Chapter 16. Only This Is!

Osho - Finger Pointing to the Moon

Chapter 16. Only This Is!

It is not to explain to the knowers but to satisfy the ignorant that the scriptures say that "body etcetera is true" and that there is accumulated Karma, past action.

Actually there exists nothing else except the one and non-dual brahma, which is perfect, beginningless and endless, immeasurable, unchanging, abode of truth, abode of consciousness, abode of bliss, eternal, indestructible, omnipresent, uniform, whole, infinite, with head in all directions, impossible to be lost or to be found, supportless, independent, devoid of all attributes, actionless, subtle, choiceless, spotless, indefinable, beyond mind and speech, truly affluent, self-evident, pure, conscious and unlike anything we know.

Thus, knowing through your own experience that the soul is indivisible, be fulfilled and dwell blissfully in the changeless soul.

It is not to explain to the knowers but to satisfy the ignorant that the scriptures say "body etcetera is true" and that there is accumulated karma, past action.

Whatsoever is said is not related only to the sayer, but relates also to the one to whom it is said.

In fact the one to whom it is being said is more important. It has to be something that can be understood by him, that will not go over his head, that will not confuse him but rather bring clarity, that will become a path for him, not a mental disturbance - something that will not become just a journey into thinking but may become a discipline for transforming his life.

This sutra says that the scriptures speak to the ignorant in one language and to the knowers in a different language. The reality is that the enlightened ones speak with every individual in a different language. This is why you find so many inconsistencies in the scriptures, because the statements were addressed to different individuals. Buddha says one thing today, another tomorrow and a third thing the day after - and it becomes difficult to understand how the same individual would have said all these three things which are contradictory and opposite. There is no inconsistency, but a believer in Buddha tries hard to manage some sort of connection among them so that Buddha does not appear inconsistent. But the real fact is only this, that the speaker in all of them was the same but the listeners were different - and the statements were made keeping the listener in view.

The physician may be the same, but if the patients are different the medicines will be different. The statements of Buddha, the statements of the buddhas, are not doctrines but medicines. Hence it is always necessary to know to whom the statement was made.

The scriptures say one thing to the ignorant and another to the knowers. To the knowers it says that there is nothing like a body, only you are; to the ignorant it says that the body is there, but you are not the body. Now these statements are contradictory. If there is no body then there is no body; it has to be so whether you are talking to a knower or to the ignorant. And if there is body, then what difference does it makes whether the listener is a knower or an ignorant person? Let us go into this more minutely.

There are some truths which are objective facts, such as, "This is morning." Whether a person is a knower or ignorant it makes no difference, morning is morning for both. Or if the sun has set and it is now night, it is night for the knower as well as the ignorant.

Science explores facts, hence it has to speak in a consistent language. Science deals with things that are outside, hence there is a great consistency in it. Religion is a subjective phenomenon. It uses a language in accordance with the inner; its emphasis is more on the subjectivity, less on fact.

So depending on who is seeing, differences arise. When a knower looks, the body is not seen by him at all. When an ignorant person looks, the soul is not seen at all. The ignorant man looks in such a way that he sees only the body, a knower looks in such a way that he sees only the soul. For the knower it is impossible to see the body and for the ignorant it is impossible to see the soul.

This is the reason sages like Shankara could say that the world is false, it is not there at all... and materialists like Brahaspati could say that soul and God are all untruths, only matter exists. There is no inconsistency between these two, because there is no meeting ground for them. These are two statements seen through different perspectives. The whole way of looking at life is different. No world is seen from the point where Shankara looks at it; only the world is seen from the point where the materialist Charwak looks. This is a difference of perspectives. These are statements of people who have looked entirely separately and whose ways of looking are different.

It is like this: if smell is the only mode of detection for you, if you only have the nose as a sensory organ... there are some animals, birds and insects who do live only through smell, who find their way through smell. Now such insects who find their way only through smell have no way of knowing what sound is, what music is, because there is no way to detect music through the sense of smell.

Music has no smell whatsoever - if it is good music it is not fragrant and if it is bad music it is not stinking. Smell has nothing to do with sound.

So someone who is equipped only with the detection system for smell will not know sound. For him sound does not exist. Something only exists in our world when we have the means to detect it.

Remember, we have five senses, hence we are able to recognize five elements. If we had ten senses, we would be able to recognize ten elements. Below man on the ladder of evolution are animals; some of them have four senses, some have three senses and some have two only. Their world is limited to the number of senses they have.

For an animal that does not have ears, though he may have the rest of the senses, there is no existence of sound. Not that the sound is not there, but if you do not have the medium to catch the sound, the sound becomes non-existent for you, this world is soundless for you. If there are no eyes, there is no light in the world. So you will know only that for which you have a medium.

Your world is your mediums.

An ignorant person searches through his body medium. This is the reason an ignorant person always asks, "Where is God? Show me." What he is saying is: "As long as my eyes do not see, I will not agree." When you say that as long as you have not seen God with your own eyes you will not believe, what is it that you are really saying? You are saying that as long as God does not become an object that you can see, you cannot agree about his existence. But who has told you that God is an object for the eyes to see? And if God is not an object that can be seen by the eyes then you will never encounter him, because your very insistence about seeing him through the eyes will become the barrier.

