---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Supreme Doctrine"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "DOCTRN"
dategiven: "16 July 1973 am"
place: " in Mt Abu Meditation Camp"
chapternum: "Chapter #16"
chaptertitle: "The Great Dance of Suchness"
acode: "7307160"
shorttitle: "DOCTRN16"
audio: "Yes"
video: "No"
esttime: "67mins"
displaytitle: "The Supreme Doctrine: Chapter #16"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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<p class="sutra">INVOCATION</p>
<p class="sutra">BRAHMAN IS WELL KNOWN BY THE NAME TATVANAM -- THAT -- SO IT IS TO BE MEDITATED UPON AS TATVANAM -- THAT. ALL BEINGS LOVE HIM WHO KNOW BRAHMAN AS SUCH.
"SIR, TEACH ME THE UPANISHAD."
"THE UPANISHAD HAS BEEN IMPARTED TO YOU. WE HAVE, VERILY, IMPARTED TO YOU THE UPANISHAD RELATING TO BRAHMAN."
OF THE UPANISHAD, TAPAS -- AUSTERITIES; DAMAN -- SELF-RESTRAINT; AND KARMA -- DEDICATED WORK; FORM THE SUPPORT. THE VEDAS ARE ITS LIMBS, AND TRUTH ITS ABODE.
ONE WHO REALIZES IT -- KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN -- THUS DESTROYS SIN AND IS WELL ESTABLISHED IN BRAHMAN, THE INFINITE, THE BLISSFUL AND THE HIGHEST.</p>


The word god is not God, because the ultimate cannot have a name. It is nameless -- because names are given by others. A child is born. The child is born nameless, then a name is to be given. That name doesn't come from the inner source of the child's consciousness. It comes from without. It is a label -- useful, utilitarian, but artificial. The child will become a victim. He will identify himself with this name which is given, which really doesn't belong to him.


But who will give a name to the Brahman? There are no parents, no society, no 'other'. And what is the use when the Brahman alone is? A name is needed because you are not alone. You need to be categorized, named, defined, so that others can call you, remember you. If you are alone on the earth, you will not need a name. And Brahman is alone, so who will give him a name? There is no other and there is no utility in it either.


So that is the first thing to be understood and very basic to the Upanishad -- because all the religions have given certain names. Hindus have given thousands of names. They have a book, Vishnu Sahastranam -- God's one thousand names. The whole book consists only of names. Christians, Mohammedans, Hindus, all have given certain names to God to make prayer possible. The name remains false but how are you going to call the divine? How are you going to invoke him? How are you going to relate yourself to him? You need a name for the divine but the Upanishads are not ready to give a name.


The Upanishads are the purest teaching possible; they do not make any compromise. They do not make any compromise for you. They are rigorous, very hard and they try to remain totally pure. So what do the Upanishads call Brahman? They simply call him TAT -- that. They do not give him a name. 'That' is not a name; 'that' is an indication. And there is a great difference. When you do not have a name, then you indicate and say "That." It is a finger pointing toward the unknown. 'That' is a finger pointing toward the unknown, so the Upanishads call him Tat.


You may have heard one of the most famous sentences of the Upanishads: TAT-VAM-ASI -- That art thou. You are also the Brahman, but the Upanishads go on calling him 'that'. Even to say calling him is not good because the moment we use he, him, the ultimate becomes a person. The Upanishads do not say that he is a person; he is just a force, energy, life, but not a person. So they insist on calling him Tat -- that. That is the only name given by the Upanishads to the ultimate.


Many things are implied, of course. One: if there is no name, or if Tat, that, is the only name, prayer becomes impossible. You can meditate on that but you cannot pray. The Upanishads really do not believe in prayer; they believe in meditation. Prayer is something addressed to a person. Meditation is simply sinking, drowning, within yourself. The person is somewhere outside you but that, the Brahman, the ultimate force, is within you. You need not relate to it as the other; you can simply drown yourself inwardly. You can simply sink within yourself and you will find that -- because "That art thou."


