87. Silence is the space of unlearning and learning

Paramahamsa Yogananda* says, 'Daytime is the devil's playground.' In daytime, we continuously feed our mind with words. Actually if you observe, words come in the way of learning. For example, now you are sitting in front of me. Many of you don't understand what I am saying because I am talking a foreign language to you. You feel sad. But you are the most fortunate in the group! It is not possible to learn from me through words. I talk only to make you silent. If I don't talk, you start talking inside you. So I talk. But you can learn a lot from me only through silence. In silence there is innocence. In words there is intellect. Intellect can never receive the truth, only innocence can.

Just sit here with innocence, that is enough. Then you will receive the ultimate understanding. It is in the gaps between my words that the real teaching lies. The master is sheer poetry, the poetry of Existence. His expression is an overflowing of Existence. The master speaks because you want to hear. As he speaks there is a beautiful silence, which is his undercurrent. If you are open you can feel it touching you. Silence bridges the gap that words

Paramahamsa Yogananda - An enlightened master from India well known for his book 'Autobiography of a Yogi'.

create. Silence is the space of transformation into fresh learning. In silence you are open and in those moments I can transform you easily. With the transformation, you regain your complete innocence.

Communication is between two heads. With communication you can easily misinterpret me. However, communion is between two hearts. It is between two beings. With communication you work with your intellectual defenses. With communion you receive the direct initiation into the experience. With communion you fulfill the longing that you have for something beyond words. I have exactly that with me. That is what you need to take.

The whole process of meditation is to start communing and find the silence within you. The inner silence can never be touched by thought or experience. Inner silence is the innocence that you seek. That is why people crave to sit by themselves in the Himalayas or in the forest. They hope to find the inner silence through the outer silence. When it happens you start communing with the whole of Existence. Anything that happens from this silence will always be in conformance with Existence.

One disciple visited a Zen master in China.

The master asked him, 'What do you seek?' The whole process of meditation is to start communing and find the silence within you.

The disciple replied, 'Enlightenment.'

The master said, 'You have your own treasure house. Why do you search outside?'

The disciple inquired, 'Where is my treasure house?'

The master replied, 'What you are asking is your treasure house.'

The disciple got enlightened that very moment.

The inner silence is the treasure zone. Finding that for you is the work of the master. So next time, don't feel sad when you cannot understand what I am saying. Remain innocent and merge with the silence in the words. The unlearning and learning will then happen as they should. In that silence, there is no greed of heaven or fear of hell or jealousy of the other or want of love, or any worry. There is only resonance with innocence, with the master. The direct transmission then happens.

Grasp with Innocence

Innocence is a delicate fragrance, while knowledge is a strong filter. That is the difference. The fragrance of innocence draws the whole world to you. The filter of knowledge prevents many things from coming to you. When you are caught in knowledge you are in a great hurry all the time, because there is too much knowledge to gather.

When you are with innocence you simply enjoy the moment. If you watch innocent people, they will never appear to be with any great purpose. They will simply revel in the moment with a totality, with simplicity. Innocence grasps the moment while knowledge misses it. Knowledge knows only purpose while innocence knows the beauty of purposelessness.

If you set aside your knowledge, you are ready to grasp the moment and the Truth. The present holds the truth in it. The problem is that today education teaches only knowledge and how to be clever. It doesn't educate on innocence. Where in the universities do they teach innocence?

A small story:

A young boy walked into a fish market and asked for six trout.

The fishmonger enthusiastically started selecting the trout. He was about to wrap them when the boy said, 'Please don't wrap them up yet. Can you just throw each of them to me and I will catch them one by one before you wrap them up?'

The fishmonger said, 'Of course I will, but what for?'

The boy replied, 'That way, I can at least say when I get home that I caught six trout.'

There is such a pressure to be clever today. Children lose their innocence to the conditioning that they receive in the name of 'how to be clever'. Over time, like this small boy, even innocence is used only to make up for cleverness!

A father introduced his son proudly to his colleagues at office for the first time.

All his colleagues were standing around the boy and the father said, 'Son, why don't you tell them how old you are?'

The child promptly said, 'When I am at home I am seven. But when I am on a bus, I am five.'

This is how children are trained today. They are trained to see utility in everything. Education evaluates you by your own utility. But you are not your utility. You are your being. The being can never be evaluated. Only the mind can be, and mind itself is a myth! Society creates a myth, which is your mind, and holds it as the yardstick to evaluate you. That is the reason why knowledge is so popular today.

• A small story: Four friends lived in a town. They spent a lot of time together. Three of them were very learned. The fourth was not as learned but he was wise.

One day, they decided to travel to other lands to exhibit their learning to men and earn money.

The fourth friend had nothing to boast of, but expressed his wish to accompany them.

The first friend said, 'You don't know much. If you accompany us, we will have to unnecessarily share our money with you.'

The second friend said, 'Yes, that is true. It is better you stay back.'

The third friend was more kind. He said, 'We grew up together all these years. It is not right to tell him to stay back. He should come along.'

So the four of them started their journey.

They passed through a dense forest. They saw many wild animals and experienced many exciting moments. Suddenly one day, they came across a heap of animal bones.

One of them said, 'I think this is a wonderful way to put our knowledge to test. Let us bring this animal back to life.'

