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Because I am so certain about it, that’s why I can play – that’s why I can say, “Look for a living master.” I am so certain about you. My trust is absolute about you. That’s why I can say when I am gone, don’t be bothered with me, look for a living master. If you have loved me, I will live for you forever. In your love I will live. If you have loved me, my body will disappear, but I cannot die for you. But I can assert such nonsense because I know your love. I trust it.

When a master says, “Don’t go to anybody, cling to me. Even when I am gone, go on continuously with me. Don’t move anywhere,” that simply means he does not trust you. He is afraid, he has doubts – he knows that once he is gone, you will be gone. In fact, he knows that even while he is alive, you will be gone. He protects. He says, “Don’t go to anybody else. I am the only one.” He is very monopolistic. He is so doubtful that his marriage with his disciples is a sort of monogamy. He’s afraid. He is afraid because the divorce is possible. He is afraid of it and wants to protect it in every way so that it is not going to happen. He will say, “Never worship anybody, never love anybody, never revere anybody, never listen to anybody, never go to anybody. Just look at me and forget the whole world. Exclusively love me.”

I don’t say that to you. I know, even if I am gone, I know you will search for me. Yes, I can trust you will hunt for me in every stone and flower, in every eye and star. And I can promise you one thing: if you hunt for me, you will find me in every star and in every eye. Because if you have really loved a master, you have moved into eternity with him. The relationship is not of time, it is timeless. There is going to be no death. My body will disappear, your body will disappear – that will not make any difference.

If the disappearance of the body makes any difference, that simply shows that love had not happened. Love is something beyond the body. Bodies come and go, love remains. Love has eternity in it – timelessness, deathlessness. That’s why, Seeta – the question is from Seeta – that’s why sometimes I can talk nonsense. I know you will find sense even in my nonsense. I know you will understand, you will not misunderstand. That’s why.

✦ ✦ ✦

AND THE LAST QUESTION:

What is the significance of your long beard?

✦

I have none! Look again. You may not know, in Zen there is a koan. The koan is: Why didn’t Bodhidharma have a beard? Now, Bodhidharma has a big beard – the founder of Zen. In fact his beard is so big that you can only see his eyes, all beard. And “Why does Bodhidharma have no beard?” This is given to the disciples to meditate on. They have to close their eyes and meditate. Now, it is very difficult. Bodhidharma has a big beard and the question is why he has none. The disciple meditates and meditates, and it is very puzzling. And Bodhidharma comes again and again and laughs, and his beard is there!

And the disciple comes to the master and says, “It is difficult – he has!” The master says, “You go and look again.” After months of meditation, one day the recognition happens – that the beard belongs to the body; how can it belong to Bodhidharma? Bodhidharma is not the body. The body is just the abode, the temple. Bodhidharma is something beyond that is residing in it. The day this dawns on the consciousness of the disciple, he has realized something within himself. Then he comes to the master and says, “Yes, you were right. He has no beard.”

You ask, “What is the significance of your long beard?”

Never heard about it. I don’t have any beard. Look again. And Bodhidharma is dead. I am here alive; you can look rightly, I have no beard at all. If you see the beard, it must be a projection of yours.

Enough for today.