Why So Many Enlightened Masters from India🔗

When I travel to other countries many people ask me, 'Why are there so many enlightened masters in India? Why are there so many swamis in India? Why are there so many spiritual gurus in India? Why aren't there as many from other countries?'

I always tell people, 'Premature babies, like the ones born in the seventh or eighth month, need incubators which supply oxygen and all the other needs, to take care of the babies. Please understand, I am not saying immature babies. We are all immature babies! I am talking about premature babies. Premature babies need incubators to take care of them. In the same way, India is a spiritual incubator for enlightened masters to land.'

It is true that only India has produced so many spiritual masters who travel all over the world. India represents spirituality in the whole world. India is highly respected only in this field. India always has legitimate competition in other fields. In this field, India has no competitors, it is the clear leader. India is the jagadguru, guru for the whole world continuously producing enlightened masters. As long as India continues to produce enlightened masters, this culture cannot be shaken.

You may say there are many problems in India. You may say, 'Master, there are political problems, social problems and economic problems.' See, each country supplies or contributes something to planet Earth. Unless

the whole humanity feels the need for that country, that country cannot exist. As far as India is concerned, humanity needs India just for enlightened masters.

Whether you want it or not, whether you accept it or not, spiritual talks will always be reaching your ears. If I am not here, tomorrow some other swami will be sitting here and speaking. Day after tomorrow some other swami will sit and speak.

Let me tell you, by abusing one swami or by disturbing one master, India's spirituality can never be destroyed. People think that by disrespecting one spiritual person or by disrespecting one spiritual master, India's spirituality can be disturbed. No. If I am not here, tomorrow some other Ananda will sit on the throne and speak the same words.

Spirituality has become the backbone, lifeblood of the Indian system. Whether you want it or not, words like enlightenment, meditation and temple will constantly come to your ears. You cannot do anything about it. When these words are continuously heard by your ears, you will naturally start thinking about them; you will start analyzing them.

Whatever you see or hear continuously will start working on you. In India when you travel on the highway you will see many temples. If you live in any Indian village, you will be constantly hearing these words - Ramayana, Mahabharata, meditation or something else which will inspire you and direct you to the Ultimate.

Be very clear, so many of you are sitting here and listening to Ashtavakra Gita, because you all have heard enough of Ramayana, Mahabharata, purana and all these concepts. You have already heard enough of basic level concepts and now you can start working on yourself straight away. In India whether you want it or not, whether you understand it or not, whether you accept it or not, these ideas are constantly sent inside. They are presented to you in one way or another.

The cream of India's intelligence promotes spirituality. In most of the other countries, the best and brightest spend their energy doing business. In India the cream of the country, the intelligent people, spend their energy spreading the spiritual truth.

Amongst the hundred million people of India, there are thirteen million swamis. In a village in India, two million people will gather for spiritual functions. You do not have to go to a city to have this experience; one village is enough. For Kumbha Mela, the sacred Hindu pilgrimage, seventy million people gather. India truly is a spiritual incubator.

Let us enter into the Ashtavakra Gita.

The fourth sutra:

Yesterday, one of my devotees asked me, 'Master, I have seen you speaking for the last two years. This is the first time that I see you using a book when you are speaking.' To tell you honestly, I am only speaking about two or three sutras everyday. I could simply repeat the sutra directly.

I read from the book because the words in these sutras are so similar to my own words. If asked to write a sutra, I would write these same words. People should not think I have written these sutras. These sutras are written by Ashtavakra. I bring the book so that people understand that they are not written by me. Ashtavakra is using the very words, 'Be blissful'.

Ashtavakra says to Janaka, 'You are not a Brahmana.' You need to understand this important statement.

You do not belong to the Brahmana or any other caste or to any ashrama.

You are not visible to the eyes. Unattached, formless and witness of all are you, be happy.

Ashtavakra wants to tell Janaka that he does not belong to any community, any dharma or any ashrama. He does not belong to any varnashrama-dharma. Varna means the four categories of social divisions: brahmana, vaishya, kshatriya and shudra. Ashrama means the four different stages in life: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa. There are four categories in varna and ashrama each.

