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Sri Aurobindo is a great philosopher but not a master at all. He is very intelligent, very scholarly, a great intellectual, but not an enlightened master. He talks about God and talks beautifully, but it is all talk, it is all abstraction; it is not a realization.

If it is a realization, then there cannot be any goal. For example, if the world has evolution as the goal, then what will be the goal of evolution? Why evolution at all in the first place? You will have to create another abstraction, and it will be a regress ad infinitum. Whatsoever you fix as the goal, the question will remain relevant about that. Why?

If this is the goal of evolution, to realize God, then what is the goal of realizing God? Just ask that question and you are back to the same place. If enlightenment is the goal of life, then what is the goal of enlightenment? And then you can see the point: enlightenment will have no purpose. And if the ultimate itself has no purpose, then what is the point of saying that life has purpose and the world has purpose? If the ultimate is purposelessness, then that ultimate permeates all.

This goal-orientation comes from the ego. The ego cannot accept that there is no goal. The ego cannot accept that there is no hierarchy. The ego cannot accept that minerals and trees and animals and man and enlightened people all exist in a great simultaneity – there is no gradation. You would like to be higher, you would like to be somebody special. You are man, not a mineral. But what is so great in being a man? What is so great in being an animal, or a man or an enlightened man? Why create the hierarchy? Finally the whole thing falls flat – in the end God has no purpose, and God is all.

Those who have experienced, those who have not just been thinking about God, but those who have experienced will say God is nothing but the cosmic simultaneity of all. Minerals are exactly where man is, in their own way, in a different form. Trees are exactly where enlightened people are, in their own way, in their own form. Nobody is higher and nobody is lower. The ego cannot accept that, because if there is nobody higher, nobody lower, the ego cannot exist at all. The ego can exist only through comparison; it has to put somebody lower and somebody higher. It can exist only in the middle of these two falsities. It has to put somebody lower so it can feel good: “I am special.” Then it has to put somebody higher so it can go on striving, so that it can go on achieving, so that it can go on ladder-climbing.

But if the ultimate has no purpose, what purpose is there in enlightenment? Buddha is purposeless – just think of it – and you are purposeful; God is purposeless, and you are purposeful. If God is purposeless, you are purposeless, because you are not separate from God. Who is existing in the trees? Who is treeing in the trees? Who is hidden in the rocks? Who is singing in the birds? Who is speaking in me and who is listening in you? It is all one. The speaker and the spoken to are one, the knower and the known are one, the lover and the beloved are one.

Once this becomes comprehensible to you, you relax – you relax in the cosmic simultaneity. That’s what I mean when I say, “Be natural.” Ego brings unnatural desires in you; it drives you crazy. Life is simple, but to be simple one has to be purposeless. Any goal, and you can’t be simple; any goal and you can’t be herenow. Any goal and the desire to reach it will rock you. Any goal, and you are on the way, again moving, unable to enjoy this moment, the grace of this moment, the benediction of herenow.

Once you understand this, all goals disappear and with all those goals, you disappear – then what is left is enlightenment. To know that there is no purpose is to become enlightened, to know that all is good as it is. And we are all participating in the same reality. Nobody is higher and nobody is lower; no comparison is needed.

Which is higher, ice or water? Is vapor higher than ice? We know that there is nothing higher or lower – ice, water, vapor, are all manifestations of one reality called H₂O. H₂O has these three forms. God has millions of forms: man, woman, beautiful, ugly, stupid, intelligent, sinner, saint. Nobody is higher, nobody is lower. To see it is to be transformed. From that very moment you start disappearing, you start melting.

People like Sri Aurobindo will give you a new kind of ego, a spiritual kind. You start striving for supra-mental states, supra-conscious states, and you are again in the same rut, the race has started again. First it was for money, power, prestige; now it is for supra-mental states. And all that comes as a shadow with it will be there. There will be competition: somebody going higher than you, you are lagging behind, or going higher than somebody else. Everybody has to prove that he is higher, and has to continually fight those who are competing, and the whole nonsense has entered again. Then you are in a marketplace again, a spiritual marketplace, of course, but what is the difference? In the ordinary marketplace somebody was richer than you, now somebody has more satori quality in him, now somebody is more meditative, now somebody is more enlightened.

If there is a goal, then even enlightenment will be in degrees – more or less. If there is no goal, you can become enlightened this very moment. You are! You just need the courage to recognize it, the courage to be it. It hurts because the ego will have to be left, and all that you have tried in your life has been because of the ego. You may even be meditating because of the ego and for the ego. You want to have that attitude of “holier-than-thou” so you can condemn the whole world and you can say, “I am a spiritual person, you all are materialists.”

