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Om
purnam adah
purnam idam
purnat purnam udachyate
purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavashisyate

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

The greatest contribution of the seers of the Upanishads is that they have made this world and the other world synonymous. They have dropped the idea of the mundane and the sacred. That represents the absolute, the ultimate, the further shore. This represents the immediate, the herenow, this shore. Both are one because: That is the whole. This is the whole. There is no distinction at all.

The ordinary religions live by condemning this world, and by condemning this world they praise the other world. The Upanishads have a totally different approach, they praise this world with all its beauty, splendor; through praising this world they praise the other world.

This approach is life affirmative. The Upanishads are in tremendous love with life. They don’t teach renunciation, they teach rejoicing. They would have agreed with Jesus when Jesus says again and again to his disciples, “Rejoice! Rejoice! I say again to you rejoice!” The Upanishads have a very aesthetic approach toward life – not the approach of an ascetic but the approach of a poet, a painter, a musician, a dancer. Their approach is in no way pathological.

But that vision has completely disappeared. Instead of that ecstatic vision of life, for three thousand years humanity has lived with a very sadomasochistic idea: torture yourself and teach others so that they can also torture themselves, because that’s the only way to make God rejoice. This is really a condemnation of God, as if God is a torturer, as if he enjoys people being in pain and anguish.

Even today we go on praising the ascetic attitude. The person who tortures himself becomes a great saint. If he fasts, starves his body, lies down on a bed of thorns, stands naked in the cold, sits in the hottest season surrounded by fire, then we have great respect for him. This respect simply shows that our minds are in a very ill state. We are not for health, for wholeness, for joy, for bliss. We are suicidal, murderous. And in the name of religion great suicide has been committed. The whole of humanity has become suicidal.

To understand these last sutras of the Upanishad, remember one thing: to the Upanishads, the beyond is not against the world, it is an intrinsic part of it. The beyond is also the within of the world; it is not far away, it is deep down here and now. Just as a river needs both the banks, life needs both this and that.

When you look at a river you see two banks, but if you dive deep into the river you will find those two banks are not separate; underneath the river they are joined together, they are one. In the same way this and that are one. They appear divided, but that is only an appearance, don’t be deceived by it. Dive deep so that you can find the ultimate unity.

The so-called masochistic ascetic saints, have been talking of advaita, oneness, but that seems to be only talk, just lip service because the way they behave, the way they live, simply shows duality. They renounce the world. If the world is illusory, why renounce it? What is there to renounce? Nobody renounces one’s dreams.

When you wake up in the morning you don’t make a great declaration to the world that “I have renounced all my nighttime dreams!” When you wake up, you simply know those dreams were not part of reality, they were just fantasies of the mind. There is nothing to renounce, they have evaporated by themselves. And if you insist on renouncing the dreams, that simply shows that you are still dreaming. Now your dream is that of renouncing the dreams – a new dream. The old dreams are replaced by a new dream.

Somebody is trying to conquer the world, a man like Alexander, and somebody else is trying to renounce the world, a man like Shankara. But both are agreed upon one point: that the world exists. Shankara says it is unreal. If it is unreal, then where are you going, then why you are renouncing it, then why this insistence, this emphasis? The whole emphasis proves just the contrary of what is emphasized.

When I was a student, one of my professors in the university always used to talk about his bravery, fearlessness, so much so that not even a single day passed by when he would not mention in some way or other that he was a brave man. I listened for at least two, three months, and then I stood up and asked him, “Insisting every day that you are a great, brave man, simply shows that there must be some cowardice in you, otherwise why this insistence? To whom are you trying to prove? We are not asking whether you are a coward or a hero. We have not come here to inquire about your bravery or your cowardice, whatsoever it is, we are not interested in it. Why do you go on insisting?” - And from any reference, from any context he would jump to the conclusion, as if he was always just looking for any excuse to prove that he was a brave man.

He was shocked. He called me home in the night and told me, “You are the first person who has made me aware of a certain fear in me. I am really a man who is full of fears. I am not trying to convince you – in fact, by talking to you I am trying to convince myself. And I am thankful,” he said, “although when you said it for the first time before others I was shocked, angry, enraged. But later on when I thought about it calmly, quietly, I realized the fact of it.”

The people who go on emphasizing the world is illusory are simply trying to prove to themselves that it is illusory, but they know it is not. They are trying to create a great smoke around themselves that it is illusory, worth renouncing: “It is worthless, there is no meaning in it!” But why this insistence? If there is no meaning in it, there is no meaning in it. If it is illusory, it is illusory. You need not say it.