Ashtavakra tells Janaka that he does not belong to any of these four categories. One more thing: Vedic seers are the only courageous people to say that the system which they themselves have created is not sufficient. Vedic rishis are the most modern-minded people.

With the internet, most knowledge and information is free. Anybody can access information, comment on that information, discuss the information with other interested parties, and ultimately update the information. Successful CEOs share the philosophy that knowledge is free and disseminate it freely within their organizations and with their customers. This is not to say that patents and trademarks have disappeared; but, the most visionary of executives recognize that it is in everyone's best interest for them to publicly share their knowledge and allow people to improve upon it or update it. As a result, everyone will end up with a better product and their companies will flourish.

Our rishis had both these qualities.

In India firstly, knowledge is and has always been free; whether you receive it or not is up to you. The masters are constantly speaking about the truth. Teachings on spirituality are continuously given. Knowledge is free.

Secondly, Indian rishis are so courageous that they keep the whole thing open. They say we can update their work; we are free to interpret their work.

Here Ashtavakra is declaring that the Vedic system is not the truth. He is declaring very clearly that the community system has also been created by the rishis. He is very courageous to say that we are beyond that. The community system was created for practical reasons; and it is used only for certain purposes. It is not life itself. Being a doctor is only your profession; you are not a doctor. Do not identify yourself with your profession.

Indian masters are constantly abused and disrespected on the international stage, because India's poverty is projected all the time. And why should the media project poverty? There is no need to do so. There is no need, India has enough. All that the Indian people need to do is share amongst themselves. India has enough; just sharing is necessary, nothing else is needed.

Because of this image projected by some of the media to the whole world, I am always questioned, 'Master, you speak about so many things, it is nice. But why have the Indians created the caste system? Why have they created so many superstitions?'

Be very clear about two things, I am not justifying the caste system. But let me explain why it was created and how our masters expected us to use that system. We have in fact, abused the system. We cannot blame the person who created the knife just because we do not know how to use a knife. We cannot blame the person who invented electricity just because we got an electric shock.

Please be very clear why the system was created and how we have abused it. The system was created basically to make us grow, to help us grow from step one to step two, from step two to step three and so on.

One important thing you should understand: human beings are social animals. They cannot live alone. They have to live together with other humans. When we live as a group, naturally we will create a social system; we will create a group. At least in India, the community system was created based on knowledge and intelligence. In many other countries, their community system is based on money and power.

Ashtavakra is a great rishi. He is not speaking today; he spoke ten thousand years ago. This book was written at least five thousand years before the Bhagavad Gita which itself is at least five thousand years old. So ten thousand years ago, he is boldly declaring, 'You are not Brahmana and you don't belong to any other community. You are beyond all those things.'

Note one interesting thing, when Ashtavakra addresses Janaka he should have said, 'You are not Kshatriya' - the warrior class, because Janaka is a king. But Ashtavakra says, 'You are not Brahmana,' the intellectual class. What does that mean? It means that in those days the community system was based on knowledge, and not on birth.

A master constantly observes how a person is showing his energy and interest towards knowledge. He also observes how he is working, his intensity and his attitude, and then decides whether that person is going to be a spiritual teacher or a merchant or a person who is going to rule the country or one who is going to be assisting the other three categories.

A person who has mostly time to share, belongs to worker class, shudra. A person who has intelligence and creates some products with his time and who shares these products is called vaishya; he belongs to the business class. A person who has confidence and shares his confidence with others and gives a sense of security is called kshatriya, the person who rules. A person who has knowledge, spiritual wisdom and who shares that with society is called brahmana.

Janaka was sharing his wisdom. He was more or less like a yogi. He was ruling the whole kingdom as a yogi, not as a king. That is why Ashtavakra says, ‘You are not a Brahmana, nor do you belong to any other caste or any ashrama. You are neither brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya or the fourth category nor are you brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha or sannyas. You do not belong to any of these four categories. You do not belong to the four ashrama or four varna. You are beyond all these things.

