---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "FISH"
dategiven: "17 April 1979 am"
place: " in Buddha Hall"
chapternum: "Chapter #7"
chaptertitle: "It is Morning Swan, Wake Up!"
acode: "7904170"
shorttitle: "FISH07"
audio: "Yes"
video: "No"
esttime: "99mins"
displaytitle: "The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty: Chapter #7"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
<!--This file is automatically generated. Do not edit!-->
<p class="sutra">SWAN, I'D LIKE YOU TO TELL ME YOUR WHOLE STORY!
WHERE YOU FIRST APPEARED, AND WHAT DARK SAND
YOU ARE GOING TOWARD,
AND WHERE YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT, AND WHAT YOU ARE
LOOKING FOR....</p>
<p class="sutra">IT'S MORNING, SWAN, WAKE UP, CLIMB IN THE AIR,
FOLLOW ME!
I KNOW OF A COUNTRY THAT SPIRITUAL FLATNESS
DOES NOT CONTROL, NOR CONSTANT DEPRESSION,
AND THOSE ALIVE ARE NOT AFRAID TO DIE.
THERE WILD FLOWERS COME UP THROUGH THE LEAFY FLOOR,
AMD THE FRAGRANCE OF 'I AM HE' FLOATS ON THE WIND.
THERE THE BEE OF THE HEART STAYS DEEP INSIDE THE FLOWER,
AND CARES FOR NO OTHER THING.</p>
<p class="sutra">DON'T GO OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE TO SEE FLOWERS.
MY FRIEND, DON'T BOTHER WITH THAT EXCURSION.
INSIDE YOUR BODY THERE ARE FLOWERS.
ONE FLOWER HAS A THOUSAND PETALS.
THAT WILL DO FOR A PLACE TO SIT.
SITTING THERE YOU WILL HAVE A GLIMPSE OF BEAUTY
INSIDE THE BODY AND OUT OF IT,
BEFORE GARDENS AND AFTER GARDENS.</p>


MAN IS AWAKE AND YET NOT AWAKE. His wakefulness is very thin, his wakefulness is almost of no use. He is not asleep, that is true, but he is not awake either -- he is in limbo, in the middle. He has awakened from the world of animals, but he is fast asleep to the world of gods.


Man is a transitory period. Man is not a being but a becoming -- on the way. The past is left behind and the future is not attained yet. Hence the agony, the anguish: man is torn apart. The past pulls him back. To be an animal again seems to be pleasant, and it is, because it has not the agony of man and the anguish and the anxiety of man.


If you watch the animals you will feel jealous. Walt Whitman has written it exactly in his diaries that: "Whenever I see animals, I feel jealous. We have missed something."


We have not missed really, but the peace, the calm, the collectedness of the animal is lost. The animal is happy because he is unaware -- unaware of death, unaware of the problems of life. The animal is happy because there is no consciousness. Consciousness first brings pain, because suddenly you become aware of a thousand and one problems facing you. You have to encounter them, you have to solve them or dissolve them. All peace disappears.


But human consciousness is still worthwhile. And I don't agree with Walt Whitman, I agree with Socrates who say.: "I would like to be a discontented Socrates rather than a contented pig." The statement of Socrates is of immense value. It has to be understood by every seeker, because the goal is ahead; there is no going back. The pig may look contented -- because he is not aware, not really because he is contented. But to know discontent one needs consciousness.


There is something ahead; something more has to happen. Something HAS happened, but only partially. Look back and you find the pig contented; look ahead, and you see Buddhas contented. You can become a Buddha! A Buddha means one who is conscious and contented. The pig is one who is unconscious and contented. And the man is just between the two: a little bit conscious, just a little bit. Conscious enough to be aware of the pain of life and the misery and the suffering, but not conscious enough to be aware of the ecstasies that life makes available.


Just a little consciousness is enough to be aware of pain. But much more awareness is needed, much more consciousness is needed, to be aware of the deeper realms of your inner kingdom.