These so-called saints have written so many books proving that the world is illusory. These saints have been talking about the illusoriness of the female body, that it is ugly, it is not beautiful: “Just look within the skin, it is nothing but bones, blood, pus, mucus.” Whom are they trying to prove these things to? Why this continuous insistence? There seems to be a great attraction in them for the woman’s body. They are trying to create defenses.

The Upanishads never say a single word against the world and that seems to be a more truthful vision. The world is there, it is real. Of course its reality is relative and that’s a fact, everybody knows its reality is relative. You love a woman today, tomorrow you may not love. Today it had seemed to you that you would love her forever, and tomorrow all that idea has simply evaporated. Just a day before you were ready to die for her, and a day after you are ready to kill her.

It is a relative world, nothing is permanent here that is true. Everything is changing, flux-like, it is momentary. But that does not mean that it is unreal, that it is illusory. Even though it is momentary it is true, it is real. It has a relative reality.

The other world, the beyond, the absolute, has a totally different kind of reality, it is non-relative. But both are real. The relative and the absolute are two aspects of the same reality. Watch a river, in one way it goes on changing, in another way it is the same river. Watch your mind, the mind goes on changing – every moment something new comes, something old dies – but in another way your consciousness, your watcher, is the same. You can experience both these things within you, the mind is a relative reality and your consciousness is an absolute reality.

You go to see a movie. The screen remains the same, but the scenes on the screen go on changing. Both are real. The scenes are there for a moment and then they are gone, but the screen remains the same. Because of the scenes you cannot see the screen. When the scenes stop, the projector stops, suddenly the screen is there utterly empty. That is the experience of the absolute: it is emptiness, just a white screen; nothing moves, nothing changes. It is eternal, timeless. But the world of time, the world of change is also part of it.

Remember the metaphor of the wheel and the axle: the axle is absolute and the wheel is relative. But the wheel needs the axle, without the axle the wheel cannot move – on what will it move? And the axle needs the wheel, without the wheel it won’t be an axle at all. They are complementary, not antagonistic. This and that are two aspects of the same coin.

The sutras:

[Absolute and relative –
He who knows these two together,
through the relative leaves death behind
and through the Absolute gains immortality.]

See the point: [one who knows these together]. The Upanishad is not saying know the absolute and renounce the relative. It is saying know them together in their togetherness. Only then is your knowing whole, only then is your knowing total. The person who turns away from the world remains lopsided as much as the person who remains in the world and forgets the beyond. Both are partial, and to be partial is to be ill because then you cannot have your whole being, only a fragment. And to only have a fragment is to suffer, is to be miserable.

Hence my observation is that the worldly people suffer in one way and your so-called spiritual people suffer in another, but both suffer. Suffering comes from the partial truth. Bliss is the fragrance of the whole. Bliss comes only when you live life in its totality. The totality includes this and that and it does not make any hierarchy. That is not higher than this, that is hidden in this. This is the visible part of that, and that is the unmanifest part of this. This is the body of that and that is the soul of this.

You can see within yourself the body and the soul are living in absolute harmony. In the same way God and his existence are living in deep harmony, there is no conflict. The conflict is created by your so-called religious people. They have created all kinds of unnecessary struggles. Hence true religion will be closer to the Upanishads than to Shankaracharya, than to Mahavira. It will be far closer to the Upanishads. This Isa Upanishad is the very essence of the whole Upanishadic philosophy of life.

[Absolute and relative –
He who knows these two together,
through the relative leaves death behind
and through the Absolute gains immortality.]

The absolute cannot be known by any method, it cannot be known by any teaching, it cannot be known by any scripture. The absolute cannot be known as an object of knowledge because it is the very center of your innermost core, it is the foundation of all your knowing. Hence it cannot be known as the known. No method will help, no teaching will help, no philosophy will be of any support in fact, they will hinder. To know the absolute, one has to drop all doctrines, all philosophies, all ideologies, all methods.

Just the other day somebody had asked, “Is it possible to find God by practicing Yoga?” God cannot be found by practicing anything – neither Yoga nor Tantra nor Zen nor Tao. God cannot be known by practicing anything whatsoever. Who will practice? All practices are confined to the mind and the mind practicing something means the mind is strengthened more and more through the practice, the mind is exercising and becoming stronger. Every practice strengthens the mind, and the mind belongs to the relative, it is the very foundation of the relative.