The two other friends agreed, but the fourth one said, 'I feel these are the bones of a very big animal, so we

	Society creates a
	myth, your
should not attempt to	mind, the
do such	yardstick to
things.'	evaluate you.

The other

three laughed at him and called him a coward. They said, 'If you had knowledge like we do, you will not feel so afraid of these things. Keep quiet and watch us.'

The three proceeded with the experiment.

One of them arranged the bones in a way that it looked like a proper animal. Then he chanted some verses, sprinkled holy water on it and the bones suddenly took the shape of a skeleton. They were amazed by the power of their knowledge.

The second one came forward, chanted a few more verses and sprinkled more water on it. The skeleton suddenly got covered with muscles, flesh, blood and a coat of fur. It was a lion and lacked only life.

The friends were amazed at themselves.

The third friend came forward and said he would infuse life into it.

The fourth friend gave another warning but they laughed at him. He then slowly climbed up a tree and sat there watching.

The third friend waved life into the lion's body and the lion came to life.

With one roar, the lion advanced towards the three of them. They looked up to see where the fourth friend was. He was perched up on the tree watching the whole scene.

The lion made short work of them.

Knowledge is a tool. It doesn't directly lead to intelligence. It is just a tool. As long as we use it as a powerful tool where needed, it is good. It can do amazing things. The mistake we do is giving our whole lives to the hands of knowledge. On the other hand, innocence leads directly to pure intelligence.

Another small story:

There was a banyan tree in a small village that was giving cool shade. Under the tree there was a cow and a tired dog. There was also an old man with a long beard leaning his back on its trunk, his legs spread out in front of him.

The tree was in the frontier between two kingdoms.

A traveler was passing that way to cross from one kingdom to the other. He saw the old man and commented, 'Good disguise you are sporting. It doesn't work. I too sported a similar disguise when I stole a gold chain a few days back. A guard searched me and found the chain. He beat me up as well. Let us see how you are able to get away with your disguise.'

Next came a man on horseback. He was a spy who was about to enter the kingdom. He stopped upon seeing the old man and thought to himself, 'Who knows with what motive this man is lying here? He could as well be a spy like me.' He hurried away as he had no time to lose with his job as a spy.

One hour later, another man staggered towards the old man. He was drunk. He laughed at the old man and loudly asked, 'How much did you gulp down old man? Look at me. I have gulped an entire pot and I am still so steady although at times I feel my head is a little heavy.' Saying that, he went away.

Soon it was nighttime and the whole place became very calm.

A fourth man passed by that way and came across the old man. He looked at him for one long moment and went near him and bowed down. He spoke, 'How lucky I am. I have the good fortune of seeing you.' He then took a large leaf and fanned the old man to drive away the ants and other insects that were crawling up his body.

The old hermit opened his eyes from his trance and saw the man fanning him and smiled.

The young man asked, 'Oh great soul, I would be most blessed if you accept my invitation to spend the night at my house which is nearby here.'

The hermit said, 'If that is god's will, so be it,' and followed the man to his house.

Innocence grasps dimensions that cleverness misses. Innocence may miss the facts but it catches the Truths. Cleverness is too busy with facts. When cleverness combines with innocence, it becomes a rare combination of intelligence and innocence. Setting aside knowledge for the sake of innocence is intelligence. I don't mean that you have to stop gathering knowledge. Just understand that knowledge cannot substitute innocence.

If you observe villagers who are not educated you will see that they exhibit pure intelligence! That is why you will find that when you are stuck, a villager effortlessly pitches in and helps you out! Innocent intelligence has that capacity.

Compre-hending complex things is not a difficult thing. You have to work your mind a little more, that's all! You only need to see in a more divisive way, in a more analytical way. For example, a person may not find it very difficult to understand Innocence grasps dimensions that cleverness misses. Innocence may miss facts but it catches the Truth.

aeronautics, but what about understanding the simple Zen koans* ? Zen koans* are simple teachings of Zen Buddhism. They are not concerned with where you are or what you do but with what makes you. They are meant to cause an awakening at the being level. They are concerned only with that, nothing else. They are not caught in giving ideas. They directly give the solution for the being. But they are difficult to grasp because they are too simple and straightforward!

Today all universities work on sharpening the intellectual faculty of the individual. They teach us how to make ourselves more useful to society and how to be productive or effective. There is nothing wrong in being productive and effective, but in the process we forget how to be innocent and receptive. We forget how to open up to the cosmos, to Existence. We forget how to move in synchronicity with the cosmos, how to make productivity happen in tune with the cosmic plan, which is the source of all productivity. This happens because we are caught in 'doing' and 'having', we forget the 'being'.

Koans - Riddles given as techniques in Zen to aid Self Realization.

There are three important states: being, doing and having. Right now, we move from doing to having. We continuously 'do' things. We learn and we put the learning into useful action. We then 'have' what we want: money, relationships, comfort, and what not. Then we want to have better things or have more things and so we continue doing. We are all the time between doing and having. In the process, the being is forgotten. Our real restfulness lies only in the state of being. Because of this, however much we do and have, we still search for restfulness. This feeling is the 'call of the being'.

If we nurture the being and cause the doing to happen from the quality of the being, then we don't have to work so much for the having. That will simply happen as a byproduct. This is the secret of Existence. But this is not seen as a direct utility to society by the universities. That is the problem. But this is what gives the real utility of every individual, not only to society but to the whole of the cosmos. We should always be concerned about the Whole.

