Existence Takes Care

I will tell you the secret of sitting meditation, standing meditation, walking meditation, sleeping meditation, dreaming meditation, and active meditation in the battle field as a soldier. Let me speak from my own experience, as I never speak from what I have heard or read. It is better first to experience and then to speak.

In 1953 I was loading a ship in Mangalore at a time when I was dealing in manganese ore. I stayed there the whole day for the loading, and once the hatches were closed I got a bank draft from the captain to certify that the ship had been loaded with 10,000 tons of manganese ore for Rotterdam. I wanted to cash the draft immediately at the bank in Bangalore, which was about 500 miles away. It was already about 9 p.m., and I had to reach the bank by morning. I was exhausted as I had been working offshore for the whole day from early in the morning until late in the night. I was not near the wharf where I could easily get out of the ship and it was very hot. I decided that I should rest before beginning my journey and then start early in the morning. But then I realized that the banks would be closed, and it would be better to cross the mountain pass and have a coffee and a nap on the other side, and then go to Bangalore. The road over the hill climbed from the town at sea level up to five thousand feet making eleven hairpin bends.

I don't know what happened. I could not stop on the mountain road because there were wild elephants which had lifted cars up in the air and thrown them in the valley, one mile below. It was better to keep going and then to rest.

When I arrived on the other side of the hill my head was resting on the steering wheel. I woke up from a deep sleep feeling very fresh, no longer even needing a cup of coffee. I continued the journey to Bangalore having had a complete sound, deep sleep. My head was resting on the steering wheel. I was feeling so fresh that I no longer needed a rest or a coffee, as though I had slept for eight hours. Who drove the car? This is a problem I have never been able to solve. Even in the waking state drivers have accidents but I was fast asleep. The road was narrow, no more than fifteen feet. On one side was a high mountain, on the other side was a very steep valley, and I cut eleven hairpin bends. Who drove the car? I have never been able to find the answer to this.

The other incident I want to describe to you happened in Lucknow. I was walking to the GPO from Kaiserbagh, in front of what is now Janpath market. I always kept a very safe distance, walking on the left side of the road, because sometimes I could never get out of meditation at all! I was neither troubling anyone else nor was I troubled by anyone. An old model Ford car came down the street, a 1934 or ‘36 model with footrests hanging on the side. These days cars no longer have footrests. The car hit me so hard that the footrest fell off onto the ground. People gathered around me saying they had noted down the number. The car had sped away leaving only the footrest. They wanted to know if I was hurt and to go to the police. My pants were torn and when I pulled them up, the car had struck me from behind. There was a little bloodstain on the back of the knee but nothing more. I told them I was perfectly alright.

When you are in meditation you do not need to look after yourself. A power will rise which is moving the earth, which is causing the sun to shine, which is giving the moon its brilliance, and which is allowing all these jivas to function as they want to. If you are attuned to that power you will have nothing to do, everything will be beautiful. That power will look after you in a way which you cannot manage. A man operating from his senses gets into many accidents. But I did not fall into the valley, I slept. Who took care of me? This is the greatest mistake, to fall asleep at the steering wheel. One is advised to be well rested before driving. Who cared for me?

That power is there but you are not looking at it. It is so compassionate that it will look after you. You have been denying it and depending on your own ego. Even this ego is getting its power from somewhere else, to become ego, to become mind, to think, to become the senses and to allow you to function. When you turn your face towards it, it will arise to help you; otherwise you cannot save yourself. How long can you be aware and careful?

Meditation means, no meditator and no object of meditation. Then you can do whatever you like. When the meditator is there it is ego. This is not something to be decided intellectually; it has to be directly experienced. There is no end to argument and logic. That has nothing to do with it. This is your own mother, your own supreme power, which is here and now.

If you close your eyes you will see who is responsible. You do not have to travel even a yard out of your own self — you do not have to take one step. You do not need to think or even to meditate. You do not have to do anything, just keep quiet as you are and you have got it. If you try to search you have lost it. There is nothing to search for — it is that through which the search is taking place. It is that which is found after searching has ceased.

