608

(part 2)

A meditator can be a dancer, in fact a far greater dancer than anybody else. A dancer can be a meditator, a far greater meditator than anybody else. A painter can be a meditator, and then his painting will have a totally different fragrance, a different flavor, a different beauty.

And this is so about all the actions – whatsoever you are doing, don’t renounce it, transform it through meditation. Action has to be transformed, not renounced. The world has to be transmuted, you are not to escape from it. It is a God-given opportunity.

Remember, the ultimate truth cannot be reduced either to action or meditation: it is both and more. Never forget the more because if you forget the more you will miss the whole point – you will miss the higher mathematics. It is transcendental, it is surpassing all dualism and all polarities. It is not just the sum total of its parts, it is something more – like beauty, like music, like poetry.

[This we have heard from the enlightened ones.]

Remember, these Upanishads were not written by the masters themselves; these are notes of the disciples. The masters have always believed in the spoken word and there are reasons for it. The masters have never written books. The spoken word has a lively quality to it; the written word is dead, it is a corpse.

When I am speaking to you, it is a totally different thing than when you will be reading it in a book, because when you are reading in a book it is only a word, when you are listening to the master it is more than the word. The presence of the master is overpowering. Before the word reaches you, the master has already reached, he is already over-flooding you. Your heart is breathing with the master, beating with the master in the same rhythm. You are breathing in the same rhythm. There is a communion, an invisible link. The presence of the master, his gestures, his eyes. The words spoken by him are ordinary words, but when spoken by a master they carry something of the beyond; they carry some silence, some meditativeness, some of his experience because they come from his innermost core.

It is like passing through a garden – even though you have not touched a single flower, when you reach home you can still feel the fragrance of the garden; your clothes have caught it, your hair has caught it. The pollen of the flowers was in the wind. You have not touched anything, but the fragrance was in the air; it has become something, part of you.

The master simply means a certain noosphere. The word noosphere is coined by Chardin, one of the very strange men of this century. He was basically trained as a scientist, he was a geologist, but his whole heart was that of a mystic. It is very unfortunate that he belonged to the Catholic Church, and the Pope prevented him from publishing any of his ideas while he was alive. He was such an obedient person, he followed the order, so while he was alive nobody came to know about him. His books were published only posthumously, but those books are of tremendous import because he was a scientist and yet a meditator, a man of great prayer. There is a certain synthesis. His approach is very clear, like that of a scientist and yet full of poetry.

But the world missed a direct communion with Chardin. The Catholic Church is the culprit – they prohibited. They have always been against anything new happening in the world. So only when he died did his friends start publishing his books. Now the people who have come across his books can see what the world has missed because now they are only words – beautiful words.

Chardin coined the word noosphere. We are acquainted with the word atmosphere; atmosphere means the air that surrounds you, the climate that surrounds you. Noosphere means the world of subtle vibes, thoughts, feelings, that surrounds you.

A master carries a noosphere around himself, I call it the buddhafield. Jains have a very specific idea about it, they worked very hard to find it, find out exactly what it is. And I think no other tradition has discovered all the details about the buddhafield that surrounds a master like Mahavira. Jains have worked – they were a little bit scientific in their approach – and I agree with their discoveries about the buddhafield.

They say a master has a buddhafield around himself extending in all the directions for twenty-four miles – a circle with the radius of twenty-four miles becomes a buddhafield whenever a person becomes enlightened. No other tradition has worked it out with such scientific detail – they have even measured the length, how big the circle is that surrounds the awakened person.

Whosoever is a little bit open, entering the buddhafield will start feeling something strange that he has never felt before. But it happens only if one is open. Many people ask me, “If we come here and don’t become sannyasins, will not we be able to receive your grace?” From my side there is no problem, I am not addressing my energy to anybody in particular, it is simply there. It is a noosphere, it all depends on you.

To become a sannyasin simply means that you are dropping all your defenses, that you are withdrawing all your arguments, that you are opening your windows and doors to me – that’s all. It is a gesture from your side that you are vulnerable, that you are receptive, sensitive, that you are available. I am available whether you are a sannyasin or not, it does not matter. I am available even to these poles of the Buddha Hall! But what can I do – if they are not orange they will miss! A sannyasin simply means a readiness to receive. The energy is there, if something is missing it is on your part.