Man is in a kind of drunkenness: awake and yet not awake. Man sees a little bit, and yet everything seems to be dark, just shadows moving in the dark are felt. But nothing is absolutely clear; there is no clarity, no transparency, no light.


This is the state of man. And we cannot go back because there is no possibility of going back. Man tries hard to go back -- through sex, through food, through alcohol, through drugs -- man tries somehow to drown this little bit of consciousness that has arisen in him. But it comes back again and again, because whatsoever has been Learnt has been learnt for ever -- it cannot be unlearnt.


It has happened in your being. Now there is no way to discard it. You have to live with it. The only possibility is to move ahead, to grow more into awareness: if it has brought pain, then go deep into pain, but become more and more aware. Use pain as an object of awareness, as an object of meditation.


You are sad -- be aware. Let sadness become your meditation. You are angry -- be aware. You are in love -- be aware. Use all possibilities, all opportunities to be more and more aware. Slowly slowly, the momentum gathers, and one day something explodes in you. That explosion is known in the East as the flowering of the one-thousand-petalled lotus -- Kabir will talk about this lotus in these sutras. And Kabir is talking about you; first a few metaphors have to be understood.


The swan is one of the metaphors most used by the Eastern mystics. The swan lives beyond the Himalayas, his home is beyond the Himalayas, in the Lake Mansarovar. The Lake Mansarovar is the purest lake in the world -- very rarely does a human being reach there -- uncontaminated, unpolluted, surrounded by the Himalayan beauty, virgin peaks.


The swan is born there, lives there, but when it becomes TOO cold the swan has to come to this side of the Himalayas, to the plains. And sometimes it happens: a swan forgets the way to go back. And sometimes it happens: a swan simply forgets that he has a home somewhere, starts living by the side of dirty rivers, dirty ponds, muddy places.


Hence, the swan became a tremendously potent metaphor for man. Man comes from God but has forgotten from where he comes, who he is. Man comes from God, from the holiest of the holies, and goes on living by the side of dirty rivers, muddy pools of water. Of course, he cannot be contented here, but he knows no other place to go. He is lost. This world seems to be the only world.


The Eastern mystics use the metaphor of the swan for man. Kabir says:


HANSA KARO PURATAN BAT.
Swan, it would be good if we remember
the primordial days,
the days when you had not left the home yet.
It would be good if we remember the home.
<p class="sutra">SWAN, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO TELL ME YOUR WHOLE STORY!</p>


Tell me your whole story! But if somebody asks you what story you have to tell, birth seems to be the beginning -- which it is not -- and death seems to be the end -- which it is not. Birth and death, both are episodes in your long life, and they have happened millions of times.


The true story can begin only when you remember your real home, from where you come. And the real story can never end, because the real story is not only your story -- it is the story of consciousness, of evolving consciousness, of evolution. It is not only your story -- it is God's story. There is no beginning and there is no end.


Once you become full of this nostalgia for the origins, then you will be surprised that you have become aware of the goal too -- because the origin is the goal, the source is the goal. We have to go to the same space from where we come, then the circle is perfect. And in that perfection is beauty, in that perfection is blessing, that perfection is benediction.
<p class="sutra">SWAN, I'D LIKE YOU TO TELL ME YOUR WHOLE STORY!</p>


ONLY A BUDDHA CAN TELL HIS WHOLE STORY, only one who has become totally awakened. You can talk about your dreams, but that is not your story. You are dreaming, desiring, thinking, but you know nothing. And the less you know, the more you believe in your dreams -- because one has to keep oneself occupied. The less you know, the more you desire -- just to avoid your inner ignorance and emptiness. You rush in all directions; you go on rushing, you don't give yourself a little rest, because the lest seems to be explosive, dangerous.


And rest is meditation. Finding at least one or two hours out of the hustle and bustle of life, sitting silently doing nothing, you may start moving inwards, you may start remembering something, the origins -- because deep down the memory of where you come from is still there. You may have forgotten it but it is there, maybe covered with rubbish, all kinds of rubbish, but that rubbish can be removed.