You can practice Yoga: you will have a better body, a better mind, you will have a better memory, you will have a longer life; all these things are possible. If you go deep into practicing Yoga you may even start having few miraculous powers, siddhis, because you will discover subtle forces of the mind and the body which are not ordinarily available, which are not functioning. You will come across many new energies which you have never suspected.

Psychologists say a major part of the brain is not functioning, and they are puzzled because if it is not functioning then why is it there? It seems to have no purpose and nature never creates anything without any purpose – it must have some purpose. But psychology has not yet been able to find any purpose and psychology may not be able to find it. Unless Yoga, Tantra, Zen, Tao and all these methodologies of reviving subtle energies of the mind are included in scientific research work, psychology may not be able to find any function.

Even physiology has not found functions for a few things, hence they are ready to remove your appendix every time because it has no function. The doctors are ready to remove your tonsils any moment because they don’t seem to have any function – as if nature can grow something in you that really has no function. Then why should your appendix exist at all? Ordinarily – physiology is right and psychology is right – they don’t have any function; but if you enter the world of Yoga you will be surprised even your appendix has a function, your tonsils have a function, and the major part of the brain which is nonfunctioning starts functioning.

You can start reading other people’s thoughts. This will be done by a new center in the mind, the old centers cannot do it. You can even start projecting your thoughts into other people’s minds, they will think they are thinking those thoughts. In fact, you are flooding their minds by your thoughts. You can have great powers of deceiving, they will not be able to see how you are doing it – they will not be able to see how you are materializing a Swiss watch out of the air. You just know one simple technique – how to prevent them from knowing what is happening just in front of their eyes.

But all these things have nothing to do with knowing God, the ultimate; all these thing are part of the relative: magicians can do it, hypnotists can do it, mesmerists can do it and there are many ways to find out these secrets. These are not very spiritual things, in fact only non-spiritual egoists become interested in these things.

The absolute is found only when you have dropped all knowledge: all scriptures are burned, all theories are rejected, the mind itself is put to sleep; then the absolute emerges. It is your very nature. When all the clouds have disappeared the sun shines forth.

But methods can help to get rid of the relative. They can help you to become more powerful as far as the body is concerned, the mind is concerned. They can also help you to get rid of the relative, they can help to remove the barriers. When I am talking to you, that’s exactly the purpose of my talking to you – to help you to get rid of the relative. All the methods of Yoga, Tantra, Zen, and Tao are negative – negative in the sense they don’t give you the absolute, but they help you to be finished with the relative.

The sutra says:
[...through the relative leaves death behind
and through the Absolute gains immortality.]

You can see the point – death represents all that is relative and immortality represents all that is absolute. Death represents time, change; and the absolute represents eternity.

In Sanskrit we have the same word for both time and death. We call death kal and time also kal. Sanskrit may be the only language in the whole world that has the same name for time and death. That’s why it can be said truthfully that Sanskrit is the only language transformed by the insight of the seers, all other languages have remained ordinary.

For ten thousand years, thousands of people in the East have become enlightened, and they have changed the very structure of Sanskrit language. They have given it the color of their enlightenment, they have made words luminous, they have given those words new meanings, which cannot be given by unenlightened persons. Now to call time and death by the same name is a great insight. It is not a question of knowing linguistics, it is a question of experiencing something tremendously valuable. Time and death are the same. To live in time means to live in death, and the moment time disappears, death disappears. So when you are utterly silent, when no thought moves in your mind, time disappears; you cannot have any idea what time it is. And the moment time disappears and the clock of your mind stops, suddenly you enter the world of the timeless, the eternal world, the world of the absolute.

Jesus is asked by a seeker… It is not reported in the New Testament, but it is part of the Sufi tradition. A seeker asks Jesus, “What will be the most significant thing in your Kingdom of God?” And the answer is amazing. Jesus says, “There shall be time no longer. That will be the most significant thing in my Kingdom of God – there shall be time no longer. There will be no past, no future; there will be only present.”

And let me tell you that present is not part of time. Of course ordinarily in the schools, colleges and the universities you have been told and taught, and your dictionaries go on saying again and again that time has three tenses: past, present, and future. That is absolutely wrong – wrong according to those who know. The past and the future are time, but the present is not time, the present belongs to eternity. The past and the future belong to this – the world of the relative, change. Between the two penetrates the beyond, the transcendental, and that is the present. Now is part of eternity.