All the masters of all the ages have depended on the spoken word for the simple reason that the spoken word comes directly from their innermost core. It carries the fragrance of their inner world, the richness of their inner world, the beauty of their inner world. It is soaked with their inner being, it is full of their energy. By the time it is written it will be not the same thing.

The spoken word means a communion between the master and the disciple. The written word is not a communion, it is a communication; anybody can read it. The student can read it, he need not be a disciple. The enemy can read it, he need not even be a student. Somebody can read it just to find faults in it, just to find something so that he can argue against it.

But with the spoken word it is totally different. Even if the opponent comes, the spoken word dances around him. There is every possibility that although he has come with a conclusion, a fixed idea, his fixed idea may become a little bit loosened, he may become a little relaxed. He may start looking again before he takes any decision. He may start putting his a priori ideas aside. The rumors that he has heard can be easily put aside if he comes in contact with the spoken word.

That’s why the disciple who has written these beautiful sutras, recorded them – they are his notes – says: [This we have heard from the enlightened ones.] He is not saying, “This is my experience.” He is not saying, “I am the writer of these beautiful sutras.” His humbleness – that is the sign of a disciple. It has disappeared from the world; the very phenomenon of the disciple has become more and more rare, it has become almost nonexistential. Otherwise there was nobody preventing him from signing these sutras. He could have said, “These are mine.”

Just a few days ago a book in Marathi was published in Mumbai. He has stolen a whole chapter from one of my books – the whole chapter without any change, not even a single word has been added or deleted! And he has used that whole chapter as an introduction to his book. It is one of my introductions to Ashtavakra Gita, and when it was found, a letter was written to him saying, “How has this happened?” He didn’t reply. Then a notice was given to him – then he came running and he said, “I was not aware of the law.” But he was told it is not a question only of law.

“Were you not aware that you were translating the whole chapter into Marathi without changing a single word? You have not mentioned from where you have taken it, you have not asked our permission, but that is not of much importance. You have not even mentioned…even that is not of much importance. We had written a letter to you, you have not even replied to that.”

People have lost all sincerity, and this is not only so with the ordinary people – sometimes it even happens with my sannyasins. When they go back to their countries and they start a center there, sooner or later – only a few of them, but that too should not happen – they start functioning as if what they are saying is their own. They start pretending that they are enlightened people, that they are masters. If you are enlightened people, there is no problem. If you are a master there is no problem, but you are not! They go on coming to me, and they go on asking the same stupid questions they used to ask before, but back in their own countries they start behaving as if they are enlightened or masters in their own right. They repeat my words.

Just the other day I saw a booklet from a commune in Spain. The commune is run on absolutely the same lines as my commune, they even call themselves “the orange people.” They call themselves sannyasins, they use orange clothes, they wear a mala. The only difference is that there is no locket in the mala, instead of the locket they have this Hindu symbol Om. They do Dynamic Meditation, they do Kundalini Meditation, they do Nadabrahma. They change their names, they use Sanskrit names, Indian names, but they don’t want it to be known that they belong to me – a commune of thirty people behaving independently.

The man who is the head has never been here, but he goes on sending his people. Many people have come here, they take sannyas here, and when they go back the only change that has to be done is to drop the picture from the locket and replace it with Om, and everything is okay. In their brochure they have used my words, my statements, without mentioning me, just translated into Spanish, and it has become their own. And you will be surprised, they run a mala shop, a boutique, a Vrindavan cafe. It is a true carbon copy!

People have lost all truthfulness. The person who has taken these notes has not even given his name, but he repeats again and again: [This we have heard from the enlightened ones.] And remember, he does not say, “This I have heard” even. “We have heard…” He is simply representing the whole world of the masters’ disciples. He is not even using the word I, that “this I have heard.”

[“Those who have known, we have heard it from them.”]
- He does not bring himself in at all.

Just the other day I received a letter from Sudha. A few days ago she wrote a letter saying, “Bhagwan, I am in a great conflict. I cannot leave you, I cannot live without you, and yet when I am in the commune I don’t feel absolutely surrendered to you. That makes me feel sad. I want to be absolutely surrendered, to drop all my mind and all my ego. That I cannot do, and because I could not do it you have sent me to the West. But I cannot live in the West either! I hanker for your presence, I want to be back home as soon as possible.”