Form is what is seen by the eyes, and all knowers say that God is formless. But you say that you would believe only after seeing with your eyes. It means you have decided not to see him. There simply is no way that you can see him through the eyes. Because how can you see the form of what is, by its nature, formless? And remember, if you ever do see God in a form you will immediately say that this cannot be God because the scriptures say that God is formless.

Marx has jokingly said that he does not and cannot believe in God because he can only believe in such things that can be proved scientifically. If he can examine God in a test tube in a laboratory, if he can dissect God by laying God on a laboratory table, if he can investigate God from all angles, only then can he believe in God's existence. But he immediately makes a joke - that if God ever made the mistake of materializing in a test tube or becoming ready to be examined on the laboratory table, he would cease to be God.

Certainly whatsoever you could capture and be able to examine in a test tube would become less than you. What you can dissect and analyze in a laboratory will become only matter, it cannot remain God.

So our demand is such that there is difficulty if it is fulfilled and there is difficulty if it is not fulfilled.

People say, "We shall not believe in God until we see him before our eyes." It means that they have decided that whatsoever is available to their eyes is their whole world, and whatever is not before their eyes does not exist.

But the world is vast. So what is the knower supposed to do? He who has seen that which is not seen with the eyes, he who has heard with closed ears that which is not heard through open ears, he who has touched within his innermost core that which cannot be touched - what language shall he speak so that even the ignorant person can understand? He will have to say it in a certain way.

If he speaks to a knower in the same way, the knower will laugh.

A Mohammedan fakir, Sheikh Farid, and Kabir once met. There was no talk between them. They stayed together for two days, they laughed, they embraced, they sat together for hours, but without a word. A big crowd of devotees of both Farid and Kabir and many other curious people had gathered. They thought that when two such eminent saints have come together there will be some very valuable conversation, they will all benefit from it. But two days passed away just like that.

Then came the moment of their departure. All were very disappointed. Those who had gathered to hear became very sad. They could not understand what was the matter. Two men of tremendous experience had met; had any conversation between the two taken place it would have been so beneficial. But nobody had the courage to ask anything in the presence of them both.

When Farid set out on his journey again, his devotees asked him why they had not conversed with each other. Farid said, "Whoever had spoken would have been proved ignorant. And then what was there to say? What I know Kabir also knows; from where Kabir is seeing I am also seeing."

Kabir was also asked by his devotees, the inmates of his ashram. Kabir replied, "Are you people mad? At the most we could have laughed at the fact that the two who are not are meeting; that the two who have already met inside are meeting. With whom was one to speak?"

Kabir has explained about the phenomenon of speaking. Two ignorant persons speak a lot with each other, though neither of the two understand each other at all. Two ignorant persons debate non-stop, endlessly, with no outcome - just the argument, with no conclusions, with nothing to be shared.

The talk between two ignorant persons is in words, though words do not take one anywhere. Two enlightened ones also meet but the use of words becomes impossible. Their meeting happens in silence without the exchange of any words, because what they have seen is the same, what they have known and experienced is the same. What is there to be said?

When does meaningful speaking happen? It happens when an enlightened one and an unenlightened one meet. Then one knows and the other does not; there is some meaning in speaking. When both know, speaking becomes meaningless. When both do not know, speaking cannot be prevented. A lot will be said, but without any meaning and purpose.

These are the only three possibilities.

When a knower meets one who does not know, what will he say? One way is that he goes on saying all that he knows without bothering about who he is talking to. In that case he is talking to the walls.

Nobody will listen, nobody will understand - one will at the most misunderstand. Just the opposite of what has been said will be understood. It will cause some harm. It would have been better to remain silent, or say only that which an ignorant person can understand. An ignorant person will misunderstand.

Then is there any method to say something in such a way that the ignorant can be made to turn towards the truth? All this is necessary to be kept in mind. There is no body, but for the ignorant there is nothing but body. Then what is to be done? A middle way has to be found, devised, so that an ignorant person can be told, "The body is and you are also, but you are not the body and you should set out in search to find out this truth."

If you tell an ignorant person that he is nothing like the body his search ceases. He will say, "Now be quiet. I am not the body, you say. But I do not experience anything else but body. I feel that there is only body, there is nothing like a soul." He is not saying anything wrong, he is speaking of his experience. The knower is speaking of his experience, the ignorant is speaking of his experience.

Have you ever known yourself to be anything but the body? Have you ever had any glimpse that may make you realize that you are not the body? Are you completely sure that if your head is cut off it is not you who will be cut? Have you even a little understanding that when your body will be burned on a funeral pyre it is not you who will be burning? Impossible! Because whenever a small thorn pierces the foot, it pierces you; if the hand is burned, you feel you are burned, so when your whole body will be burning, it is an impossible hope that you will feel that you are not burning. When even the slightest hurt, even a small abuse pierces you and affects you, then you cannot think that when death penetrates you you will remain unaffected, untouched.

You have no experience that you are anything other than the body; your only experience is that you are the body. Yes, you may believe that you are the soul and that you will not die, but that is only your belief - and a belief that is very deceptive and a belief that is part of our ignorance.