To take Brahman as the other is false for the Upanishads. Not that the other is not Brahman: everything is Brahman; the other also, the outer also, is Brahman. But the Upanishads say that if you cannot feel him within, it is impossible for you to feel him without -- because the nearest source is within; the without is far away. And if the nearest has not been known, how can you know the faraway, the distant? If you cannot feel him in yourself, how can you feel him in others? It is impossible.


The first step must be taken within. From there the Brahman, that, is nearest. You are that. To say nearest is false; there is not even that much distance -- because even when someone is near there is distance. Nearness shows a certain distance; nearness is a sort of distance. He is not even near you -- because you ARE that. So why go wandering without? He is in the home. You are looking for the guest and he is the host. You are waiting for the guest to come and he is already the host. He is you.


So the first implication is: for the Upanishads there is no prayer; there is meditation. Prayer is a relationship between two, just like love. Meditation is not a relationship between two. It is just like surrender. Meditation is going withinwards, surrendering yourself unto yourself -- not clinging to the periphery but sinking deep to the center. And when you are at your center you are in that -- Tat, Brahman.


The second implication: when the Upanishads call him that, it means he is not the creator; rather, he is the creation -- because the moment we say, "God is the creator," we have made him a person. And not only have we made him a person: we have divided existence into two -- the creator and the created. The duality has entered. The Upanishads say that he is the creation. Or, to be more accurate, he is the creativity -- the very force of creation.


I always like to illustrate this point by the phenomenon of dance. A painter paints but the moment he has painted his picture, the painter is separate from the picture. Now the painter can die and the picture will remain. Or you can destroy the picture but by doing that the painter will not be destroyed -- they are separate. Now the picture can exist for centuries without the painter. The painter is not needed. Once painted, it is finished; the relationship is broken.


Look at the dancer! He dances but the dance is not separate; it cannot be separated. If the dancer is dead, then the dance is dead. Dance is not separate from the dancer; the dance cannot exist without the dancer. And the dancer cannot exist without the dance either because the moment there is no dance, the person may be there but he is not a dancer.


God's relation to the world, for the Upanishads, is that of dance and the dancer. Hence, we have pictured Shiva as Nataraj, the dancer. A very deep meaning is there -- that this world is not something secondary that God has created, then forgotten about and become separate from. The world is not of a secondary order. It is as much of the first order as the divine himself because this world is just a dance, a LEELA, a play. It cannot be separated.


Calling Brahman That says all that is is Brahman, all that is, is he -- the manifested and the unmanifested, the creation and the creator. He is BOTH.


The word that -- Tat -- also has a very subtle meaning. Buddha has used that meaning very much and Buddhists have a separate school of teaching just based on this word. Buddha has called that suchness, he has called it TATHATA; hence Buddha's name, Tathagata -- the man who has achieved suchness, who has achieved That.


This word suchness is very beautiful. What does it mean? If you are born, Buddha will say, "Such is the case that you are born." No other comment. If you die he will say, "Such is the case -- you die!" No other comment, no reaction to it; things are such. Then everything becomes acceptable. If you say, "Things are such that now I have become old, ill; things are such that I am defeated; things are such that I am victorious; things are such..." then you don't claim anything, and you don't feel frustrated because you don't expect anything. Such is the nature of things. Then one who is born will die, one who is healthy will become ill, one who is young will become old, one who is beautiful will become ugly. Such is the nature of things.


Unnecessarily you get worried about it; this suchness is not going to change because of your worry. Unnecessarily you get involved in it; your involvement is not going to change anything. Things will go on moving in their own way. The suchness, the river of suchness, will go on moving in spite of you. Whatsoever you do makes no difference; whatsoever you think makes no difference. You cannot make any difference in the nature of things.


Once this feeling settles within your heart, then life has no frustration for you. Then life cannot frustrate you, then life cannot disappoint you. And with this feeling of suchness a subtle joy arises in your being. Then you can enjoy everything -- YOU are no more, really. With the feeling that "Such is the nature, such is existence, such is the course of things," your ego disappears.


How can your ego exist? It exists only when you think that you can make certain changes in the nature of things. It exists only when you think that you are a creator -- you can change the course, you can manipulate nature. This very moment, when you think that you can manipulate nature, ego enters, you become egoistic. You start functioning and thinking as if you are separate.


