613

(part 2)

The Upanishadic seer prays to God:
[Reveal it, O Lord, for my dharma is to know the Truth.]

The Upanishads start in meditation and end in prayer. This is the right sequence. Nobody can start with prayer because if you start with prayer, your prayer will be false, it cannot be true. You will be asking for some ordinary things – money, power, prestige – because that is where you are. Your prayer will be part of your mind, and the mind is full of desires, hence your prayers will be full of desires and demands. Go and listen to people who are in prayer in the temples, in the churches. What they are asking?

Even a man like the great Emperor Akbar used to pray for more money, more power. Once a great Sufi mystic, Farid, went to see him. He had never gone to Akbar. Akbar used to come to see him. Farid lived very close to Delhi, and Akbar had tremendous respect for Farid. He had asked him to come to the palace, but Farid would laugh at the whole idea and he would say, “You can always come whenever you want. Why bother me?”

But one day the villagers where Farid lived asked him, “We don’t even have a school in our village, and the great emperor comes to you. You can just give him a hint and immediately it will happen. You can just say that we need a school.” Farid said, “If I have to ask something from him, then it is better I should go.” And he went to see Akbar.

When he reached Akbar’s palace he was well received, everybody knew about him. Akbar was in his small prayer house that he had made inside his palace. He ritually did all the five prayers every day, as a Mohammedan is required to do. He was doing his morning prayer. Nobody was allowed to enter the shrine when Akbar was praying, but the guards did not prevent Farid, they could not think of preventing him.

He went in, he stood behind Akbar. Akbar was one of the greatest emperors who has ever lived on the earth. India has known only two great emperors: one was Ashoka, another was Akbar. They had the greatest kingdoms possible – the richest men of all the ages. And Farid was shocked. Akbar was not aware that Farid was standing behind – nobody, not even his wife, was allowed to enter. So he was just praying to God, talking to God, unaware of the fact that somebody was listening.

As he ended his prayer he raised his hands toward the sky and said to God, “Give me more money, more power, more kingdom.”
Farid was shocked: “This man has so much, and still he is begging.”
He turned away. He immediately left the shrine. But as he was going down the steps, Akbar saw him. He rushed, fell unto his feet and said, “Why have you come? You could have asked me to come! And now why are you leaving?”
Farid said, “I had come to make a small request, but seeing that you are still a beggar I thought it is not right to make the request. My villagers had asked you for a small school, but now I cannot ask because that means you will become a little less rich than you are; a little bit of money will have to be put for the school. No, I cannot ask you. Moreover, if you are asking God, I can ask God myself. Why should I ask through you, through your agency? But,” Farid said, “I had never thought of asking anything from God, that’s why I am such a fool that I came to you. But you have opened my eyes. I have been praying my whole life, but the idea never happened to me that one should ask anything.”

Prayer can be of two types. One: the ordinary prayer that is being done all over the world; Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, all are doing it. They have not transcended the mind, so their prayer is full of their desires.

To attain real prayer, first you have to become silent, first you have to pass through the alchemy of meditation. Meditation helps you to get rid of the mind, and when there is no mind you can pray, but that prayer will have a totally different quality to it.

This is the prayer:
[Reveal it, O Lord, for my dharma is to know the Truth.]

The seer is saying, “I have done whatsoever I could do: I have meditated, practiced Yoga, watched my mind, I have dissolved the mind, eliminated all that was stupid in me, mediocre in me, unintelligent in me. But from all that effort I have attained only the golden light, your veil. Now unless you remove it, nothing is possible. Whatsoever I could do, I have done – my doer is finished, my doing is finished. I have come to the very end of my tether, now my road ends here. Now only you can take me further ahead.”

Prayer begins only when you have done everything that you can do, then your prayer has authenticity. It means, “Now what can I do? Everything that was possible for me I have done, and this is what I have attained: great light, great benediction, great bliss. But still I feel that this is just the outermost part of your being. Now only you can help.”

You can ask for help when you have done all that you can do, not before that. Prayer comes only after meditation. That’s why I don’t teach prayer to you, I teach meditation because I know only after meditation is prayer possible. And the beauty is that if you have meditated well, prayer comes on its own accord, there is no need to teach it. Just as a flower opens and the fragrance is released, exactly like that when meditation is happening, the fragrance of prayer comes on its own accord, it simply happens. Then the prayer can be only one: [Reveal it, O Lord, for my dharma is to know the Truth.]