In the ancient Indian universities like Takshila* and Nalanda* , the preparation of the students was always at the being level. Outer world learning happened as a natural consequence. India has always focused on nurturing the innocence of the being because only that will lead to strength of the being. When there is strength of the being, anything can be achieved.

Paramahamsa Yogananda * beautifully describes the intent of spiritual learning. He says, there are trillions of cells in the body. Every cell is like an intelligent being. Every cell has the DNA* substance in it which has the information and intelligence to grow a whole new body and brain. This dormant intelligence needs to be awakened so that the mind doesn't move towards suffering and remains in bliss.

He goes on to say that spiritual education magnetizes the cells by sending life current around the brain and spine, ensuring evolutionary advancement of the individual. With this divine magnetism, every cell becomes a brain alive and ready to grasp every bit of knowledge. With these awakened brains, the mental capacity

Takshila - A center of learning mentioned in the Hindu epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, now a world UN heritage site in North eastern Pakistan.

Nalanda - A great Buddhist center of learning in modern day Bihar, India comprising a university and library. Paramahamsa Yogananda - An enlightened master from India well known for his book 'Autobiography of a Yogi'.

DNA - Deoxyribonucleic acid, the building block of all living beings containing the genetic code.

of the individual multiplies multifold and all sorts of knowledge will be effortlessly comprehended! Such is the impact of spiritual learning.

Alexander, the emperor of Greece, had conquered three fourths of the world and traveled downward to Asia to conquer it. He settled down in the banks of the river Sindhu to conquer India.

On the banks of the same river lived a hermit.

As Alexander and his army passed by, the hermit was meditating and did not stand up to salute him.

Alexander felt humiliated and shouted at him, 'How dare you do not salute me!' And he took out his sword to chop his head off.

The hermit looked at him and laughed.

Alexander was shocked. 'I am going to kill you and you are laughing!' He asked.

The hermit said, 'I am wondering what you are trying to kill! I can never be killed. I am immortal, eternal and imperishable. Weapons cannot cut, fire cannot burn, water cannot wet, wind cannot dry up this soul.' He quoted from the Bhagavad Gita.

Alexander dropped the sword and saluted the hermit saying, 'India has such great people who are fearless about death. I offer my salutations to this great country.' He retreated from the Indian soil a wiser man.

The teachings of olden day universities created the possibility for supreme knowledge and confidence to flower in individuals, at the same time preserving their innocence. Then every student acquired the quality of a sage. A sage has the vast knowledge of the outer world and the utter innocence of the inner world.

Buddha beautifully teaches in the Dhammapada* :

Even the gods envy the saints,

whose senses obey them like well-trained horses

and who are free from pride.

Patient like the earth, they stand like the threshold.

They are pure like a lake without mud,

and free from the cycle of birth and death.

The sage is qualified to do anything in the outer world.

In the ancient gurukul* system of education, learning happened in a completely different plane. Creative

Gurukul - Vedic educational institution.

Dhammapada - Teachings of Buddha in scriptural form.

intelligence stemmed from deep consciousness. Straightaway, the being was addressed and the doing and having had a different essence altogether.

A small story:

A young boy was considered to be very dull and his father one day took him to the Sanskrit school where all the boys of the village learnt their lessons.

He met the teacher and said, 'My son is not a bright student. Will you allow him to sit in the back row of the class so that he is in the atmosphere presided over by goddess Saraswati ? I know you are kind and compassionate. Please guide him. He will be lucky if he learns anything.'*

The teacher readily agreed.

The young boy joined the school. He would be present every day before any of the other boys came in, dust, sweep and mop the room, and set up the teacher's wooden table and chair and sit down in a corner to listen to the class most attentively.

No one expected him to gain anything out of the classes.

One day he humbly asked the teacher, 'Sir, what about the guidance you were supposed to give me? When will I receive it?'

The teacher said, 'Right now! Here it is: Aham Brahmasmi (I am That). Recite this audibly or silently, but continuously.'

With determination and inspiration the young boy learnt the phrase without even bothering to ask the meaning of it. Neither did the teacher bother to tell him the meaning. He did not feel the necessity to do so.

'Aham Brahmasmi,' the boy went on repeating at home.

His father asked him, 'Do you know the meaning of those words?'

The boy's eyes bulged out. 'Meaning?' he asked. It never struck him that the words might have a meaning.

The father told him, 'The words mean, I am That.'

The boy went to his uncle's house the next day and continued reciting, 'Aham Brahmasmi, which means Father is Brahman .'*

The uncle heard this and said, 'It doesn't mean that! It means: I am Brahman .'*

Saraswati - Hindu goddess of learning.

Brahman - Absolute, Cosmic Consciousness, formless god etc all referring to the universal energy source of which the individual energy of soul is a holographic part.

The boy was surprised but kept quiet. On the way back home he was reciting, 'Aham Brahmasmi, which means uncle is Brahman.'

The village priest passed by him and heard him reciting. He stopped him and said, 'Son, it does not mean that uncle is Brahman, it means I am Brahman.'

The boy was amazed. 'How can just two words mean so many things, father, uncle and the village priest are all Brahman!'

His head was reeling and he sat down on a nearby slab of stone. He started reciting with the spirit of asking the words themselves what they really meant.

The sun went down and darkness came. The stars and moon started shining. The boy went on reciting Aham Brahmasmi to find out its real meaning.