Someone asked Rinzai, "What's your SADHANA -- what's your meditation?"


So he said, "No meditation. When I feel hungry, I feel hungry and I go begging. When I feel sleepy, I fall asleep. When sleep is gone and I feel awake, I am awake. I have no other sadhana -- no other meditation, no other practice. I move with things as they are. When it is hot, I move into the shadow of a tree; the very nature moves towards shadow. When it becomes cold under the shadow of a tree, I move under the sun -- but I am not doing anything. Such is the nature of things."


Look at the beauty: he says, "Such is the nature of things. When feeling hungry, I go begging -- not that I go begging... such is the nature of things. The hunger goes begging. Not that I move from the hot sun towards the shadow of a tree -- such is the nature of things. The body moves and I allow it all to happen, and I am happy because I allow everything to happen. Nothing can make me miserable."


Misery enters into you because you start interfering, you become resistant. You don't allow the suchness to move: you start creating blocks for it. You want to change the course of things, then misery enters.


Someone gives you respect, honors you -- you feel elated. You think something very great is within you and now it is being appreciated. It was always there -- that was your feeling -- but now people have become recognizant, now people have become more understanding so they can recognize the greatness of your being. But then dishonor follows... and such is the nature of things, that dishonor follows honor, it is the shadow of it. It is just the other part, the other aspect of the same coin. And when it follows you feel dejected, you feel depressed, you feel like committing suicide. The whole world has gone wrong around you, the whole world has become inimical to you.


The person who understands the nature of things will enjoy both. He will say, "Such is the nature of things, that people honor me. And such is the nature of things, that dishonor follows honor, defeat follows victory, happiness is followed by unhappiness, health is followed by disease -- such is the nature of things! Youth is followed by old age and birth is followed by death -- such is the nature of things!"


So whatsoever is the case, if you can feel it is so and nothing else is possible, then that which is possible happens. It is always happening -- that which is possible. And that which is impossible is never happening. And if you start asking for the impossible, you are trying to move against the nature of things. The philosophy of suchness or that, thatness, is simply this statement: "Do not try for the impossible; move with the possible and you will never be unhappy." Bliss happens to those who can move with a feeling of suchness.


Buddha became old and his  followers thought, "Buddha should not become old. A buddha becoming old?" The followers could not conceive of this because followers have their own fantasies. They think Buddha is not part of the nature of things. They think he must not die, that he must always remain young. So Ananda said to Buddha, "It is very depressing that now old age is settling upon you. We never imagined that you, one who has become awakened, one who has realized the ultimate, should become old."


Buddha said, "Such is the nature of things. For everyone, whether a buddha or non-buddha, enlightened or ignorant, the nature of things is the same -- equal. I will become old and I will die, because whosoever is born will die. Such is the nature of things." Ananda is unhappy; Buddha is not. Ananda is unhappy because he is expecting something impossible, against the nature of things.


When Shri Aurobindo died, the whole ashram of Shri Aurobindo was not ready to accept the fact that Aurobindo could die. They couldn't believe it. The followers all over the world were surprised that Shri Aurobindo could die. For a few months this was the rumor -- that he will resurrect again. And for a few days they tried to preserve the body. This was the rumor around the circle of his followers -- that he is in deep samadhi, in deep meditation, and he has not died. But after three days, the body started deteriorating and a bad smell started coming out of it. He was really dead. Such is the nature of things.


Nature is a great equalizer; it makes no distinctions. And it is good that it doesn't make any distinctions. It is not partial. If you are awakened, the only change will be this -- that you will accept this suchness. If you are ignorant, the only difference will be this -- that you will go on resisting, fighting with the suchness. This is the only difference -- the only, I say. And this difference is great, the greatest, because the moment you realize that things move in their own way, that nature has its own law, its own order, you are freed from it. Not that it will change its laws for you, but that YOU will have changed, your attitude will have changed. You will say, "Such is the nature of things."