The word dharma is untranslatable, that’s why the translator has left it as it is. Ordinarily dharma is translated as religion, which is wrong, absolutely wrong. Religion is a very ordinary thing; religion means a creed, a theology, a theory, a hypothesis, a doctrine. Dharma means your innermost nature, swabhav, your self-nature. Dharma means your deepest longing for truth, your ultimate thirst for being. It is there in everybody’s center. It is a seed, it can become a flower.

Two things have to be done. The first is the meditative part, it will help the plant to grow, it will help the buds to arrive. And then you have to pray, the second part is prayer. If you start forcibly opening the buds you will destroy the whole beauty, you will destroy the fragrance, even the possibility of fragrance. Then you have to pray: [Reveal it, O Lord, for my dharma is to know the Truth.]

My deepest longing is to know the truth, the ultimate truth, the naked truth and nothing else. I don’t want this golden light. I cannot be contented with this. Your veil is beautiful – of course it is your veil, hence it is beautiful – and something of you is radiating out of the veil, but I want to see you in your absolute nudity, I want to see you unveiled. Hence reveal, unveil O Lord, and this only you can do, I cannot do. I have come so far that I can see your veil, but more than that is beyond me. Prayer is significant only when you have done all that you are capable of, then your prayer has a sincerity.

[O Lord of Light, the knowing one,
the golden guardian, giver of life to all,
spread apart thy rays, gather up thy brilliance,
that I may perceive thy finest and most splendrous nature,
that cosmic spirit which lies at thy heart.
For I myself am That!]

[O Lord of Light…]
- Remember, God is the lord of light but not light itself, he is also the God of darkness. He is the lord of this and that both. He is the lord of both the shores of life.

[O Lord of Light, the knowing one,
the golden guardian, giver of life to all,
spread apart thy rays ,,,]

The prayer is now: “Allow me to see you as you are: […spread apart thy rays…] Give me little bits of windows, doors: […spread apart thy rays…] so I can have a few spaces to enter you. Otherwise, your rays are so beautiful they can prevent me, I can get allured by them, I can become hypnotized by them. I am in a danger – if you don’t help me, I will think I have come to the very end.”

[…gather up thy brilliance…]
- See the prayer: […gather up thy brilliance…] Don’t shine so much because I cannot even open my eyes – how can I see you? […gather up thy brilliance…] Help me – withdraw your brilliance. Gather up your rays so that I can see you, so that I can: …perceive thy finest and most splendrous nature… And I want to see you because I am not separate from you. Unless I know you I will not be able to know myself.

[…that cosmic spirit which lies at thy heart.
For I myself am That!]

I am that. This is the ultimate statement of the Upanishads: I am that! This “I” does not mean the ego, this “I” simply means your pure existence, without any ego in it. It is more amness than I-amness. There is no “I” in it, it is pure existence. One simply is. The moment you are without the ego, just utterly empty of the ego, without the self, just pure consciousness with no idea of any “I” at the center of it, then you are that, then there is no difference.

That’s what al-Hillaj Mansoor was crucified for. If he had been in India we would have loved and respected him as an Upanishadic seer, but he was killed. He declared: “Ana’l haq – I am the truth!” Mohammedans could not tolerate him, that was too much. Anybody declaring, “I am the truth,” seemed to them that it was sacrilegious, that it was against their religion, that it was egotism, that this man is saying that “I am God.” Truth means God. “Ana’l haq – I am the truth, the ultimate truth!”

But they could not understand, they could not see. They were unable to feel Mansoor’s being. He was not saying that al-Hillaj Mansoor is the truth. He was saying al-Hillaj Mansoor is no more, and what is left now is the truth. When he was saying, “I am the truth,” in fact he was saying, “I am no more, only the truth is.”

The words of the mystics have to be very cautiously understood, otherwise there is every possibility of misunderstanding. The Upanishads say: “Aham Brahmasmi – I am God, I am absolute, I am the ultimate truth.” But it has nothing to do with “I.” In fact, they are trying to convey something that is not conveyable. They are saying, “I am not, now only God is. Hence I say I am God.” Now God is speaking, they are no longer speaking.

[For I myself am That!

Let my breath merge with the cosmic breath...]

This is the prayer, only after meditation is it possible. [Let my breath merge with the cosmic breath…]
- I should not be in any way separate from the whole. I should breathe with the whole. I should dance with the whole. This is ultimate let-go.