‘You are not visible to the eyes.’ This is an important idea that you need to understand.

Straightaway Ashtavakra says, ‘You are not visible to the eyes.’

If I tell you that you are not visible to the eyes, you will tell me to go and have an eye checkup.

A small story:

A man enters a building and asks someone there, ‘Doctor, do I need

glasses?’ The person replies, ‘You surely do, because this is a bank.’

Similarly, if I say that you are not visible, you will ask me to go and get my eyes checked. But Ashtavakra tells Janaka, ‘You are not visible.’

Maharaj says, ‘I am not working, I am not functioning.’

The disciple asks, ‘What is this? You are talking to me, what about that? You may not go to an office, you may not have any responsibilities, but you are talking to me, what about that?’

Maharaj says, ‘I am not talking to you.’ He continues, ‘I am not talking to you.’ It is very difficult to understand but it’s the truth. He says, ‘You feel as if I am talking because you see. It is because you see that you see me. It is because you wanted to hear me that you hear me, that’s all.’

It is a very subtle concept.

Let me tell you about a small incident. Then it may be possible for you to understand what Ashtavakra says and what Nisargadatta Maharaj says.

One of our devotees is trying to write my biography. He has listened to me speaking about many small incidents from my life and has collected them. He has done a very nice job. In the last two and a half years from January 2003, almost three thousand DVDs and videos have been recorded. He patiently went through them and collected many incidents from my discourses. The biggest problem for him was that if he tried to write all the incidents that he collected chronologically, one should conclude that I should be at least sixty years old. But I am not even thirty yet!

He asked me, 'Master, how could so many things happen in hardly twenty-eight years? How can I even tell people so much has happened in such a short span of time? It is simply impossible.'

Untouched by the Games of the Fish

Then I told him a small story on how it has to be understood.

Some fish start jumping on the reflection saying, 'Oh, this fish is so loving, so caring, so graceful and so beautiful.' Some fish start jumping on the other side and start saying, 'This fish is not taking care of me at all, this fish is not paying any attention to me. You all say it is caring and loving, but it is not caring and loving at all.'

Some fish have the idea that the reflection is very caring and loving and some fish have the idea it is not so loving and caring. Some fish make positive observations about the reflection and some fish make negative observations about the reflection.

Suddenly the swan starts flying over ground. The reflection in the water disappears; it is not there. All the fish

playing with the reflection, playing in the area where the reflection is happening, be very clear, you will be simply cheated, you will simply miss the whole thing. You will simply miss it.

From the swan's point of view, it neither knows that the fish are jumping nor does it know that they are fighting or they are praising. In the same way, Ashtavakra says, from the vision of the atman (soul), you are not visible. For the swan, you are not visible.

Be very clear, the fish are not visible to the swan. Only birds interested in the fish see them. Swans don't see the fish, because they don't have to eat them. Eagles have to eat the fish. This is why constantly they see the fish. Swans do not have to see them because there is no need for the swan to see them. The swan just flies.

Sometimes, fortunately or spontaneously the reflection falls on the lake. The few intelligent fish that get to see the reflection, try to look up and see the swan. The other foolish fish just jump around, dance around or fight around the reflection. Whether you fight, blame, praise, jump, dance or sing, the swan is not even aware of any of it.

Here Ashtavakra says, you are not visible because you are beyond everything. All you can do is one thing. The moment you see the reflection, the moment you are awed to see the Master and wonder how such a being can happen, that it is humanly impossible, then your intelligence should start working and ask, 'Where is it happening?'

Do not try to be physically around the Master. Do not start worshipping the Master. Worshipping is the worst form of crucifixion.

Romans avoided Jesus just by crucifying him. Hindus have avoided Krishna by worshipping him, that’s all. People say, ‘Krishna is great and whatever he says in the Bhagavad Gita is true, but we can’t follow it. He is great, so he can communicate all these teachings, but we cannot follow them.’ Be very clear: do not avoid the Masters by worshipping them.