Brahman is the ultimate nature of things, the very suchness. With this comes total acceptance. In total acceptance, suffering disappears. Suffering is your resistance, suffering is your nonacceptance. You create your own suffering. Bliss is always available but because of your attitudes you are not available to it. Now we will enter the sutra.
<p class="sutra">BRAHMAN IS WELL KNOWN BY THE NAME TATVANAM -- THAT -- SO IT IS TO BE MEDITATED UPON AS TATVANAM -- THAT. ALL BEINGS LOVE HIM WHO KNOW BRAHMAN AS SUCH.</p>


Brahman is well known by the name that -- Tat -- so it is to be meditated upon as Tat -- as that. Do not meditate upon him as a person. Then your imagination will have entered. There is no person there. Do not meditate upon him as SAGUN -- with attributes. That is not the teaching of the Upanishads. Do not conceive of him in some form. Just remember him as that.


But this is very difficult. How do you remember him as that? You can remember him as Krishna, as Rama, as Christ, as Buddha, but how can you remember him as that? The very concept of 'that' shatters your mind. It will stop. If you remember him as that, as the suchness of things, as this great cosmos -- and all is implied in it -- your mind will stop through shock. You cannot think about that -- or can you? You can think about Krishna because you can picture, you can imagine, that he is playing on his flute or he is dancing and his girlfriends, gopis, are dancing around him -- or can you picture him making love to Radha?


You can picture him but how to picture 'that'? There is no flute, there are no girlfriends, there is no dance. There is nothing to be pictured. How can you imagine that? Imagination stops. If you really try to conceive of that, through that very effort mind will stop and you will enter meditation. This that is just like a Zen koan. That which cannot be conceived -- if you try to conceive of it your mind will stop and stopping of the mind is meditation.


The very effort to meditate on that is absurd. You cannot meditate upon that: there is nothing to meditate upon; there is no object. That is not an object. But if you try hard, in the very effort... because you cannot meditate upon it.... Not that you will succeed in meditating upon that -- in the very effort, in the very failure that you cannot think about it, thinking will stop.... Because thinking has no goal it cannot move with that and when thinking stops you are in meditation.


It is not that Tat, the Brahman, will appear before you; it is not that you will come to know and realize the truth in front of you -- no! The moment your thinking has stopped, you have become that, you have fallen into it. The wave has disappeared into the ocean. And this disappearing always happens within because you fall from there. The wave disappears in the ocean. YOU are that. Meditating upon that, you will become that.


The Upanishads go on saying that one who knows the Brahman becomes the Brahman; one who meditates upon him becomes him: he becomes that.
<p class="sutra">BRAHMAN IS WELL KNOWN BY THE NAME THAT, SO IT IS TO BE MEDITATED UPON AS THAT. ALL BEINGS LOVE HIM WHO KNOW BRAHMAN AS SUCH.</p>


And the person who comes to know Brahman as that, as the suchness of existence, all beings naturally falls in love with him.


Why does this happen? You suddenly feel love arising within your heart and flowing toward the person who has come to attain suchness. Why does it happen? It is not that it is necessarily so; you can even hate such a person because hate is a form of love. But you cannot be indifferent to such a person, that is the point. If such a person is there, either you can love him or hate him but you cannot be indifferent. Hate is possible because hate is the opposite form, the reverse, of love. It is just love doing SHIRSHASAN -- standing on its head. But you cannot be indifferent.


Why does love happen? Why does hate happen? And why is indifference not possible? Because the very being of such a person touches your heart deeply. It goes on playing on your heart; your heart becomes a musical instrument. Just the presence of such a person stirs something within you. The very presence of such a person makes your own 'that' alive. It becomes a magnetic force and your own sleeping Brahman feels its sleep disturbed. Your own sleeping Brahman opens his eyes and looks at this awakened Brahman and a love or hate happens.


If you are receptive, surrendering, trusting, then love will happen. If you are doubtful, skeptical, nonsurrendering, egoistic, then hate will happen. But indifference is impossible. You cannot conceive of Buddha moving in a town and someone being indifferent. Either love or hate is bound to happen. But both are relationships; you will start being related.