Every man likes to believe that he will not die. Nobody wants to die. Take note of this simple thing - that nobody wants to die. And whosoever does not want to die knows for certain that he will have to die - that is the reason why the feeling arises in the first place that he does not want to die.

The knower wants to die, the ignorant does not want to die. The knower wants to die because he knows that nothing dies on death. A knower wants to enter death because he knows that on entering death he will have the purest experience of deathlessness.

Where the opposite is present, the experiencing becomes easier. You draw a white line on a blackboard: it shines more clearly. When there are dark clouds and the lightning flashes, it is seen more clearly. Let it flash in white clouds during the day - you may not even see it.

A knower wants to enter death - insistently, blissfully and celebratingly - so that that white line of deathlessness that is hidden within can flash clearly against the backdrop of the dark clouds of death that come to surround it, and for the experience to become very clear that death happens always around one and never within one. The ignorant man fears going into death, because he is convinced that death means an end of everything, that nothing will remain.

Now this is a very interesting thing: an ignorant person believes that the soul is immortal so that he may not be annihilated completely. This belief is not because of his knowing but because of his fear.

This is the reason a young man does not believe very much in the matters of the soul, etcetera. But as he grows older he begins to believe in it more and more, because as death comes nearer the fear grows bigger. A person lying on his death bed normally becomes religious. Whosoever remains irreligious even on his death bed is a man of some courage. Even the greatest atheist becomes a little shaky at the time of death as he realizes that he does not know what reality is, and then comes the fear of death, of entering into that darkness. Out of fear he falls back to all the old beliefs and doctrines.

You also believe that the soul is immortal, although you know that you are nothing more than a body.

But what is this soul you are saying is immortal when you have no experience of it? You say that it is immortal, yet it is something about which you have no experience whatsoever. Your fear becomes your doctrine.

The more fearful persons are, the more they become believers in the soul. This is why this phenomenon is seen only in India, that the whole country believes in the soul and yet everybody is afraid of moving into darkness. They believe strongly in the existence of a soul. Their whole being trembles for fear of death and yet they have a firm belief in the existence of the soul.

This country of believers in the soul remained in slavery for a thousand years. Over this race of believers in the soul any small outside community could rule. And these believers in the soul continued to believe in the immortality of the soul and also continued to fear war.

Fear, not experience or knowing, is within the foundation of your belief. Otherwise it would be impossible to turn a believer in the immortality of the soul into a slave. A knower will have no fear, and slavery only comes out of the fear, that, "If we do not become slaves we will be killed." Thus a man prefers to remain alive even at the cost of becoming a slave.

Had this country really believed in the soul as everybody goes on claiming, it could have never entered slavery. The whole country might have preferred to be killed, and would have quoted from the scriptures: "The soul cannot be pierced by weapons or burnt by fire" - so let them kill and burn.

It would have been impossible to place this country in slavery had it been a believer in the soul. But this country is a complete believer in the body, not in the soul. Just due to fear it goes on saying it believes in the soul.

Your conviction is that you are the body, and the knower's realization is that you are not the body. So where, on what grounds, is it possible to meet where you may understand each other's language?

The scriptures have found a device, a technique; so in the beginning they do not deny you completely and say that there is no body at all, that denial would shut your doors and it would become even more difficult for you to understand - so for your sake they say that there is a body. This makes the ignorant a little assured that he is not entirely wrong, that the body is, that his belief is also right.

This creates a yes mood in him.

An American thinker, Dale Carnegie, has done a lot of work on this yes mood. It has nothing to do with religion, he is an expert in salesmanship: how to sell things better, how to win friendships. His

book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, is next only to the Bible in sales throughout the whole world. How to win friends and how also to influence people? It is a secret formula for creating the yes mood in the other. Once that yes mood has arisen, it becomes more and more difficult to say no.

So Dale Carnegie says that if you want to influence somebody, or convert or change somebody's mind, do not say anything at the very outset which that person may deny right away. If he has said no to something in the very beginning, his no mood becomes strong. Then to the second thing that is mentioned, to which he could have said yes had it been mentioned earlier, he would only say no.

Hence in the beginning talk about a few such matters to which he naturally says yes and then only raise the matter to which ordinarily he would have said no.

After saying yes three or four times, the feeling to say no becomes weak. Once we agree about four things and say yes, a tendency arises to say yes to whatever a person says in the fifth instance also.

But if we have said no to the first four things the person mentioned, the feeling to say no for the fifth time also grows stronger.

Dale Carnegie has written in a memoir that once he had gone to a town and stayed with a friend who was an insurance agent. That friend said to him, "You talk and write a lot about how to influence people and win friends. There is an old woman in this town: if you can sell her an insurance policy I will agree with your theory, otherwise it is all mere talk."

Dale Carnegie began his investigations about that old woman. It was a tough job, because it was very difficult to even enter her office. As soon as any one of her employees knew that a visitor was an insurance agent he was driven out. That old woman was an eighty-year-old widow, a multi- millionaire, had everything one could desire, and she was dead against insurance. Where it was difficult even to enter, the matter of influencing her seemed impossible.