That's what meditation is all about: removing the rubbish -- of thoughts, memories, dreams, desires, imaginations. And if you can remove all this rubbish that your head has gathered, your heart will start remembering. And once the source is remembered, the goal is known -- because, let me repeat, the source is the goal. We have to reach the same place from where we come.
<p class="sutra">SWAN, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO TELL ME YOUR WHOLE STORY!
The original has some beauty in it:</p>


HANSA KARO PURATAN BAT --
Let us talk of the old days, swan.
Let us remember the old days, the ancient days.
Let us remember the beginnings.
Let us talk again about the source.


And Kabir is talking to his disciples, remember. He is calling his disciples swans -- HANSA.
<p class="sutra">WHERE YOU FIRST APPEARED, AND WHAT DARK SAND
YOU ARE GOING TOWARD...</p>


"From where do you come, and to where are you going? Let us be very particular about it." That is the work of a Master: to remind the disciple from where he comes and to where he is going. Otherwise, people go on moving with the crowd... wherever others are going. People remain imitators; people remain just followers, followers of the blind -- the blind following the blind.


Your parents were following their parents, you are follow-ing your parents, your children will follow you -- and nobody knows from where you come and where you are going. And everybody is trying... not at all aware of what really your need is, what is going to fulfill you. More money? More houses? More power? Are these things going to help? Have they helped others?


Just be a little more observant. There is an ancient story:


The last initiation was going to be given to the disciple. The Master said, "Your last initiation will be given in a very indirect way." The disciple had passed all the hurdles that the Master had put in his way; he had proved his mettle. Now the last initiation... and once he has passed the last initiation, he will be declared enlightened The disciple touched the feet of the Master and said, "I am ready. Just order me and I will do whatsoever needs to be done."


The Master said, "You will have to go to the King, and go early in the morning; be the first visitor to the King. Because the King has a habit: whosoever comes to him first, whatsoever he asks, the King gives. But the country is so rich that it is very rare that anybody goes. Years pass and nobody goes to ask for anything. But don't take any chances -- be there very early. The King comes in the morning into his garden, as the sun rises the King enters the garden -- be there. And he will ask you, 'What do you want?' And whatsoever you want, ask him."


The disciple could not understand what kind of initiation this last one was. But the order had to be followed. He went. He didn't take any chance: three o'clock early in the morning he was waiting for the King.


As the sun was rising, the King entered. The young man bowed down to the King; the King said, "Have you come to ask for something? You can ask for anything! Whatsoever you ask, I will give it to you."


A great desire possessed the young man. He was a poor man, had come from a very poor family, "And the King says whatsoever...?" To be certain, he asked again, "What do you mean by 'whatsoever'?"


The King said, "Exactly that I mean -- whatsoever. Even if you demand my kingdom I will give it to you. You can ask for as much money as you want..."


The poor young man could not think much. He thought, "Maybe ten thousand rupees will do." But a desire came that "Why ten thousand? You may never get such a chance again -- why not one hundred thousand?"


And then another desire, and desires upon desires... because mind constantly asks for more. So whatsoever he decided, the mind was still asking for more.


The King said, "It seems you are not yet ready to ask. I will go for my morning walk, meanwhile you decide. And when I return, whatsoever you ask will be given to you."


That half an hour was a torture. He went on and on, "I can ask for this and that, and a golden chariot, and so many millions of rupees, and so much land -- I will create a small kingdom of my own."


Desires and dreams... and the King came; that half hour had passed so fast. The King was standing there and he said, "Young man, have you not decided yet?"


And then suddenly the young man thought, "Whatsoever I ask will be less than the King has, so why not ask for all? Be finished with the figures!"