She said this to one of our sannyasins, Gunakar, who runs a beautiful center in Germany, Karuna. She talked to him on the phone and Gunakar wrote her a letter saying, “Come to me and I will help you to get rid of Bhagwan, I will help you to go beyond this attachment.” Now he runs a center for me – helping people to get rid of me! He was here. Twice he tried to become enlightened and failed. He will declare he has become enlightened and then he will come to his senses again. Now running a center he is imitating, now he is trying to help people to go beyond the attachment.

Sudha has done a good job of writing a letter to him, saying, “I don’t want to get rid – I want to get rid of myself, not Bhagwan! And I don’t need your help. First help yourself. Physician, heal thyself first!” But Gunakar is getting into stupid ideas. Just a few days before he wrote a letter to all the members of UNO: “I represent Bhagwan, I represent the hierarchy of the esoteric masters, and I want you to do these things. Unless these things are done, the world is not going to be saved.” Now he is trying to save the world – he has not even been able to save himself.

But these egoistic ideas are bound to happen because deep down the ego has lived for so long that it does not want to leave you. Even when you think you have dropped it, it simply hides somewhere, in some dark corner of your unconsciousness, and it starts functioning from there.

This is the true way of a disciple to say:

[This we have heard from the enlightened ones.

Meditation and action –
he who knows these two together,
through action leaves death behind
and through meditation gains immortality.]

Words that should be written in gold, far more precious than any diamonds can ever be.

This is my whole approach:
[Meditation and action – he who knows these two together…]

It is so clear. And in India people go on reciting the Isa Upanishad, but I don’t think that they ever ponder over what they are reciting. They are all escapists, they are all renouncers of the world – they have left action behind. If they have understood the Isa Upanishad and its message, they will be my sannyasins, not the old, traditional ones.

My sannyasin represents togetherness of action and meditation. He is in the world and yet not of it. He is like a lotus flower coming out of dirty mud, but transforming the mud into the beauty of a lotus – living in a lake, yet untouched by the water, absolutely untouched.

A true sannyasin should be in the world, in action, and deeply rooted in meditation. Your roots should be in meditation, your branches should be in action. You should be like a tree. Its branches go high in the sky, they are longings for the stars; it goes on rising high. But remember, a tree goes high only if its roots go deep, in the same proportion: deeper the roots, higher the branches; higher the branches, deeper the roots. They balance each other. The roots have to be in meditation and the branches in the world – in the full sunlight, dancing in the wind, whispering with the clouds; and deep inside you, in the inner world, growing roots into meditation. Then you will be a full tree.

Up to now two types of people have existed: a few have existed without roots of course, without roots a tree is bound to be false. And a few people have existed just as roots without trees, and just roots are ugly. Have you seen beautiful roots? Flowers are beautiful, but flowers need foliage, branches, the sun, the moon, the stars, the rain, the wind. They need the whole world, then those colorful flowers… These both have to be together; only then you will be an integrated, whole being.

The worldly has only branches but no roots, hence he is dull, juiceless, dry, dead, a corpse, just somehow dragging, out of old habit. And your monks, your nuns – Catholic, Hindu, Jain, whatsoever their denomination – they are just roots, ugly, not worth looking at. No question of respect, not even worth looking once! The question of twice does not arise – and without any flowers.

My sannyasin has to be both, with roots in the interior world and with flowers in the exterior world. My sannyasin has to be both, capable of intellect and also capable of intuition. There is no need to choose, whatsoever God has given has to be used to its fullest.

[…through action leaves death behind
and through meditation gains immortality.]

It is only through action, through creativity, that you go beyond death. Action functions as negative, it is the art of removing hindrances. For example, you are digging a well. Action means removing all the layers of earth and the rocks – if sometimes needed, dynamiting the rocks, drilling so that you can find the water sources. The function of action is negative; it is removing hindrances, obstacles, obstructions. The function of meditation is the realization of that which is. When the water starts coming up, meditation is drinking of the water to quench the thirst. Both are needed – action to remove the rocks, and, meditation to make you capable of drinking the ultimate, the wine of the ultimate.

[…through action leaves death behind
and through meditation gains immortality.]

