all the ages are alive now. The mind has gathered such a great momentum. We have created great technology within the last hundred years, particularly within these last ten years, but that technology is going to destroy this earth. Who will be responsible? What will you say? The scientists used the mind or abused it?

If you ask me, I will say they were not masters of their minds. They neither used nor abused the mind; the mind used them, abused them. Science now needs great meditators; otherwise, this earth is doomed. Science now needs people who can use their minds, who are masters of their being, who can use science in a conscious way. Otherwise, we are on the verge of committing universal suicide.

Man cannot live for more than twenty-five years the way he has lived up to now, unless a drastic change is made. And the greatest thing that can be of help, which can help humanity to survive, and the earth to still go on living… and this is a beautiful earth. Compared to this earth millions and millions of stars are just dead: no flowers bloom, no rivers flow, there are no birds, no animals, no people. This universe is almost a great desert. This earth is alive!

Something tremendously important: consciousness has happened here, but this consciousness is still not a master, it is a slave. It has to be freed.

That’s my work here, my basic fundamental work: to help you be free of the mind so that you can use it. If you are the master, you cannot abuse it; that is impossible. When you are alert, conscious, meditative, abuse is not possible. If Einstein had also been a buddha, there would have been atomic energy but no atom bombs, and atomic energy would have become a blessing – the greatest blessing ever. The earth would have become a paradise, but Albert Einstein was not a buddha; unfortunately he knew nothing of meditation – a great mind, but the master was missing; a great mechanism, a great airplane without the pilot.

I have heard that they made an airplane, which could go to the farthest distances without any pilot – pilotless, automatic. There was great thrill and enthusiasm, and on the first flight, the automatic mechanism communicated to the people, “We are moving at such and such a height, at such and such a temperature, and at such and such a speed. Please be at ease, don’t be worried. Nothing can go wrong, nothing can go wrong, nothing can go wrong, nothing can go wrong…” And it went on! It has already gone wrong. Think of those people, what must have happened to those people! Now, what to do?

Great science is there, a by-product of the mind, but it is in the hands of slaves. Buddhas are needed to take possession of humanity – and one or two buddhas won’t do. Many, many buddhas are needed in every field, in every direction, in every dimension of life, so that the mind can be used. Otherwise, the mind was never as efficient as it is now, and that is the danger. The mind was never as clever as it is now, never as powerful as it is now. We have given atom bombs into the hands of children. If no accident happens, that will be a miracle. There is every possibility that an accident is bound to happen. Children are playing with atom bombs. Politicians are the most immature minds in the world. Only third-rate minds become interested in politics: mediocre people and people who are suffering from an inferiority complex, they become politicians. In these people’s hands are atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, laser beams, and this and that.

You can cease at any moment! I may not be able to finish my discourse. Any moment… we are sitting on a pile of hydrogen bombs, and there are so many… it is unbelievable how stupid man can be. We have so many hydrogen bombs that we can destroy every single human being seven hundred times. Now, what stupidity! For what? A man simply dies a single time. If you want to be very cautious, twice will do – but what is the point of seven hundred times? And they are continuously creating more and more. The whole earth is full of hydrogen bombs; we can destroy seven hundred earths like this. Still seventy percent of our energy is being put into war efforts. This whole earth seems to be a madhouse.

You say, [“Surely we all use it and need it and it seems to me that it is only when we abuse it – that is to say, using it as a defense against feeling too deeply and against transcending itself – that we are entitled to criticize it.”]

- I am not criticizing it. In fact, you will be able to appreciate it more if you understand what I am saying, you will be able to use it more if you understand what I am saying. If you become a transcendence of the mind, a witness to the mind, and you know that you are separate, and the mind no longer has any sway over you, you are no longer hypnotized by it, you will be able to really appreciate it.

I appreciate it. And you will also be able to use it, and you will never be able to abuse it. A conscious person cannot abuse anything.