So he said, "Sir, if you are so willing to give, I ask for every-thing! -- all that you have. Your whole kingdom, all your riches, your palaces -- everything. You simply get out of the palace! And you cannot go back in. You may take something. You simply get out -- forget all about it. I can allow you only these clothes that you are wearing."


Even that he did reluctantly; even that much he would have less.


The King fell on his knees, started praying to God, tears rolling down from his eyes -- of great joy, ecstasy! And he was thanking God saying "I have been waiting for such a man. How long I waited! But finally you heard my prayer, and now he has come and I am free of all this nonsense. Thank you! You heard my prayer, although it has been so long and I had to wait so long, but still you heard it. I am grateful."


When he was saying these things to God, the young man was standing there and he started thinking, "What is the matter? If this man is feeling so happy renouncing the kingdom, what am I getting into? If this man has been praying for thirty years, as he is saying, 'Send a man who can take my whole kingdom, who can ask for my whole kingdom!' -- if for thirty years he has been praying, then it is not worthwhile at all. I am getting into unnecessary trouble."


He also fell on his knees, touched the King's feet and said, "Sir, I am a young man -- I am a young fool. Please excuse me. I don't want anything. Your prayer to God, your thankfulness to God has finished my whole mind. I am going back to the forest to my Master."


The King tried to persuade him, "Don't go. Just have a look. Come into the palace! I will not only give you my palace, my kingdom, my riches, but my beautiful daughter also. Come and just have a look!"


But the young man said, "I cannot stay here, not even a single moment -- because the mind can betray me. An insight has happened, and I am thankful to you just as you are thankful to God. I am finished!"


And when the young man reached back to his Master and told the whole story, the Master said, "Your last initiation is over. Now nothing will ever make a slave of you. Now you are alert, conscious, free. You have passed -- I am happy. I was watching from here, and when you had asked for the whole kingdom, my heart was crying. I was thinking, 'So, fifteen years' work on this fool, and all finished.' You can't imagine my happiness," said the Master, "that you are back, that you could see the point, that you were observant."


Be observant, just watch.... People HAVE money, people have great palaces, people have all that you can desire -- just watch, just see: are they happy? are they contented? They may be more happy than you are and more discontented than you are -- then don't follow them. They are blind! They have followed other blind people. Don't follow them, don't imitate the crowd.


The really religious person is one who gets out of the entanglement of the mass psychology, of the mass hypnosis. The mass conditions you: rebel against it; go out of this mass conditioning, become an individual. Then only can you re-member from where you come, because only then will you know who you are.


Right now you know you are a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Christian. You are not all these things: you are neither white nor black, you are neither man nor woman -- you are just a pure consciousness with no adjectives attached to it. There is no frame to this consciousness; this consciousness is infinite. If you drop the mass conditionings you will be coming closer home.


HANSA KARO PURATAN BAT --
Let us talk of those ancient times
when we were at the source.
<p class="sutra">SWAN, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO TELL ME YOUR WHOLE STORY!
WHERE YOU FIRST APPEARED, AND WHAT DARK SAND
YOU ARE GOING TOWARD...</p>


YOU ARE COMING FROM LIGHT, SO wherever you are going you must be going towards darkness. And that's what happens.


A child has more light in his being; as he grows he becomes darker and darker and darker. By the time he is old he is just a dark night of the soul and nothing else. A child is more luminous, is more intelligent, more alert. And as time passes and dust gathers on him, layers and layers of dust, and all his intelligence disappears, he becomes mediocre. He starts behaving in stupid ways, because he falls a victim to the stupid crowd that surrounds him. He is helpless -- he has to listen to the parents, to the teachers, to the politicians. They are the great leaders, they are the great priests -- they know, and they all say, "We love you. Listen to us otherwise you will go astray. Obey us, otherwise you will go astray."


Obedience has been one of the greatest calamities that has befallen humanity. One should be capable of disobeying. I am not saying to make disobeying your religion; I am simply saying one should be capable of disobeying. In fact, the person who is capable of disobeying is also capable of obeying. The person who is only capable of obeying, his obedience carries no value. The person who cannot say no, his yes is always impotent. Only the person who can say no, his yes has power, meaning, significance. He says yes only when he means it.