You can go around India and you can see: every Indian thinks that the whole world is materialist except Indians – holier-than-thou. And then people have to invent ways so they can prove that they are holier-than-thou. They will eat this and they will not eat that; they will live according to a certain pattern, they will have a certain style. All these are mind games. Beware of people like Sri Aurobindo!

My approach is not that of evolution. Nothing is going anywhere: all is here. Things are changing, certainly, but there is no evolution. Things are moving, certainly, but nothing is going higher and nothing is left behind as lower. Drop those categories. By dropping them you will immediately be entering into a new world. Suddenly you will find friendship with trees, because they are no longer lower; you will find a great affinity with birds, because they are no longer lower. Suddenly you will look into the eyes of your dog, and you will find a buddha there too. Then the sheer joy of it is infinite. You will look into the eyes of your woman, and a buddha is hiding there too.

I make all things divine. I don’t want you to go to God – I bring God to you. And not only to you – I bring God to the whole existence. It is really there; there is no other reality; this is the only reality there is. This is the only dance there is. Don’t miss this dance! Don’t get obsessed with ideals, otherwise you will be losing an opportunity.

Sat Bodhi asks: [You said life and existence have no goal, they are a purpose unto themselves.]

Yes, it is so. It is not a philosophical statement. I am simply sharing my experience. I am not saying anything which I have not seen, felt, lived. I am simply opening my heart to you. It is so. It is not an argument. I am not trying to convince you of anything at all. I am simply making it clear to you what has happened to me. And I say to you: this is available to you too, this very moment. Not a single moment’s postponement is needed because enlightenment is a state of nature.

Relax, don’t be tense about goals, because all goals make tension, create tension, stress, strain – because you always have to look ahead, to look far away. You have to think of future things, to plan for them; you have to strive. Naturally, tension arises, anxiety arises, anguish arises. You are torn apart: your reality is here and your heart is somewhere else. You become schizophrenic. When I say relax, I mean drop all goals, drop all ideals. Relax into this moment, listen to this moment, live this moment, have a taste of it. Be surrounded by the reality that is already here, and suddenly you will also have the same taste I am talking about. It is an experience, existential. It is not speculation.

You say: [Other masters, for instance, Sri Aurobindo, teach evolution as the aim of the world…]

I don’t teach you anything “as the aim of the world.” I teach you only life, love, joy. I don’t want you to become obsessed with the future. Now is my teaching, if it can be called a teaching. Rather than calling it a teaching I would like to call it a sharing. I am not a teacher in that sense. I am not giving you a doctrine so that you can adapt yourself to the doctrine and you can become a follower. I want you to become me, not a follower.

But you are so miserly. Not only in giving: even in taking you are miserly. To hide that miserliness you philosophize in so many ways – these are strategies. You are afraid to relax. First you were tense for money, for a better house, for a better job, for a more beautiful woman. Now you are tense for evolution: how to become enlightened, how to become a buddha. You need a good kick in the pants! That’s exactly what happened…

A great seeker, a philosopher, a thinker, came to Ma Tzu. Ma Tzu is one of the rare Zen masters. The philosopher, a university professor, asked how to become enlightened, how to become a buddha. Ma Tzu, who was sitting in the temple just by the side of a great Buddha statue, said, “To talk about such solemn and serious things, let us start by the right approach: you first bow down to Buddha.”

It looked so right: to talk about buddhahood, to talk about enlightenment, and Ma Tzu had said with great seriousness, “Bow down to Buddha,” so the philosopher bowed down. Ma Tzu gave him a good kick, a terrific kick in the pants. And something happened – not only that you are laughing: the philosopher started laughing, seeing the whole ridiculousness of it – his first satori; in that moment he had some taste of buddhahood.

What really happened? He was not expecting such a kick from such a great man, such an enlightened sage. You never expect such things. It was such a shock that for a moment, his thinking stopped; for a moment, he could not think at all. This was so unexpected. That moment, bowing down to the statue of Buddha, and Ma Tzu kicking him so unexpectedly, was like an electric shock. It must have gone to the deepest core of his mind. For a moment, all thinking stops, all time stops and he is looking at Buddha’s statue. In that very moment, that meditative moment, he started laughing.

Years later, he was asked again and again, “What happened to you? – because you have never been the same man since.” He would answer, “Something strange happened. Since the day Ma Tzu kicked me, I have not stopped laughing. Whenever I bow down to Buddha, I remember Ma Tzu and the kick is there again. For a moment my thinking stops and I can see what this man means. He taught me without using a single word.”