When we start worshipping, the first thing we do is avoid the true object of worship. Sometimes when worshipping inspires us to follow them, worshipping is alright. However, if it creates a feeling of distance, be very clear, the first thing to do is to stop the worshipping.

If worshipping makes you feel deeply connected, then it is alright. If the worshipping does not make you feel connected or if it is not acting as an inspiration to follow the path or the teachings, be very clear, worshipping is not going to help.

Fortunately, we have not made statues of Ashtavakra and that is why the verses in the Ashtavakra Gita are so pure. If we had not started making statues of Krishna, we would have all started following the Bhagavad Gita. The moment we started to make statues, we have decided not to follow the Bhagavad Gita.

I gave him a Bhagavad Gita book. I had recently spoken on the eighteen volumes of Bhagavad Gita and I gave him a CD and DVD of the discourse also. I told him, ‘Please listen to this. I have spoken on Karma yoga - the beauty of purposelessness. Please listen to this and understand. Then the inner healing will happen in you. The constant irritation that you carry will disappear.’ One reason for the constant irritation that a person carries, is stress.

Gita is a glass of milk. Drink and enjoy it. Do not keep it in the puja room and start doing arati. Krishna is milk. It is based on this concept that Jesus says, ‘Drink me.’ You are supposed to drink Krishna, not worship him. If your worship inspires you to drink, then it is acceptable. But if the worshipping creates a distance, something is seriously wrong in your understanding.

Here Ashtavakra says, you are not visible.

The sutra says:

You are unattached, you are formless and witness. You are beyond this body, you are beyond this mind. You are formless, unattached.

‘Unattached’ is a beautiful word. Ashtavakra says, ‘You are unattached’. I am also saying that you are unattached. Please do not just start believing it. Understand how you are unattached.

One person came to me and said, ‘Master, I constantly suffer because of my smoking habit. The moment I get up from bed, I cannot do anything else but smoke. I have to smoke, but after one hour I have a deep guilt. After two hours when I get ready to go to work, again I have to smoke; again an hour of guilt. What should I do? I am constantly suffering with this guilt, and I am always suffering with this habit. What should I do?’

I always tell people, when they want to get rid of any disease, never repeat to themselves, ‘I should get rid of this disease.’ Instead create the words, ‘I should become healthy.’ Learn how to think, learn how to create the right words in you.

Please understand, the words that you create inside you are so powerful; straightaway they become reality.

The words which you repeat again and again in your life will become reality in your life.

If you constantly repeat the words, ‘I should get rid of this disease,’ ‘I should get rid of this disease,’ ‘I should get rid of this disease,’ you will constantly remember the disease also.

For example, if you have a headache, if you constantly think, ‘I should get rid of this headache,’ you give power to the headache as well.

In the epic Ramayana there is this character called Vali. Vali has a special power; he has a boon. Anybody who stands in front of him will lose half of their power to him. In the same way, when you repeat these words, ‘I should get rid of this disease,’ half of your power is given to the word ‘disease.’ You will never be successful. Create the right words, ‘I should become healthy.’ Without using the word disease, create the affirmation.

Try to be aware of the words that are going on inside you. Especially be aware of the words that you create unconsciously.

For example, early in the morning when you are brushing your teeth, you will be repeating some words inside you. When you are taking bath you will be constantly talking to yourself. Anybody here who says, ‘No, I don’t talk to myself when I am taking bath?’ You may be singing, that’s all. Either you will be singing or you will be talking to yourself. Constantly you will be talking to yourself within you, especially in the bathroom because nobody can hear you. Sometimes you will even start talking loudly.

Actually, it is a good practice to speak to yourself once in a while so that others will be liberated from having to listen to you! Otherwise you will catch people and constantly vomit on them.

