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This discourse was first published in KRANTINADA MONTHLY 1968 to 1969. I would like to tell you a few things which I see about teachers and the society. Perhaps there will be no agreement between the way you think and the way I think. Perhaps I may be opposing the positions taken in the current code of education. I am neither an educationist nor a social reformer. It is my good fortune that I can talk about some fundamental aspects of education and society. The possibility of any truth about education dawning on educationists should be taken as almost nil. They have been thinking for the last five thousand years, but the present condition of education, its structure, and the type of man that is produced, is so totally wrong that it is natural that only unhealthy and confused leaders are born out of it all. The thinking that is done by the sociologists is also sick and unhealthy; otherwise human beings, their life and their thinking, would have been quite different. Since I am neither an educationist nor a sociologist, it is possible that I can tell you things which can be seen only by looking at the problems directly. For those for whom the scriptures are important, the solutions become more important than the problems. Since I do not know the code of education I can talk directly about the problems. The very first thing I would like to say is that the present relationship between the teacher and the society has proved dangerous. What is that relationship? The relationship is that the teacher is a slave and the society is the master or owner. What work does the society ask from the teacher? Society wants the teacher to inculcate the old jealousies, old enmities and old thoughts coming down from the past thousands of years into the minds of young children. Those old people, who are as good as dead or dying, want to bequeath, pass on, such things through the teacher into the minds of new generations. It is very surprising that the society demands this type of work from the teacher and the teacher continues to do such work. This is a great disgrace for the teachers. The disgrace is that the diseases from which the past century suffered are passed on to the current century, through the teacher, as needed by the society. This is needed because the old structure, the vested interests connected with that structure, and the blind beliefs established in that structure, do not want to die. They want to continue to live within the society. Because of the job done by the teacher, he is respected. Without flattering the teacher and without respecting the teacher, it is not possible to ask for this work from him. That is why it is said that the teacher is a guru, respectable, and his advice must be listened to. Why? -- because the society wants to bequeath its whole pattern of beliefs to its children through the teacher. The Hindu father wants to make his son a Hindu, and a Mohammedan father wants to make his son a Mohammedan before he dies. The Hindu father also wants to bequeath to his children the dispute with the Mohammedans. Who will do this? The teacher will do it. The old generation wants to impose its blind beliefs on the new generation. Its scriptures, its priests and everything else is to be imposed. It gets this work done through the teacher, but what is the result? The result is that material wealth is increasing in the world, but mental faculties do not develop. As long as there is that great burden of old thoughts on the minds of the children, their mental faculties cannot develop. In a small child there is the burden of a culture five thousand years old. The very life of that child is crushed under that burden. Because of this, the flame of consciousness cannot be lit and the individuality of the child cannot develop. The material wealth increases because whatever is left by the parents is increased or improved upon by their children. But their mental faculties cannot develop because the children are conditioned in that respect. The child adds, without any hesitation, one more floor onto the building bequeathed to him. He is pleased to do it. And the father is also pleased that his son has added one more floor. But if anyone improves upon the ideas already narrated in the Gita, then those who have inherited Mahavira's, Buddha's, Krishna's and Rama's ideas, will be in great difficulty -- for them it is necessary to live within the precincts of the mental structure bequeathed. No new structure can be built. Efforts have continuously been made for thousands of years so that the son does not surpass his father in regard to mental development. There are many devices and contrivances for that. So, material wealth increases in this world, but mental poverty also increases along with it. There are many dangers when the mind is small and the material wealth is greater. Just as we progress in material wealth and leave our forefathers behind, similarly we should leave them behind in mental and spiritual development also. In doing so, it is no insult to our parents, it is respectful. The right type of father is one who lovingly desires that his children leave him behind in every respect. But it is dangerous if the father does not want his child to go ahead of him in any field. So far, the teacher has helped the father in not allowing the child to go ahead. It is madness to feel that if we begin to think further than Krishna or Mahavira or Mohammed, it will be an insult to the latter. Because of this, the whole education has remained past-oriented, instead of being future-oriented. Any developmental, creative activity is always future-oriented. Our whole education is past-oriented. All our doctrines, ideas and ideals are taken from the past. The past is that which is dead and gone. We are trying to impose things which are thousands of years old on the minds of our children. Not only do we impose the ideas, but we call a child ideal who proves himself a good follower of the old beliefs. Who is praising such a child? This is being done by the teacher, and that is how the leaders of society, religions and the state are exploiting the teacher. The teacher is made to believe that he is the disseminator of knowledge. He is not the disseminator of knowledge; he is the preserver and maintainer of the status quo, of the knowledge that has developed in the past, and he is an obstacle to the knowledge that can develop. He does not allow anything to leave the parameter of the past. As a result, we continue to do many types of foolish things. Those old things are not allowed to die. The politician has also understood this, and he is also exploiting the teacher. What is surprising is that the teacher is not aware of this exploitation done in the name of service to the society. How many kinds of exploitation are being done! Once I went to address a congregation of teachers. It was Teachers' Day. I asked them: If a teacher becomes a president of a country, what is the honor bestowed on the teacher? In a teacher becoming a president, what teacher is honored? According to me, if a president of a country becomes a teacher, then I would definitely understand that the teacher is honored. If a president of a country feels that his job is useless and he feels that it is a joy to be a teacher, if he wants to be a teacher and becomes one, we will definitely understand that the teacher is being honored. But if a teacher becomes a president of a country, the honor goes to the politician, not to the teacher. If a teacher feels honored when he becomes a president of a country, is there anything wrong in a teacher wanting to be a headmaster or school inspector or an education minister? There is honor where there is position. There is position where there is the state. Our whole structure of thinking is such that the state is above everything; so the politician is above everything and everything else is below. The politician, knowingly or unknowingly, makes his thoughts and ideas enter into the minds of children through the teacher. The priest is also doing the same thing. In the name of religious education this is going on, and every religion goes on trying to make their beliefs and tenets, right or wrong, enter into the minds of children. This is being done at such an unripe age, when the children cannot think. There is no greater crime perpetrated on humanity. What crime can be greater than making the child believe that what is in the Koran is the truth, or what is in the Gita is the truth; or if there is God it is Mahavira, Krishna or Mohammed? To put all such things into the mind of a child who is innocent, ignorant and unacquainted with the world, is a worse crime than anything else. Recently there was the question of the independence of India, so the politicians said that the teachers and the students must both participate in the independence movement. When these politicians came into power, they said the students and teachers must keep away from politics. The communists and socialists say, "No, it is not necessary for the students to keep away from politics. Both the teachers and students must participate in politics." If the communists come into power tomorrow, they will say that now there is no necessity for them to take part in politics. Whatsoever is in the interest of the politicians in power becomes right, and an attempt is made to make the teachers and students believe it to be right. According to me, one can become a teacher in the right sense only if he has within him a powerful, burning flame of rebellion. A teacher who has no such flame of rebellion within him will become an agent of some policy, some interest -- be it of society, be it of religion, or be it of politics. Every teacher must have that burning fire of rebellion, of thinking and of reflecting. But have we got that fire of independent thinking? If not, are we anything more than shopkeepers? To be a teacher is a great thing. What is the meaning of being a teacher? Do we ever think about it? You may be teaching the children, as is taught all over the world, that they should love others. But have you ever thought that the whole structure of your education is built not on love but on competition? You claim to teach love, but the whole arrangement is to teach competition. Where there is competition there can be no love. Competition is a form of envy, a sort of burning sensation, jealousy. What are you teaching? When one child comes first in a class, the other child is told that he is lagging behind and this fellow has come first. You are teaching him to flatter, to compete and get ahead. You are teaching ego, telling them that one who has come first is higher, and one who is behind is lower. In books you tell them to be humble and loving, whereas your whole arrangement teaches them to hate, to envy and come first. One who comes first is being awarded gold medals and merit certificates; he is being garlanded and photographed, and others, who are behind, are insulted by the system. When you are insulting the one who is behind are you not goading his ego to push him to the forefront? When the one who has come first is being honored, are you not boosting his ego? So when the children are thus trained in ego, jealousy and competition, how can they love? Love is that which allows the loved ones to go ahead. Love always means to remain always last. I will tell you a small anecdote to make this clearer. There were three Sufi saints who were to be hanged until dead. So-called religious people are always against real saints. While they were waiting to be hanged, they were sitting in a row. The hangman would call out the names, one after the other, and would hang them. The hangman cried out the name, "Nuri," that he should come forward. But the person whose name was Nuri did not get up; instead another person got