At dawn, the ultimate knowledge dawned on him that he too was Brahman! Not just his father, uncle and village chief, but he too, and everybody else was Brahman.

He became a realized soul.

Understand, the moment the boy understood he was ignorant, an alchemy process was triggered in his system. When you don't know that you don't know, it is ignorance. When you know that you don't know, it is innocence. Then the knowing can start Knowledge that is not yet experienced is not your own. It is borrowed.

happening. But in the knowing, the feeling of knowledge is to be checked. Knowing is different from knowledge. Knowing is innocence. It is an understanding that has become your own experience. Knowledge that is not yet experienced is not your own. It is borrowed. It is just a collection of words in the head.

A person may go on and on reading something here and there, and entertain himself. If his intention is just reading books it can be good entertainment, but not enlightenment. Entertainment is different from enlightenment. Just because he has been entertained by some good books, it doesn't mean that he is enlightened. Understand, the books which help you sharpen your logic give you the feeling that you know. There starts the problem.

Work so that everything becomes a deep expe-rience in you. You will then be a simple person. Simplicity is weightless. It will never weigh you down and hinder further learning. It will just aid in the flowering of innocence, that's all.

What innocence grasps one may not even be able to express, because it is an understanding beyond words. But it can be

Vulnerability is allowing everything to touch your being. It is not weakness.

seen in the eyes. The eyes are the windows of the soul. That

is why when you see the eyes of sages you will see an oceanic look in them. They will radiate something that cannot be framed. To try to describe it would be like trying to scratch the foot from the outer side of the shoe.

One cannot blame modernization for loss of innocence. Lord Krishna says, 'I am Time.' When Krishna says that, you need to understand that modernization is also the divine play of Existence. Man should understand modernization in the right light and not take it as a replacement to the ancient foundation of growing.

Be vulnerable

When you are innocent, you are vulnerable to everything that Existence wants to teach you! If you are closed, you create a wall around you. The wall neither allows fresh breeze to touch your being nor does it allow you to step out and touch the cool breeze. Vulnerability is breaking the wall and inviting the cool breeze to touch your very being every time it blows.

Vulnerability is allowing everything to touch your being. The entire cosmos comes to you when you are vulnerable.

Vulnerability is not weakness. The wall when broken will not cause you danger. The wall itself was built out of a deep fear of exposing your reality. Your reality is your vulnerability and you are so afraid of opening it to the cosmos. You know deep down that if you let go and open up, you will simply be swept away in innocence. So you close yourself up. But it is suffocating to be in there because it is the same air that is circulating. You experience the same patterns that the mind knows. Then of what use is the wall? When the wall is broken, you will realize that nothing leaves you. Instead, you only gain one thing, freshness of life.

Two astrologers met on the road on a beautiful autumn day. One of them commented, 'Beautiful autumn. It is something we have never seen earlier.'

The other replied, 'True. I am reminded of the autumn of 2070.'

When you are vulnerable, you experience everything at the being level. Otherwise, it becomes an experience through the head. The being is poetry, the head is prose. And poetry is life.

One night a wife found her husband standing over their baby's crib.

As he stood looking down upon the baby in the cradle, she saw his face assuming a mixture of emotions of

disbelief, awe, skepticism, doubt, amazement and what not.

She slowly went up to him, put her arm around him and said, 'A penny for your thoughts.'

The husband replied, 'It's amazing. I can't imagine how anyone can make a crib like that for just 45 dollars!'

With the head you cannot be vulnerable! When you are not vulnerable, you are sitting behind the great wall of your house. Life has not yet started. Life happens with vulnerability.

With vulnerability you move towards the truth in a different path, in a joyful path because every moment you are receiving directly from Existence. Existence is able to give you because you are vulnerable and ready to receive it! Existence has its own ethics. Enlightened masters have their own ethics. When there is vulnerability, they can simply shower on you. When there is a wall, it becomes difficult. Their ethics does not permit them to penetrate. So they wait for the wall to break.

When you become vulnerable, you are saying a 'yes' to Existence. Existence is the greatest mystery and the eternal teacher. When you say yes to it, your energy starts moving in a new direction. It moves from the head to the heart and you start receiving the teachings for your very being. Whatever you said 'no' to earlier will start becoming a 'yes'. Then you will see that the world is very different from what you thought.

Once you start saying yes, you start expressing love, which is the language of the heart. Love can never be known through logic. It can be known by saying 'yes' to the other, by welcoming the other, not for any utility but for the sake of love. It can be known through a deep trust on the other. When you are vulnerable, you have great trust on the other.

People ask me how to 'be' in my presence. Just be completely vulnerable and innocent. With openness, you can receive the truth directly in your being. The master is a pure expression of Existence. By allowing him, you are allowing Existence to enter into you. When Existence enters it leaves an impression of the truth in your being. With every darshan or touch from the master, the impression becomes deeper. This impression is greater than any teaching he can impart to you.

Buddha's disciple once asked him, 'Master, you have not as yet answered our questions about whether the world is eternal or not, whether it is finite or infinite, whether the soul and body are the same or different.'

Buddha looked at him and asked, 'Did I make any promise that I would be answering these questions?'

The disciple said no.