Be very clear, nobody listens to you. They are polite so that once you stop they can start talking. Conversation never really happens. The other person is just waiting so that he can start speaking. The moment your voice is low, the moment you are slightly tired, the moment you are a little tired, immediately he gets hold of the microphone. Even when you are supposedly listening to the other person, you are just preparing your answer so that you can start once the other person stops. You are not actually listening. So once in a while, it is good for you to talk alone; you will spare others some grief.

The words which you speak when you are speaking to yourself when you are alone should be proper words. They should be the right words. Otherwise you will constantly be hurting yourself; you will be torturing yourself.

Here Ashtavakra says, you are unattached.

I was talking about the incident with the smoker. I told him either to drop smoking or to drop the guilt. He asked, ‘How can I drop smoking by dropping the guilt? How can just dropping the guilt heal me?’

Please understand, in the morning this person smokes when he gets up from bed. Then after two hours, he smokes again. These two incidents are actually not as connected as they appear, they are un-clutched. They are two separate incidents. But the guilt that he carries clutches both the incidents and makes both incidents appear connected.

Please understand that I am speaking about the way in which your mind works. If you can understand this one truth, you can become unattached this moment. This moment you can become un-clutched.

All your habits, all your activities, all your thoughts are disconnected, un-clutched, individual incidents. However, by carrying guilt, pain, suffering, fear or worry about the habit, you make a shaft of thoughts that would otherwise not be there.

See, if the clutch in our car is not engaged (un-clutched), our vehicle simply cannot move. Even if the engine is functioning, our vehicle cannot move. If the clutch is engaged or clutched, it starts moving. In our mind also, everything that is happening inside is completely unattached. They are individual, independent, separate incidents and separate happenings. The morning smoking and the afternoon smoking are two separate incidents; they are two different happenings. But the guilt clutches both the incidents and creates the shaft.

The shaft creates suffering for you through worry, guilt and fear. If you can have just a little bit of courage and drop these unnecessary fears, worries and guilt, you will realize that you are always un-clutched.

Each and every statement or thought that is happening in your mind is completely un-clutched. They are independent experiences. You cannot judge, connect or categorize them.

Every single happening in our lives, even our everyday activities like eating and drinking are un-connected. Each and every experience is independent by its own right. Drinking yesterday and drinking today are two completely different incidents. Either through pain or through pleasure, you connect these two incidents. You then say that it is a habit and create a mind, which doesn’t exist in reality. The food that you ate yesterday and the food which you eat today are different. You will not be able to eat the same food; fortunately you will not be able to do so. Only bats can eat the same food; bats vomit and eat the same food again.

The food that you ate yesterday and the food that you eat today are different; they are completely independent. But your mind creates the shaft between these two incidents and makes the whole thing as a single shaft and categorizes and says, ‘I eat everyday.’ Please be very clear, you don’t eat the same food everyday. You may use the same word ‘eating’ for both the experiences but they are not the same experience. Do not be cheated by the words that you are using. Yesterday’s eating, today’s eating and tomorrow’s eating are separate incidents, separate experiences. They are completely independent and unattached. But in your mind you start thinking, ‘Oh, I eat the same food; I eat the same thing.’

When you are in a low mood, you constantly start connecting all these incidents. Either through pain or through pleasure, you connect them. Then you start saying, you start thinking, 'I am suffering' or 'I am enjoying.'

A beautiful incident from the life of an enlightened master from central India:

During the last ten years of his life, the doctors had asked the master to eat a particular kind of food. He was not allowed to eat anything else. He was asked to eat the same kind of food daily.

Your mind connects every independent incident, every independent thought with pain or pleasure. With your idea of pain or pleasure, you connect it. If your food is not right, you connect, 'Oh, same food, same suffering.'

The husband replies, 'Not after eating your food!'

All your negativity has only one power; the faith that you place in it.

Whether it is your mind or your ego or whatever, all negativity has only one power, your faith in it. Understand that it is just a simple game.

You do not need to work for un-clutching. Just do not clutch and do not create a shaft.