And one should be alert enough to say no to all that takes you deeper and deeper into the mire of darkness, of blindness, of superstitiousness. And one should be capable of saying yes to anything that takes you towards the light, towards love, towards life. And it is up to you! If you say yes to darkness you will be saying no to light. If you move towards darkness you will have to keep your back towards the light. And it is only a question of a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn -- a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn and you are in front of the light that you have been searching and seeking. But your ways, your methods, your habits, your patterns of thinking, were all taking you towards darker and darker realms of life.
<p class="sutra">WHERE YOU FIRST APPEARED, AND WHAT DARK SAND
YOU ARE GOING TOWARD,
AND WHERE YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT...</p>


This is a night in which you are living, and the life that you call life is nothing but a sleep -- full of dreams. Sometimes you even dream that you are awake; that too is a dream.
Just the other night I was reading a story:


A man came to the lake and told the fisherman, "I am Jesus Christ!"


The fisherman looked at him and laughed, and he said, "Jesus has been dead for two thousand years -- are you mad or something?"


The man said, But I am Jesus Christ. Have you not heard that after he was crucified he was resurrected -- and since then I have not died? Have you ever heard when Jesus died after resurrection?"


The fisherman thought, "Either he is very drunk or gone nuts." He said, "Then you will have to prove it: Jesus did miracles...


And the man was very happy; he said, "Yes, what miracle do you want me to do?"
The fisherman said, "Then walk on the lake."


And the madman walked... and drowned. The fisherman jumped in, somehow pulled him out; asked him, "What happened?"


He said, "That time my shoes did not have any holes. Two thousand years of wandering on the earth, and the shoes are full of holes -- that's what happened."


Mad people have their own logic. Blind people have their own logic. People who are fast asleep have their own logic -- logic that supports their sleep.


One man suddenly became certain that he was dead. There was no way to prove that he was not, so he was taken to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist tried hard to convince him in every possible way, all kinds of arguments -- but how can you prove to a man...? He said, "But I am dead -- with whom are you talking? I am not, I am no more. This is not a dialogue, this is a monologue -- you are talking with yourself, you have gone mad."


Suddenly an idea struck the psychiatrist. He said, "Okay, you come close to the mirror." And then he brought a needle, pushed the needle into the madman's hand -- before pushing the needle in he asked, "Do you think dead men bleed?"
He said, "No. How can a dead man bleed?"


He pushed the needle in, blood started oozing out. The psychiatrist was very happy and he said, "Now look!"


Do you know what the madman said? He said, "What is there to look at? That simply proves that dead men do bleed."


You can go on supporting your illusions -- very logically. You can go on thinking you are awake and you can remain asleep. Kabir says:
<p class="sutra">... AND WHERE YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT, AND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR....</p>


Ask these questions deep down in your own heart: What are you looking for? Where are you? Where are you asleep? In what space are you asleep?


Rothstein owed a hundred dollars to Weiner. The debt was past due and Rothstein was broke, so he borrowed the hundred dollars from Spivak and paid Weiner.


A week later, Rothstein borrowed back the hundred dollars from Weiner and paid Spivak. Another week went by and Rothstein borrowed back the hundred dollars from Spivak to pay Weiner.


He repeated this transaction several times, until finally he called them up and said, "Fellas, this is a lotta bother. Why don't you two exchange the hundred dollars every week and keep me out of it!"


This is what is happening here, everywhere in the world. You can learn how to keep yourself out of it, and that is the secret of awareness. This transaction will continue; the world will remain a marketplace -- it was so before, it will remain so afterwards too. But you can be out of this transaction -- you can be a witness to it. You can slip out of your identity. It is your identity where you are asleep. It is your ego where you are asleep.


The ego means simply that the self is asleep. The moment the self awakes, the ego disappears, is not found any more.