up and said, "You hang me first." The hangman said, "Your name is not Nuri. Why are you in a hurry to die?" The one who had come forward replied, "I have loved Nuri and I have understood that when it is a question of dying, to come forward, and when it is a question of living, to remain behind. I would like to die before my friend dies. If it is a question of living, my friend should live longer than me." Love speaks like this. What does competition say? Competition tells you to stay behind while dying and go on ahead when it is a question of living. Can the world be a better place to live in when the poison of competition and ambition is being poured into the minds of children? When a child is keen to go ahead of others and others are wanting to leave him behind, then, after being educated for twenty years, what will he do in life? He will do what he has been taught. Every person is pulling the other down. From the peon to the president, everyone is pulling the others down. In this process, if a peon somehow becomes a president, we tell him it is a matter of great pride and dignity for him. Actually there is no greater violence than that of pushing oneself ahead by pulling others back. But we are teaching this violence and calling it education. In a world based on this violence, if there are continuous wars it is no wonder! If in a world based on this education, when palaces are being built near huts, what is the wonder if people living in a palace are pleased at seeing people living in huts die? So there are poor people and there are others who have so much more and still do not know what to do with it. This is all due to the present education, and the teacher is also responsible for this. For this world which is created by such education the teacher is responsible. He has become an instrument for exploitation. In the name of giving education to the children, the teacher has become an instrument in the hands of the vested interests. If this is education, then it will be better to stop educating completely. Perhaps that way a man will be better off. An uneducated man living in a forest will be a better man because he has more love and less competition, more heart and less mind. We call this education! We teach children just the contrary of what we expect them to do; our whole structure teaches contradictory things. What do we teach? We teach sympathy and generosity. But how can a competitive mind be generous and sympathetic? If there is sympathy in the mind of a competitor, how can he compete? The competitive mind will always be hard, violent and non-generous -- he has to be. Our system is such that we don't realize that one who is pushing himself forward by pulling others back is a violent man. He is violent, and we are making him ready for violence. This way the factories of education are increasing. We call them schools and universities -- this is a sheer lie. These are factories where sick minds are created, and such sick minds are leading the world into a ditch. Violence is increasing and competition is increasing. Everyone's hand is at everyone else's throat. Those who are sitting before me will ask: On whose throats have we kept our hands? But if you look deeply, you will find that everybody's hand is at the throat of someone else, and that everybody's hand is in the pocket of someone else. How long will this continue? Where will it stop? From where are these hydrogen bombs and atom bombs coming? From competition and rivalry! It makes no difference whether this rivalry is between two individuals or two nations. It makes no difference who is doing it -- whether it is Russia or America -- there is competition and one has to get ahead. If you are making an atom bomb, we shall make a hydrogen bomb, a super hydrogen bomb, but we cannot remain behind. We are not taught to remain behind. If you kill ten people, we will kill twenty. If you are destroying one country, we will destroy two countries. It means that we are ready to destroy everything, but we cannot remain behind. Who is creating this situation? It is all due to our education. But we are blind and we are not able to see the problem. We are teaching children not to be greedy and fearful; but what are we actually doing to them? -- we are teaching them greed and fear all the time. In the old days there was the fear of hell and the reward of heaven. It has been taught for thousands of years. There is the fear that I may go to hell; there is greed that somehow I should reach the heaven. Wherever there is reward and punishment there will be greed and fear. But what do we teach our children? What is the method of our teaching? The only method is to teach greed and fear. Either we punish them, or tempt them by offering gold medals, a good reputation, a better post, or a high status in society. In the days when I was a student, there was a saying: If you study well you will be made a baron, a ruler, a president. We create such temptations in the minds of children. Have we ever taught them to live a life of peace and joy? No. We have taught them to live life by rising to higher positions. We have taught them how to earn more money and have better clothes. We have taught them to be more and more greedy, because that is called success. Is there any place for those who are unsuccessful? In this system of education there is no place for unsuccessful people. We are just creating the fever of success, and so it is only natural that one who wants to succeed in the world does what he can do. Success hides all wrong doings. How a man rises to become a president from the position of a peon is no more in question once he has become a president. No one bothers how he has become a president, by what means, by what treacheries, by what lies and by what tricks. There is no need to ask how he became a president. Neither anybody will ask, nor is there any question of asking. Once a man becomes successful all sins cease to be. Success is the only goal. Then why should I not succeed by telling lies and by becoming dishonest? If I try to tell the truth and I become unsuccessful, then what else shall I do? Thus we have made success the center of life; and when lying and dishonesty increase, we become very unhappy. As long as success is the only standard of evaluation, there will be lies, dishonesty and thefts. They cannot be removed, because what can be done if one is able to succeed only through dishonesty and stealing? Everything else is subordinated to success when success is the only value. We go on shouting and crying that dishonesty is increasing. It is bound to increase, because that is the fruit of all that we have been teaching for five thousand years. Success is not of any value. Success is not a matter of great respect or honor. A man must be fulfilled, not successful. It is better if a man becomes unsuccessful in a good cause rather than becoming successful in a bad cause. Respect should be given to good deeds, not to success. But success has become a value and the whole of life is revolving around that center. An education commission was set up recently. Its chairman said, "We are teaching our children to speak the truth. We are explaining this in many ways, but children continue to tell lies, many times." I asked the chairman whether he would like his son to be a scavenger of the roads or a peon in a school, "or would you like your son to also become a chairman of a commission or an overseas ambassador, rising slowly step by step to the very top? If he became a scavenger, wouldn't you be disturbed?" He said, "It would definitely disturb me!" Then I said, "If that is going to trouble you, do you really want your son to be truthful and honest?" As long as a peon is not respected, and as long as a president is respected, there can be no honesty in the world, because a peon cannot continue to remain a peon. Life is not so long that he can just sit idly by in an expectation of success, taking shelter in truth alone. If untruth brings success, who is mad enough not to resort to untruth! The whole situation is such that not only you, but even the god made by you and the paradise created by you, respect only the successful people. If a peon dies, he is potentially fit for hell. No president ever goes to hell -- they go directly to heaven! We will have to destroy the centrality of success. If you really want to do something for your children and if you love your children, remove the centrality of success and create a center around fulfillment. If you have any love for mankind and if you really want to establish a new world, a new culture and a new man, you will have to give up and destroy your old foolishness and think how a rebellion can be created from within. Now everything is wrong, so the wrong man is created. A teacher must fundamentally be a great rebel in this world; then only can he lead the new generation on. But the teacher is the greatest traditionalist and goes on repeating the old crap. The teachers do not change. Have you heard of a teacher full of rebellion? He is the most orthodox and traditional person, and therefore more dangerous. The society does not receive its well-being from him. What sort of rebellion do I expect from the teacher? Should he burn houses, derail the trains, or burn the buses? No. Don't let him take me wrongly. I only say that his approach towards his values -- our values -- should have a spirit of rebellion and that he should think clearly as to what exactly is going wrong. When we tell a child that he is a donkey or foolish or an idiot because somebody is far ahead of him, think if what you are saying is right. Can there be two persons equal in this world? Is it really possible that the one whom you are calling a donkey can become like the other who is standing ahead of him? Has it ever been possible? Everyone is just as he is; there can be no question of any comparison. There should be no comparison and no evaluation with others. A small stone is small, and a big one is big. There is a small plant and a big plant. A grass leaf is a grass leaf and a roseflower is a roseflower: as far as nature is concerned, it is not displeased with the grass leaf and pleased with the roseflower. It gives life to the grass leaf with as much happiness as it gives life to the roseflower. If you put aside the human mind, between a grass leaf and a roseflower, which is bigger and which is smaller? Nothing is bigger or smaller! Is the blade of grass lower than a pine tree? If that were so, God would have destroyed the blade of grass and only pine trees would have remained in the world. But the values fixed by man are wrong. I would like to tell you some deeper things in this connection. First is this; remember that as long as we continue to compare one man with the other we will always remain on the wrong path. That wrong path is that we are creating a desire in man to be like someone else; and the fact is that no one has been or can be like any other man. Rama died many many years ago, and Christ also died many years ago. Why is there no other Christ born, although thousands of Christians are busy twenty-four hours a day trying to become a Christ? Thousands try to become a Rama; thousands of Jainas and Buddhists try to become a Mahavira or a Buddha, but why has not even one become like them? Does this not open your eyes? I am not talking about the Rama of Ramleela -- please do not think that I am talking about such a Rama, playing the role in a drama. Some people pose as a Mahavira by becoming naked. I am not talking about such a Rama or a Mahavira. In your whole life have you ever seen one man exactly like any other? In the whole world not even one pebble can be found equal to another. Here everything is unique and unparalleled. As long as we do not respect the uniqueness of every individual, rivalry, competition, murders and