People tell me again and again, ‘Master, I fail when I try to un-clutch.’ I ask them, ‘Why are you connecting your past failure with your present failure?’ When you connect all the past failures, you create one more word ‘failure’. Why do you connect all of them and create the next experience also?

Just relax and stop connecting and suddenly you will see such a deep inner healing happening in you, such a deep peace happening in you. Suddenly you will see that you have dropped out of the war, the constant running. Just relax.

I tell you, when you become a dropout, when you drop out of this war, when you drop from this whole game, you will suddenly realize the whole thing is just a psychodrama happening. Because you constantly support it, you connect the incidents through pain or pleasure and create these shafts.

Be very clear:

Because of your memory of pain or pleasure, you think you have a constant mind and a continuous thought flow.

Please understand, I am not saying that tomorrow or day after tomorrow or after your enlightenment, you will become unattached. No! You are unattached this very moment. Simply this moment, you are unattached.

The thought that appeared in your mind one minute ago and the thought that is appearing now are not connected. These two are complete, independent thoughts.

If you had some experience of pleasure as you think, whenever those kinds of incidents are

repeated, immediately you connect that pleasure and this pleasure.

Understand, by the time you connect that pleasure and this pleasure, you have created a shaft. Now you are trying to fight with the shaft. If you think the shaft is painful, you want to break the shaft. If you think the shaft is pleasure, you want to extend the shaft. But you can neither break the shaft nor extend the shaft, because the shaft does not exist.

Just understand that there is no such thing as continuity between one thought and another thought. You are unattached now.

You do not have to practice renunciation. Your very nature is renunciation.

Whatever happens in you, you are constantly renouncing; you are constantly replacing yourself. Only if one thought is renounced, another thought can arise, is it not? So at every moment when a thought appears in you, whether it is fulfilled or unfulfilled, you

actually renounce that thought. Only then the next thought can come up. All you need to do is allow the constant renunciation happening in you. This moment, just by this very understanding you can un-clutch yourself.

Here is another way to look at this process: you are constantly discarding your e-mails in the trash bin. After that, you suddenly pick up an email from your trash and clutch with it.

Similarly, all your thoughts are going to the trash every moment. But suddenly you pick up some from the trash, try to clutch them, and create a shaft. Just stop picking up thoughts from your garbage bin, nothing else is needed. Just leave the garbage bin alone; the city will come and clean it! But you do not feel comfortable. After ten minutes you run to the garbage and pick up couple of things saying, ‘I think this is nice. I will keep it near my bed.’ After one hour you run again and pick up one more thought, ‘I think this is nicer.’ You collect more and more trash and put it next to your bed, add a little perfume and try to keep it looking nice. You try to decorate it and feel good about it.

Understand, you are constantly discarding or throwing away your thoughts. This is why new thoughts are appearing. The very truth that new thoughts are happening in you means that the old thoughts have been renounced. The appearance of new thoughts means that the old thoughts have disappeared. So do not be afraid to throw away the old thoughts. Do not be greedy by retrieving them, clutching them, and creating a shaft.

Your knowledge about your past plays a major role in creating your future. Be very clear about your past. Here I am analyzing how you create an identity about yourself. This is the identity about yourself. This pain

shaft is an identity about yourself which you are constantly creating. You may think, 'Once a month I fall sick,' 'Once in two or three days I will be in a low mood,' 'If I work until after eight o'clock I will get irritated.' You strongly believe in the pain shaft. These shafts create all the conflicts, all the disturbances in your life. Even your physical health is terribly disturbed by these shafts.

In the same way, you create a joy shaft and create an identity about yourself.

You think that unless you carry your identity, you cannot protect yourself. But that identity which you carry does not really exist.

The moment I say that your identity is a lie, a tremendous fear rises in you, 'If I un-clutch, who will take care of my life? Who will take care of my day-to-day living?' Be very clear, you need to understand a very important truth. Even though it hurts, it is the truth.