Dale Carnegie has written, "After gathering as much information as possible about the old woman, I went at five o'clock for a morning walk near the wall of her garden. That old woman used to get up at six o'clock. She came out into her garden and, seeing me standing near her garden wall looking at the flowers, she asked, 'Are you a lover of flowers?' I replied, 'Not only am I a lover of flowers, but I am an expert. I have seen many roseflowers all over the world, but these roseflowers that you have in your garden are matchless.'

The old woman asked me to come inside through the gate. She took me around the garden, showing each and every type of flower. She showed me the chickens, the pigeons and the pets she had in the garden." Dale Carnegie managed to create a yes mood in her.

This became a routine every morning. That old woman would stand at the gate ready to welcome him. One day she offered him tea and breakfast. The next day, while they were walking in the garden, the old woman said, "You seem to be a very intelligent man and an expert on many subjects, what do you think of insurance? The insurance people are always running after me. Is getting insured a right thing or not?"

Then Dale Carnegie discussed the subject with her, but still did not allow her to know that he was an insurance agent because that could create a no mood in her. On the seventh day, Carnegie got her insured.

Once a relationship of yes begins with a person, a sort of trust in that person begins to grow. When a feeling of trust is created, saying no to that person goes on becoming more and more difficult. It is possible to hold the hand only after holding the fingers.

So the scriptures speak to ignorant people in such a way that a yes mood is created; only then is it possible to proceed further. If one was directly told that neither there is body, nor you, nor the world, the ignorant would say, "Enough of this! There is nothing reliable in what you are saying."

This is why the scriptures say to the ignorant that "body etcetera is true." The ignorant person immediately sits up with straightened back, confident that he is not absolutely wrong and that this man is not dangerous. It is very painful for anybody to know that he is absolutely wrong. One likes to feel that one is also right a little bit. And it is on the basis of this little bit of right that further progress in the journey is possible.

But you are absolutely wrong. The experience of all the knowers is that you are completely wrong, one hundred percent wrong. But saying this to you would mean that there could be no further relationship with you; hence the knower says that you are right to a great extent. The body is there, the world is there, everything is there - you are not wrong at all. The misunderstanding is only a slight one, that you have taken your body as the soul.

In this way a yes mood is created in the ignorant. He feels, "I am also right to a great extent. The difference between me and the knower is very small, and that is that I have taken my body to be the soul." And the ignorant also wants that he should not understand the body to be the soul, because the body does not give anything but suffering. And the body also has to die. So he also wants to search and know that which is not the body so that he comes to know deathlessness also. Then the knower says that there is supreme bliss in knowing the soul, which is not the body. So this arouses the ignorant person's greed also. He becomes keen to know that supreme bliss - and thus the journey begins.

But the journey is such that as the ignorant person makes progress, he realizes that the body whose existence the knower had earlier confirmed actually does not exist; the world whose existence the knower had earlier confirmed actually does not exist. As the ignorant person moves deeper, the knower goes on adding conditions. He says that if you become greedy for bliss you will never have it - though this man had set out on the journey out of greed in the first place.

But all this comes later on, when one has set out on the journey, when one has already covered some distance and going back has become impossible. This path is such that going back on it is not possible; whatever you have come to know on the path cannot be undone. There is no returning from knowledge. It is possible only to go forward from where you have reached, not backwards.

And the most interesting thing is that as the ignorant person moves ahead on the path, he falls into more troubled waters than he was ever in, because whatever he knew earlier, though wrong, was all clear cut. As he proceeds all previous knowledge becomes a blur and is futile, and he hangs in a limbo. He cannot go back, there is no alternative but to go ahead; hence whatever conditions are brought in by the knower have to be fulfilled. Now the knower says to give up greed and there will be bliss, though in the beginning the knower had aroused only your greed: "There is supreme bliss.

Why are you lying here in hell? Why are you suffering in misery? The fountain of nectar is near by - come along!"

So in the hope of getting rid of his miseries, in the hope of getting happiness, he happily engages in the venture. There will be great happiness there - in this hope he proceeds ahead. Now this is greed. But only some time afterwards the knower says, "Give up greed. Do not ask for bliss, otherwise you will never get it." Now one is in a fix. One cannot go back. Mind thinks that one was better off with the previous happiness - but now one cannot see any happiness there, the unhappiness of all that existed before is now so clearly visible. So what was in his hands is dropped, and that which he was hoping for does not seem to be coming into his grasp, and on top of it all the knower now asks him even to drop the hope of getting anything. One has to drop it! One cannot go back, one just has to drop it.

Thus the knower shatters your false illusions inch by inch and, slowly, slowly, takes you to a place where, if you had been asked to go in the very beginning, you would not have gone.

Buddha made such a mistake. There have been very few people who could say the truth so directly and simply as Buddha. This is why Buddhism could not survive in India. There is a reason for this, which is only this, that Buddha did not adopt that skill which should be adopted while dealing with the ignorant. Buddha had attained to the experience and he expressed it in direct terms. And the reason is, Buddha was not born in a brahmin family.

Brahmins are the ancient clever folks, the tradition of their profession is long - the oldest. In this world, since time immemorial, they have been in this business of knowledge. They are skilled in it.

They know from where to begin the matter. Buddha was the son of a kshatriya, the warrior caste; his forefathers had never been in this business. He had no expertise in it, he had newly entered the business. It was a new shop; he had no idea in the least as to what to say to the customer, how to persuade the customer. So he fell into trouble. He said the truth plainly and directly.