Then Buddha asked him, 'Suppose there is a man with an arrow in his chest, and when you are about to remove it for him, he says to wait saying unless he knows the caste of the man who shot the arrow, his height, weight, his family background, where he comes from, and what wood he made the bow out of, he will not allow you to remove the arrow, what would you think of him?'

The disciple said with a shameful face, 'He would be a fool, master. His questions have nothing to do with the arrow and he would die before the answers were revealed.'

Buddha said, 'You are right. In the same way, I do not teach about whether the world is eternal or not, whether it is finite or infinite, whether the soul and body are the same or different. I teach straightaway to remove the arrow because the arrow is the root of your suffering, which is ignorance.'

Understand, a master can't teach you spirituality, but you can learn by being open and trusting towards him. Spirituality has nothing to do with words. It is an experience. You need to imbibe it by watching the master's body language, by smelling the enlightenment that radiates from him. You can catch it if you are aware. If you are impatient with questions, the very questions prevent you from catching the truth. If you are patient and you catch the smell of enlightenment, the questions will dissolve. Then even before questions arise, the answers will happen in you. That is the great experience of being around a master. That is why masters take a body and come down from time to time, with the hope that a handful of disciples will catch the smell of enlightenment and awaken.

When you are vulnerable, you are open in your entire response system. You give space for the intelligence of the cosmos to act through you.

A small story:

On the banks of a river there lived a sage in a small plot of land owned by a farmer. The village chief did not like the sage and wanted to buy the piece of land. The farmer would not let go of it.

The village chief was ready to pay any amount of money.

The farmer told him, 'If I sold the land to you, you will drive the sage away once it become yours.'

The village chief angrily said, 'Why do you call him a saint? Just because he is wearing an orange robe? He must be as ordinary as you and I.'

The farmer said, 'No Sir, I have seen many signs of a sage in him. For example, I have never seen him getting angry.'

The village chief said, 'How can you conclude like that? He has probably not had a chance to exhibit his anger, that's all. Tomorrow come by his hut and I will show you how angry he can get.'

The next day morning the farmer went near the sage's hut and watched.

A boy apparently sent by the village chief approached the sage. The sage was writing something on a palm leaf with his head bent.

The boy went behind him and spat on him.

The sage looked back, saw that it was the boy who did it, got up and took a dip in the river and came back and sat.

The boy spat again on him. The sage went and had a dip again and came and sat.

The farmer could not bear to see what was happening. The village chief was standing behind a tree and watching as well. He was surprised at the sage's calmness.

Every time the sage returned from the dip, the boy spat on him. Every time the sage smiled at him, got up and went and dipped.

The boy had spat on the sage a hundred and seven When you are vulnerable, you are open in your entire response system.

times. By now, the boy's face was losing its color. He could not bear it anymore. He fell at the sage's feet and cried, 'Please forgive me. I have sinned. I harassed you in this manner only because I was paid to do so. I am afraid that you might curse me now!'

The sage calmly asked him, 'So you will not spit on me again?'

The boy replied, 'I would rather die than spit again.'

The sage lifted him up and said, 'Let me tell you a secret. I should actually thank you for this because many years ago I had taken a vow that I would dip hundred and eight times in this sacred river. Today that has been fulfilled. I have to dip one more time to complete the vow. This time I will pray for you.'

The sage dipped one more time and when he came out, the village chief was at his feet begging for forgiveness. He said, 'I am the real sinner. I paid the boy to do this. I wanted to prove that you would get angry.'

The sage laughed and said, 'Had the boy told me his real mission, I would have got angry quickly and made him

receive his reward!' To just express with vulnerability is to just be.

The village chief became a disciple of the sage.

The sage's response was neither for nor against. He simply remained open. Automatically the forces of the cosmos came together and fulfilled an old vow through the incident. I am not saying that you should allow someone to spit on you! Understand the importance of being open in your response. When you are open, you create tremendous space for the best to happen to you at that moment. Soon, you can reprogram your entire response system and thereby the very course of your life.

Zen teachers train their young pupils to express themselves and leave it at that. One child from a particular Zen temple would meet the child from another Zen temple every morning on his way to buy vegetables.

One day, the first one asked the other, 'Where are you going?'

'I am going wherever my feet go,' responded the other.

This reply puzzled the first one who went to his teacher for help.

The teacher told him, 'Tomorrow morning, when you meet that fellow, ask him the same question. He will give you the same answer. Then you ask him, 'Suppose you have no feet, then where are you going?' That will fix him.'

The child met the other the next day morning. He asked, 'Where are you going?'

The other one replied, 'I am going wherever the wind blows.'

The first one was baffled and went to his teacher again.

The teacher said, 'Tomorrow, you ask him where he will go if there is no wind.'

The next day the child met the other one on the road and asked, 'Where are you going?'

The second one replied, 'I am going to the market to buy vegetables.'

To just express with vulnerability is to be free like a bird, not worried about any past or future, to just be. That is what Zen masters taught their disciples.

Surrender with trust

Immense trust leads to surrender. Surrender is simplicity of the heart. It is the knowing that you do not have to decide about the Truth, that you just have to go by it. When you awaken to the powerful presence of the Truth, surrender happens. If you observe your pet dog, you will find that even if you cheat him once in a while, he will come back to you with utmost trust. His trust is absolute and innocent. The trust comes with no reason. He has no questions, so no answers need to be given. He sees no utility in anything. He just exists like an open book, that's all.