That’s exactly what you need: a kick in the pants – a terrific kick. You are buddhas, you have simply forgotten. You need only remembrance, not evolution. It is not that you have to become a buddha, you are a buddha, fallen asleep. Somebody needs to kick you, somebody needs to shout at you, somebody needs to hit you. That is the purpose of a master. Ma Tzu is a master. Sri Aurobindo is not a master; Sri Aurobindo is just philosophizing, giving consolation to people. Many people come to him, thousands became interested in him because it is cheap to become interested in philosophy. Nothing is lost, nothing is at stake, and you learn beautiful words, and you start dreaming about things, and somebody systematizes the whole thing. He is a great systematizer: he labels things, categorizes them; he goes with a system that has great appeal to the logical mind, the modern mind. But his appeal simply shows that he suits the modern mind, and anything that suits the modern mind is not going to change it.

You need somebody who can possess you unexpectedly, who can shatter your ideas, who can shatter you, who can take the very earth from beneath your feet. Only very courageous people become interested in a master. To be with a master is dangerous. One never knows what he is going to do; one never knows what he is going to say. He himself does not know! Things are happening. He is in tune with the whole, so whatsoever happens, happens. Remember, Ma Tzu has not kicked this man: if Ma Tzu had kicked this man there would have been nothing, maybe a fight. God has kicked through Ma Tzu; Ma Tzu functioned only as a hollow bamboo.

The ways of a sage are strange, illogical, paradoxical. Sri Aurobindo cannot be a sage: he is so systematic, so logical. His very logicalness is enough proof that he knows nothing. He is clever with words, a genius with words. I don’t think anybody else in this century has been as capable with words, or had his talents of logic, scholarship, reading, research. But behind all that jargon there is nothing.

Another man was alive in Sri Aurobindo’s day, Ramana Maharshi. He had the experience. Very few people went to him, very few, but those who went were benefited. But to see Ramana Maharshi needs a totally different kind of approach. He will not speak much; he will not try to convince you. He will be sitting there – if you are available, he is available. And his ways will be very simple; unless you have a heart to feel that vibe, you will miss him.

It is not always so. J. Krishnamurti is there. He talks; talks very intelligently. Remember, I will not say logically: he talks very intelligently; goes into the analysis of any problem as deeply as is humanly possible. But he is not a philosopher. All of his talk is like uprooting weeds from the garden; he destroys your problems through his analysis. He does not give you anything; he simply takes away all that you have been carrying in your mind. For a moment you are utterly lost, and in that very moment you can see his reality. His experience starts flowing in you. People can miss him also.

People used to miss Sri Ramana because he was silent; he would not say much. Just the other day I mentioned U.G. Krishnamurti. When he saw Ramana Maharshi reading joke books and looking at cartoons, he was very frustrated. Not only that: a man asked a question about God and U. G. Krishnamurti was present there when, very seriously, bowing at his feet, the man asked about God. And what did Sri Ramana do? – do you know? He gave him a joke book and said, “Read it!”

Naturally, U. G. Krishnamurti was very much offended: “Is this a way? This seems to be disrespectful to the man who has asked such a serious question, giving him a joke book.” This is again a kick in the pants, in its own way. What he is saying is, “What nonsense are you talking about? God? It is not a thing to be talked about – better read a joke book and have a good laugh. “If you can laugh, maybe you can know God – not by what I will say. But if you can laugh a hearty laugh, a belly-laugh, in that moment thinking stops.”

Now, he has given a great message without saying a single word. Have you not watched it? When you laugh, for a moment you are no longer in the mind. Laughter takes you somewhere else. Where does it take you? It takes you to the same place where meditation takes you. So if you see a very serious and sad man and he claims that he is meditating, know well that he is not meditating. Meditation is always dancing; it is never serious, sad. It is sincere, of course, but never sad; it is joyous, it is gay.

You must have heard the old proverb: “Laugh and the whole world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone.” They have changed this proverb a little bit in modern times. Now they say: “Laugh and the whole world laughs with you; weep and you sleep alone.” But it is the same.

In the moment of laughter, you are suddenly one with the harmony of existence. Weep, and you have fallen apart, you are no longer part of it. In sadness, in seriousness, in despair, you are not in rhythm with existence. In laughing, in dancing, in singing, in loving, you are in rhythm with existence.

There is no evolution, only rhythm or no rhythm. These are two states, and they are available right now. You can be in rhythm, you can be not in rhythm – that is the freedom of man. Trees are continuously in rhythm, birds are continuously in rhythm. Man can choose. These are different manifestations. Because you can choose, you have chosen the wrong. The wrong has an appeal: by choosing the wrong, you become important; by choosing the right, you disappear. And you have been taught from the very childhood to be important, to be the first in the world. You have been taught ambition; you have been poisoned to the very core. You always want to be important.

Now, this U. G. Krishnamurti missed Sri Ramana, and something great was happening. Sri Ramana giving a joke book to a man who is asking about God, is almost like Buddha giving his flower to Mahakashyap or Ma Tzu giving a terrific kick in the pants. U. G. Krishnamurti missed Ramana. Then he missed J. Krishnamurti, too, and he lived for years with J. Krishnamurti.