Do you know what Buddha said? If someone came to Buddha and said, "I want to realize the soul,"

Buddha would say, "There is no soul, how can you realize it?"

The man would run away. He would wonder about this whole situation. At least the soul has to be there. One could have understood if told that there was no body, but you are saying there is not even the soul!

Somebody would come to Buddha and say, "There must be great bliss in enlightenment." Buddha would say, "What enlightenment? What bliss? Only nothingness remains. There is no bliss and there is no enlightenment, because as long as one is able to experience bliss, the misery will also remain. It has to be there, because it is only the contrasts one becomes aware of."

So Buddha says there is no bliss there. Thus that person who had come to him with some greed, some hope, was completely shattered at the door itself. He simply does not enter inside. He says to himself, "When there is not even bliss there, then these transient pleasures that I have are not so bad. Here there is no eternal happiness, but at least I have these transient pleasures." The knowers had always tempted him to give up his transient pleasures in order to get that permanent happiness.

Buddha said there is simply no permanent happiness. Happiness as such does not exist. Neither is there transient happiness nor permanent happiness - you are in an illusion about their existence.

That man would ask to be excused and would think it is better to preserve what little he had. Half a

loaf of bread here is better than a whole loaf of bread in heaven: "And then you say there is neither any heaven nor any loaf of bread. Why should I then give up the half loaf of bread that I have?"

People would go to Buddha and ask whether they would attain God. Buddha would say that there is no God. When Sariputta, who was a son of a brahmin, who was learned and knowledgeable, came to Buddha for the first time, he said to Buddha, "If there is nothing, if there is nothingness and only nothingness, then we should try to save our world we have, where at least we have something. You are saying very astonishing things. You want to snatch away everything and promise nothing. Who will come to you?"

That son of a brahmin asked, "Who will come to you? You want us to renounce everything. And when we ask what shall we get in return, you tell us there is nothing to get. Why would anybody give up anything then? People renounce something in their greed for getting something else."

Buddha said, "One who renounces to get something has not renounced at all. What is the meaning of renunciation? If renunciation is done to get something it is a business transaction, not renunciation. A person renounces his palace so that he may get a palace in heaven - it is a business deal. A person does a virtuous deed to become happy - it is business. A person donates, renders service, becomes religious, only in the hope of having a better next life in some world. It is business - where is the renunciation in it?" Buddha said, "There is renunciation only if there is no expectation of getting anything in return."

Sariputta said, "Maybe it is so, but where will you find such renouncers?"

We are all business-minded people. Even when we desire to have a relationship with God, it is business. An ignorant person cannot do anything else.

So Buddhism could not survive in India. And when it could not survive in India, where else could it?

It did survive in other countries, but when? When the followers of Buddha had learned all the tricks that were known to the brahmins, then it survived.

You may be surprised to know that Buddha himself was a kshatriya but all his senior disciples were brahmins... and they managed the survival. But in India Buddha had already spoiled the matter; in India he had already said things directly, so even the brahmin disciples could not impose anything different. Buddhism could not survive in India. It did survive in Sri Lanka, Burma, Japan, China, Tibet, Thailand and Korea - in the whole of Asia - but not in India, because Buddha had himself said things directly, that there was nothing to gain. Hence in India it was difficult to revive that hope of getting something. But that could be managed outside India.

The Buddhist religion that exists outside India is just another version of the Hindu religion. It is not the original words of Buddha, it is not real, that is why it survived. Where it was real it did not survive at all. You know that Mahavira was a kshatriya, but all his eleven chief disciples were brahmins.

They are the ones responsible for the survival of Mahaviras' teachings. It was beyond the capacity of Mahavira to be.

A kshatriya has no idea - it is not his profession. He may be good in the art of swordsmanship but this world of scriptures, the play of words... he has no know-how in this area. So all of the eleven

chief disciples of Mahavira who were brahmins helped Jainism to survive. And there was a loophole for them. Buddha spoke himself, so it was not possible even for his disciples to spoil it. Mahavira did not speak, he remained silent; only the chief disciples spoke. This gave a loophole. Because Mahavira did not speak himself, whatever his chief disciples spoke as interpretation of his silence was taken as the Jaina religion. Thus Mahavira's religion somehow survived. But it does not seem to have gained any wide base.

There are only about two and a half million Jainas, twenty-five centuries after Mahavira lived. Even if twenty-five persons had been influenced by Mahavira and if they then had married, they would have multiplied to the present number of Jainas in these twenty-five centuries. So this present number does not speak very highly of its survival. What is the reason for it? The same - that a kshatriya does not know the language that should be used with the ignorant people. It takes centuries for it to develop.

This sutra says, it is not to explain to the knowers but to satisfy the ignorant that the scriptures say that "body etcetera is true" and that there is accumulated karma, past action.

Actually there exists nothing else except the one and non-dual brahma, which is perfect, beginningless and endless, immeasurable, unchanging, abode of truth, abode of consciousness, abode of bliss, eternal, indestructible, omnipresent, uniform, whole, infinite, with head in all directions, impossible to be lost or to be found, supportless, independent, devoid of all attributes, actionless, subtle, choiceless, spotless, indefinable, beyond mind and speech, truly affluent, self-evident, pure, conscious and unlike anything we know.