Two gold fish were in a water tank. One asked the other, 'Do you trust in god?'

The other replied, 'But of course. Who do you think changes our water everyday?'

It is only innocence that is capable of taking the leap into trust and surrender. Knowledge somehow sees utility in everything. It looks for reason in everything. Surrender and reason are mutually exclusive. Surrender is to do with trust. Surrender is possible only out of innocence, because out of innocence arises trust.

With trust arises acceptance as well. Acceptance does not mean compromising to life, situations and persons. No. It means welcoming life and all its forms as a wonderful gift from Existence. Each person or situation is a fresh happening. Accepting it at a deep level is surrender. People and situations have to be handled with the required tact. But the spontaneous and deep acceptance of the moment is surrender.

Acceptance is the deep humility towards the profound Existence that takes care of everything including you. It is again saying 'yes' to Existence. When you say yes, you are acknowledging the presence of the allpervading life force that is conducting this universe. That is surrender.

Out of surrender arises deep relaxation. Out of surrender arises a fresh intelligence that knows on a different plane. On this plane, there is no worry of result, there is only action driven by pure energy. And energy is intelligence. Trust does not mean inaction. It means continuing to be in action with intelligence instead of intellect. It is having trust in thought, and intelligence in action.

A disciple came riding on his camel to the tent of a Sufi master. He dismounted from the camel, walked into the master's tent, bowed down low and said, 'Master, so great is my trust in god that I have left my camel outside untied, convinced that god protects the interests of those who love him.'

The master shouted, 'Go tie your camel you fool! God cannot be bothered doing for you what you are perfectly capable of doing yourself!'

Trust is an attitude. It is not a substitute for appropriate action. The spirit of trust is the essence of the very life. It leads to innocence, surrender, relaxation and bliss.

Trust is an attitude. It leads to innocence, surrender, relaxation and bliss.

If it is followed out of complete understanding, there is nothing to lose in its

path. Until then, you are still on the path to trust.

All great enlightened beings are eternally blissful because they have surrendered their very body to Existence with trust. Existence flows through them like air flowing through hollow bamboo creating music. That is why they are so beautiful. When Existence flows through, the expression is divine. Enlightened master's grace is the grace of the whole of Existence. They are the only utterly innocent beings on planet earth.

Enlightened masters are established in the knowing that nothing is impossible in the space of Existence. They are living embodiments of trust. Their bliss is an expression of this. They have access to all the knowledge of the world but are yet utterly innocent. They know that their knowledge is the knowledge of Existence. Their knowledge is not knowledge but a flowing experience of the truth of the moment.

We too have knowledge. But the problem is that we think our knowledge is the only right knowledge and all other knowledge is wrong. Understand, the ultimate knowledge is the same for everyone. Anything in between is just a bunch of borrowed ideas. If this is known clearly, surrender will happen and we will drop the burden of knowledge and become innocent.

How to start knowing that we don't know? Mere clarity that we don't know is enough. Just meditate on Existence, the source of all knowledge. Be in a prayerful and surrendering mood to it all the time. Be firm in surrendering to the knowledge of Existence. You will see that miracles start happening around you.

There is a story about Hanuman , the monkey god in Hindu mythology who was a devout disciple of lord Rama* .*

Hanuman was once asked what day of the lunar month it was.*

He replied, 'I don't know anything about the day of the month or the positions of the stars. I think of Rama alone.'*

When you are established in the wonder of the Truth, you become so innocent, that your very life becomes meditative and

Hanuman - The monkey god revered by Hindus and a disciple of Rama.

Rama - Prince of the kingdom of Ayodhya in the Hindu epic Ramayana.

miraculous. It was Hanuman* who crossed the ocean from India to Sri Lanka with just one leap by chanting the name of Rama* . Rama himself had to build a bridge to cross over with his army! Such is the power of innocent surrender to Existence and all its forms.

When one is established in surrender to the Divine, miracles happen every moment. People are always in search of miracles. The biggest miracles happen with surrender. There is a wonderful story from the life of Shirdi Sai Baba * , a great enlightened master from India.

In the mosque, Shirdi Baba * used to light the lamps everyday. He used to light them symbolically for the destruction of the darkness of ignorance in humanity. But people would think that he loved lighting the lamps.

Baba used to get the oil from the oil merchants. After some time, the oil merchants decided that they would not part with the oil free of cost. They all got together and decided not to give Baba oil any more.

Baba though aware of this decision, pretended not to know about it and went

the following day to get the oil. The merchants refused to give him oil.

Baba returned to the mosque smiling.

The villagers and the oil merchants however got curious as to how he would light the lamps. They gathered around him.

Baba filled the lamps with water and lit the wicks. They burnt with more brightness than usual emitting radiance of a different plane!

The oil merchants were amazed and shocked. They begged for forgiveness, and of course Baba forgave them.

Surrender is allowing Existence to happen through you. Enlightened beings enjoy the play of Existence through them. They enjoy it with the utter innocence and awe of a child. That is why they are so delightful to watch.

One more thing: when you are trusting and surrendering, it becomes difficult to cheat you. Innocent trust always protects from deceit. It radiates that kind of energy. In our ashram, people from all walks of life come together to live. Once they enter the ashram they develop a sense of deep trust. The very decision to take the jump from

Hanuman - The monkey god revered by Hindus and a disciple of Rama.