Now, J. Krishnamurti is totally different in his expression, very logical, very rational. The beginning of his work is always with the mind; then slowly, slowly he leads you beyond the mind, But U. G. Krishnamurti thought it was all abstraction, philosophy. He stopped going there because “it is all abstraction.” He left Sri Ramana because there was no philosophy, he left Krishnamurti because there was too much philosophy; in both cases he missed. He lived with Sri Shivananda of Rishikesh for three years doing yoga postures. For three years there he thought, “Something is here.” And there was nothing! Shivananda is a very ordinary teacher. You can find dozens of them all around this country teaching people how to stand on their heads, teaching people stupid things. U. G. Krishnamurti remained there for three years and became a disciple.

Now, he missed two pinnacles. This is what goes on happening. You have a mind, a certain mind, and when you go to a master, you look from your mind. If it fits, you are happy; you start clinging. But that is not going to help, because if it fits, it will strengthen the same mind that you brought with you. If, by chance, you come across a real master, nothing is going to fit. He is going to disrupt all your ideas about how a master should be; he is going to sabotage you. He is not going to meet your expectations. He is going to frustrate you, he is going to disappoint you in every possible way because that is the only way real work can start. And if you still can be with him, then you are going to be awakened.

Sleep is easy, cheap; awakening is arduous. You will have to renounce your dreams and you will have to renounce much comfort, much convenience. You will have to renounce many ideas that you have always thought were very valuable.

My approach is that no evolution is happening. The world is exactly where it has always been, and will remain there. And I don’t mean that things are not changing – bullock-carts have disappeared and cars have come, and cars are on the way to disappearing sooner or later; soon private airplanes will be around. Many things have changed, but really nothing has changed. At the core, everything is exactly the same. Do you think that if you become enlightened today you will be more enlightened than Buddha because twenty-five centuries have passed and man has evolved? Do you think the people who were there in Buddha’s day were more unenlightened than you are? Or go still further back to Moses, or still further back to Krishna. Do you think in the days of Krishna, five thousand years ago, there were fewer enlightened people or more unenlightened people than there are today? It is exactly the same.

Time makes no difference. When you become enlightened, the date will not be a decisive factor. When you become enlightened, you become enlightened! You simply become aware. You are no longer asleep. You remember, you recognize your reality, and you are in tune. Cars may be passing by, or bullock-carts – do you think it makes any difference? Would Buddha have been more enlightened if cars had been passing by in Bodhgaya and trains had been shrieking and airplanes had been rushing from one airport to another? What happened to Buddha in Bodhgaya twenty-five centuries ago would have been the same –bullock-carts or cars or airplanes or spaceships make no difference. And the people who were unenlightened were as unenlightened as the people are today. At that depth nothing ever changes, there is no evolution. Otherwise, Buddha will have to come back to become more enlightened this time – and then there is no end. Then, every time you become enlightened, after a few centuries you have to come back and become more enlightened because now more sophisticated enlightenment is available.

At the deepest core, nothing is changing. Only on the periphery do things change.

[Other teachers, for instance, Sri Aurobindo, teach evolution as the aim of the world…]

These people appeal to you because you want something – longing, ambition, desire, passion – and these people supply you with it. Whatsoever is demanded is supplied. Because you want something to cling to, they give you spiritual commodities. You can’t remain without desires, so you say, “Now I am no longer interested in the world” – and they give you otherworldly desires. They say, “Okay, take this, now worry about this. You have worried enough about the world, now worry about meditation, worry about enlightenment. You have competed enough to reach to Delhi, now forget about Delhi and reach moksha, nirvana, paradise, but go on reaching!” You feel very happy: a new toy has been given to you and you start playing with the new toy. Sooner or later you get fed up with that toy, then some other toy has to be given to you.

Just the other day, somebody had written a letter to me. In Germany, somebody has invented something new, far superior to enlightenment that is called “transformation.” Now you have played with the word enlightenment too long, now somebody is bound to come and say, “That is nothing. Take transformation. Enlightenment is simply enlightenment – we transform! We take you to another, a new formation. Enlightenment means you remain the same and light comes to you. Transformation means you become totally new.” Now this has appeal, it is a new toy. Then somebody will come and will give another word. People go on playing with words. Beware!

I really want to do work here. I don’t want to give you any more toys; I want to destroy all toys. It is going to be hard work; it is going to be painful. But if you can move with me just one step – I ask only one step – your dreams, your sleep, will have gone for ever, and then real life starts. Real life is with the whole; unreal life is alone.

[Are these teachings wrong?], Sat Bodhi has asked.

They are neither right nor wrong, they are simply illusory. You cannot call them wrong. They are not right, they are not wrong, they are simply illusory. They have nothing to do with truth. They have something to do with your mind. Your mind demands those things; somebody comes and supplies you. It is a con game.