Everything else is actually unreal. We see a thing as true only because we do not have the eyes that can see the truth. We only have that mind which gives birth to untruth. We have the mind that produces dreams, but we do not have the eyes that see the truth. Hence we are able to see what is false and what does not exist and we miss that which truly exists. How to give birth to that eye, the third eye, through which we can see the truth?

There is a small child: he lives in the world of toys, toys are a reality for him. Hence if the leg of his doll breaks, he weeps the same as if a real person had a broken leg. He is not able to sleep at night if the doll is not with him in his bed. He feels the same kind of missing as any lover would for his beloved.

For a child his toys are a reality. He will laugh at himself after he becomes adult about how foolish he was. As he grows up he will forget them completely. Those toys might be lying in some junk corner; even when they are thrown out he will not weep for them. What has happened? Those toys are the same, but what has happened to this man? His intelligence has risen higher, he has become able to see more.

But this alone will not make much of a difference. Some other living toys will replace these toys, the dolls. Previously he clasped the doll to his chest while sleeping, now he will be sleeping clasping

a living woman to his chest. The dolls will have changed, but the mind? But there are methods to rise above this mind too. Very few of us do that. Everyone grows from childhood to youth. Why?

Because to grow into your youth nothing is required to be done by you, it is a natural growth.

If it was necessary for you to do something so as to grow to your youth-hood only a handful of people would attain it in this world, all the others would remain only children. But you do not have to do anything for it; youth-hood is unavoidable, you just go on growing. In fact you cannot stop it, you cannot prevent it - that is why you attain to youth. But spiritual consciousness does not grow that way, for that you have to do something. That growth depends on your decision. Nature does not impose that growth on you, it is left to your own freedom and choice. Hence it is only a handful of people who are able to become a Buddha, a Krishna or a Christ... because it is a matter of hard labor and endeavor.

The day you look with awakened eyes, the whole world will appear to you like a child's play. At that level of maturity, all things of the past become false to you.

This sutra says that in reality there is only one Brahma. And about this Brahma a few very important hints are given in this sutra. Many of these attributes are familiar to us, and them I will not discuss.

Perfect, beginningless and endless, immeasurable, unchanging, abode of truth, abode of consciousness, abode of bliss, eternal, indestructible, omnipresent, uniform, whole, infinite, with head in all directions... these are familiar words that we have used for the Brahma. But two or three of them are wonderful attributes.

Impossible to be lost or to be found... is a very important statement. Something that cannot be dropped or caught hold of: what does this mean?

People come to me and say, "We want to search for God." I ask them, "Where and when have you lost him?" Because anything that is lost can be sought for, but if something is not lost at all, it is a difficult question. They say they do not know if it is lost at all or when and where. I ask them to first ascertain if they have ever lost it, because if you have not lost it and I tell you the ways to search for it, you will be in more difficulty. You would have set out on a journey to search for that which you have never lost; how can you succeed? Your very search will lead you astray.

God is our nature - how can we lose him? We may forget him but we cannot lose him.

Try to understand the difference. It is possible you may have forgotten - you may not have paid any attention to who is hidden within for a long time. It is so near us that it is possible that there may have been no need to give any attention to the one within. One's focus may have been set on faraway objects, forgetting what is within. All this is possible, but to lose the one inside is not possible.

This is why all the saints have said that just the remembrance is enough, a search is not necessary.

This is why Nanak, Kabir, Dadu, Raidas, all have put emphasis on nam smaran, remembering his name. Nam smaran only means that there simply arises no question of searching for that which has never been lost, only try to remember him. It is not even a remembrance, it is more like reminding yourself of that which is always there.

This sutra is very revolutionary.

Impossible to be lost or to be found...

That which can never be lost is our essential nature. If it can be lost, it cannot be our essential nature. If fire can lose its fieriness, its heat, then it was not its essential nature. If fire is cool, it is something else, not fire.

To be hot is the nature of fire. To be empty is the nature of sky. Nature is something that cannot be separated from us, whatever may happen. Anything from which we can be separated is not our nature. Let this truth sink deep into you.

Something from which we can be separated is not our nature. Something with which we can be united is not our nature. We can break away from that with which we can be united. Our very being is that which we cannot be separated from nor united with. Brahma is our being. There is no way of escaping from it, there is no way of avoiding it, there is no way of losing it, there is no way of finding it.

But if such things were told to the ignorant, he would say, "It is okay; then where is the need to search for that which has never been lost? And where is the need to find that which is always there?

It is okay - then let us remain in our worldly life. What is the need - why try any crazy idea?"

No, it cannot be said to the ignorant. The ignorant will have to be told, "You have lost him; you have lost your real being - search for it. As long as you do not find it, you will remain in misery. As long as you do not find God your life will be nothing but anguish, worry, an agony."

The ignorant person understands this language of searching, he feels alright with it. He has been searching for everything - for money, for position, for prestige - so he says, "Fine, at least the search will continue; now I will search for religion instead of money."