violence will remain. Until then, everyone will try to get ahead through dishonesty, and will try to be like someone else. If this happens, what sort of results do we expect? Will the flowers in a garden become mad? If great teachers go and explain to them that the jasmine flower should be like the champa, or the champa should become a jasmine, which is very beautiful, will that happen? No, because the flowers are not mad like men. A flower is not so foolish as man to get involved in such thoughts. The flower will not listen to such talks of teachers, philosophers, idealists or so-called religious people. If the flowers listen to such talks, what will happen to the garden where the jasmine tries to become a champa? In that garden flowers will not grow, all the plants will become withered. Why? -- because however much the jasmine tries to become a champa, it cannot. It is not its nature. In its effort to become a champa, the jasmine will not even become a jasmine, which it was destined to be. This has been the great misfortune of man. The greatest misfortune or curse for man has been that he is desiring to become like someone else. Who is teaching this? Who has set up this conspiracy? It is only our education for thousands of years that is responsible. Now, if these old pictures of Rama and Buddha become glamorless, then the teacher will want you to become like a Gandhi or a Vinoba Bhave -- to become like anyone else, but never to make the mistake of becoming your own self, because you are useless. It was Gandhi who was born for a purpose: is it then that God has made a mistake in creating you? If God was wise enough he would have created just ten or fifteen fixed types of people like Rama or Buddha; or if he was even wiser -- like most religious people are -- then he would have created just a single type for all the people. What would happen then? Just think of this world, where five billion people are like Rama. What will happen to this world? The whole world will commit suicide within fifteen minutes. Life will be so full of boredom, seeing Rama everywhere, that it will die. If all bushes produce only roseflowers, what will happen? Roseflowers will not be worth looking at -- no need to see them at all. It is not without significance that every person has his own individuality. It is a matter of great pride that you are different from others. There is nothing higher or lower; everyone simply is. Everyone is in his own space; therefore all types of valuations are wrong. But we have been teaching these wrong things. What I mean by rebellion is that we should think and reflect deeply on what we are teaching our children. Are we actually poisoning their minds? Poison can also be administered with love -- and teachers and parents are doing just that. This must now be stopped. There have been religious revolutions in this world. People of one religion have accepted another religion. Sometimes they have changed the religion under somebody's advice, and sometimes by seeing a sword pointed at their chest, but that makes no difference. If a Hindu becomes a Mohammedan, or a Mohammedan becomes a Christian, the man remains the same. Religious revolutions have not made any difference. There have been political revolutions. One ruler is thrown out and another has occupied his throne. One who was occupying one piece of land has gone, and one who was staying on the neighboring land has occupied it. One whose skin was white was removed, and one with black skin has taken his place. The inner ruler remains the same. There have been economic revolutions in this world. The capitalists have been removed and the laborers have occupied their place. But just by occupying that place has the laborer become a capitalist? No, capitalism has gone and professional managers have come in. They also have become as dangerous as the capitalist exploiters. Nothing has changed -- classes have continued. In the beginning there were two classes: rich and poor. Now there is a class to which money is distributed and there is a class which distributes the money. Whosoever has enough power remains in power, and those who are powerless are those who are not in power. New classes are formed but classes have remained. Whatever experiments have been made so far in four or five thousand years for the welfare of humanity have all been failures. Up to now this one experiment has not been made, and that is the revolution in education. It is for the teacher to make such an experiment. I feel that he can bring about a great revolution. The political, economic or religious revolutions have not as much value as the educational revolution can have. But who can bring about such a revolution? It can be done by those rebellious people who can think and question what they have been doing so far. One thing should be clear in their minds, that whatsoever they have been doing so far is wrong because the results are wrong. We have to think: From where has the present man come? From where has the present society been born? All these wars, all this violence that goes on, this suffering, anguish, helplessness and poverty in the world -- where are all these coming from? Certainly there is some fundamental mistake in the education that we are imparting. So think and wake up. But you must be busy with some other calculations.... There are conferences of teachers held, and it is complained that students have no discipline, and they deliberate as to how the students can be disciplined. Be compassionate; let the students be completely undisciplined -- because we know the results of the discipline imposed for five thousand years. Students have been under discipline for thousands of years, and what has happened? What is the meaning of teaching discipline? It means that whatever the teacher says should be taken as right. It means if the teacher sits on a platform, the student should sit on the ground; and when you meet the teacher, greet him with folded hands in salutation, or it is even better if you touch his feet. Do not even doubt what the teacher says. Go in the direction he asks. If he asks you to sit, sit; if he asks you to stand up, stand up. This is the type of discipline so far. But it is a conspiracy to kill man so that no consciousness, no awareness and no wisdom remains in that man. What do they do in military training? They make the recruit take exercises for three or four years. All sorts of foolish things are taught: turning right and turning left. Let them go on doing as ordered so that their intelligence is destroyed. What will happen by telling a man to turn right or left? How long can his mind remain unaffected? If he refuses to turn right or left, you punish him. Within a few days his intelligence will be destroyed and his human qualities will also die. If you tell him to turn right, he turns like a machine. If you tell him to kill someone, he kills. He has ceased to be a man, he has become a machine. Is this called discipline? And we wish that there should be this discipline in children also. So we give the children cadet training, teach them to be soldiers, teach them how to hold guns and kill. I do not think man has even understood during these five thousand years what these things imply. Discipline means that a man becomes dead through it. The more disciplined a man is, the more dead he is. Then do I tell you to ask your students to rebel and jump up and fight in schools, or that they should not allow others to learn? No, I am not saying this. I am telling you to love the children. Think about and wish for their welfare and well-being. Because of this love and desire for their good, the discipline which is not imposed will begin to emerge, the discipline which is born of the very intelligence of the children. Love a child and see if it brings discipline in him. This discipline is not the one that comes by turning left and right, but from the very mind, heart and soul of the child. Try to awaken his intelligence and thinking. Do not say that your's is the only truth. Do you know what truth is? But every man says that what he says is the truth. It makes no difference if you are born thirty years earlier. Just because someone is born thirty years after you, do you know the truth more than him? It is possible that he may have less false knowledge than you because he does not know as much, and that you have accumulated all sorts of nonsense and false things in your head. But you feel that you are wiser because you are older by thirty years. You have the power to punish so you want to discipline him. This world will be far better if nobody tries to discipline the other. Love -- love is your guide. Live a love-full life. Always think good of the child and think what you can do, and how you can do it, for the good of the child. It is impossible that that love and that desire for his well-being will not bring discipline in him and will not bring respect for you. There will be a difference though. Now the situation is that the more conscious a child, the more undisciplined he is; and the more of an idiot a child is, the more disciplined he will be. What I am trying to tell you is that if discipline comes through the medium of love, then there will be no discipline in idiots, but the more alert and conscious a child is, the greater will be the discipline that will arise in him. Now only dull children who have neither any life nor any inspiration have discipline. Those who have consciousness and the ability to think are undisciplined. If there is love, things will be reversed. The discipline of idiots has no value. The discipline that comes of consciousness has value because a conscious discipline means it is born out of thinking and it can refuse the wrong demands of discipline. If the youth of India and Pakistan were disciplined through their own consciousness, is it possible that the authorities of Pakistan could ask the Pakistani youth to go and kill the Indian people? Or could any Indian politician ask the Indian youth to go and kill Pakistani people? They will immediately ask the politicians to stop such foolish talk. They will say, "This is an unintelligent idea and we cannot do it." But at present, the idiots have been taught discipline and if they are asked to kill they do, because for them discipline is the truth. The politicians and priests have preached discipline in this world. Because these authorities have no intelligence, no rebellion and no thinking power, they try to turn the whole world into a military camp. Through many many ways they try to make sure that nobody creates any trouble. You may or may not know, but many methods have been devised. In Russia, they have made machines which, if there is any rebellion in the mind, any ability to think, they brainwash it away -- because a rebellious person is dangerous. He can speak against the government and he can provoke the people against wrong things. Earlier, different tools of discipline had been in use, but they were not totally effective. Now they have found these new methods of putting right the minds of those about whom they have suspicions. These are dangerous trends, all over the world -- more dangerous than the atom and hydrogen bombs. But will the teachers cooperate in such things? I would like to leave this question for your discussion: Are you in agreement with this world? Are you in agreement with man as he is today? In agreement with the wars, violence and dishonesty? If not, think and find out what has gone wrong in the education that is given. It is obvious that whatsoever is being given is wrong. If a teacher is rebellious, and if his view of life is thoughtful and wise, he is beneficial to the society. He can be helpful in creating better and better societies in the future. If he is not, he will only fill the minds of new children with old rubbish. He has been doing this