Love says, "I am ready to move with you." Hate says, "Do not pull me. I am not ready to surrender; I will resist." Love says, "I am ready to follow you and fall with you." Hate says, "I cannot surrender my ego. And just because I cannot surrender my ego I will hate you, because the moment I love the surrender will happen." And sometimes it happens that when you are in love with a person you may not be so deeply related as when you hate him.


There is one anecdote I have heard: one rishi got angry with someone. He was so angry that he cursed the man. The curse was very terrible and this man would have to be born again and again and suffer. The man fell down at the feet of that rishi and asked forgiveness. But a curse cannot be reversed. The rishi said, "Now nothing can be done to reverse the curse. You will have to pass through it. Only one thing can be done. If you remember God's name, then the curse will not have such a terrific effect upon you. You will remain detached; you will not suffer so much. But you will have to pass through suffering."


So the man asked, "Tell me the secret of remembering the name so that I may not forget it."


Then the rishi said, "Then hate God. Do not love -- because love can forget, but hate cannot. Hate God, and go on cursing and cursing him, swearing against him. Just by cursing him you will remember him."


Love may forget; hate cannot forget. Love can forget because love, by and by, becomes one with the object of love. Hate is a constant vigilance; you have to protect yourself. The pull is there -- a buddha is pulling you -- you have to struggle. If you lose for a single moment, if you are forgetful for a single moment, you will be in the current. So you have to be constantly alert. Hate is just a love relationship in the reverse order.


A person who happens to be enlightened will attract you -- either your love or your hate. But one thing is certain: you cannot be indifferent to him, because he has gone so deep that his depth will resonate within you, will resound, reflect. His depth will call your depth. He will become an invocation. It is not that he will do something: just his being, just his very being, will do something -- no effort on his part.


Just looking at a flower, you say, "Beautiful!" Something has happened within you. It is not that the flower has done anything; the flower is completely unaware that you are passing. But you say, "Beautiful!" When your heart says that something is beautiful, something has happened within your heart; the flower has touched you deep down. You see the full moon in the night and suddenly you become silent. The depth, the beauty, the grace, has touched you.


Similar is the case here: when a person who has achieved Brahman, who is enlightened, touches you, it is deeper than any flower can touch. It is deeper than any full moon can touch, it is deeper than anything in the world can touch you because the feeling of Brahman is the deepest, the ultimate core, the very ground. Just by being near such a person you are changed.


Hence so much insistence in India just to be near the master -- just to be NEAR the master! The very nearness goes on changing you because the depth calls your depth, the inner silence calls your inner silence, the bliss invokes your bliss. The very presence of a master is seductive. He goes on changing you, transforming you.
"SIR, TEACH ME THE UPANISHAD."


Now speaks the disciple. Up to now the master was speaking, and now the disciple asks the first and the last question -- the only question. This is beautiful... because he was simply waiting. You must not have even been aware that there was a disciple. Only the master was speaking, as if the disciple was not. He must have been just ears and eyes; he has not interrupted at all. Now, in the last moment, he asks for something:
"SIR, TEACH ME THE UPANISHAD."


The word upanishad means the esoteric teaching, the hidden teaching, the secret teaching. Upanishad means the secret path, the secret key -- the esoteric, the hidden, the unknown. Upanishad means the mystery. Asks the disciple: "SIR, TEACH ME THE UPANISHAD."
And the master says,
"THE UPANISHAD HAS BEEN IMPARTED TO YOU. WE HAVE VERILY IMPARTED TO YOU THE UPANISHAD RELATING TO BRAHMAN."


Here there is a very subtle and delicate point to be understood. The master has been teaching, talking, and the disciple must have been intensely, intellectually alert, aware, to understand whatsoever was said. And all that can be said has been said. All the knowledge relating to Brahman has been imparted. All that can be verbalized, all that can be spoken has been spoken.


And the student asks, the disciple asks, "Now teach me the Upanishad, the secret of secrets. What is the meaning of it?"


And the master says, "The Upanishad has already been imparted to you." The master is talking -- this is on one level -- and while the disciple is engaged in listening, on another level the secret is being imparted.