Rama - Prince of the kingdom of Ayodhya in the Hindu epic Ramayana.

Shirdi Sai Baba - An enlightened master worshipped by Hindus and Muslims alike. Lived in Shirdi near Nasik, India.

the material world to the spiritual world as an ashramite* comes from trust. Further, when they enter the ashram and start living, sharing their things with other seekers, there is such trust that no one cares to keep anything under lock and key! The room may be filled with strangers but still there is no thought to keep one's possessions locked. Nothing gets lost. Even if something cannot be found, the very attitude is such that it doesn't matter to them! That is the beauty of it.

There was a great Sufi Saint by name Habib Ajami. He went to bathe in the river one day leaving his coat on the bank of the river unattended. One man passed by at that time and saw the coat. Thinking someone had left it there carelessly and it had to be protected, he decided to stand guard over it till the owner came by.

Habib came back looking for his coat. The man asked him, 'In whose care did you leave the coat when you went to bathe?' It might as well been stolen!'

Habib replied, 'I left it in the care of Him who gave you the task of guarding over it!'

When trust happens with the utmost understanding, nothing can be lost. In the quality of trust is its true essence. I always tell my disciples about the monks I have seen in the Himalayas during my spiritual wandering days. The monks come to the Himalayas to meditate leaving everything behind. But there they fight for their small water pots! Just the object of possessiveness changes, that's all! When you trust, all material possessions will seem like they belong to Existence. The very attitude of possessing then drops. That relaxes the mind. That is the space for relaxing.

In the year 2004, we went as a small group to the Himalayas. In a lifetime at least once you should visit the Himalayas. We went to Gomukh* , which is the source of the sacred river Ganga. The trek is on mule back taking almost five hours up and five hours down. The path is just four feet wide. If you miss your footing you will go into the gushing Ganga river beneath! Once we reached Gomukh* we spent some time there, and the group returned while I stayed back with a few disciples. The group that returned started at dusk. I told them not to worry and that Existence will take care. Through pitch darkness, not knowing if the mule was taking the bend of the mountain or going straight ahead into the darkness, the entire group made its way

Ashramite - Resident of ashram.

Gomukh - Source of sacred river Ganga in India.

back. The next day, I asked them how the experience was. One of them said, 'Swamiji, we experienced what blind trust means!' If those trusting moments could be extended, they can be the very essence of your life. Then, you can simply do, leaving the result to Existence.

Just seeing the Himalayan mountains can help trust and surrender take root in you. The mountains straightway tell you that Existence is mightier than the intellect! They tell you that intellect cannot fathom their majesty. When this truth happens, the struggle ceases. The mind stops. If you wander in the Himalayas for some time you can experience that bliss is not a goal at all but the path itself. You realize that bliss is in the moment and not in any goal. When you come to the present moment you are open and innocent because there is no mind in the present. For the mind to exist there has to be movement towards the past or the future. In the present moment, there is no past or future. It is just there, that's all.

To be trusting and surrendering is like losing the 'I' and the 'mine'. Ego starts with 'mine' and then moves to 'I'. Even before the identity of 'I' sets in, the 'mine' comes into play. If you notice a small child, even before the 'I' takes root in him, he will fight for 'mine'. Just try pulling a toy from his hand. He will resist! It is his, you cannot take it away. Even before he talks 'I', he will talk 'mine'. Surrender is nothing but merging with Existence, with no

The mind is a direct conflict to the being. The being always concurs with Existence.

identity of 'I' or 'mine'.

Surrender is death of the mind, death of ego. Ego is nothing but feeling yourself to be a separate entity from Existence. This feeling happens as a result of a strong 'I' and 'mine'.

The mind is a direct conflict to the being. The being always concurs with Existence. The mind invariably comes in the way. The being knows. The mind doubts. The being always says yes. The mind mostly says no. The being is innocent but the mind is cunning. Saying yes is like death for the mind. So it continues to say no. With persuasion it says yes. If left to itself, it says no.

Now you will ask, 'How to silence the mind?' You cannot silence the mind through the mind. It is like expecting the suspect to surrender! It will never happen. You just need to understand that the mind is not a reality. It is a just a myth. You are holding on to something unreal and trying to silence it. If you bring awareness to this process that is going on within you, you will be able to see where the mind is saying no. Then you will be able to put it to rest

Unless innocence happens intimacy cannot happen. Only the being knows it.

so that the yes of the being is heard. Awareness is the key to

anything. Just bring in awareness. The resistance of the mind will then drop. You will then relax into the being. Innocence starts expressing from there.

Unless innocence happens intimacy cannot happen. Intimacy is the language of Existence. The mind doesn't know intimacy. Only the being knows it. With intimacy there is openness and you can say and do everything that you feel genuinely and earnestly about. There will be authenticity in your words and actions. You will radiate energy that spurs the others around you to be innocent and open. Then the real beauty of Existence can be experienced.

Spirituality – the way to innocent obeisance

There is a famous saying, 'If you worry, then you didn't pray. If you prayed, then don't worry.'

Spirituality is a straight path to surrender worry and be free. It is a tremendous relief for the modern day man. It is a proven science. In today's world of science and knowledge, the call of the being needs to be addressed compassionately and immediately. Spirituality is the way. Spirituality restores the cosmos with its sanctity and mysticism. It reminds man that he is not the greatest creature on the planet. It reminds him of the powerful Existential energy that pervades the universe. It creates not-knowing and innocent surrender in the mind.