for a long time. There has to be a revolution, a big revolution, whereby the old educational structures are destroyed and new structures with new values are created. In that new structure there is no value in success and in ambition, and being first or last is not a matter of respect or insult. There has to be no comparison of one person with the other. There should be love and an effort to develop children through love. It is possible to develop a new and marvellous world full of absolute fragrance. I have told you these few things with a view to awakening a few people from their sleep. But there are many whose sleep is so deep that they feel I am disturbing them in their sleep. However, if only a few awaken and open their eyes, perhaps from whatsoever I have told you, they may find a few useful things. I do not say that whatsoever I have said is right and the truth, because that is what the old teacher claims. I have only conveyed to you my viewpoint. It may be wrong, there may not be an iota of truth in it, and so I do not insist upon your agreeing with me or believing in me. I only ask you to think on these matters. Think, and if you find anything right in what I have said, it will no longer be mine, it will be the result of your thinking. You will not become my followers; you will have found it out of your own wisdom and it will be yours. Please think about these few things. Presently the world needs so many shocks for it to be awakened, so that some thinking is born. We are almost asleep, as good as dead. And everything just goes on passing by. I hope you get some shocks from several directions, so that you open your eyes and begin to think. The greatest responsibility of the teachers is to save themselves from politicians, to save themselves from presidents and prime ministers. All the problems in the world are because of them. Do not let a politician take birth in children. But politicians create the ambition to come first. Once you are number one, where else will you go? Number one is to be found in politics. In the newspapers you will find only their photographs and names printed daily. Let there be no competition among children. Develop love and joy towards life, not competition and rivalry -- because one who fights with others, slowly, slowly is finished; and one who seeks his own bliss, not rivalry in life, becomes a beautiful flower full of fragrance and beauty. May God help you in having this wisdom, in having this rebellious spirit. I am full of gratitude for your listening to me in silence. I greet the divine residing within you. Please accept my greeting. | ||
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Sunday, September 4, 2011
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Revolution in Education Talks given from 1967 to 1969 Hindi Translations Year published: A pamphlet of various miscellaneous talks given around India in the 1960's, on the subject of education. Table of Contents
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Letters Chapter 2 - Letters to Ma Dharm Jyoti ()
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FIRST PUBLISHED IN OTI 1 SEPTEMBER 1990 Beloved Dharm Jyoti, Love. Don't ever repress the mind. Repression is a disease. And that which is repressed will never be completed. It comes back again and again to attack you. The mind is to be understood. Finally, only understanding the mind becomes the solution. Repression is merely postponement of diseases. The path is neither in indulgence nor repression. The path is in understanding. Hence know your own mind in all its forms. Live consciously. Live wakefully. Then what is meaningless disappears on its own. And its energy is transformed into the meaningful. Otherwise we create a vicious circle for ourselves. A so-called saint was sitting alone before his dhuni, his holy fire pit. Someone came by to test him, saying, "Babaji, is there any fire in the dhuni?" The saint said, "There is none." He said, "Please stir it, perhaps there are coals." Raising his eyebrows the saint said angrily, "I told you there is no fire." The man provoked him again, saying, "Babaji, surely there must be a few sparks?" Leaning forward on his fire tongs the saint said, "What kind of idiot are you anyway?" Then the man said, "Babaji, I see a few sparks." The saint said, "What? Am I blind?" The man said, "A few flames become visible now!" Then the saint completely lost his senses -- his eyes filled with sparks and his voice with flames. Picking up his fire tongs he started chasing after that man to beat him. Fleeing for his life the man said, "Babaji, look, now the fire has taken flame totally!" Only a repressed fire can burst into flames. And a repressed fire can burst into flames at any moment. Repression is self-enmity and a self-deception. In the middle, between indulgence and repression is the door to peace, to liberation, to strength, to truth, to samadhi. Search for this door. September 7, 1970 Beloved Dharm Jyoti Love. Sa'adi has written: We were on a long journey. The route was rarely traveled and filled with innumerable troubles. A Sufi dervish had also joined us -- he hadn't a single coin with him, nor anything else for that matter. We were all on camels, but he traveled on foot. Nevertheless, his joy knew no limits and he went on saying: "I am not a load on any camel -- nor is any camel a load on me. I am neither anyone's master, nor anyone's slave. I have no worries of the past, no worries of the future. The present is enough for me. My life is just moment to moment. Fully I breathe -- fully I live life." But the most worried among us, a businessman, advised him to return. He explained the difficulties ahead. He related his experiences of journeys in the past. And when the dervish didn't listen to him he said, "by your own choice you are going into the mouth of death with little food and the exhaustion of traveling on foot, you are certainly going to die." But the fakir just went on Laughing -- he kept on singing his song and moving ahead. Every day the journey became more difficult. All our faces were filled with lines of worry and despair. The businessman had gone almost completely insane. But the fakir went on laughing and singing: "Fully I breathe -- fully I live life." And then each and every step of the journey became impossible. The words of that experienced traveler began to seem right to us all. The journey became a total nightmare. But the fakir went on singing his songs. The radiance of his face increased with each difficulty. In his eyes, flowers of an unearthly joy seemed to blossom. And one day the businessman died from these extreme hardships. And the dervish standing near the dead body of the businessman said: "Beloved! I have not died from the hardships of foot travel -- and you have died riding comfortably on a camel? Fools burn lamps during the day, and at night they wonder why they have no light!" February 21, 1971 Beloved Dharm Jyoti Love. God is calling each and every moment. But this mind of ours is busy with itself. Unless our minds become unoccupied we will not be able to hear his voice. Only the unoccupied mind is meditation. As we become empty -- silent -- wordless, his music fills our being to the brim. Be silent -- and know. Many candidates were invited to interview for a position as wireless operator at a telegraph office. They stood in a long line outside the office waiting for their names to be called. But that waiting was not silent. Conversations were going on, and either outside or inside, all were lost in their own thoughts. Just then, a man standing at the very back left the line and went into the telegraph office. Perhaps no one saw him go. People saw him only later, when he came out carrying an appointment letter in hand saying, "I have been appointed to the position advertised in the papers. So for you there is no need to stand in line here, you can go home." A great hubbub arose when they heard this. They shouted slogans like: "Favoritism," "Kill him." People started complaining, "When this man had already been selected what was the need to call all of us here? " But a big official from the telegraph office came out and said, "Your conclusion is wrong. This person was appointed only because he successfully completed the test. Through a loud speaker on top of the telegraph office we broadcasted in telegraph signals: 'Whoever understands this message, immediately come inside your appointment letter is ready.' But if you were occupied with your conversations and couldn't hear the tapping, what fault is that of ours?" Ah! One day won't God say the same to each of us? So many are his calls -- but amidst all our noise, has not his call become like the tapping of that telegraph signal? Be silent -- and know. October 17, 1970 Beloved Dharm Jyoti Love. One night a king was dreaming. He dreamt that a king he had known was in heaven and a mystic he had known was in hell. Naturally, the king was shocked. And in the dream itself he asked: "What is the meaning of this? Why have their places been switched?" An unknown voice responded: "The king is in heaven because he was always seeking out mystics and sitting in satsang with them. And the mystic is in hell because he didn't do anything his whole life except chase after kings." | ||
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LETTERS CHAPTER 1 - LETTERS TO MA YOGA SOHAN ()
Letters
Chapter 1 - Letters to Ma Yoga Sohan ()
THESE FIVE LETTERS, SELECTED FROM MORE THAN 100 WRITTEN BY OSHO TO MA YOGA SOHAN FROM 1964 TO 1965, HAVE BEEN PRINTED IN THE HINDI PUBLICATION, PATH KE PRADEEP. AN ADDITIONAL TWENTY LETTERS HAVE ALSO BEEN TRANSLATED FOR THE BOOK, A CUP OF TEA.
(OTI 16 JULY 1990)
Beloved Sohan,
Choosing between truth and oneself, the one who chooses truth finds truth and his own being. And the one who chooses himself loses both.
Man has to lose himself before he becomes the truth. No one moves into truth without I paying this price. One's very existing is the barrier. One's very self veils the truth. The only obstruction is this vision. . . this seeing the world from the confined vision of "ego." Except this "ego vision," nothing separates man from the truth. Becoming the "I" is man's downfall. He falls down only in the gravitation of the "I", and only in losing the "I" does he rise above, into this blessed existence. To be the "I" is to be lower. To become the "no-I" is to rise above.
But what appears like losing I is in reality not losing -- it is gaining. The identity which you will lose is not your identity -- it is only a dream, and the identity you find when you lose it is the truth.
When it completely loses itself within the earth, the seed sprouts and becomes a tree.
Beloved Sohan,
One finds life only from knowing that which is inside one's being. One who doesn't know this is surrounded every moment by death and the fear of death.
A sadhu was asked by his friends, "If wicked people attack you, what will you do?" He said, "I will go sit inside my own strong fort." This conversation reached the ears of the enemies. Then one day the enemies surrounded him while he was alone and said, "O sadhu! Please tell us, where is your strong fort?" The sadhu began laughing and then, placing a hand on his heart, said, "This is my fort. No attack can ever be made on it. The body can be destroyed, but that which is inside cannot be. This is my very fort. My only security is to know my way there. "
The person who doesn't know this strong fort his entire life is insecure. His life is surrounded by enemies every moment. Such a person has not yet found a shelter for peace and security. And those who search outside for that shelter, search in vain, because it is inside.
Only by being established in your being does the real acquaintance with life happen, because the periphery which is outside this center is created by death.