The ignorant person understands this language. Throughout this life, in fact many many lives, he has done only one thing, searching; he has known only one profession: today search for this, tomorrow search for that. So he says, "Alright: before I searched for money, prestige and position; and you say there is no happiness in them - and I also experience that there is no happiness in them - so now I will search for your God. It fits."

After he has begun the search, he will then be told later on, "God cannot be reached; unless you give up all searching you cannot find him." Now he is in difficulty. He gave up his search for money, position and prestige because they were futile, and in the hope that he would now be searching for something meaningful he entered the search for God. And when he has come quite far in this search and cannot go back - now he cannot go back to the search for money, that has all become meaningless, in fact that is why he turned in the direction of this new, meaningful search - his master tells him to give up all searching.

First he gave up money, position and prestige, but he saved half of the coin - the search itself. He had renounced money, but saved the search. Money was on the outside, the search was inside.

It was easy to give up that which was on the outside, but now the master asks him to give up all searching, because he says, "What you are searching for you have never lost at all."

When someone gives up the search also, he immediately enters into that where he has always been. God is our very being. Hence this sutra is very revolutionary and very valuable.

Impossible to be lost or to be found.

When Buddha became enlightened somebody asked him, "What have you attained?" Buddha replied, "I have not attained anything. I only came to know what I already had." To say to you, "I have not attained anything," was a mistake of Buddha's. With such a statement you will immediately react and say, "Come, let us go back to our own work. We unnecessarily wasted our eight days with this man... and now he says he did not attain anything when he became enlightened. Why are we then doing this hard work, all this jogging and jumping and getting tired?... and this man says nothing is attained in the end."

Buddha said, "I have not attained anything." The questioner said, "You did not attain anything? Then what are you teaching to the people?" Buddha replied, "This very thing, that you come to such a state where there remains nothing to be attained or to be lost and this becomes your own experience - that nothing can be attained and nothing can be lost."

But this is something that can be understood only by a knower.

Supportless, independent, devoid of all attributes, actionless, subtle, choiceless, spotless, indefinable, beyond mind and speech, truly affluent, self-evident, pure, and conscious...

There are also words familiar to us. Unlike anything we know... It cannot be compared with anything; it is unique, matchless. Any comparisons that are made are makeshift arrangements. We say, "It is empty like the sky." But this is also not right, because the sky also is contained in him. It is bigger than the sky, it cannot even be compared with the sky.

We say, "It is shining like a super-sun." But this also is small talk, because even super-suns are nothing but tiny lamps before it. It cannot be compared with suns.

We say, "It is bliss itself." When we say this somewhere in our mind we are measuring it with happiness. It has nothing to do with happiness. We say, "It is peaceful." Then in our minds we have somewhere the idea about peace being something opposite to peacelessness. No, it has never experienced peacelessness; hence it does not have any idea of our peace.

Our comparisons are of no use. For that experience all analogies are inadequate. The seers have described it as only like itself - not like anyone or anything else, but only like itself. There is no way of describing it using the analogy of anything known to us. But still it is described for the ignorant that it is like such and such. It is only at the end of the search that it is found that it is not like anything.

Actually there exists nothing else except the one and non-dual brahma...

Thus, knowing through your own experience that the soul is indivisible, be fulfilled and dwell blissfully in the changeless soul.

In this way ... Knowing through your own experience that the soul is indivisible, be fulfilled... It will not do to know the scriptures. Scriptures may say anything - that will not do.

The solution will not come to you by listening to them, nothing will happen. You have to be fulfilled through your own experience.

A fulfilled one, a siddha, is one for whom there is no further journey, no further movement - one for whom the last camp, the last destination has come. All roads end here.

An unfulfilled one, an asiddha, is the one as we are now. An asiddha means, the one who has still something more to do, something has yet to happen for him to become happy, something has yet to be achieved after which happiness is expected to follow.

The happiness of the unfulfilled one is dependent on something else. He has to meet a certain woman, a certain man; has to own a certain house, a certain piece of land; he has to have a certain position, has to become a president, a prime minister, or this or that. His happiness is somewhere in something, in some object, and when that is achieved he will have happiness.

A siddha, the fulfilled one, means one who is happy in his own being. Whether he gets something, whether he does not get something, that is not the question. Whether something comes to him or something is taken away from him... his happiness is not dependent on anything else but his own being: it is enough that 'I am'. There is no other condition of any sort. One whose happiness is unconditional is a siddha. His happiness is here and now.

Your happiness is always some time and somewhere in the future; your happiness is never here and now. Have you ever seen a person who may say, "I am happy here and now"? Here and now everybody is unhappy, their happiness is somewhere in the future.

I have a friend who was a deputy minister of one state. He was very unhappy. I inquired, "What is the matter with you?"

He said, "Till I become a minister, I will not be happy."

He became a minister after some time. Later when I met him he was still unhappy. I asked him, "What is the matter now? You have already become a minister; now you should feel fulfilled."

He said, "Fulfilled? Until I become the chief minister there is no happiness. I am trying my best - sometime I shall reach there."

He became the chief minister also. I again inquired of him whether he was now fulfilled. He said, "Why are you after me? Fulfillment seems nowhere around. I have become the chief minister but nothing has been resolved in my life. And at the same time many more positions have now become visible, perhaps when I reach there..."