Andrews, a white Georgia farmer, hired Monroe, a black, to chop some wood. Monroe took the axe and began hacking away. But in a little while the farmer noticed Monroe sitting in the shade, watching another negro do the work.
"Why you sittin' there doing nothing when I am paying you to cut the wood?" asked Andrews. "How come you got somebody else doing it?"
"I hired him to do it for me," said Monroe.
"Is that a fact," said the white man. "How much are you paying him?"
"I am paying him a dollar and a quarter," answered Monroe. "Why would you want to do that?" snorted the white man. "I am paying you only a dollar!"
"I know," said the black, "but it is worth a quarter to be boss for once."


The ego is constantly in search of being a boss -- whatsoever the cost, at any cost. You are losing your whole opportunity of life just to fulfill a shadowy, non-substantial notion -- the notion of ego: "I am somebody." Nobody is nobody. We are all one; we are not separate.


At the source we are one, at the goal we will be one again. Just in this dark night when we have fallen asleep we are having private dreams. Remember, the real is universal, the unreal is private. You cannot even invite your girlfriend into your dream -- hence it is false. It is so private you cannot share it. Anything that is so private is bound to be false, and there is nothing more private than the ego -- and that is the center of all your dreaming mind, sleeping mind.


And people go on wasting their whole lives, not even knowing what they are looking for. Do you know exactly what you are looking for? Do you have some idea? Do you have some sense of direction?


IT IS MORNING, SWAN, SAYS Kabir, wake up, CLIMB IN THE AIR, FOLLOW ME!
The original has something more:
<p class="sutra">AB HI HANSA CHET SABERA --
Now is the morning, swan...</p>


NOW has to be remembered. The translation has missed something:
<p class="sutra">IT IS MORNING, SWAN, WAKE UP...</p>


The original says: It is ALWAYS morning -- NOW wake up, because now is the morning. The present is always light, the present is always sunrise. Being in the past or being in the future, you go on missing the light, the door from where light penetrates you.


AB HI HANSA CHET SABERA -- This is the door, now is the time -- now or never!
<p class="sutra">IT IS MORNING, SWAN, WAKE UP, CLIMB IN THE AIR, FOLLOW ME!</p>
<p class="sutra">AND ONE CAN WAKE UP ONLY IF ONE STARTS CLIMBING IN THE AIR.</p>


This is a metaphor, a mystic metaphor. It means: you start moving into the world of quality, not into the world of quantity. People live in the world of quantity: more money, more power, more prestige, more respectability. These are all quantities.


You have so much -- you can double it, treble it, you can have it thousandfold, but it is all quantity. There is a different dimension: the dimension of quality. For example, you can have one sex experience, you can have two, you can have three, you can have four; then it is quantity. But if your sex experience starts becoming more a love experience, and your love experience starts becoming more a prayer experience, then it is quality.


Quantity is horizontal, quality is vertical. Once you start changing qualitatively, you start soaring high, you move in the vertical world. Matter is horizontal, spirit is vertical. That is basically the meaning of the symbol of the cross. The cross is not a Christian symbol, remember; the cross is older than Christ; it is a very ancient symbol. The cross simply means that life has two dimensions: one horizontal, one vertical. If you live on the horizontal you will live asleep -- that's why when you have to go to sleep you have to be in a horizontal position; lying down in the bed, you become horizontal. When you wake up, you stand up, you become vertical.


Now, even scientists will agree with it, that all that has happened to man, all evolution, has happened because man some day in the past decided not to walk on four but to stand on two feet. Man became vertical -- that was the moment when evolution started. Man was no more animal. Animals are horizontal: man became vertical.