That is why the disciple is not aware: he is intellectually engaged. His attention is on the words but deep down something else is being transferred. And that transfer is the secret: that is the real Upanishad. But that cannot be said. It is a transfer without words, a communication without language.


Bodhidharma, one of the greatest masters India has ever produced, went to China. It is said about him that he came to China with a scripture that didn't exist -- with a scripture that didn't exist! He transferred the scripture without transferring anything at all. He must have been a past master in communicating things, silently, without words.


He used to sit looking at the wall; he would never look at his audience. Just his back would be toward you. He would never look at you; he would just look at the wall. And many people would ask Bodhidharma, "What type of way is this? What type of manners? What type of man are you? We have never seen anyone looking at the wall and we have come to listen to you."


Bodhidharma used to say, "When the right man comes I will turn toward him. And the right man is one who can understand me in silence. I am not interested in you at all."


And then one day a right man came and that right man said to Bodhidharma, "Turn toward me; otherwise I will cut off my head."


So Bodhidharma turned immediately and said, "So you have come? Now sit in silence and I will impart."


Not a single word was uttered in imparting and the other was made a master. And Bodhidharma disappeared. He had said, "I was waiting for this man for nine years." And the other became a master but not a single word was used.


There are layers in your being. The uppermost layer, the most superficial, understands language, and the deepest understands silence. And masters have to create devices. These teachings, verbal teachings, are just devices. I have just been talking to you....


One young man came to me just the other day and he said, "You are very contradictory. You go on saying nothing can be said and you go on talking every day continuously for three hours in the morning and in the evening. You are very contradictory. You say nothing can be said about that and yet you go on saying."


He is right, I am contradictory. Nothing can be said about that, and still I go on saying something. This something is just to catch your attention on one level so that on another level something can penetrate in silence.


The master says, "The Upanishad has already been imparted to you, and you are saying, 'Teach me, sir, the Upanishad.' And what have I been doing all the time?" But the disciple was engaged intellectually. He is not yet aware what has happened to him. The news has not yet reached to his intellect. It will take time.


So it happens. While you are here you may not have understood me but that doesn't make any difference. If there has been a contact in silence, it will take time for you to realize that something has happened within. The news will take time because intellect is very far away from the deepest center of you. If something happens there, you will not become aware. Rather, I will become aware first. So I go on looking at you while you are meditating, just to feel what is happening -- because you are not yet able to feel what is happening. It will take time. The message will come one day; it will travel; it will pass through all the centers and layers. And then it will come to your mind and then you will recognize -- but it may take years.


Someone very near to me was saying just the other day, "You have not done anything for me and I have been with you for two years." The news has not yet reached. It will take time.
The master says:
"THE UPANISHAD HAS BEEN IMPARTED TO YOU. WE HAVE VERILY IMPARTED TO YOU THE UPANISHAD RELATING TO BRAHMAN."
OF THE UPANISHAD, TAPAS -- AUSTERITIES; DAMAN -- SELF-RESTRAINT; AND KARMA -- DEDICATED WORK; FORM THE SUPPORT. THE VEDAS ARE ITS LIMBS AND TRUTH ITS ABODE.


In short, the master defines what the Upanishad calls tapas. Tapas means effort -- intense effort. When you bring your total energy to any effort it becomes tapas -- any effort! If your total energy is brought to it, it becomes tapas.


While doing meditation, if you withhold yourself it is not tapas. You are just making an effort which is so-so, on the surface. You are not deep in it, not moving in it totally. When you move in it totally, it creates heat; hence, the name tapas. Tapas means heat. When you move totally in any effort, it creates heat within you. Exactly that: it creates heat and that heat changes many things chemically. You become a different being. You become a different person through tapas because that heat changes you chemically. It makes a different type of personality for you.


Gurdjieff used methods of tapas very much in this age. He would give some method to you and he would say, "Bring your total effort to it. Not a single fragment should be left behind to watch it. Bring yourself totally in it, become the effort." And you may be surprised that any effort....


Gurdjieff would say to someone, "Go into the garden and dig a hole and bring total effort into the digging. Forget the digger completely; become the digging." And the man would go and he would dig and he would dig. The whole day he would have been digging. Then Gurdjieff would come and throw all the mud back and he would say, "This was useless. Start again tomorrow morning."


