6. *Stop Seeking, you are already bliss!*

Time and again, ancient rishis and masters have said that man's true nature is bliss. Over the years, so many masters have happened on planet earth. Whether it was Buddha or Christ or Krishna or Mahavir, the core of their message was the same. They all said that man's true nature is bliss and they all gave techniques to connect to that bliss.

Their expressions might have been different, but their message was the same. Of course, again and again people miss the message because they cling on to the master instead of the message. This is the reason for fanaticism, religious wars and other such things that are happening on planet Earth.

Anyhow, all these masters had the same message, that man's core is bliss, and that all of man's effort is in seeking this inner space, this space of bliss within him. But due to social conditioning and distractions, man forgets his purpose and starts seeking this bliss in outer world things - in material things, in names, in forms, in labels given to him by society, in relationships, in careers and what not.

A small story:

An old man went with his family to watch a movie in a theatre.

The movie had just started when the man suddenly started groping about in the darkness on the floor.

His grand-daughter who was sitting next to him got annoyed and asked him what he was doing on the floor.

He said, 'Dear, I have lost my chewing gum. It has fallen out.'

The child got irritated and said, 'Grandpa, it's alright, leave it. We will buy some more chewing gum. Now watch the movie.'

The old man said, 'I want only that chewing gum.'

The child said, 'Grandpa, don't behave like a baby. We will get more chewing gum.'

The old man said, 'But dear, my teeth are in it.'

You see: what we are really seeking is something, but we are seeking it in the name of something else! We seek in the name of so many things. And at the end of it, even after achieving all those things, we feel that something is missing. There is a certain yearning in us. Understand: this yearning is because we are actually searching for bliss, but we search for it in the name of other things. That is why we never feel fulfilled. Our being calls out but we never listen. We ignore our being completely because we are so immersed in the outer world.

Unless we are centered upon our being, we will not experience a totality; we will not experience fulfillment. In our outer world achievements, we might be filled, but not fulfilled. And because we are not fulfilled, the yearning will remain. And we start searching again in the outer world. When we are centered within, we will have fulfillment every minute whatever we may be doing in the outer world, because the fulfillment does not come from what we are doing; it comes from the being, within.

So we need to look deep into what the masters have been saying time and again. There is no use simply seeking without stopping to get one glimpse of the truth in the master's words. Then you will remain a traveler, that's all.

This concept of traveling is like 'trying to pick up a book but not picking it up!' Can there be anything such as trying to pick up a book? You either pick it or not. How can you try to pick it? When you say that you are trying to pick it up, you are cheating yourself! You can't cheat others because they know it is not possible.

It is something like this: people who don't have the capacity to make money, claim that because they are very honest, they are unable to make money. Actually, they don't have the capacity, that is the truth; but they justify it with reasons.

In the same way, when we are unable to take a leap into real spirituality, and at the same time we are not ready to confess that we don't know anything about it, we create our own philosophies and go around saying, 'Short of enlightenment, I know everything about spirituality!' We just keep our ego alive. We use the 'seeker ego' as a buffer between the truth and us.

In the same way as the car has shock absorbers to keep us from getting hurt on the road, the seeker ego keeps us away from reality. It serves as the buffer between the truth and us. In the comfort of this buffer, we happily conclude that we were seekers all our lives!

Whatever I may be telling you these few days, just listen with complete awareness and try to catch the central chord, the composite thread that runs in the whole thing. Then, you will create a space in you for the transformation to happen. Otherwise, you will simply be collecting words and seeking all the time. Unless a transformation happens in you, all words are useless. You have to look with deep awareness, only then transformation is possible.

And be very clear: even if you are thousand people in this hall, I am talking to you. When I say you, I mean Y O U. There is a thread running with each of you; so don't ever apply what I am saying to others; you will simply miss the whole thing yourself.

Generally, when we hear anything about health, we will immediately apply it to ourselves and see where we stand; we will see whether we have any of the symptoms being discussed. If I talk about the skin, you will feel your skin and see; if I talk about the heart, you will feel your heart beat and see. But when we hear anything about spirituality, somehow, we always apply it to others! Our family, our friends, our neighbours, but never to ourselves! The problem is, whatever I say, you think, 'Ah! I know myself well. This message is for my husband. Master is saying this so that my husband can change his ways. I hope he has got the message.'

When I talk about worries, you will immediately think of how much your mother worries. You forget how much you worry! I am telling you because you also worry. Probably your mother worries more than you, but that is not the point.

Understand that every word is for you. It will come like an arrow bringing with it the energy of transformation. Don't dodge it. Just allow it to go in and transform you. Don't keep looking at other people to see if they are showing signs of understanding.

If you have really understood everything, then you should not have any worries or discontentment or pain or fear or lust or jealousy or ego, am I right? But you have all of this in you. That itself shows that you have not internalized completely. First of all, know that yo©u don't know. Then at least you know that you don't know! If you don't even know that you don't know, then you don't even know that you don't know!