If you know this it is enough. If you don't you will never find rest in millions of years. You have already passed through 8.4 million species. If you are fatigued then you will see this. If you want to hitchhike some more the goal will not be attained; you can continue as you like and it will never end. If you want to end everything is ended now. If you want to continue it will continue. As you think so you become — this is a formula. You think, "I am in trouble" and you are in trouble. You think, "I am free," and you are free. If you are attached to any object you are in trouble, you are in suffering, there is manifestation. If you want to end this it is seized immediately in the recognition, "I am free." That is all there is to it. What time do you need?

December, 1991

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When Fear Comes, Kiss Its Face!

Q: When I'm quiet — just feeling this love — it is so beautiful. Then this feeling of fear comes; as if the love will go away. I don't want that fear to come. I just want to stay in the beauty of the feeling of love.

I can only suggest to you that when the fear comes that is what is happening, so let it come. Hug this fear, don't reject it. Hug it and kiss it. If fear comes when you are happy it is a past habit that has been showing up, a dormant tendency of the mind. All that is dormant will have to rise up now; otherwise these tendencies would have given you much trouble again and again. You would have had to live out those things which were buried deep in the subconscious mind.

Now because the sense of an individual doer is no longer there these tendencies are no longer rising in the present and you don't need to do anything any more. When the concept of the future is discarded and in the present you have no desire; past tendencies are free to rise up. So don't try to bury them now. Before they could wait for another incarnation if they were not fulfilled now, but now they can no longer wait — this is the time for them to leave. So keep quiet and simply watch. They will not trouble you. Do not stop them. Do not say, "I do not want them." Invite them. Tell them, "Come! Please come now; this is the time." Do not resist any more. Allow whatever may arise to arise on its own. Be prepared. Do not stop them, do not run away, let them arise.

Previously you were always busy with day to day desires, with future hopes and expectations. You were so engaged so these dormant tendencies were waiting, saying to themselves, "We will be fulfilled next time." Now the time is here because there is no more expectation, no more hope, no more desire. This is the time for the dormant tendencies buried in the unconscious mind to appear and to leave this place. So do not resist. Let them arise, okay? Good.

December, 1991

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I Trust You Are All Lions

All ignorance has been started by shepherds. Shepherds are for sheep. I trust that you are lions. Lions are not to be herded; wherever they go they are on their own track. There are no lion herds; there are only sheep herds. You are all lions — so go your own way. Do not walk the beaten path like sheep, one after another. Do not follow any path. Lions do not follow each other like sheep.

Most people are sheep, following shepherds all over the world. Religions are started by shepherds and people become followers like sheep. But wherever you go you are lions, and there are no paths for lions. Wherever a lion walks, that is the path. For a lion no path is the only path. So don't count yourself among sheep needing a shepherd. Your way is no way — it is to know who you are. This is not following like a sheep. This is a novel approach, so far unknown. Once known it is known for good. He who knows this has fulfilled the purpose of the striving of human life. He is happy and peaceful. He enjoys both here and hereafter.

Please don't become sheep. Don't follow anyone. Don't look here and there. Don't look anywhere. Stop looking. Stop all your imagining of the future and conceptualizing of the past. Keep yourself in this moment, which is no moment. Find out where this moment is rising from, where time is rising from, where this thought is rising from, and you will see you have always been at Home. You don't need anything more!

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Just to Pluck a Rose Petal

Freedom, Love and Peace will be attained instantly as soon as you abandon vasanas — the impressions of the past that you have stored in your memory. If you abandon vasanas right now you can be free and happy, you can be in peace and love.

You can live well without vasanas, without desires, just as when you take off your hat or your coat you can live well and nothing is lost. Likewise, if you renounce vasanas — if you renounce the tendencies of the past — you will be well and happy. No time is needed, it is as easy as plucking a petal from a rose flower. It doesn't take time. You can attain freedom, light and wisdom now — instantly you can be free. You do not need to toil endlessly. Penance, austerities, even meditations — just abandon them. This notion that, “I am bound.” has to be dropped and instantly you will be free and happy.