These are two aspects of the same phenomenon. If you don’t leave death behind, how you can enter the world of immortality? Leave time behind so that you can enter the timeless, the deathless.

[Into a blinding darkness go they who idolize the Absolute.]

Philosophy idolizes the absolute. Bradley, Hegel, Shankara, they idolize the absolute and they deny the relative. The relative means it is illusory; absolute is true, and whatsoever is relative is illusory.

[Into an even greater darkness go they who dote on the relative.]

Science emphasizes the relative. Albert Einstein discovered the theory of relativity. Jainism has a little bit of scientific attitude hence Jains were the first to contemplate on the theory of relativity. Albert Einstein without knowing it is a Jain! Before Albert Einstein, twenty-five centuries before him, Jains discovered syatvad. Syatvad means the theory of relativity. Einstein says everything is relative. Syatvad can literally be translated as perhapsism. Everything is just a perhaps, nothing is absolutely certain, just a perhaps.

If you ask Mahavira, “Does God exist?” he will say, “Perhaps.” If you ask him, “Are you absolutely sure about it?” he will say, “Perhaps.” He will never budge from his perhaps. Everything is only a perhaps because everything is relative. Nothing can be said absolutely, certainly, categorically. It depends, and one thing can be looked at from many standpoints.

Syatvad, perhapsism, has seven standpoints. If you ask about God, Mahavira will give you seven statements. He will confuse you more than you were ever confused before!
He will say, “Perhaps God is,” his first statement.
“Perhaps God is not,” his second statement.
“Perhaps God is both,” his third statement.
Fourth: “Perhaps God is and inexpressible,” his fourth.
“Perhaps God is not and is inexpressible,” fifth.
“Perhaps God is and is not both, and also is inexpressible.”

You may have come to him with a little bit of understanding for or against, but he will destroy all your standpoints. He will give you the whole perspective, from all the standpoints.

That’s what Albert Einstein has done, of course in a more scientific way; Mahavira’s way is far more philosophical. Albert Einstein used to say, “At the most only one dozen people in the whole world understand what I am saying.” Not that there are not many more intelligent people in the world, but the very idea of relativity has something fundamentally wrong about it.

Something can be relative only if you accept the absolute. If you don’t accept the absolute, then what do you mean by the relative? Even the meaning of the word relative loses all significance, it loses meaning. Relative simply means that which is not absolute, but what is absolute? According to Albert Einstein there is nothing absolute: all is relative. And according to the absolutists there is nothing relative, all is absolute. Then what do you mean by absolute? The very term has meaning only in contrast to the relative.

The Upanishads are very clear. They say:
[Into the blinding darkness go they who idolize the Absolute.]

Because they have chosen again one side of the coin: the unchanging, the axle.

And:
[into an even greater darkness go they who dote on the relative.]

They have chosen the other side, the wheel, the moving, the momentary, the temporary, the changing. But change is possible only on the foundation of no-change. The wheel cannot move without the axle. And what is the meaning of the axle if there is no wheel? They are together and they are meaningful only in their togetherness.

The Isa Upanishad is trying to make it clear to never choose, remain choicelessly aware and accept life as it is, don’t impose any choice of your own. The absolute is there. The relative is there. Your mind is relative, but your consciousness is absolute. Your body changes, your mind changes – they are like a wheel – but your witnessing consciousness is like an axle, it remains always the same, never changing. It is on that axle that the mind-and-the-body wheel moves. They are not against each other; they are supporting each other, they are complementary to each other. This high synthesis is the message of the Upanishads.

[For It is other than the relative,
It is other than the Absolute.]
- Because it is beyond both and more.

[This we have heard from the enlightened ones.]

The disciple again and again repeats it so that you don’t forget that he is not speaking on his own authority, he is simply recording the words of the master. This sincerity is part of disciplehood, and only through this sincerity can a disciple one day become enlightened.

Enlightenment happens only if you become more and more sincere and authentic. And you have to be very alert because the ways of the ego are very subtle, it would like to claim that which you don’t have. Beware of the ego!

Om
purnam adaha
purnam idam
purnat purnam udachyate
purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavashishyate

Om
That is the whole.
This is the whole.
From wholeness emerges wholeness.
Wholeness coming from wholeness,
wholeness still remains.

Enough for today.