Beloved Sohan,
Man is born in slavery. We are born as slaves unto ourselves. We come into the world with chains of desire. Very subtle chains bind us.
Slavery comes with birth. It is given by nature. We don't have to earn it. Man finds himself enslaved. But freedom has to be earned. Only those who strive and struggle for it attain it. One has to pay the price for freedom. Whatever is valuable in life cannot be gotten free of cost. To acquire slavery from nature is not a misfortune. The misfortune is not to earn freedom. To be born a slave is not bad, but to die only as a slave is certainly bad. Nothing brings significance and fulfillment in life unless you achieve your inner freedom. Those who are imprisoned by desires, those who have not known the free sky of awakening, they have life, but they remain deprived of knowing life. There is no difference between the lives of birds imprisoned in cages and souls Lying imprisoned in desires. One enters into the world of real life only when intelligence is free of desire.
If you want to know the divine, master yourself. Winning the divine kingdom is not for those who are defeated by themselves.
Beloved Sohan,
If one's eyes are open, then this whole life is a school. And one who is hungry to learn, learns from every person and from every situation. And remember, one who does not learn in this way, learns nothing in life. Emerson has said, "Each person I meet is better than me at one thing or another. I can learn something from him."
I remember a story. It happened in Mecca. A barber was giving someone a haircut. Just then the Sufi fakir, Junnaid, came in and said, "Can you cut my hair in the name of Allah?" Just hearing Allah's name, the barber said to his regular customer, "Friend, please just wait a little, I cannot cut your hair right now. I have to attend to that fakir for allah. Allah's work comes first." After this he cut Junnaid's hair with great love and devotion, then respectfully bade him farewell.
A few days later when someone had given Junnaid money, he went to give some to the barber. But the barber wouldn't take any money, saying, "Have you no shame? You had said to cut your hair in the name of Allah, not for money!"
And his whole life Junnaid used to say to his disciples, "It was from a barber that I learned unselfish love and devotion."
Even in the lowest, vast messages are hidden. One who knows how to uncover them, becomes wise. Move with awareness in life and every experience brings intelligence. One who remains unconscious, returns even the light that comes to his door.
Beloved Sohan,
If you want to attain the divine, Learn to die. Have you not seen that when the seed dies, it becomes a tree?
Someone went to visit a Baul mystic. He was absorbed in singing his song. Neither his eyes seemed to be seeing this world, nor did it feel as if his soul was present. He was somewhere else -- in some other world, in some other form. When his song stopped, and it seemed his consciousness was returning, the visitor asked, "How do you feel liberation can be attained?" The sweet-spoken mystic said. "Only by means of death. "
I said this to someone yesterday. He asked, "By death?" I said, "Yes, by death while living. Only one who dies to everything else, awakens and becomes alive to the divine."
There is no art greater than learning to die while living. I call that art: meditation. One who lives as if he is dead will certainly know whatever is essential in life.
Chapter 1 - Letters to Ma Yoga Sohan ()
THESE FIVE LETTERS, SELECTED FROM MORE THAN 100 WRITTEN BY OSHO TO MA YOGA SOHAN FROM 1964 TO 1965, HAVE BEEN PRINTED IN THE HINDI PUBLICATION, PATH KE PRADEEP. AN ADDITIONAL TWENTY LETTERS HAVE ALSO BEEN TRANSLATED FOR THE BOOK, A CUP OF TEA.
(OTI 16 JULY 1990)
Beloved Sohan,
Choosing between truth and oneself, the one who chooses truth finds truth and his own being. And the one who chooses himself loses both.
Man has to lose himself before he becomes the truth. No one moves into truth without I paying this price. One's very existing is the barrier. One's very self veils the truth. The only obstruction is this vision. . . this seeing the world from the confined vision of "ego." Except this "ego vision," nothing separates man from the truth. Becoming the "I" is man's downfall. He falls down only in the gravitation of the "I", and only in losing the "I" does he rise above, into this blessed existence. To be the "I" is to be lower. To become the "no-I" is to rise above.
But what appears like losing I is in reality not losing -- it is gaining. The identity which you will lose is not your identity -- it is only a dream, and the identity you find when you lose it is the truth.
When it completely loses itself within the earth, the seed sprouts and becomes a tree.
Beloved Sohan,
One finds life only from knowing that which is inside one's being. One who doesn't know this is surrounded every moment by death and the fear of death.
A sadhu was asked by his friends, "If wicked people attack you, what will you do?" He said, "I will go sit inside my own strong fort." This conversation reached the ears of the enemies. Then one day the enemies surrounded him while he was alone and said, "O sadhu! Please tell us, where is your strong fort?" The sadhu began laughing and then, placing a hand on his heart, said, "This is my fort. No attack can ever be made on it. The body can be destroyed, but that which is inside cannot be. This is my very fort. My only security is to know my way there. "
The person who doesn't know this strong fort his entire life is insecure. His life is surrounded by enemies every moment. Such a person has not yet found a shelter for peace and security. And those who search outside for that shelter, search in vain, because it is inside.
Only by being established in your being does the real acquaintance with life happen, because the periphery which is outside this center is created by death.
Beloved Sohan,
Man is born in slavery. We are born as slaves unto ourselves. We come into the world with chains of desire. Very subtle chains bind us.
Slavery comes with birth. It is given by nature. We don't have to earn it. Man finds himself enslaved. But freedom has to be earned. Only those who strive and struggle for it attain it. One has to pay the price for freedom. Whatever is valuable in life cannot be gotten free of cost. To acquire slavery from nature is not a misfortune. The misfortune is not to earn freedom. To be born a slave is not bad, but to die only as a slave is certainly bad. Nothing brings significance and fulfillment in life unless you achieve your inner freedom. Those who are imprisoned by desires, those who have not known the free sky of awakening, they have life, but they remain deprived of knowing life. There is no difference between the lives of birds imprisoned in cages and souls Lying imprisoned in desires. One enters into the world of real life only when intelligence is free of desire.
If you want to know the divine, master yourself. Winning the divine kingdom is not for those who are defeated by themselves.
Beloved Sohan,
If one's eyes are open, then this whole life is a school. And one who is hungry to learn, learns from every person and from every situation. And remember, one who does not learn in this way, learns nothing in life. Emerson has said, "Each person I meet is better than me at one thing or another. I can learn something from him."
I remember a story. It happened in Mecca. A barber was giving someone a haircut. Just then the Sufi fakir, Junnaid, came in and said, "Can you cut my hair in the name of Allah?" Just hearing Allah's name, the barber said to his regular customer, "Friend, please just wait a little, I cannot cut your hair right now. I have to attend to that fakir for allah. Allah's work comes first." After this he cut Junnaid's hair with great love and devotion, then respectfully bade him farewell.
A few days later when someone had given Junnaid money, he went to give some to the barber. But the barber wouldn't take any money, saying, "Have you no shame? You had said to cut your hair in the name of Allah, not for money!"
And his whole life Junnaid used to say to his disciples, "It was from a barber that I learned unselfish love and devotion."
Even in the lowest, vast messages are hidden. One who knows how to uncover them, becomes wise. Move with awareness in life and every experience brings intelligence. One who remains unconscious, returns even the light that comes to his door.
Beloved Sohan,
If you want to attain the divine, Learn to die. Have you not seen that when the seed dies, it becomes a tree?
Someone went to visit a Baul mystic. He was absorbed in singing his song. Neither his eyes seemed to be seeing this world, nor did it feel as if his soul was present. He was somewhere else -- in some other world, in some other form. When his song stopped, and it seemed his consciousness was returning, the visitor asked, "How do you feel liberation can be attained?" The sweet-spoken mystic said. "Only by means of death. "
I said this to someone yesterday. He asked, "By death?" I said, "Yes, by death while living. Only one who dies to everything else, awakens and becomes alive to the divine."
There is no art greater than learning to die while living. I call that art: meditation. One who lives as if he is dead will certainly know whatever is essential in life.