I am very happy to see so many seekers of truth here in one place with the desire for freedom. It has never happened at any time before. In the past we can only find isolated cases of those who found freedom. Two thousand years ago Siddhartha became the Buddha. He had to travel from teacher to teacher; he had to go through all kinds of austerities before he could finally just sit under the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya and find silence. We do not have time to do all that. This teaching is so simple that it is not a teaching at all. So simple just to pluck a rose petal, just to give up the notion that you are bound, that you have to search for freedom in caves or mountains or monasteries. Freedom is revealed within yourself.

A crow sat on a coconut tree and the coconut fell. This does not create a relationship between the coconut and the crow. You may attribute freedom to meditation, sadhanas and effort; but when the coconut fell it fell on its own accord, not because the crow sat on the tree. When you get it you may attribute it to some sadhana, to staying with the teacher, to going to the Himalayas for years of contemplation or to long austerities and meditations, but it has nothing to do with these things. It is simply a question of keeping quiet. Keep quiet just for a moment, for this instant of time, and allow it to happen. Don't interfere. Just keep quiet and watch what happens.

This is a very simple way to freedom. You are free. The notion that you are bound has been dumped on your head by your parents, by your priest, by your society. If you get rid of all these instantly you will find that you are what you have always been. If you give up all that you have read, heard, seen, touched or tasted, freeing yourself from all past notions — what will be left? You alone will remain — that which you have always been, what you will always be, and what you are now. The exercise or sadhana or way is not something to be borrowed from the outside. Just keep quiet, keep silent, and you will know freedom from sorrow and suffering. I wish everyone would try this and see.

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Be So Beautiful That It Finds You

When you are out walking and you become tired you stop, you sit down, you relax. So when you get tired of trying to find solutions to your problems, when you find no solution, sit down. By sit down I mean, don’t try to solve the problem at all — the problem is in the past, it is not now. Don't think about past problems, just leave them alone and sit down. This is the moment of relaxation. You only have to allow this, listen to it, do not do anything. Just listen: Don't go to the past. The past is a problem, the past is mind. When you go to the past all will be problems so don't go to the past. The mind is the past and the past is a graveyard. Don't go to the graveyard. All problems are dead, so return to this moment without trying to solve the problem. Trying has put you in trouble, so don't touch this trying any more.

Simply sit down, keep quiet. Keep quiet for one moment. This is the moment you need, this is the moment of rest. Keep quiet for a moment without going to the past and you will find relaxation. There is no other way — simply do not think of the past. First help yourself — which means to not think — and then if you still need to you can ask me for help.

Just for this moment do not think, but direct your mind to its Source. Bring the mind which is thinking — which is going to the past — to face this present moment, and this will give you eternal rest. Help yourself not to look to past moments and do you find any problems? In this moment, without going to the past, where is the problem? Has it gone away? Then you have helped yourself. This is truly Self help.

You cannot buy this in the market, you cannot acquire it, you cannot purchase it. It is not something to be had. It is something that is already here. Do not try to get things, to achieve things, to attain things which are not already here, because whatever is absent — once you get it — will also be lost. Instead of reaching out after anything which is absent discover that which is already here, which you do not need to try and attain. This will be something fresh, something which is here, which is now. Give up your desire to get something tomorrow, do not allow this desire to stir, to rise up form the ground of mind. Abandon all your desires to get something which you do not already have. No desire is needed for that which you already have here.

Instead of trying to get it offer yourself up so it can get you. Be so beautiful that this will be attracted by your beauty. It will come and get you instead of you getting it. Who are you to get it, anyway? Allow yourself to be taken by it — that's the only way. You must be immaculate, which means to be without desire. Your own nature is immaculate so sooner or later you will know this. When there is no desire there is Beauty, there is Love. You cannot disturb this beauty even by giving rise to a thought to get it. This thought will only be an impurity. Make sure that no desire arises and you will be so immaculately beautiful — so perfectly pure and spotless — that everything will be instantaneously unfolded before you. Then this beauty will hug Beauty itself.

Simply keep quiet. Do not do anything and it will happen. Abandon even the intention to get something in the next moment. Do not even make the distinction between "this moment" and "the next moment". Then something will happen instantaneously.