We have an automatic intelligence in us that constantly runs our lives. For example, do you mentally plan your drive back to your house? While you drive you have to do so many things including: using the clutch, pressing the accelerator, looking at the directions, looking at the traffic or respecting the traffic signals, to name a few. If you have to mentally create a plan for each of these like, 'I have to take my key and turn the key, start the car, turn 20 degrees to the right, 30 degrees to the left, press the accelerator once, press the brake once, look at the traffic in the front and stop for the signal', if you have to plan verbally, and if you have to do the whole thing in your mind, will you be able to drive? No!

You are able to drive without creating all these words in you, is it not? Not only that, your car is your restaurant where you have your breakfast everyday! It is your club for listening to music, it is your phone booth to make your phone calls, and so on. You drive, you take care of the traffic, you listen to the music and you talk on the cellphone.

Understand one important thing:

We have an automatic intelligence which can run our lives, which can take care of our day-to-day life. Not only can it run our lives, it can maintain, it can extend or expand our lives.

Just as you do not need your mind while driving, you do not need your planning, you do not need your mind to run your day-to-day life as well. Many times you get into the car at home and when you stop the car at the office parking lot, suddenly you realize you have finished driving that entire distance, is it not? From your house to your office, you would not have had a single thought about your driving. Suddenly when you stop your car, you will come to know that you have finished driving. You have traveled many miles without even a single thought that you are driving or without any thoughts related to driving. This shows that there is an automatic intelligence in you.

The Vedic science says that there is an automatic, programmed intelligence in us which can run and expand our lives and energy. This is a revealing and an important truth. Please understand that you are not needed to run your life. What you think of as you is not needed to run your life. Again and again Vedic masters are revealing this truth; the Eastern rishis are expressing this truth.

Your constant psychological planning, psychological worrying, fears, greed, whatever you think of as you, is not needed to run your life. Your very automatic intelligence is more than enough.

But, society conditions you from a young age. You are taught to think that you cannot run without planning, that you cannot run without fear or greed. Your self-respect is taken away from you. You are not made to

trust that you can lead your life spontaneously without fear or greed. You are always trained to think that you can run only with fear or greed. That is why constantly you are trying to infuse greed or fear into yourself. You try to use fear and greed as fuel to make your life run, to make your life alive.

Be very clear that you cannot run your life based on fear and greed.

If you are driven by fear and greed, you will carry a constant irritation in you.

From morning until night, from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, you will carry a constant irritation in you. That is why you are just waiting for a reason to explode. You are waiting for some reason to vomit. Just one small touch is enough, and you are ready to jump on the other person. He does not even need to make any mistake; just coming in front of you is enough to trigger you. Coming into your presence is enough; you just pounce on the other person.

Any simple reason is enough. The wife placing a coffee cup down with a little force, a little sound is enough for the husband to start shouting at her, ‘What! Do you think you have brought all these things from your father’s house? I have worked hard for it.’ Then she starts, ‘You are lucky to get even coffee for the job that you are doing. Keep quiet and drink!’ Then the whole drama starts. You know what the next statement will be; I don’t have to tell you! The constant irritation is in you because you try to fuel yourself by fear or greed.

Neither fear nor greed can make your life run smoothly. When you un-clutch, suddenly you realize that you are not needed to run your life. When you can drive without using your mind, why can’t you live your life this way? You can. Trusting the automatic intelligence within you is all you need to do; then relax. That is what we call in Sanskrit as sharanagati - surrender. The English translation would be ‘surrendering to your own higher intelligence’.

Please understand, ‘Surrendering to your own higher intelligence’. When the Eastern rishis say surrender, they mean surrendering to our own higher intelligence. Only when we surrender to our own higher intelligence, we can surrender to God. Surrendering to the higher intelligence is what we call surrendering to God.

If you understand that both the identities are not needed to live your life, to run your life, to run, protect and expand your life, you will suddenly realize a tremendous freedom. You can be alive without these two identities.

Freedom from these two identities is what I call liberation, enlightenment, moksha and nirvana. Whatever words you may use, it is nothing but liberation from these two identities.

