108. Conditioning is the culprit

If the purpose of life itself is enlightenment, where are we stuck right now? In what areas of our lives are we moving in the wrong direction? Understand that the problem is in recognizing the correct goal. If the goal is right, you have achieved it. If your goal is right, it means you are already living it.

Sannyas is nothing but creating clarity about the right goal. People miss because they don't have clarity about the goal. Jeevan mukta, a person who lives a liberated life, is a person who has clarity about the goal and pours his consciousness only on that goal every moment of life.

'Conditioning' is the reason that you miss the goal. When you were born, you came as a free bird, Paramahamsa or the supreme swan, to flit and fly blissfully around and enjoy the whole of Existence. But after coming, not only did you fly around, unknowingly you also landed on

A sannyasi moves in synchronicity with the whole of

Existence and learns through it. planet earth. That was the problem. There are many people

waiting to catch such birds that land! Society waits to fit you into the frame of country, religion, caste, community and creed.

You were a sweet soul when you landed on planet earth. You were not a Hindu, or an engineer or a worker. But understand that society wants engineers and workers. It is not bothered about your consciousness. Actually, neither your parents nor society are aware that there is something called consciousness. They themselves don't have that intelligence. They teach you what they were taught. That's all. Their conditioning is not a deliberate attempt to restrict or condition you.

Conditioning is the unwanted dowry that has been handed over for generations and lives, from person to person. First, there is parental conditioning. Then there is societal conditioning. Based on these two, you create certain ethics for yourself. This is the self imposed conditioning, your own dharma, your own path of righteousness.

Because we create so many layers of conditioning, we are unable to see the Truth directly. We are not able to perceive the goal directly. We are not able to live the goal directly. We are caught in the conditioning and forget who we truly are. The conditioning creates certain limitations in us, and we start thinking that the limitations are the real us. Even the clothes that we wear condition us to believe we are the clothes!

Many of the conditionings are created in society in order to peacefully co-exist. For example, for easy communication, many languages are taught. There is nothing wrong in learning a language, but taking it up as a conditioning and making the language your very life, and creating sorrow for yourself and others is wrong. That mental attitude is wrong. So many people have sacrificed their lives for the sake of language. If the conditioning were not there, so many deaths would not have happened! The very history of mankind would have been written differently. Conditioning is the reason for terrorism among human beings. Today, conditioningbased-divisions goes right down to the level of belonging to specific political parties!

Let me tell you, the moment conditioning is sown in you, that moment itself, the noose of Yama or the lord of Death falls on you. Don't think it falls on you only at the time of death. When conditioning reaches its peak, it comes as the final death of the body, that's all. Death is the peak point of conditioning. Those who are caught in conditioning move towards death every minute of their lives. Those who are under the guidance of an enlightened master are the ones who move towards freedom every minute of their lives. One group moves towards Yama, while the other group moves towards Shiva! If the coil of conditioning increases day by day, you are moving towards Yama. If the coil loosens day by day, you are moving towards Shiva. You are freeing yourself more and more from the conditioning.

By taking sannyas, you are taking the first conscious step to drop the past and enter a new world. The past is familiar, so you like to carry it. The mind always likes familiar patterns. Also, society teaches you to carry the past so that it can put guilt and fear in you that are based upon the past incidents. The past is unwanted baggage. Sannyas is disconnecting from the past. When you disconnect from the past and move to a new future, initially, there is utter insecurity. Sannyas is utter insecurity. In utter insecurity, there is nothing else to hold on to you, so you will find god!

Why do you think I give you a spiritual name? I give you a spiritual name to help you more easily disconnect from the past. When somebody calls out your name, immediately your awareness grips you and you respond. This is how deeply your name is embedded in your unconscious. Your name brings immediate awareness into you. If you are sitting in a big classroom, and suddenly the teacher calls out your name, whether you were dozing off or listening to him, you will be jolted from that thought pattern, and come to the present. Do you agree? Your name is that significant in centering you.

The new name that I give you will constantly remind you of the psychological revolution that has happened in you, the new understanding that has happened in you. The name also indicates your individual spiritual path, according to your own innate nature, which will lead to the ultimate flowering of your consciousness.

A sannyasi works for the present moment. He works to give his whole life to Existence and doesn't care about the results. The results take care of themselves. That is his way. He knows only the moment, nothing else. Therefore, he learns directly from Existence every moment. That is why he has no doctrine, no religion. He moves in synchronicity with the whole of Existence and learns through it.