If you live in time, death is bound to happen. In fact, to say “bound to happen” is not right – it is already happening. The moment a child is born he starts dying. It takes seventy, eighty years to die, that’s another matter. He dies, slowly, miserly, in installments, a little bit every day, every hour. He goes on dying, dying, dying… Then the process is complete after seventy years or eighty years. When you say that somebody has died today, don’t be misguided by your statement, he has been dying for eighty years, today the process is complete.

There is an ancient Chinese tradition in the Taoist school. It seems to be the only tradition in the whole world where, when a child is born the family cries, they weep because the birth is nothing but an arrow moving toward death. They don’t celebrate it, they feel very sad. Another being has entered the world of death, how can you celebrate it?

If one wants to celebrate, then death is the right thing to celebrate. One person has completed the process of dying and perhaps he may not be born again; perhaps he has entered the beyond, or at least this death process has ended. Maybe he will start another death process, but that is in the future and we don’t know anything about it. Celebrating birth is ignorance, celebrating death is understanding.

[…through the relative one leaves death behind…]

If you use the methods of meditation you will leave the mind behind, and the mind is both the source of time and death. The mind is time. The mind is death. One aspect of the mind is time, another aspect of the mind is death. Through meditation, through watching the mind, you can leave death behind.

But this is only a negative process, the Upanishads call it neti neti – neither this nor that, the process of elimination. “I am not this – the body, the mind. Then who am I?” First eliminate the nonessential, put it aside, and go on eliminating all that is nonessential until only the essential is left. And what is essential? How will you decide that only the essential is left? When there is nothing left to be denied, nothing left to be eliminated. Go on emptying your house throw all the furniture out. When there is nothing left to be thrown out, then a great revelation happens, you gain immortality; the absolute arises in you in all its beauty and splendor, in all its ecstasy. It over-floods you, it starts radiating; it starts reaching even to others who are available, receptive, vulnerable.

[The threshold of Reality is veiled by golden light.]

Now the Isa Upanishad reminds the seeker to be aware. When you enter the world of absolute reality you will come across a golden veil, very beautiful, so beautiful that many have become enchanted and stopped there.

[The threshold of Reality is veiled by golden light.]
- All darkness disappears and there is such a golden light, so psychedelic, you have never experienced anything like it. You think you have come home. Wait, beware, this is just the light that surrounds reality. You have to penetrate this light to reach the very center of reality.

When you come close to a flame, the flame is surrounded by golden light. Remember, the golden light radiates from the flame, but the golden light is not the flame itself. When you look at the sun you see a golden light radiating from the sun. We are far away from the sun; it takes ten minutes for sunlight to reach us, and ten minutes for light is a long distance because light travels by tremendous speed, ultimate speed. Scientists say that that is the last, more speed is not possible. Light travels 186,000 miles in one second – in one minute, 60 times more. In ten minutes, 600 times more. It is far away, but we can see the light, the rays are reaching us.

Remember, these rays are coming from the sun, but these rays are not the sun itself. If you want to reach the sun you will have to go beyond these rays. This sun is nothing compared to other suns, which are far bigger. Even this sun is not a small sun, it is sixty thousand times bigger than the earth, and this is a very mediocre sun in the universe. There are greater suns than this, millions of times bigger.

In the night when you see stars you think they are very small – you are wrong. They are very far away, that’s why they look small; they are far bigger than the sun, but their distance is almost unbelievable. The closest sun next to this sun is four light years away, the rays from that sun reach us in four years; from this sun it takes ten minutes, from that sun it takes four years, and that is the closest. There are suns from where it takes millions of light years for the sunlight to reach us, and there are a few suns conceived by the physicists whose light has not reached the earth yet, since the earth was made. And there is a possibility that there may be suns even farther away whose light will never reach the earth because in the meanwhile the earth will disappear. It came into being, for millions of years it existed, the light was traveling and traveling with that tremendous speed of 186,000 miles per second. By the time the light reaches, the earth would have died, that light will never reach the earth.

But all these suns, great suns, are nothing compared to the ultimate reality. Kabir says, “The moment I penetrated my innermost core, I found as if suddenly millions of suns had risen” – not one, millions of suns.

Naturally, the Upanishadic seers are making you aware:
[The threshold of Reality is veiled by golden light.]

- And the light is so beautiful, so blissful, that you can be caught in the net of it and you can start thinking you have arrived. Many scriptures of the world say God is light. The people who have said that have misunderstood, they have thought the golden light as God itself. God is neither light nor darkness, he is both and beyond. Unless you reach that ultimate which is always beyond the duality, transcendental to duality, go on remembering you have not come home yet. Go on inquiring, go on exploring.

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