A Cup of Tea Chapter 1 - None ()
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1. I received your letter. How lovingly you insist on my writing something, and here am I, drowned in a deep silence! I speak, I work, but I am steeped in emptiness within. There, there is no movement. Thus I seem to be living two lives at one time. What a drama! But perhaps all of life is a drama and becoming aware of this opens the door to a unique freedom. That which is inaction in action stillness in motion eternity in change -- that is truth and that is existence. Real life lies in this eternity -- everything else is just the stream of dreams. In truth the world is just a dream and the question is not whether to leave these dreams or not, one just has to be aware of them. With this awareness, everything changes. The centre moves. A shift takes place from body to soul. And what is THERE? It cannot be told. It has never been told and it never will be! There is no other way but to know it for oneself. Death is known only through dying and truth is known only through diving deep within oneself. May God drown you in this truth! 2 Love. I am in bliss. I have been meaning to write for a long time but many engagements prevented me. My blessings, however, I send every day. Life is a sadhana; the more you involve yourself in it the more divine it becomes. The light is hidden in the darkness, truth is hidden, and from THIS comes the joy of searching. I remember the words of a rishi: TRUTH IS HIDDEN UNDER A GOLDEN LID. The golden lid that hides truth is nothing but our mind. The mind has smothered us; we are in it, we identify with it, therefore the suffering comes, the bondage and the chain of rebirths. Rise above it, become aware that you are distinct from it -- that alone brings bliss, that alone is freedom and the end of birth and death. We have to be what we truly are: this is the only sadhana. It is the frustration of living through desires that brings this sadhana. Become alert about desire and non-attachment begins to appear. This is not to be made to happen, it follows naturally from awareness of attachment. Each one of us has to become aware of his attachments, and keep being so! Nothing should be done unconsciously. If this is remembered one day a totally new kind of revolution takes place in our consciousness. God is leading you towards this revolution -- this I know. 3 My respects to you. I was extremely pleased to get your letter. So far I have not written anything but a meditation centre has started here where some friends are experimenting. When I have some definite results there is every possibility of my writing something. About my experiments on myself, I am sure and certain, but I want to test their usefulness to others. I do not want to write anything in the manner of philosophy, my outlook is scientific. I want to say something about yoga based on certain psychological and para-psychological experiments. There are many illusory notions held about it and these have to be refuted. Therefore I am experimenting here also. It is clear to me that this work is not for promoting any group or cause. If you ever come here we can talk more about all this. 4 My respects to you. I am grateful for your affectionate letter. You are meditating -- that is a matter for joy. Drop all ideas of achieving in meditation, just do it naturally; what happens, happens on its own. One day, effortlessly, everything starts happening by itself. Effort does not lead to meditation, in fact it is a hindrance. In effort, practice, study, there is tension. Any expectation, even the expectation of peace, brings restlessness. The tension has to go. As soon as this happens a divine peace sets in. Stop feeling: I AM DOING IT; realize instead: I LEAVE MYSELF IN THE HANDS OF THAT-WHICH-IS. Surrender, surrender yourself completely; as soon as you do this, emptiness comes. Breathing and the body are becoming relaxed, you say. This will happen with the mind too. When the mind goes what takes place is indescribable. I know that this is going to happen to you both. Just go on naturally and without purpose. Soon I shall be there, until then, go on quietly with what I have told you to do. My respects to all. Write whenever you feel like it. I am in complete bliss. 5 Love. It is through God's grace that you are working towards the discovery of the inner light. That light is definitely there and once it is met all darkness in life disappears. Each step taken within peels away the darkness layer by layer unfolding a world of light in which everything is new. This experience cuts away all bondage -- and then comes the realization that it was never there! Liberation happens to that which is eternally free! I am pleased with your progress. Your letter was received long back but as I was busy there was delay in replying, but my memory of you is always there, along with all those eager for the light. My good wishes flow for ever towards them. We have to keep going. Many times one becomes disheartened on the path but ultimately the thirsty pilgrim reaches the spring. In fact the water is there before the thirst. My kind regards to all. 6 My respects to you. I was away, but your letter followed me here. I am pleased to have it. I see life as full of bliss. Ordinarily, we do not have the eyes to see this and so are deprived of it, but this seeing can be created. Perhaps it is not correct to say it can be created; it is already there, it is only a matter of opening the eyes, and then -- everything changes. Meditation achieves this. Meditation means: peace; emptiness. This emptiness is there but is concealed by the flow of thoughts. As thoughts cease it comes into view. It seems difficult to become free of thoughts but it is very simple. The mind seems very restless but it can easily settle. The key to this transcendence is witnessing. One has to be a witness, an observer of the mind. One has to watch it, just watch it. The moment the witness state dawns, that very moment one becomes free of thoughts. This in turn opens the door to bliss and then this very world changes into a new world altogether. Keep meditating. Results will come slowly. You are not to worry about that, their coming is certain. My kind regards to all. 7 Love. It is a long time since I received your letter. I am happy that you long for peace -- but drop this idea that you are way behind. Nobody is lagging behind. It is just a matter of turning in -- and the drop becomes the ocean. Actually the drop IS the ocean but it does not know it -- that is the only separation. In the emptiness of meditation even this separation goes. Meditation is the centre of life's sadhana. The thought process will slow down and in its place will come peace and emptiness. When thoughts vanish the seer, the witness, becomes visible and the complex of the unconscious disappears. This complex is the cause of bondage. In the beginning it appears as hard as stone but the seeker who practises patiently finds one day that it was just a dream, a puff of air. May the seed of your meditation blossom into the flower of SAMADHI! My kind regards to all. The rest when we meet. 8 My respects to you. Moving around for the whole of May affected my health so all programmes for June: Bombay, Calcutta, Jaipur, were cancelled. I am glad to hear you are experimenting with SAMADHI YOGA. Don't worry about results, just be with the experimenting. The return is bound to come one day -- not gradually but all of a sudden, effortlessly, without one's knowing, it happens. Within a moment life becomes wonderfully different! I am not writing anything on Bhagwan Mahavir at the moment. There is no urge whatsoever in me to write. But if you persuade me it is a different thing! Everything else is fine. 9 Love I read your letter on the way here. It has touched my heart. If your desire to know life's truth becomes strong then what is longing today becomes one day the attainment. Burning desire is all that is needed and nothing else. As rivers seek out the ocean so man if he wants to can find the truth. No peak, no mountain can stop him, in fact their challenge awakens his sense of adventure. Truth is within everyone. Rivers have to find the ocean but our ocean is inside us -- it is a wonder that so many remain thirsty yet without it. Actually they cannot really want it. There is a saying of Christ's: Ask and ye shall be given. But if you don't ask, whose fault is it? There is no better bargain than the attainment of God. We have only to ask, nothing more. As the asking grows stronger and stronger so he who asks starts vanishing. A limit is reached, a point of evaporation is reached, where the seeker utterly disappears and only the asking remains. This is the very moment of attainment. Truth is where the I is not -- this experience alone is the divine experience. Absence of ego is presence of God. My regards to all there. 10 My respects to you. I was waiting for your letter when it came. I really want your life to be filled with light, for you to surrender yourself to God. God and light are always close by. it is only a matter of opening one's eyes and then what is ours becomes ours. The distance is just that between the eyelash and the eye -- and perhaps not even that much; the eyes are always open only we don't know it. There is an old story: A fish had long heard stories about the ocean. She began to fret about it so one day she asked the Queen of Fishes: What is this ocean and where is it? The Queen was surprised. She said: The ocean? Why, you are in the very ocean itself! Your very existence, your very life, is in the ocean. It is within you The ocean is your everything, but for the ocean, you are nothing. For this very reason the fish couldn't see the ocean! And for this very reason we are unable to find God. But He can be found -- by being empty. In the state of emptiness we meet Him for God is emptiness. I am in bliss, or shall I say -- Bliss alone is and I am not! 11 My respects to you. I received your letter, I was waiting for it. The trip to Rajnagar was blissful. Religion robbed of the spirit of yoga has become a matter of morality only, thereby losing its soul. Morality is negative. Life cannot be based on negation, negation cannot nourish life. The emphasis has to be on attainment not on renunciation. It is not a question of renouncing ignorance but of attaining understanding, it is this that has to be central. Practise has to be positive and this sadhana can happen through yoga. In my talks with Acharya Tulsi, Muni Shri Nathamaljee and others I have stressed this point. Many letters have come from Rajnagar and Rajasthan in this connection; as you have said it seems some fruitful work has been accomplished by going there. One thing is very clear: people are eager for a spiritual life and current forms of religion do not satisfy them. If however the right religion is given to them it can revolutionize human consciousness. I think of you. May God grant you peace. My love and regards to all. 12 My respects to you. All your letters arrived in good time but as I have been busy I could not reply sooner. I have been out most of the time and I have just returned after speaking in Jaipur, Burhanpur, Hoshangabad, Chanda and other places. How thirsty people are for spiritual life! Seeing this I am surprised that some people say man has lost all interest in religion. This can never be. No interest in religion means no interest in life, bliss, the ultimate. Consciousness is by nature God-oriented and it can only be satisfied by attaining God the state of satchitananda, the truth-awareness-bliss state of being. Hidden within one in the form of a seed is the very source of religious birth, therefore whilst religions may come ant go religion can never die. I am glad to know that you feel patient about your progress