There is a Sufi saying, 'The Sufi is the child of the moment.' In Sufi texts, every moment is called a breath. The Sufis are called 'the folks of the breaths,' because they live in full awareness of every breath, of every instant. According to them, every moment, a new Self arrives. That is the

Sannyas is the joyful awareness that the 'moment' is guiding you closer to your enlightenment.

spirit of sannyas, fresh every moment. A person of the moment learns from the moment. For

him, Existence is his teacher.

When the great Sufi mystic Hasan, was dying, somebody asked, 'Hasan, who was your master?'

He said, 'I had many masters. If I relate their names it will take months or even years, and it is too late now. I am going to die any time. I will tell you about three masters.

The first one was a thief. Once I got lost in a desert, and when I reached a nearby village, it was late and everything was closed. At last I found a man who was trying to make a hole in the wall of a house. I asked him where I could stay and spend the night. He said, 'At this time of night it will be difficult. If you don't mind staying with a thief, you are welcome to stay with me.'

I stayed with this man for one month. Each night he would tell me, 'Now I am going for my work. You take rest and pray for me.' When he came back, I would ask him, 'Did you get anything?' He would say, 'Not tonight. But tomorrow, god willing, I will try again.' He was always happy and hopeful, never in a state of hopelessness!

When I was meditating for many years, and nothing was happening, many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so hopeless, that I thought I should stop all this nonsense. Suddenly I would remember the thief who would say every night, 'God willing, tomorrow it is going to happen'

My second master was a dog. One day, I was going to the river to quench my thirst. A dog came and he was also thirsty. He looked into the river, and saw another dog there, which was his own image. He became afraid. He would bark and run away, but his thirst was so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear, he jumped into the water and his own image disappeared. I realized that the message had come from god to me: one has to jump in spite of the fear.

The third master was a small child. I went to a town where a child was carrying a lit candle. He was going to the mosque to put the candle there.

I asked the boy, 'Have you lit the candle by yourself?' He said, 'Yes.' Then I asked him, 'There was a moment when the candle was unlit, and then there was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?'

The boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, 'Now you have seen the light going. Where has it gone? You tell me!'

My ego was shattered and my whole knowledge was also shattered.

It is true that I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a disciple. I accepted the whole of Existence as my master. I trusted the clouds, the trees. I learned from every possible source.

Sannyas is the joyful awareness that the 'moment' is guiding you closer to your enlightenment. All you have to do is be vulnerable, that's all.

A sannyasi is utterly relaxed in the moment.

A warrior from Japan was captured by his enemies and was kept inside a prison. He feared that the next day he would be tortured, questioned and executed. He was not able to sleep at all.

Suddenly he remembered his Zen master's words, 'Tomorrow is not real. It is an illusion. The only reality is now.' Remembering these words, the warrior became calm, peaceful and fell asleep.

Tomorrow also comes in the form of today. So why not focus on just today? When you are in the moment, there is no space for pain or suffering. Only

You are in love with everything and everyone for no reason at all. That is sannyas.

when you live in the past or future, you create the space for suffering. When you live in the moment, you automatically create a space where everything is beautiful. Life itself becomes a romance with Existence! You resonate with the whole thing. You are in love with everything and everyone for no reason at all. That is sannyas. Then, you don't amass. You don't fear. You don't worry. Things happen around you like a beautiful dream.

A sannyasi is an eternal wanderer in spirit. Even if he is in one place, his spirit wanders without any pattern, touching so many things far away. He doesn't care to accumulate anything. He gives away whatever comes his way. He receives much more than he needs. He lives like a king.

A small story:

There was a rich man who owned a cellar with lots of wine flowing in it.

He had one jug of special wine that he guarded, unopened.

Once, the Governor of the State visited him. He said to himself, 'This wine is too special for him. I will open some other bottle.' After some time, members of the royal family visited him. He thought, 'I don't think even these people deserve this wine. I shall keep it for more special persons.' He served ordinary wine.

Then there was a family wedding, and he would not serve the wine, even to his near and dear ones. Finally one day he died and the wine was brought out along with the other jugs and served to the peasants of the neighborhood. No one knew that it was special.

When you don't hoard, you flow. Life is designed to flow. Sannyas is flowing with the awareness that Existence is the current pulling it along. This very attitude will attract the benevolence of Existence.