December, 1991

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Look through the Eyes of Love

Q: If someone insults me I feel angry and want to hurt them back.

If you return a slap with love, with a kiss, he will forget his behavior; he will not sting anybody else. You have to live wisely, if you want to enjoy this life, this is a beautiful world that is here for you to enjoy. There are so many beautiful things: there are mountains, there are rivers, there are birds, there are animals. What more do you want? There are clouds, sun, moon and stars. Why don't you open your eyes and enjoy this manifestation, which your own creation? Everybody is related to you.

So how can anger arise? Sometimes it happens while eating, especially if the food is very tasty, that the teeth hurt the tongue. You do not go to the dentist to pull your teeth out because they hurt your tongue; there is nothing wrong with them. The tongue knows, "We are friends, I am enjoying taste and they are munching. If they hurt me I shall not pull them out." Like this, coordinate life with everyone, then you will really know how to live in love.

Once many years ago a planter invited me to visit his coffee plantation. He took me there on a Sunday; it was my day off from work. He said, "We'll go on Saturday night in the jeep. My cook does not sleep in the bungalow which is at the top of the hill. The coffee is grown on the slopes and the area for drying it is at the bottom. When I go there I stay in the bungalow, which is well equipped, and the cook stays down the hill with his family, in the area for drying the coffee. So as soon as I wake up I will go down the hill to get him."

In the morning he drove off before I was up. I awoke to a very beautiful sight. The plantation was all around me, covered in orange trees. The trees were there just for their shade, to protect the coffee plants from the direct sun. He was not interested in selling the oranges so all the fruits that dropped in the fields were ploughed back in as manure. I came out of the bungalow and saw bushes and bushes full of oranges, very big loose jacket mandarin fruits. I felt so happy to see them, so many bushes laden down with oranges touching the ground, so many orange fruits. I saw all these oranges in the morning sun, and I felt such joy.

As this feeling arose, standing in front of a beautiful bush I addressed it and spoke to the bush out loud: "Good morning, Mother, how do you do? You are very lucky, you have so many children." It did not occur to me to hurt her, not even to pluck one of her fruits for myself. It was enough just to see the beauty of the oranges and this woman so proud of her children. I liked her, I loved her, and I kissed that tree itself. I was so very happy! The thought of picking the oranges did not even come into my mind. In that same moment she also spoke to me: "I am very happy with you so I offer you these fruits," and instantly twelve big oranges fell from the tree.

I am not making this up. This really happened as I am describing it. I have seen many things happen like this. We are all one — there is no separation between us, only we do not realize it. The same is true with rocks, with trees, with birds, with rivers: you can speak with all of them, and you will see how you can get love from everything. So I spoke with this tree, and she responded. She said, "I am also happy. I want to give you my oranges, please take them." I took one and again I kissed her. I could understand how she was feeling; I could understand her language.

What was the trick? It was only love. See everything with eyes full of love. If you look at anybody with that love I do not think that they can be angry with you. Sometimes anger may visit you. When the hotel is full, no rooms, no accommodation available, no one will go there. In the same way, if your house is full of love all these other tourists as anger, lust and greed will see that the house is already full and they will not come inside; they will go away and look for some other lodging house. If the doors are open to greed, lust and anger they will enter immediately; they will not wait for the check-in time.

If you love people who will not return love to you?

December, 1991

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Identify Yourself with That

Identify yourself with cosmic consciousness during meditation. You are That. There is no difference. A notion arose that you are a separate individual with some higher supreme consciousness to arrive at, which is not true.

A wave rises from the ocean and feels she is separate from her source and is therefore not the ocean. But let the wave inquire, "Who I am?" Let her discover the place from where she arose. She will arrive at her source, at the ocean itself. Her notion of being a separate wave instantaneously vanishes. A river discharges into the ocean and becomes one with it.

This understanding arises through inquiry. What is the relationship between a ring and the gold from which it is made? Can you separate the gold from the ring or the ring from the gold? It is impossible. Without the ring you can't see the gold, and without the gold and you can't see the ring. Abandon the name — ring, and the form — round. The ring is name and form only, the substance is gold. When you remove name and form what is left to be separate?