towards the light. Patience is the most important thing of all in spiritual life. How long one must wait after sowing the seed! At first all the effort seems wasted, nothing seems to happen, and then one day the waiting ends and there is actuality -- the seed breaks, pushes through the earth -- into a plant! But remember that even when nothing seemed to be happening the seed was working away under the soil. It is the same with the seeker for truth -- when nothing appears to be happening much is happening. The fact is that all growth of life-energy is unseen and unknown. Only the results can be observed not the progress. I am in bliss. I want you to come closer to God. Forget about results, just keep going on your path; let the fruits come by themselves. One day one wonders: What has happened! What was I! What have I become! Compared to the results all the effort seems negligible. My love to all. 13 My respects to you. I have just returned from Rajnagar in Rajasthan. I was invited to a religious function there organized by Acharya Shree Tulsi. I put four hundred monks and nuns through an experiment in meditation. The results were extraordinary. In my view meditation is the essence of all religious practice. All the rest -- such as non-violence, renunciation of wealth, celibacy etc. -- are just its consequences. With the attainment of samadhi, the culmination of meditation, all these things come by themselves, they just happen naturally. Since we forgot this central sadhana all our efforts have been external and superficial. True sadhana IS not just ethical, it is basically yoga practice. Ethics ALONE are negative and nothing enduring can be constructed on negation. Yoga is positive and can therefore form a base. I want to convey this positive basis to all. 14 Love. I have received your very affectionate letter. You write that my words ring in your ears; what I want is for their echo to carry you into that space where everything is silent, empty. This is the way from words to emptiness. There one meets oneself. I am in bliss. Take my love I have nothing else to offer, it is my only wealth. The marvel of it is that the more of it you give the more it becomes. Real wealth is like that -- it grows as you give it away; and if it diminishes -- it is not wealth at all. Write again, for not only do you wait for my letters, I too wait for yours. 15 Love. On returning from the meditation camp I had to leave town again. I returned only last night but I thought of you all the time. I cannot forget the thirst for God I saw in your eyes and the striving for truth in your heart. This is a blessing because no one can attain without passing through this anguish. Remember, thirst is a prerequisite for the birth of light and love. Together, light and love are God. When love has no limits its flame becomes smokeless and so divine. I have seen the seeds of this growth within you and it fills my soul with great joy. The seed is there, now it has to become a tree. It could be that the time is at hand. God-realization cannot happen without meditation so you must turn towards this now with courage and perseverance. I have great hopes -- will you fulfil them? My regards to other friends there. I wait for your letter. Remember what I said about the blank paper? Everything else is fine. I am in bliss. 16 Love. I received your letter. What you say has made me very happy. Words that come out of the depth and fullness of heart echo the infinite just as a tiny flower expresses infinite beauty. When love breathes life into words what is expressed is not what is said but what wants to be said. Inside each of us there is a poet, there is poetry, but because we live on the surface these are never born. Those who go deep awaken divine love and this love fills their lives with music, beauty, peace and poetry -- their very lives become music and on to this stage truth descends. Truth will descend where there is music so life must be turned into a melody. Only through music can one reach the truth. You too have to become music, the entire life, every little act, has to be turned into music: this happens through love. Whatever is -- love it. Feel love for the whole world. Feeling love for all with every breath brings the inner music. Have you ever seen this happen? See this, fill yourself with love and see. Whatever breaks up the inner music -- that alone is irreligion, that alone is sin, and whatever fills us with music -- that is religion, that alone is religion. Love is religion because love is beauty, love is music. Love is God because it is all that is needed to attain Him. Give my love to everybody there and feel the light of my love beside you. 17 Love. I have received your letter. You long for the peace I have within me. It is yours any time. It is the deepest possibility in everyone, it only has to be uncovered. As springs of water lie hidden under layers of earth so does bliss lie hidden within us. The possibility is there for everyone but only those who dig for it can redeem it. The excavation of these hidden treasures lies through religion. Digging with it one reaches the well of light within. I have shown you how to dig and what with, but the digging has to be done by you. I know your soil is absolutely ready, with very little effort the infinite streams can be reached. This state of mind is attained with the greatest good fortune so don't waste it or miss this opportunity. Fill yourself with determination and leave the rest to God. Truth runs alongside will. Don't hesitate to write, I have lots of time for you. I am for those who need me -- nothing in my life is for myself. 18 Love, so much love. I received your letter when I got back. I could feel the ardour of your heart through your words. I well know the fervour that stirs your soul and the thirst that turns into tears within you. I was once there too, I too have suffered it. I can well understand your heart because I have travelled those same paths you now have to take in the quest for God. I too have experienced the longing that one day turns into a raging fire in which one has to consume oneself. But this burning brings the birth of a new life. The drop can only become the ocean when it ceases to exist. Continue your efforts in meditation; you have to go deeper and deeper into it -- it is the only way. Through it and it alone call one reach life's truth. Remember: lf you become absorbed in sadhana, fully committed and surrendered, you are bound to reach the truth. This is an eternal law. No step taken towards God is ever wasted. My regards to all. 19 My respects to you. Your letters were received. I have just got back from a camp at Ranakpur. It was just for friends from Rajasthan, that's why you weren't informed. It lasted five days and about sixty people participated. It was a wonderful success and it was obvious that much happened. Encouraged by the results the organizers are planning a camp on an all-India basis. You must come to that. I am glad to hear your meditation is progressing. You have only to be silent. To be silent is everything. Silence does not mean absence of speech, it means absence of thoughts. When the mind quietens down it becomes linked to the infinite. Don't do anything, just sit and watch the flow of thoughts, just watch. This just watching dissolves thought by itself. The awakening of witnessing brings freedom from the modifications of the mind. With thoughts finished, consciousness is. This is samadhi. Love to all friends. 20 Love Last night when lamps and lamps were lit up all over town I thought: My Sohan too, must have lit lamps and a few among them must surely be for me! And then I began to see the lamps you had lit, and also those your love has kept lit always. I shall stay here another day. I have talked of you to everybody and they are eager to meet you. 21 Beloved! Your letter came, and your photo too. You look really simple and innocent in it! Such love and devotion! The heart when purified by love turns into a temple and I can see this clearly in your photo. May God help this simple innocence grow! Two thousand years ago someone asked Christ: Who can enter the kingdom of heaven Jesus pointed to a little child and said: Those whose hearts are as innocent as a child's. Looking at your picture today, I remembered this story. 22 Love. I have only just arrived here, the train was five hours late. You wanted me to write as soon as I got here so I am doing so. Throughout the journey I thought of you and of the tears falling from your eyes. Nothing in the world is more sacred than tears of love and joy. Such tears, so pure, are not of this world. Though part of the body, they express something which is not. Whatever can I give you in return. 23 Love. I looked for your letter as soon as I got here yesterday. Though it was Sunday, I kept waiting for it. It came this evening -- how much you write in so few words! When the heart is full it pours into the words and so few are needed. An ocean of love can be contained in just a jug! As for scriptures on love -- it is enough to know the four letters of the word! Do you know how many times I read through your letters? 24 Love. Your letter arrived this morning. The garland you have weaved from flowers of love has a fragrance that I can catch! And the love-vine you have sown spreads through my heart! The tears of your love and joy bring light and strength to my eyes! How blissful it all is! 25 Love. I am in bliss. It was good that you met me in Bombay, my heart was overjoyed to see what is happening in you. This is how a person prepares and moves along the stairway towards truth. Life is a dual journey: one journey is in time and space the other is within oneself and truth. The first ends in death the second in deathlessness. The second is the real journey because it takes you somewhere. Those who take the first journey as it, waste their lives the real life begins the day you start the other journey. A really good beginning has taken place in your consciousness and I am filled with bliss to feel this. 26 Love. On my return home from the tour I looked for your letter. It came together with the grapes so the letter, already sweet, became still sweeter. I am in bliss. Your love enhances it yet more and the love of all makes it infinite. One body -- so much bliss! What else can others do but envy he who feels all bodies to be his! May God make you envious of me, may everybody envy me, this is my prayer. 27 Love. Your letter reached me as I was sitting on that very same spot on the grass! What I was thinking then I shall tell you only when we meet. What a fragrance memories leave behind! When life is filled with love it is so blissful Life's only paupers are those without love in their hearts, and how to describe the good fortune of those whose hearts hold nothing but love! In moments of such abundance one encounters God. Only love alone have I known as God. 28 Love. I received your letter. I am blissful to learn of your bliss This for me IS bliss With every breath I pray for all to be filled with bliss. This is my understanding of religion. The religion that ends in temples, mosques, churches, is a dead religion. A religion that fails to go beyond dead words and doctrines has no significance An authentic and living religion unites one with the whole and leads one to the whole. Religion is whatever unites you with the cosmos. Whatever feelings lead you towards this marvellous meeting and merging are prayers, and all those prayers can be expressed in a single word; that word is love. What does love want? Love wants to share with all the bliss it has. Love wants to share itself with everyone! To give of oneself unconditionally -- that is love. To love is to dedicate one's being to the whole as the drop surrenders to the sea. I pulsate with such love. It has filled my life with nectar and light. Now I have only one wish: that what has happened to me should happen to all! Give my love to everyone there. 