Ordinarily we are continuously pushing the river, fighting the river, trying to go upstream. Hence, we are miserable because we cannot win, we are bound to fail. You cannot win against the whole; you are just a part, such a tiny part, trying to win against the whole. It is sheer stupidity. But you can win – you can win with the whole, not against the whole. You can win if you merge with the whole. You can be a conqueror.

That’s why we have called Mahavira the jina, the conqueror. Why have we called him the conqueror? – for the simple reason he dissolved himself with the whole, he merged with the whole. His breathing was no longer separate, his heartbeat was no longer separate. His heartbeat and the heartbeat of the universe were in deep rhythm, they were in tune, there was a great communion happening.

[Let my breath merge with the cosmic breath,
may my body be as dust…]
- Forget my body – I know I am no longer in it. Please just think of me as consciousness. This is the prayer.

[Remember, o mind, remember what has been done.]

-This is a very significant sutra, hence the Isa Upanishad repeats it:

[Remember, O mind, remember what has been done.
Remember, O mind, remember what has been done.]

The first statement – [Remember, o mind, remember what has been done] – means remember what has been done by others to you. They have made you identified with the body. As the child is born we start conditioning the child, as if the child is nothing but the body. Hence we separate the boys from girls. We insist again and again that a girl has a feminine body and the boy has a masculine body. Directly, indirectly, we emphasize the fact so much that it becomes a conditioning. Anything repeated again and again becomes a conditioning. The woman becomes identified with the body and the man becomes identified with the body.

Then we start emphasizing a new identity with the mind, with ambitions, desires. We go on and on stuffing our children with all kinds of nonsense. We want them to become great, famous, wealthy, powerful, presidents, prime ministers, this and that. Nobody seems to be concerned to tell them, “You are neither the body nor the mind – you are something transcending both.” Our whole education is miseducation because of this, and it is a long process. Almost one third of your life is wasted in education – twenty-five years. When you come back from the university as a PhD, one-third of your life has gone down the drain. And they have conditioned you to be a body and to be a mind.

[Remember, o mind, remember what has been done.]
- Remember all that has been done to you by others so that you can uncondition yourself.

[Remember, o mind, remember what has been done.]
- Why this repetition? They both have different meanings. The first meaning is remember what has been done by others to you. The second meaning is remember what has been done by yourself to you. The others are not the only culprits, you have done much to yourself too. You have participated, you have accepted, you have never rebelled, you were very obedient to all kinds of superstitions.

If your parents said, “You are a Hindu,” you became a Hindu. You never said, “Why?” You never asked a question. Your parents said, “You are a Jain,” and you became a Jain, without ever inquiring, without ever asking. You were ready to be a slave, slavery was very acceptable to you.

So remember that too, what you have done to yourself. You have betrayed yourself, you have not been true to yourself, you have been false. Even when you wanted to say no, you have said yes because it was comfortable, convenient. When you wanted to rebel you obeyed because rebellion can lead you into danger, obedience is respectability. When you wanted to cry and weep you still smiled.

You have been false to yourself, you have not lived an authentic life. You have not been true. You have been wearing masks upon masks, you have never asserted your original face. You have never dared to be just yourself. You have never risked. You were always ready to bow down to authorities, they may be religious or political. You were always ready to be enslaved by the establishment: it may be Christian, it may be Hindu, it may be Buddhist; it does not matter. Even people you respect very much are basically slaves.

Just the other day I was reading a letter from a Protestant Christian. He has written a letter to Mother Teresa of Calcutta because now Mother Teresa is thought to be one of the great saints in the world. Since she won the Nobel Prize, she has become one of the most respectable persons in the world. This Protestant Christian went to Mother Teresa’s orphanage where she collects children from beggars, abandoned children, poor children, and he wanted to adopt a child. That’s what Mother Teresa has been doing her whole life: collecting orphans and then giving them to families, and she has been respected for that.

But he was asked whether he is Catholic or not. He said, “I am a Protestant.” He was refused – he could not adopt a child. He had to be a Roman Catholic. He was very much puzzled. This woman is thought to be a great saint, one of the greatest servants of the society, but the whole service and the whole mission is basically a Catholic strategy to convert people into Catholicism. It is a trick, a political trick. All those orphanages are not really for orphans, they are to increase the number of Roman Catholics. They have nothing to do with beggars, it is a political game. Even a Protestant – he is also a Christian – cannot be allowed to adopt a son. All those children are going to the Catholics, so Catholics go on becoming more and more, so they have larger numbers in the world. This is a way of converting, exploiting poor people, exploiting their poverty. Even Mother Teresa is nothing but an agent of the Catholic Church.