If you feel a separation between the meditator and the one who is meditated upon, discover your true identity and you will see that you were never separate. You have always been consciousness itself. Through consciousness you are meditating, through the consciousness you are establishing your separation, and through consciousness you will establish your unification. These are notions. Remove the notion that you are bound. If this separation — this idea — is removed, you will find that you have always been that which you are now. These notions, ideas and intentions have to be instantaneously withdrawn, and you are here.

This is why we are here under one roof. This is a great occasion that so many blessed people are collected together under one roof seeking enlightenment. You have already spent millions of years — some say 35 million years — waiting to be here today. Before, it was never possible for so many to come together under the one roof, to help each other, to remove our separation and bondage, to declare our freedom.

We are not to return to this samsara — this never ending cycle of birth and death — again. Even samsara is only a concept; not actually true. We speak of it only for convenience, to make you aware of how important it is to win freedom, to be wise, to be enlightened right now. For this reason it is suggested that it has taken a long time. Otherwise in this moment you will see that time and past and future do not exist. You are what you are even now. What problem can remain in this?

January, 1992

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King or Beggar?

You do not need to desire anything; everything belongs to you. Everything you see you can have. It is all yours — everything is yours. Tell me now that which is not yours. The mind is your servant, the ego is your maid servant, the body is your foot mat — what else do you need? You can give commands: "Come on… come on mind, do this". Call to the ego; she is your maid servant, she will do everything that you need. You have to give commands, you have to be king. Don't enslave yourself to the mind, to the ego, to the senses. You have to command them and everything will be done. Otherwise you become a slave.

To be a slave means that, with any desire that you have you become a slave to it. You enslave yourself to anything that you need or desire, to petty things, you become a beggar. You choose: If you are a king, you must behave like king. If you are beggar take a begging bowl and beg. Any desire that arises in your mind makes you a beggar. So who are you now, king or beggar? Sit on your throne.

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Enlightenment is to relieve you from the concept of bondage. You say you are bound, then you ask for something that is the opposite of bondage. If you are in prison you need to be free. That means to get out of jail. Everybody is bound, everybody is in the prison of desires, the prison of, "I want this and I want that." They are never fulfilled. Any prisoner that desires something in the jail is not fulfilled. He is bound; he wants to be released. The whole samsara is a prison, the whole universe is a prison because your desires are not fulfilled. One is fulfilled and gives you sorrow. When you ask for another desire it ends in sorrow; and then the third one ends in sorrow. This is the life and this is samsara: No one is happy.

Here or there a rare one demands, "I want to be free of samsara." This is called enlightenment. To be free of sorrows, to be free of death and tensions and unhappiness is called enlightenment. This is a very welcome desire, which arises here and there. A very few — perhaps a finger count in a century — will ask for enlightenment. The world has not much capacity to produce many enlightened people in a century. We have to dig into the past to find some example of an enlightened person. We have to go and hunt it down from centuries ago to find an enlightened man, so it is a very welcome desire: to be enlightened.

To be feeling total in this moment is neither bondage nor enlightenment. This moment has got nothing to do with concept of bondage or even enlightenment. This moment has no name. It is the most precious moment. This moment is out of time, out of mind, out of concept, out of any ideation. This is free. This is your home and you are always in this moment. You went to the past to suffer. Out of suffering you wanted to be free. The thought, "I want to be enlightened." arose from the past. In this moment you have no desire, not even for enlightenment.

January, 1992

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Shun the Company of the Past

The past is stronger than the present in the mind because you cannot see the present. Everybody speaks to you of the past. Do you find anyone among your friends and relations who is speaking of the present? Everyone speaks to you of the past; therefore it has become very strong. You will have to seek out the company of those who speak to you of the present moment, then this will also become much stronger and you will shun the company of the past. To get rid of the past keep company with those who are trying to live in, or who have tasted this moment of present, who are speaking about this present life. Satsang means association with those who live in Truth. Here everyone is speaking everyday of this present moment, of peace and love and happiness.

The enemy is very strong: Mind is your enemy. You have to be very strong and tight fisted with your decision not to be lead away by those friends who trouble you. Shun their company, even if they are related to you.