Just the physical verticality, and so much has happened to man. Think of spiritual verticality, think of the spiritual verti-cal dimension, and you cannot even imagine what is possible, you cannot even dream about it. You have no idea at all! You need not be beggars then -- the whole kingdom, the whole universe, with all its beauty and joy, is yours.
<p class="sutra">IT IS MORNING, SWAN, WAKE UP, CLIMB IN THE AIR...!
I KNOW OF A COUNTRY THAT SPIRITUAL FLATNESS
DOES NOT CONTROL, NOR CONSTANT DEPRESSION,
AND THOSE ALIVE ARE NOT AFRAID TO DIE.</p>


Kabir says: I KNOW OF A COUNTRY... I know of a space -- if you come with me, if you dare to come with me, it needs daring, if you are courageous enough to soar with me, if you are ready to leave the muddy pools where you have made your abodes, to go to the Himalayas, beyond the Himalayas, to the purest lake, Mansarovar.... The word MANSAROVAR IS also beautiful -- it means the lake of consciousness.
<p class="sutra">I KNOW OF A COUNTRY THAT SPIRITUAL FLATNESS DOES NOT CONTROL...</p>


Here, in the name of spirituality, something pseudo, something false is being sold. The temples and the mosques and the churches and the gurudwaras, they are selling you something which has nothing to do with spirituality. Nanak had something to give, but Nanak is no more. And Mohammed had something to give, but he is no more. Now there are only dead traditions. You will have to find an alive Master who KNOWS OF A COUNTRY WHERE SPIRITUAL FLATNESS DOES NOT CONTROL.


In this world. very spiritually flat people are thought to be saints. In fact, the more spiritually flat you are, the more spiritually stupid you are, the more you will be respected by the masses -- because the more you will oblige the masses by being according to their ideas of what a saint should be. Only mediocre, stupid people can follow the masses, can fulfill their expectations.


A man who has any courage, a man who has any guts, is bound to be a rebel. He will not be worshipped as a saint in his life -- he will be worshipped as a saint only when he is gone. People worship dead saints: either you have to be dead while alive -- they will worship you -- or they will wait: when you really die and nothing of you is left, and the whole fragrance has evaporated, then they will worship you.


Jesus they crucified, and crucified Jesus they worship. Socrates they killed, poisoned, and now for centuries they have honoured him as one of the greatest human beings who has ever walked on the earth. Mansoor they murdered, butchered, and now Sufis go on claiming that he is one of the greatest Sufis. When he was being killed, even these Sufis were standing in the crowd and watching. And nobody even protested -- not even a very famous Sufi, Junaid, who was present in the crowd and who knew perfectly well that Mansoor was innocent, that Mansoor's declaration "I am God!" was not against God.


Mansoor's declaration that "I am God!" was not a sin. In fact, Mansoor was no more there -- God had declared himself through him. Junaid knew it, but still was afraid of the crowd, kept quiet. And when people were throwing stones and mud to humiliate and to insult the dying man, he also threw a roseflower -- for two reasons. Must have been a very diplomatic mind: so people knew that he was also throwing something, that he was not in favour of Mansoor, and Mansoor would know that he had not thrown a stone or mud -- he had thrown a roseflower. But the story is tremendously beautiful...


When he was being hit by stones and his whole body was oozing blood, he was laughing, he was in a state of celebration, because he was being sacrificed in the name of God. It was a moment to celebrate! But when he was hit by the roseflower, he wept -- the story says Mansoor wept.


Somebody standing nearby asked him, "What is the matter with you? Stones are being thrown at you; all over the body you have been wounded, blood is flowing from everywhere, and you kept laughing and smiling. And a roseflower hit you, and you wept?"


Mansoor said, "Yes, because the man who has thrown the roseflower knows that I am innocent. Still he is not courageous enough to say so. The others who are throwing stones at me are ignorant -- I am praying for them, I am praying to God, 'Forgive them because they know not what they are doing.' But I cannot pray for this man who has thrown the rose, that's why I am crying and weeping. What should I do now? I cannot say to God, 'Forgive this man because he knows not what he is doing' -- he knows perfectly well what he is doing, and he knows perfectly well that I am absolutely innocent."


