Meditation Chapter No.37, Mysticism, reading, forums, Numerology, Sun Signs, Divination

Posts: 4978 · Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2008 12:04 pm

But this kind of weak people give the cunning people an opportunity to exploit them. A kind of religious explaoitation goes on all over the world, because you want to get something for nothing. Some people will tell you that you can get what you want with their blessings: "Worship me, fall at my feet, remember my name, have faith in me and you will achieve it all." And because people are weak they believe this, and they waste their lives touching their feet. You will not gain anything this way, it is just exploitation.

No guru can you enlightenment. He can show you the path how to reach it, but you will have to walk on the path yourself. No guru can walk for you, no one in this world can walk for someone else. Your own legs make you walk, and you have to walk on your own legs. And if someone says -- and there are many who say -- "We want only one thing from you: that you have faith in us and we will do the rest".....they are exploiting you. And because you are weak you allow them to exploit you.

All the religious hypocrisy that is happening in the world is happening more because of your weakness than because of the hypocrites. If you were not weak no religious hypocrisy in the world would stand a chance. If a man has even a little strength and courage, if he feels even a little pride and respect for his life and somebody says to him, "I will make you attain the divine through my blessings," he will say, "Forgive me, but this would be a great insult." In fact, he would say, "Can there be anything more insulting to me than the idea that I should attain the ultimate through your blessings?"

And what is given by somebody as a favour can also be taken away just as easily. What have you gained when what has been given as a favor can be taken away with the loss of this favor? And an enlightenment that can be given and taken away, an enlightenment that can be given to you by somebody else, would simply be a deception.

No one in this world can give truth and enlightenment to anyone else. You will have to experience it through your own effort and devotion. So don't think this even for a moment, because your weakness will prove fatal to you. And not only will it destroy you, it will also make it possible for the hypocrites, the deceivers and the false gurus to multiply. They are false, they have no value, and what's more they are dangerous and destructive.

Someone has asked: What should the energy of the ego be changed into?

I have told you that if the energy of anger arises you can transform it creatively, I have also told you that if it is sex energy, that too can be transformed. The ego is not an energy in the sam way that anger, sex and greed are energies. The ego is not an energy in that sense. Anger sometimes arises, the urge for sex is there only sometimes, greed also only grips your consciousness sometimes. The ego does not only exist sometimes: until you are enlightened it is always with you, it is standing behind all your actions. It is your state. Many things come because of it but the ego itself is always there. Anger arises because of ego. If you are an egoist you will be more angry. If you are an egoist you will be more greedy for fame, more greedy, and hungry for power. If you are an egoist, these things will arise in you because of ego. Ego is the state of your consciousness, and as long as there is ignorance, there is ego. But when knowing arises ego disappears, and in its place you experience your being.

Ego is an invisible covering surrounding your being. Ego is a curtain around being. It is not energy, it is ignorance. Many energies arise because of this ignorance, and if you use them in a destructive way, the ego-state goeson becoming stronger. But if you use these arising energies in a creative way, the strength of the ego will go on weakening, the egostate will become weaker. If allyour energies are used in a creative way, the ego will one day disappear. And when the smoke of the ego disappears, behind it you will come across the flame of your being.

The smoke of the ego arrounds the flame of your sould. When the unconsciousness clears, when the smoke of the ego clears away, when all the layers of 'I' disappear, and when the idea that 'I am' has also disappeared, then you experience the depths.

Ramakrishna used to tell a story that once a statue made of salt went to see a fair at the seashore. And at the seashore he saw that the sea was infinite. On the way somebody asked, "How deep is it?"

And the statue said, "I will go and find out."

So he jumped into the water. Many days passed and many years passed, and yet the statue never returned. He had said, "I will go and find out" -- but he was statue made of salt. The moment he jumped into the ocean the salt dissolved and disappeared, and he never found the bottom of the ocean.

The 'I' that searches for godliness for the depths of the ocean disappears in the searching. It is just a statue made of salt, not an energy.

So when you embarked on your search for the divine, you started with the idea "I am going to find the divine." But as you go on searching you will find that the divine is nowhere to be found and the seeker also is disappearing. A moment comes when the 'I' becomes totally empty, and then you discover that you have found the divine.

This means that the 'I' will never meet the divine. When the 'I' is not there, only then is the divine there. But as long as the 'I' is there the divine will never be found. That is why Kabir has said, "The path of love is very narrow -- there cannot be two on it."

There can be either you or the divine. And as long as you are there, there cannot be the divine. And when you disappear, godliness is.

This ego is the only ignorance. And many of your life energies are misused because of this ignorance. If you use them rightly the ego will not get any nourishment, and slowly, slowly it will disappear.

So if you try what I have called the three experiments for the purification of life -- the purification of the body, the purification of thoughts and the purification of emotions -- if you go on doing these three experiments, one day you will find the ego has disappeared. Anger will not disappear, ego will disappear. The energy of anger will be there in new forms, but the ego will not be there. When the ego disappears, no trace is left behind. Anger or sex don't disappear, they are transformed. They will be present in a different form. The energy of anger will stay, but it will take a different form. It is possible that it will become compassion -- but the energy will be the same.

And when the energy of people who are very hot - tempered is transformed, they become filled with an equal amount of compassion because the energy takes a new form. The energy is not destroyed, it simply takes a new form.