There was a young princess in India, still in her teens. She had great love of freedom but the royal family would not allow her to meditate. They said that it was not the right way to live in a royal palace; that you have to live as queens live. Her mind was very serene and peaceful, and she had no one to turn to for guidance. In the royal palace there was the king and all his relations, but no one who could be a guide for her or a friend.

She heard of someone whose advice she could seek. She wrote a letter and gave it to a runner to get advice. She wrote in the letter:

"My dear father, I do not know which behavior will be better for me. These people threaten me, saying that I have to live in such-and-such a mold to suit the palace. But this behavior doesn't suit me. I want to meditate. I have to win freedom in this life. But these people threaten me and give me trouble. Please advise me what to do."

The reply came back: "Shun everyone, whosoever they may be, maybe near and dear to you — husband, relations, parents, whosoever. Walk out.” That was all he wrote. Then he quoted different stories of a son disobeying their father, a wife disobeying her husband, to find freedom. He gave many examples. The queen walked away from the palace and is still remembered today.

You will have to decide for your own good. You can't please the world. Who has ever pleased the world? If you have won freedom perhaps everyone will be happy with you. We still remember people who lived a life of freedom, even thousands of years ago. We don't remember our relations. We forget even those who have been dead for ten or twenty years. A person who worked for himself and won enlightenment and gave advice to others is still alive.

You have to make up your mind. Nobody can trouble you if you decide for freedom. You have to make a firm decision then nothing can trouble you. If you are weak everybody will trouble you. If you simply keep quiet I don't think any thought can come. Simply decide to sit quiet. This will be a fire — nothing can touch you. Until now it is only that your decision has been weak.

January, 1992

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Open Your Own Book

All you have to do is to still the mind. There are two ways to quiet the mind: One is through inquiry, which is suitable to a very few qualified people; and the other is through yoga, which includes concentration, meditation and other practices.

First you need the capacity to discern the real from the unreal, to embrace what is real and to adhere to it. Reject what is unreal and false. Fascination with study, karma, pilgrimages, or dips in the holy waters will not help you. Learning all the Vedas, all the sutras, like a parrot is not going to help you. No gift, austerity or charity is going to help you.

More important than anything is the burning desire for freedom. This alone is enough. If you have this burning desire you will be led to satsang. Satsang means to stay quiet, to still the mind, to bring it back to the center wherever it goes. If you can't do it by yourself then search for a perfected teacher, but do not make any mistake, you see.

When you go shopping you have free choice about what to buy and you have this same freedom in selecting a teacher. In the supermarket you choose, "I don't want this, I don't want that, this is not good, that is not good." You have freedom of choice, no bargain can be struck. Your human life and enlightenment is on one hand, and wasting your life with someone incompetent to liberate you is on the other.

Someone came to see me saying, "I have gone to many teachers without finding enlightenment, and finally I found that my current master himself is not enlightened. He has initiated me and now he is filling me with all kinds of fear. He says that if you leave the teacher you will have to go to hell. I met someone who told me to come here. I am here to be enlightened. My guru is very loving, he is not withholding anything from me; he teaches me with great love. He has taught me all the scriptures so that I know them by heart, but I am missing freedom. I have found that my mind is not free, it is not quiet. But now I know that I am on the right track and in some way I am here to help my teacher. After enlightenment I will go and enlighten my teacher." I have never heard a student resolving to enlighten his teacher before!

If you are bent upon freedom — determined to win freedom in this span of life, this year, this month, today, now — you will have to make a choice. Anything will surface from the mind to sabotage you. Find the best ways to quiet the mind. The instant that the mind is stilled there is meditation. Meditation has to be perennial, permanent, not just sitting for an hour a day. It does not mean chanting the thought, "I have to be free." It means being centered in the Self, which is alone true; all else is false. There must be a very strong understanding in your mind. It is not difficult once you discover the ability to discern what is real from what is unreal. Pleasures of the senses may try to distract you, religions may promise you pleasures in heaven after life, but you will have to abandon all these things. Abandon studying any book; it does not help you. Now you open your own book for the first time. Open your own book and keep quiet.

February, 1992

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