Happiness always goes on receding from you. That is the characteristic of an unfulfilled person. The characteristic of a fulfilled one is that happiness is here and now. No matter what the situation, no matter what happens on the outside, there is no change in the flow of the inner stream of happiness.

And there are no conditions attached to it. Whosoever makes conditions is bound to be unhappy.

No condition ever gets fulfilled. And even if conditions laid down are fulfilled, that condition-creating mind creates new conditions.

It is like the leaves of a tree. Old leaves fall - it makes no difference because new ones come. In fact because the new leaves want to come, the old leaves fall. New ones start pushing from within to come out, and the old ones begin to fall. As soon as the old leaf has fallen the new one sprouts.

The old condition falls only when a new condition begins to push from within to come to the surface.

On the trees leaves grow; in the mind of man conditions grow.

Whosoever's life is conditional, unhappiness will be the outcome. Whosoever's life is unconditional, whosoever is happy here and now without any reason - meaning whose happiness does not come from outside but from within, whose stream of happiness flows from within his own self - the source, the fountain - is a fulfilled one. It is not something to be begged for from others. Even if this whole world disappears, even if all the stars and the moons disintegrate, even if the whole of humanity is finished, there will be no change in the happiness of a fulfilled one.

But for you there will be no difference in your unhappiness even if the whole world is made as desired by you. Perhaps you will become more unhappy. When all one's demands are met one comes to realize... all that labor, all that hard work and nothing has really been gained... One becomes more unhappy.

In order to be a fulfilled one, the sutra says, thus knowing yourself through your own experience that the soul is indivisible, be fulfilled and dwell blissfully in the changeless soul.

Be in it, remain in it, stay in it and be settled in it. Just be one with it. Do not look outside. Just remember, rising up or sitting down, look for the unconditional happiness. Walking, sleeping, waking, eating and drinking - whatsoever may be the situation - look for the unconditional happiness. Just be happy.

This appears to be very strange to us, to say to somebody, "Just be happy." The person would ask, "How to be happy?" Because we all have an idea that happiness comes from the outside. To be happy from within! - this is something that we are unable to understand. We have never known the inner happiness.

Just search for it. Your inside is full of happiness. Gather some courage and go within. Just remove that veil of conditions and you will find that you become filled with happiness... so much so that if you want you can fill the whole world with your happiness. It will go on spreading all over and around.

We are always demanding from others. We are demanding from those who are themselves demanding from us. It is a crowd of beggars, standing in front of one another with our begging bowls hoping that something may be received - and all are begging. Have you ever thought that this whole world is a community of beggars?

I come to you so that you may give me some happiness, you come to me so that I may give you some happiness. Neither have I ever found any happiness within me, nor have you ever found any

happiness within you. Hence all our relationships give only unhappiness. Nobody gives happiness - nobody can - because how can you give something which you do not have? We are out giving others what we do not have.

The father is giving happiness to the son. The wife is giving happiness to the husband. The son is giving happiness to the mother. In the whole world, everybody is giving happiness to one another and everybody is bitterly wailing that he is unhappy. Nobody seems to become happy. You yourself do not have happiness, and you are going around giving it to others?

In this world, there is only one way of becoming happy and that is not to go to anybody asking for it.

It is not with others, it is within you. Dropping all your demands you just stop seeking it. Even if you are feeling unhappy you stay in it, you wait; do not go begging from others. One day, suddenly you will realize that because you have dropped the habit of begging, a stone within is removed and the stream pours out, filling every cell of your body with happiness.

This happiness is uncaused. Nobody can take it away from you, it is coming from within you. And then it is possible that others coming into contact with you may get touched by the stream of your happiness.

It is very interesting to note that we are demanding happiness, and we also want to give happiness.

We are not able to give happiness and we are not able to get happiness. Such a person whose own stream of happiness has burst forth, whose own source has opened up, does not demand happiness from others, nor does he desire to give happiness to others; but from such a person happiness is simply received - by many.

No buddha ever goes out to give happiness to anybody, but just his presence... The flowers that have blossomed in him, their fragrance, the fountain of happiness that has opened up within him, its murmuring sound - all these resonate and reach out to anybody who comes near him, who is open and is not sitting with the doors of his heart closed.

And anybody sitting near someone like Buddha with open eyes is also able to see that Buddha's happiness does not seem to be coming from somewhere outside, it does not seem to be dependent on anybody, it seems to be flowing from within his own self. His rays are not borrowed, they are his own. He is not like the moon which reflects the rays of the sun. He is like the sun who has his own light, his own rays emanating from him directly.

This we have called satsang. Sitting near a person like Buddha is satsang. Perhaps this may shake us too from our foolishness, perhaps our obstructing stone may also reach to the point of shifting, perhaps seeing that someone can be happy in himself our illusion that others can give us happiness may shatter. We go on demanding happiness from others and keep holding to the illusion that it will come someday - if not today, then tomorrow, or the day after - but it will come from others.

Make yourself unconditional, drop all demanding, give up all hopes that happiness will come to you from others, then one day happiness is attained. This is the state of a siddha, the fulfilled one, when one's own stream of happiness is attained.

Enough for today.

Author : John Nguyen

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