Your so-called saints, although they are thought to be saints, still belong to certain churches, religions, sects; they have not gone beyond. They cannot say, “I am just human.” They cannot simply say, “I belong to the universe – not to the Catholic Church or to the Protestant Church or to Hindus or to Buddhists – I belong to the cosmos.” They are not in tune with the cosmic breath. She is dancing according to the dictates of the Roman Catholic Church. She is dancing to the tune of the Vatican, of the Pope.

And even in India people think she is a great saint. They write letters to me, “Why don’t you do something like Mother Teresa?” Should I start converting people to the Roman Catholic Church? But behind beautiful facades ugly things are hiding. All these Christian missionaries serving poor people and the ill and the sick have nothing to do with poor people or sick people. Their whole effort is how to purchase people through bread, through butter, through medicine, through better hospitals – just how to purchase people through money, how to make more Catholics in the world. Somebody converts people through the sword, somebody converts through money, and somebody simply goes on torturing their children, crippling, paralyzing their intelligence.

So: remember, o mind, remember what has been done to you by others, and also remember what has been done to you by yourself because others can do it to you only if you allow them to do it. I know small children cannot do anything, they cannot rebel, they are helpless. They have to depend on their parents, and because of their helplessness they are exploited.

Children are the most exploited people in the world, and the misery is, their own parents are doing tremendous harm. They may be thinking that they are doing something good, something great, they may be thinking that they are helping their children to become good people. But what Christians, Hindus and Mohammedans have done to the world? The whole history is full of blood because of these religions. Man has not been able to become one, humanity has remained divided, and continuous wars, crusades… Kill each other in the name of God, in the name of religion. And when you kill anybody in the name of religion you are not a murderer. If you are killed in the name of religion, your paradise is absolutely certain. People have been bribed to kill and to be killed.

If a parent really loves his child, he will not condition the child in any way. He will help the child to inquire on his own, to become a seeker. The Upanishads don’t belong to Hindus. Remember! The same cannot be said about the Koran; the Koran belongs to the Mohammedans. The same cannot be said about Ramayana; Ramayana belongs to the Hindus. The same cannot be said about the Bible; the Bible belongs to the Christians. But one thing can be absolutely categorically said about the Upanishads: they don’t belong to the Hindus, Mohammedans Christians – to anybody; their whole approach is cosmic, it is holistic.

[O Agni, show us the right path,
lead us to eternal freedom,
thou who knowest all.
May we not be diverted from our goal,
for with all devotion we submit ourselves to Thee.]

[O Agni…]
- Agni means fire. The translator has also left it untranslated for the simple reason that to translate it just as fire will give you a wrong impression, a wrong idea. Agni is a metaphor and metaphors become more difficult to translate, they have something poetic in them. Literally it means fire, but the metaphor is of the fire within you, the fire of a deep, intense, passionate longing for truth, the fire of longing to be with the beloved, to be one with the cosmos.

Buddha’s last statement on the earth was, “Be a light unto yourself” – and this is the last sutra of the Isa Upanishad: “O fire, o my fire, my inner fire, my longing to be one with my beloved …show us the right path. Now nobody can lead me, only my inner passion for truth can guide me. No outer person can be of any help.”

The master can help you to get rid of the relative, there the function of the master ends. Then you have to depend on your own inner insight, your own intuition, and that insight is called the fire. It is fire because it burns and consumes you as a separate entity, as an individual. It reduces you to nothingness. It is fire, but out of this fire a totally new life is born.

[…show us the right path,
lead us to eternal freedom…]

Only this fire can lead you to the eternal freedom. When you are consumed completely, when you are free of yourself, then you are absolutely free. Remember these two expressions: freedom of the self and freedom from the self. The second is the meaning of absolute freedom, not the first. Freedom of the self again simply means the ego has come from the back door. Freedom from the self itself is total freedom, absolute freedom. When you are not, you are really free.

It is a paradox; when you are, you are in bondage because your mind is a bondage, your ego is a bondage. When you are not, your imprisoned splendor is released.

