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Pravin Kumar
Age: 61 Zodiac: 
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 Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:39 pm |
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I have heard about a sadhu who was in the Himalayas for thirty years, and he felt that in those thirty years he had become totally silent and that his ego had disappeared. Then some of his disciples said to him, "There is a religious fair in the valley, and we would like you to come to it."
So they went down for the fair. But when they entered the crowd and a stranger stepped on the sadhu's foot, he immediately realized that his anger and his ego had been aroused again. He was very surprised: "A stranger stepping on my foot has shown mewhat the Himalayas could not show me in thirty years."
So there is no point i escaping. You don't have to escape, you have to transform. So don't take escaping as a key to life, but rather take transformation as the key. When religion became based on escapism it became lifeless. When religion again becomes based on transformation it will regain its lifeenergy. Remember, you have to change yourself, not your environment.
It is meaningless to change your environment. It is deceptive to change your environment because by doing this you may not notice certain things. In a new environment, in a new, silent atmosphere you may start thinking that you have become silent.
A silence which does not survive in unfavourable circumstances is not silence at all. This is why the people who are intelligent choose to practice their silence in unfavourable circumstances, because if they attain it in these unfavourable circumstances then this is the real silence.
This is why it is not a matter of running away from life. Take life as a test. And remember that all the people around you ar ehelpful to you. The man who abused you in the morning is also helping you; he has given you an opportunity. If you want to, you can find love within yourself. Someone who expresses their anger towards you is helping you, someone who criticizes you is helping you. A man who spatters mud all over you is helping you. Someone who spreads thorns on your path is also helping you, because that is also an opportunity and a test. If you are able to go beyond it, you will feel indebted to him. What the saints cannot teach you in this world, your enemies can.
I will say it again: what saints cannot teach you in this world, enemies can. If you alert and have the intelligence to learn, you can make a ladder out of each and every stone in your life. But the ignorant people take even stepping stones to be obstacles and stop there. If you are intelligent, then every stone can be made a stepping-stone. If you are intelligent, every stone can be a step.
Think about this a little. Make your house, your family and all the things which seem like obstacles to you -- because you think that they can prevent you from becoming silent -- the center of your meditation, and you will see that those very things will help you to be silent. What are the things that don't allow you to be silent? What is the obstacle in the family? What are the things that prevent you? Just think about whether there might be a way to make them into stepping-stones. There definitely are ways. And if you think about it and understand it, you will find a way.
What is the logic that tells you that if you drop the family you will become silent and experience truth? There is no real logic. Try to understand your life and your mind rightly, and use all the circumstances around you. But what do you do? You don't use these circumstances, instead the circumstances use you. You remain lost your whole life because you don't make use of the circumstances and instead allow them to make use of you. And you remain lost because you go on reacting, you never act.
If you insult me, I will immediately insult you even more strongly. If you abuse me I will abuse you, even more so, using even more abusive words. And I will not think that I have just reacted. One abusive word has been said to me, so I return two. This is not an action, it is reaction.
If you look at your life for twenty-four hours, you will find that there are only reactions. Somebody does something, and in reaction to that you do something. I ask you, do you do anything which is not a reaction to something else, which is not a reply to something, which has not come as a reaction to something, which is not a reaction but an action? This is the discipline of action.
If you think about it, you will see that you are reacting twenty-four hours a day. Others do something, and you do something in reaction to that. Have you have ever done anything which only you have done, something which originated in you and took birth in you? Just look at it and meditateon it ... so that right in the middle of the family, the house and the world, you attain sannyas.
Sannyas is not in opposition to the world: sannyas is a purification of the world. If you start becoming pure withing the world, one day you will find that you have become a sanyasin. To be a sanyasin is not a change of clothing .. that you change your clothes and you become a sannyasin. Sannyas is the transformation, the development of your total being. Sannyas is a growth. It is a slow, very slow development.
If a person uses hs life rightly, using whatever circumstances arise, he will find that slowly a sannyasin is taking birth within him. It is a matter of thinking about your attitudes and making them pure and empty.
Look within yourself and see what attitudes you have that are making you worldly. Remember, other people are not making you worldly, You are with your family ... now how can your father or your wife make you worldly? It is the feelings of attachment that you have foryour father or your wife that make you worldly.
What will happen if you escape from your wife? -- those attachments will go with you. Nobody can run away from their attachments. If we were able to run away from them life would be very easy. But if you run, all your attachments will go with you just as your shadow follows you -- you will impose themon something else; you will create a new household somewhere else.
Even your so-called great sannyasins end up creating large households. They have their household, and new attchments, new infatuations arise; and again they start living between happiness and sorrow. Because they bring these attachments with them, they will come up in a new place also. It doesn't make any difference. Peole may change but these things will remain the same.
So I don't tell you to drop things and run away. I tell you to drop the attitudes. Things will remain as they are, but your attitudes towards them will change -- and you will be free.
There was once a king in Japan. A sannyasin had lived outside this king's village for some time, lying under a tree. He was a unique sannyasin: he had much grace and radiance, much light -- there was so much fragrance in his life. Gradually, as the king became attracted by this magnetism he went to him. He watched him lying there for many days, and often went to sit at his feet. The sannyasin's influence grew on the king, and one day he said to him, "Wouldn't it be better if you left this tree and came with me to the palace?"
The sannyasin said, "As you like. I can go anywhere."