These two identities are the bondage. When you understand that you are something beyond these two identities, you are jeevan mukta, liberated while living. What you think as you is not necessary to be alive. I tell you, if you drop what you think of as you, only then you will become alive. Until then, you will be living, inhaling and exhaling, breathing, but never think you are alive. Breathing is not a symptom of living; never think you are alive living this way.

Just because you have a key to your house, do not think it is your home; it is a tomb. We are all waiting for death, not living. There are two categories of people: one is living and another one is waiting for death. We are just waiting for death. We do not have the courage to commit suicide; so we are just waiting for death to happen by itself.

Living means freedom from the two identities, one that you carry inside yourself, mamakar and the one that you project to the outer world, ahankar. When we relax from these two, we achieve what is called jeevan mukti.

We do not even need to relax from them because new thoughts are constantly replacing them. The moment the next thought has appeared, we have renounced the earlier thought. Every moment we are renouncing thoughts. Every moment, we are getting unattached. Every moment we are constantly replacing all our thoughts.

If you think you are tortured by your fears, you are wrong. If you think you are tortured by your greed, you are wrong. We are neither tortured by our fears, nor are we tortured by our greed because every thought is constantly getting replaced with a fresh thought. The thought that you are getting tortured is the only actual torture for you.

If you feel, ‘I am getting tortured at this moment’, try to understand it is the thought that is torturing you, that’s all. Do not believe it will come back. By believing it will come back, the belief itself will bring it back.

Even if you have a strong desire, a strong greed, another single thought can just replace that greed. One single thought can replace fear. Then, how can desire and greed be strong?

You cannot be a follower unless you carry some suffering.

If you do not carry suffering, you will become a leader. Leaders are dangerous people. That is why society never wants you to be independent, creative and alive - a leader. Be very clear, a leader will be a person who is creative, who is expressing, who is on his own. However, society does not want that.

It is very difficult to handle a leader. It is easy to handle followers. It is easy to handle masses if they are kept as followers. That is why the great wisdom, the great truth – ‘By your very nature you are un-clutched’, is kept a secret. It is kept a secret because if you understand this truth, you cannot be exploited; there is no way you can be exploited.

I always tell people that the only thing self-development programs accomplish is to give you ‘feel-good feelings.’ Your self cannot develop, because it does not exist. When it doesn’t exist, where is the question of developing it? If the shaft exists, then you could chisel it, polish it, rub it, paint it, goldplate it and keep it. But the shaft itself does not exist. What will you then develop? Even if you try to develop the shaft, it will be nothing but taking something that you have discarded, arranging it properly, adding a little perfume and trying to feel the scent, nothing else. Understand that you are constantly throwing your thoughts away in the trash, so there is no shaft in reality.

Be very clear, what you think as you or self is nothing but the discarded thoughts including the randomly picked, unconnected, illogical and un-clutched thoughts. You pick from these, create a shaft and think you are those thoughts and try to develop a self which does not exist.

I worked to develop myself for one year. Understand, all these techniques, whether they are spiritual practices or self-development practices, are all trying to create a consistent shaft in you. When you say something is good or something is bad, you start becoming greedy for the good and fearful about the bad. You start encouraging one and suppressing the other.

The moment you choose to do either, you have created a problem for yourself. Now whatever you suppress will be constantly coming up in your mind. Whatever you want will constantly disappear from your mind.

A small story:

> A young brahmachari goes to a senior > 90 year old monk and asks him, > 'Swamiji, I am suffering with too many > bad thoughts. Too many bad thoughts > are coming to my mind. How long do > I have to suffer before getting rid of > these bad, dirty thoughts?' > > The senior elderly monk looks this side > and that side and says, 'I don't know > how long it takes, but one thing is sure, > it doesn't happen until you are at least > ninety!'

Whatever you are avoiding is going to exist in you. Whatever you are trying to encourage is going to be disconnected. You can neither break a shaft nor can you elongate it because the shaft does not exist.