Spirituality is not a ritual. It is the science of merging with Existence. From time immemorial, the first thing that all world religions did was to create a space for the Divine to become a part of life. A temple is a space to reconnect with the cosmic energy and be restful in it. That is the core purpose of all world religions. When the connection deepens, it becomes a blissful space within oneself. Religion is a clear stepping stone to spirituality.

From time immemorial, from the time humans lived together in tribes or groups, they have allotted different areas in their living place for different purposes. Almost in all cultures these groups created special places that they used only for worship. Researchers have discovered that even animals do the same thing. They keep aside a space where they do nothing but rest. They do not use this space for any other activity. Of course, they don't know anything called worship or prayer. That is the reason they use it only for rest. If they knew they would have used it for worship. That space was to reconnect and relax in the lap of Existence. What man might miss because of the pace of his life, animals do naturally and meticulously! If you look into the eyes of animals, you can see deep innocence because they live in deep surrender to Existence.

When man pursues science alone, he becomes too knowing because his inventions and discoveries seem to be his own findings. Everything seems to fall under the purview of his intellect. Spirituality on the other hand keeps the mystery of the cosmos alive. It creates humble obeisance towards a life force that is mightier than the intellect. That is why spirituality can restore innocence. There is an immediate need to pay obeisance to the cosmic force and calm the intellect. With obeisance comes fresh intelligence that sees the cosmic consciousness as the central core of activity. Then, man will no more be afraid of the unfathomable cosmos. He will simply fall in tune with it with deep devotion, love and in ecstasy.

The greatest saints of India who had the power of willing the cosmos to lovingly respond achieved this power through spirituality.

There was a man by name Muruganar who was an ardent devotee of Shiva.

Everyday before break of dawn he would bathe in the cool waters of the river, gather flowers from trees, fields, the river and creepers and make garlands for the Shiva deity in the temple.

He would walk to the temple every day taking care while walking not to disturb the flowers in their setting in the garland! After offering them to the deity he would chant sacred verses for long hours.

It is said that he attained enlightenment through just this innocent worship.

Today he is worshipped as one of the 63 saints called Nayanmars who attained enlightenment through innocent devotion to god.*

Those who shun spirituality are those who have not tasted its transforming sweetness. They are the ones who think spirituality is seriousness. No! God is always an embodiment of bliss, then how can spirituality be seriousness? Man has made it serious by reducing it to mundane rituals.

Our masters have even specified the times in which to connect to the deeper realms of our being through prayer. They have said it is good to pray in the early morning. What is the reason for this? The intellect has

Nayanmars - Tamil devotee saints of enlightened master Shiva, 63 in number, whose life stories are told in the book Periya Puranam.

Innocence itself is the greatest prayer to god.

rested well in the night and has not as yet

started functioning in the morning. When spirituality is practiced at that time, the impact on the mind is greater. The impact is made while the mind is still fresh and innocent, while the mind has not yet started chewing on the intellect. Not for nothing have the great masters gifted spirituality to us. When the intent is understood, spirituality becomes a straight route to restoring innocence and trust.

A small story:

One evening, a farmer on his way back from the market found himself without his prayer book. The wheel of his cart came off right in the middle of the woods and he felt sad that the day should pass without having said his prayers.

So he made up a prayer for god. He spoke aloud, 'Oh god, I have done something very foolish. I have left behind my prayer books today. And my memory is so poor that I can't recite a single prayer without the book. So this is what I am going to do. I will recite the letters of the alphabet five times very slowly and you, who knows all the prayers, please put the letters together to form the prayers I can't remember.'

And god said to his angels that day, 'Of all the prayers I have heard today, this one was undoubtedly the best because it came from a heart that was simple and sincere.'

Spirituality is an opening to express innocence in its purest form. Innocence itself is an offering to god. Innocence itself is the greatest prayer to god.

Religion is by itself not any belief as it is made out to be. Every religion is the result of the deep spiritual experience of the great master who founded it. What they experienced, they gave as a religion to humanity, through which humanity can get the same experience. There was no other intent. If this is understood, any person can practice any religion. That is the beauty of all original religions.

The same is true when you are around a master. Be in a mood of innocent surrender. When you are innocent and prayerful, the master's silence penetrates your being. The religion of silence is the greatest religion. It is the religion of the great masters and disciples. That is true spirituality also.

Spirituality when practiced out of innocence keeps you childlike. If you see the Tanjore* art paintings depicting themes from the Hindu epics, you will see that the

Tanjore art paintings - Devotional paintings from South India that use semi- precious stones and gold as adornment.

faces of the men, women, sages and gods in the painting are always young and innocent. The reason is that true spirituality keeps the essence of life young because it deals with the 'feeling', not with the 'knowing'. When you are with the head you age quickly. When you are with the heart you remain fresh and young all the time.

With spirituality comes deep devotion to the Whole. It is devotion from the being. Devotion is an outpouring that removes all your defenses and makes you vulnerable for Existence to enter you. There are enchanting stories of the great devotees of Hindu mythology who made miracles happen through sheer devotion.

Such is the depth of innocent worship. The innocent worshipper continues to be prayerful even after the worship is over. The prayer is an expression of the humble innocence and gratitude towards the Whole, so it knows no reason. It just continues.