The king was a little surprised. The respect he had been feling for all those days received a shock. He had thought the sannyasin would say, "Palace? But I am a sannyasin. What would I do in a palace?"
This iw what sannyasins usually say if their sannyas is a learned thing: their answer will be, "We sannyasins have nothing to do with palaces: we have dropped them." But this sannyasin said, "As you like. I can go anywhere."
The king was shocked. And he thought, "What kind of a sannyasin is this?"
But he had given the invitation himself, so he could not take it back. He had to take him. So the sannyasin went with the king who made all the necessary arrangements for him, just as he would for himself. The sannyasin started living there and enjoying himself. Big beds were made for him, and he walked on them. Delicious food was given to him, and he ate it. The king was no longer doubtful, he was sure. He felt, "What kind of a sannyasin is this? He has not said even once that he would not be able to sleep on those mattresses, that he could only sleep on boards. He did not say even once that he would not be able to eat such delicious food, tht he could only eat very simple food."
It became more and more difficult for the king to deal with his living there. Only a week or ten days had passed when the king said to him, "Excuse me, but I have doubts in my mind."
And the sannyasin said, "It is not only now, it was already there on the day you asked me to come with you. This doubt did not start just now, it already started on that day. But tell me, what is the doubt?"
And the king told him, "The doubt is about what kind f a sannyasin you are, and what the difference is between you , a sannyasin, and me, a worldy man?"
The sannyasin said, "If you want to see the difference come with me outside the village."
The kind said, "I want to know. My mind is very disturbed by this doubt. Now even my sleep is disturbed by this doubt. Now even my sleep is disturbed. It was better when you were under the tree, then I had respect for you. Now that you are in the palace my respect is gone."
The sannyasin then took the king outside the village area. When they had crossed the river tht was the boundary of the village, they continued to walk. So the king said, "Please tell me now."'
But the sannyasin said, "Let's walk a little further."
It became very hot. It was midday and the sun was overhead. The king said, "Atleast tell menow. We have come very far."
The sannyasin said, "This is what I want to say: that now I will not return, I will keep on walking. Are you coming with me?"
Then theking said, "How can I come with you? I have left my family, my wife and my kingdom behind."
But the sannyasin told him, "If you are able to see the difference, see it. I'm going on, and I have left nothing behind. When I was in the palace, I was in the palace but the palace was not within me. I was inside the palace but the palace was not inside me. That is why I can go now."
The king fell at his feet. His doubt was cleared. He said, "Forgive me. I will repent all my life. Please return."
The sannyasin said, "I can still return, but your doubts will also return. It does not matter to me if I return instead of going on. I can -- ut your doubt will again return. Out of compassion for you I will keep on going."
The words he said are worth remembering. He said, "Out of compassion for you now I will keep on going. My compassion tells me to go on."
And I remind you that Mahavira's nakedness is more out of his compassion for you than out of any compulsion to be naked. And a true sannyasin lying in the forest? --- it is less because of his attachment to lying in the forest than out of compassion for you. And going naked from door to door to ask for alms is less because of a desire to beg than out of compassion for you. Otherwise, instead of begging he could be living in your house, and instead of sleeping outside on the road he could be sleeping in a palace.
It makes no difference to a sannyasin. Yes, it does make a difference to a pseudo-sannyasin.
It does not make any difference to a true sannyasin because nothing enters his consciousness. Things are in their own place; the walls of the palace are where tehyare; the cushions that we are sitting on are in their place. If they don't enter my consciousness then I am untouched by them.; I am far away from them.
I don't ask you to leave wherever you are. I only ask you to change what you are. I don't ask you to escape from wher eyou are ; weak people escape. I ask you to change, and this change is the real thing.
Become aware of the state of your mind and start trying to change it. Take any one aspect and start working from there. Drop by drop the ocean can become full. Walking, inch by inch, the divine can be found. Just take one step at a time. I'm not asking you to do more than that. The divine can be found simply by taking one step at a time. And don't think that you don't have the capacity, that you will not be able to attain.
Somebody was saying to me, "I am weak, I don't have much capacity. How am I to atttain?"
However weak you are, everyone is capable of taking one step. And I do need to ask you .... have even the most capable of taking one step. And do I need to ask you .... have even the most capable people ever taken more than one step at a time? Even the most capable have not taken more than one step at a time.
And everyone is able to take one step at a time.
So take a step. And then take another step. You always have to take only one step. But someone who keeps on taking only one step. But someone who keeps on taking only one step at a time will cover infinite distances. And anyone who does not take a step because he thinks nothing much can happen by taking one step at a time will never reach anywhere.
So I invite you to take that one step. You have listened to my talks with me so much love and with so much patience. I feel a great joy and gratitude for that. I am grateful to you. I am very grateful for the place you have given me in your hearts. For this, please accept my many, many thanks and my love.
Now we will sit for today's last meditation experiment, and then we will say goodbye and leave. And I say goodbye to you with this hope: that when we meet again, I will find your silence has deepened and your bliss has grown; that you will have taken that step that I have asked you to take; that a few drops of the nectar will have entered you and that you will have come closer to deathlessness. May the divine give you the capacity to at least take one step. After that, the next steps will happen by themselves.
After the night meditation we will leave silently. In the morning I may not be able to see you as I will leave at five o'clock. So take this as my last farewell.
Each and every person please accept my greeting to the divine that dwells within you. Please accept my greetings.
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