29 Love. I received your letter. How did you hurt your finger? It sounds as if you are not taking care of your body. And why the restless mind? In this dreamlike world there is nothing worth making the mind restless for. Peace is the greatest bliss and there is nothing worth losing it for. Meditate on it. Just being aware of the truth brings about inner change. I think you won't be coming to Udaipur to assist me and that's on your mind. Come if you can, if you can't -- never mind, you are helping me all the time. Isn't one's love help enough? If you don't come I will miss you because the camp at Udaipur is linked for me with being with you, so I am hoping you can come. Regards to all. 30 Love, and lots of it. I looked at once for your letter amongst the pile waiting for me on my return. I can't tell you how glad I was to get it -- written by hand, too. You write: Now your presence is felt in your absence. love really IS presence. Where there is love space and time vanish, and where there is no love Even what is near in space and time keeps immeasurably apart. Only lovelessness separates and love is the only nearness. Those who find total love discover everything within themselves. The whole world then is inside, not outside and the moon and stars lie in the inner sky. In this fullness of love, ego vanishes. I want God to lead you to this fullness. 31 I arrived here yesterday and have been thinking of writing ever since but it didn't happen until now. Forgive the delay though even a single day's delay is no small delay! What shall I say about the return journey? It was very blissful. I kept sleeping, and you were with me. It appeared I had left you behind but actually you were still with me. This is the being-together that is so real that it cannot be divided. Physical nearness is not nearness, there can be no union on that level, only an unbridgeable gulf, but there is another nearness which is not of the body, and its name is love. Once gained it is never lost. Then no separation exists despite vast distances in the visible world. If you can arrive at this distancelessness with even one other it can be found with everybody. One is the door, the all, the goal. The beginning of love is through ONE, the end is ALL. The love that unites you with everything, with nothing excluded, I call religion, and the love that stops ANYWHERE I call sin. 32 I received your letter; I have been waiting for it ever since I returned. But how sweet it is to wait! Life itself is a waiting! Seeds wait to sprout, rivers to reach the ocean. What does man wait for? He too is the seed for some tree, a river for some ocean. Whoever looks deep inside finds that a longing for the endless and boundless is his very being, and whoever recognizes this begins his journey towards God because who can be thirsty and not look for water? This has never happened and never will! Where there is longing, there is thirst for attainment. I want to make everyone aware of this thirst. I want to convert everyone's life into a waiting. The life that has turned into a waiting for God is the true life. All other ways of life are just a waste, a disaster. 33 Love. I received your letter. Its poetry filled my heart. It is said that poetry is born out of love in your letter I saw this happen. Where there is love the whole existence becomes a poem; the flowers of life bloom under the light of love. It is strange that you ask why my heart holds so much love for you. Can love ever be caused? If it is, can it be called love? Oh, my mad friend! love is always uncaused! This is its mystery, and its purity. Love is divine and belongs to the kingdom of God because it is uncaused. As for me l am filled with love as a lamp is filled with light. To see this light one needs eyes. You have those eyes so you saw the light. The credit is yours, not mine. 34 Love. I never imagined that you would write such a loving letter! And you say that you are uneducated! There is no knowledge greater than love, and those who lack love -- these are the true illiterates, because the heart is the real thing in life not the intellect. Bliss and light spring from the heart not from the mind, and you have so much heart -- that is enough! Can there be a better witness of this than me? I am surprised that you write asking me to point out any mistakes you have made. So far on earth, love has not made one mistake. All mistakes happen through lack of love, in fact this for me is the only mistake in life. Writing you you: May God make you envious of me was no mistake. I would like the bliss that has arisen in my heart to make you thirst for it more and more. Queen of Mewal! there is no reason for you to worry about it! 35 Love. It was just this time of night, two days ago that I left you at Chittor. I can see now the love and bliss filling your eyes. The secret of all prayer and worship is hidden in the overflow of those tears. They are sacred. God fills the heart of those he blesses with tears of love, and what to say about the calamity of those whose hearts are filled instead with thorns of hate? Tears flowing in love are offerings of flowers at the feet of God and the eyes from which they flow are blessed with divine vision. Only eyes filled with love can see God. Love is the only energy that transcends the inertia of nature and takes one to the shores of ultimate awareness. I think that by the time this letter reaches you you will already have left for Kashidham. I don't know how your journey was but I hope it passed in song and laughter. Give my kind respects to everyone there. I am waiting, for your promised letters. 36 Love. I was very happy to meet you the other day. I felt the stirrings of your heart and the longing of your soul. You have not yet flowered as you were born to: the seed is ready to sprout and the soil is right you will not have long to wait. But now you have to work with great determination. It is only a matter of starting the journey, God's gravitational pull does the rest. 37 Love. It is good that you are forgetting the past it will open up an altogether new dimension of life. To live completely in the present is freedom. The past does not exist apart from memory and nor does the future apart from castles in the air. What is, is always present, and if you start living unreservedly in the present you live in God. once you are free of past and future the mind turns empty and peaceful, its waves die down and what is left is limitless, endless. This is the ocean of truth -- and may your river reach it! P.S. I shall probably go to Ahmedabad in January, can you come with me? It would be good if we travelled together for a few days. 38 Love. I am glad to see such thirst for God! To have this thirst is a divine blessing; where there is thirst -- there the way is. In fact, intense longing becomes the way. God is summoning us at every moment but because the strings of our heart are slack we don't echo His call. If our eyes are closed then even if the sun is at the door we will be in darkness; and the sun is always at the door -- we only have to open our eyes and let it in, that's all! May God give you light, that's my wish. My love and I are always with you. Regards to the family and love to the children. 39 Love. I have your letter. The wheel of the world keeps spinning but why spin with it? See what is behind body and mind; that has never moved, is not moving, can never move, and thou art that, tat twam asi. Waves lie on the surface of this ocean but in its depths -- what is THERE? When the waves are taken for the ocean it is a terrible mistake. Look at the wheel of a bullock cart: the wheel turns because the axle does not; so remember your own axle, standing, sitting, asleep or awake, keep it in mind. By and by, one begins to encounter the changeless behind all change. You have asked me about the poem. I had a little piece read out by someone, then it came to me: I should hear it from you yourself! Now when you read it out to me I shall listen -- and then I can read both you and your poem. 40 Love. I received your letter on my return. I welcome this birth of determination in you. Such strength of will alone takes us to truth. Our deepest powers are aroused by it, the unorganized energy becomes organized and then there is music. What tremendous energy exists in this atom of self! But it can't be known without utter intensity of will. You must have seen rocks that even the strongest chisel cannot break, and yet the sprouting shrub or plant slips cracks and crevices through it so easily! When the tiniest seed is filled with determination to push through and reach the sun, even the hardest rock has to give way. So a weak seed wins over the mighty rocks! The tender seed breaks through the hardest of rocks! Why? Because no matter how strong and powerful the rock, it is dead, and because it is dead it has no will. The seed is tender, it is weak, but alive! Remember, where there is will there is life and where there is no will there is no life. The seed's will becomes its power. and with this power its tiny roots sprout, enter the rock and spread out, until one day they break the rock. Life always wins over death. The living force within has never been defeated by the dead obstacles without -- and never will be. 41 Love. Your letter was received with joy When the heart thirsts so much for truth, for peace, for religion, one day you come face to face with the sun which dispels all life's darkness. Thirst! Pray! Strive! Wait! A journey of a thousand miles is covered step by small step, so don't lose heart. Vast distances can be covered one step at a time and an ocean filled drop by drop. My regards to all. I shall be coming soon now. The rest when we meet. 42 Love. Your Letter has arrived. You ask me about sex. That energy too belongs to God and through meditation it too can be transformed. No energy is bad but there can, of course, be wrong use of energy. When sex energy flows upwards it turns into brahmacharya (celibacy). It is good that you are becoming detached from it but that isn't enough. You have to go through it to transform it, rejection just leaves you arid and dry! It is true you are not alone in your sex life but sex is not essentially of the body at all but a modification of the mind. If the mind is completely transformed it affects the other person too, and one who is related so intimately is quickly affected. Until we meet, keep in mind that: there should be no calculated ill-will towards sex -- cultivated detachment is useless: stay aware whilst making love, be a witness in this situation; if one can stay in a state of meditation and right-mindfulness then the sex energy can be successfully transformed. We shall talk more about this when we meet. Brahmacharya is a complete science in itself and many doors to bliss open on that path. Still, the very first thing is a friendly attitude towards all one's energies. Enmity towards them does not lead to spiritual revolution but to self-destruction. Give my regards to all there. You are not coming to Poona -- I shall miss you. 43 Love. You have asked me about sense of humour. We can talk about it in detail when we meet but first of all: the sense of humour should be directed towards oneself -- it is a very great thing to laugh at oneself and he who can laugh at himself gradually becomes full of concern and compassion for others. In the entire world no event, no subject, invites laughter like oneself. About the truth of dreams as well we shall have to talk in detail. Some dreams are definitely true. As the mind quietens down glimpses of truth begin to appear in dreams. Dreams are of four kinds
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