And the man would start again the next morning and this would go on for days and days. And he would come every evening and he would throw the mud back, and he would say, "Start again."


When the digger becomes the digging, when there is no one left behind, when the whole being has moved into effort, it becomes tapas; it becomes a subtle heat.


The master says tapas and DAMAN. Daman is self-restraint, not suppression. This word daman has been very wrongly used. It is not suppression; it is self-restraint. And there is a deep difference.


While doing meditation, while standing in silence, you may feel a sneeze coming. You can suppress it, you can start fighting with it, then it is suppression. But if you simply remain indifferent, if you do not do anything about it, if you do not suppress and you do not express, if you do not do anything about it and you simply remain indifferent, this is self-restraint. You remain in yourself. You don't move towards the sneeze to do anything.


If you move to express it, you have come out of yourself. If you move to suppress it, again you have come out of yourself. You simply remain in yourself as if the sneeze is happening to someone else -- you are not concerned. You don't suppress it, you don't fight with it. You simply remain indifferent, a witness. That is self-restraint.


Suppression is easy because you are allowed to do something. Self-restraint is very difficult because you are not allowed to do anything. You are to remain passive, a non-doer, non-active, simply watching.


... TAPAS, DAMAN AND KARMA -- DEDICATED WORK -- FORM THE SUPPORT. These three things form the support of the secret teaching, of the Upanishad. Dedicated work -- all karma, all action, is not KARMA. When a karma is dedicated; when a karma is egoless; when a karma becomes a sort of prayer, a meditation; when a karma is only outwardly a karma and inwardly something else is reaching toward the divine; then it is karma -- then it is dedicated work.


For example, you are serving an old man or an ill man. If you can make it a meditation, if you can make it a prayer; if you can see the divine, 'that', in that old, ill man; if you serve not to achieve anything, you serve to be in deep meditation -- in this moment your service becomes meditation. Then it becomes karma. If you want to achieve anything out of it, it will create a chain of cause and effect.


If you want this old man -- he may even be your father -- to have property, a bank balance, if your eyes are on the bank balance, then it is not karma. But the bank balance can be there in many shapes: you may be serving this old man to achieve heaven; that again is a bank balance. You may be serving this old man because you have been taught that service leads to God; then again it is a sort of bank balance. You are not HERE. Your mind is somewhere else.


When karma is totally here and now, when your mind is not moving anywhere else into the future, then it doesn't create any chain. In this very moment it becomes a meditation.
<p class="sutra">THESE THREE -- TAPAS -- AUSTERITIES; DAMAN -- SELF-RESTRAINT; AND KARMA -- DEDICATED WORK; FORM THE SUPPORT. THE VEDAS ARE ITS LIMBS.
VEDA is a beautiful word: it simply means knowledge. Whatsoever has been known about the Brahman, wherever, it is all Vedas. So I call The Bible a Veda and I call the Koran a Veda; to me there are thousands and thousands of Vedas. And whenever a person becomes enlightened, whatsoever he says is a Veda. So the Vedas are not only four. The word Veda comes from VID; vid means to know. And wherever this knowing is accumulated, wherever this knowing is symbolized, it becomes a Veda.</p>
<p class="sutra">THE VEDAS ARE ITS LIMBS AND TRUTH ITS ABODE.</p>


These three things have to be remembered: make intense effort so that an inner heat is born and changes you chemically; be in a self-restraint so that you become more self-centered, unmoving, unwavering, centered, rooted; and make your work a karma -- a dedicated prayer, a meditation. Try to know all that has been known before. Not that through it you will come to truth but all that will become a help. It can also become a barrier if you become too much attached to it. Otherwise, it will be a help, an indicator.


Ultimately truth is the abode -- and truth means that. And that comes to you when you live a life of suchness.
<p class="sutra">ONE WHO REALIZES IT -- KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN -- THUS DESTROYS SIN AND IS WELL ESTABLISHED IN BRAHMAN, THE INFINITE, THE BLISSFUL AND THE HIGHEST.</p>
			

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> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
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