[Thou who knowest all.
May we not be diverted from our goal…]

Now this prayer has to be a constant fragrance to the seeker, “My Lord, help me not to be diverted” because as you enter the inner world, greater treasures are revealed. And there is every possibility you may stop somewhere and you may think that it is the end. The danger becomes more and more as you go deeper because greater riches, greater wealth, greater kingdoms become yours. And you have lived in such poverty that anything can enchant you.

There is a beautiful parable…

A mystic used to live under a tree, and he saw for years a woodcutter coming every day, an old man. The whole day he would cut wood and sell the wood, and then too it was difficult to feed himself, his wife and children.
One day the mystic asked the woodcutter, “Will you listen to me?”
The woodcutter used to respect the mystic. In the early morning when he came he would bow down to the mystic, and then by the evening he would take the wood back home, he would again bow down to the mystic.
The mystic said, “Listen, don’t waste your life cutting wood. Just go a little ahead and you will find a copper mine, and that will be enough. Do one day’s work and it will be enough to keep your family perfectly comfortably, conveniently, for seven days, and there will be no need for you to work every day.”
The man did not believe. What can this mystic know about the copper and the mines? He had never seen him leave his tree. “He is always sitting there under the tree with closed eyes – what can he know?” But then he thought, “What am I going to lose? Let me give it a try.”
He went ahead and found a copper mine, and he was immensely pleased. Now he worked only one day and for the remaining week there was no need to work. It was enough to feed his family, not only to feed but even invite guests, friends. And all were surprised that he had become suddenly rich.

One day the mystic said, “You are such a fool! Just go a little ahead and you will find a silver mine – and one day’s work, and for six months you need not work at all.”
The woodcutter was perfectly happy with the copper mine, and he did not believe this mystic – again! But he said, “For the first time he turned out to be right. Who knows? Let me give it a try!”
He found the silver mine, and he was immensely happy. One day he will come and for six months he will disappear, and he lived in luxury for those six months.

One day he was coming, and the mystic said, “But you are just a fool! Just go ahead a little bit more and you will find a gold mine!”
Now this was too much! The woodcutter could not believe that this could be his fate – impossible! But again he was seduced by the idea – he went and found the gold mine. Now he became so rich that for years he would not come, and even if he came, he would not bother even to bow down to the mystic. “Who cares about this fool? He just goes on sitting under the tree, and he knows where the gold mine is, still he has not bothered…”

One day the mystic called him and he said, “You don’t come to see me any more, you don’t bow down to me, but, still, I am now getting old and I cannot wait anymore. Just a little ahead there is a diamond mine – and why are you wasting your time with gold? You can find diamonds!”
And the man found the diamonds, now for years he would not come. And one day the mystic sent a message saying, “Come quickly because I am on my deathbed and I have to reveal to you the last secret.”

He could not believe – what could be more than diamonds? That is the end! There can be nothing, there cannot be anything more. But he came. He asked, “What is the matter? Now you are again trying to tell me to go ahead?”
He said, “Yes, because if you go a little bit ahead you will find a treasure which is inexhaustible. This mine will be exhausted soon.”
The woodcutter said, “I don’t believe you anymore. And I am perfectly happy – why should I go? And if you know that there is some inexhaustible treasure, why do you go on sitting under this tree?”
The mystic said, “That inexhaustible treasure is within me, and that’s what I have called you for, to tell you just go a little ahead. If you go a little ahead you will find yourself, and that’s the real treasure.”
But it was too much for the poor woodcutter even to understand. He laughed at the whole idea and he said, “You must have gone crazy! I am perfectly happy.”

The mystic died. After many years the woodcutter thought – his death was also coming closer – “Maybe he was right, I should go a little further.” He went a little further and he found such a beautiful forest that he wanted to sit under a tree. And it was so silent that he wanted to close his eyes. And it was so tremendously peaceful that he started sinking within himself. And he found the treasure the mystic was talking about, but it was found within himself.

The seer of the Isa Upanishad is saying:
[May we not be diverted from our goal…]

Unless you have found your ultimate being you have not found anything, remember.
And go on praying to God that we should not be diverted.

[…for with devotion we submit ourselves to Thee.]

Meditation is effort, prayer is surrender. Meditation is your doing, prayer is becoming available to God; whatsoever he wants to do with you, you are ready. It is submission, it is devotion, but devotion comes only after meditation.

Om
purnam adah
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.