When he said these words, Junaid disappeared into the crowd, became very much afraid: people might catch hold of him.


Now, Sufis go on claiming that Mansoor was one of the greatest enlightened people of the world, now they worship him.


The ways of man are very strange. This world is really very flat as far as spirituality is concerned. And the so-called spirituality is very boring too. And the so-called spirituality is more or less rubbish -- rubbish that has gathered down the ages: theories, thoughts, systems, but not a single iota of experience.
Hence Kabir says:


I KNOW OF A COUNTRY THAT SPIRITUAL FLATNESS DOES NOT CONTROL... Come with me! I can take you to a space where all these fools are no more pretending to be spiritual, where all these dull, stupid fellows are no more thought to be saints.


A priest dies. At the Pearly Gates he is given a warm welcome by Saint Peter, who presents him the keys of a small, old, rotten car and a small one-bedroom apartment. When he gets there, there is another pleasant surprise for him, for his next door neighbour turns out to be a parson who had been a good friend of his Down Below.


They decide to stroll down to the Pearly Gates to check out the action, and they are horrified when they spot a certain rabbi strolling through the Pearly Gates as though he own the place. For they knew this particular rabbi only too well, and he had been the scandal of their community. Sodomy, usury -- name any vice, he had committed it. The two reverends were even more horrified when Saint Peter bowed low to the rabbi, told him what an honour it was to have him in Heaven, and presented him with keys to a Rolls Royce, a town house and a country house.
"This is outrageous!" priest and parson storm at Saint Peter. "We lead pious, godfearing lives and all we get are small cars and small apartments. But this schmuck of a rabbi, he does everything vile, yet you give him a Rolls Royce, a town house, and a country house. How come?"
"Well, I am sorry, gentlemen," Saint Peter apologizes, "but he is a relative of the management."


Kabir is not talking about a country like this. He is not talking about the heaven of your imagination. Your heaven will be an exact replica of this world; maybe a little bit decorated here and there, modified, a little better -- a better standard of living, but not real life.
Kabir is talking of an inner space:
<p class="sutra">I KNOW OF A COUNTRY THAT SPIRITUAL FLATNESS
DOES NOT CONTROL, NOR CONSTANT DEPRESSION.</p>


In this world you will find two types of people: one who is just boringly religious, flat; another who is just worldly, but depressed. The pseudo religious at least hopes that something great is going to happen after death, but the worldly man does not even have that hope -- he is very depressed. You can see this...


In India you will feel the difference from the West. India is a flat spiritual country, but people are in a way hopeful. Life is short, and soon it will be gone, and then the paradise and all the joys; and the more you suffered in life, the more you will be rewarded. So carry on, be patient.


In the West, people are not flatly spiritual, and they have no hope, no future, no life after death. Then there is great depression, then they are very heavy, as if they are carrying mountains of worries, anxieties.
Both states are wrong.
Kabir says:
<p class="sutra">... AND THOSE ALIVE ARE NOT AFRAID TO DIE.
I KNOW OF A COUNTRY...</p>


... where people know death is a lie, where people know that life is eternal. I know a space where you will also be able to see and feel and experience that life never begins, never ends -- that death is only a change of garments.
<p class="sutra">THERE WILD FLOWERS COME UP THROUGH THE LEAFY FLOOR,
AND THE FRAGRANCE OF 'I AM HE' FLOATS ON THE WIND.
THERE THE BEE OF THE HEART STAYS DEEP INSIDE
THE,FLOWER.
AND CARES FOR NO OTHER THING.</p>


He is talking about the inner space, the inner silence, the contentless consciousness, samadhi.
<p class="sutra">THERE WILD FLOWERS COME UP...</p>


Wild because they are spontaneous, wild because no gardener has tended to them, wild because they are SO full of life -- they are not civilized, cultured, pale -- so full of blood and so full of juice. Wild because you have not seen them yet, not even in your imagination do they cast any shadows.
<p class="sutra">THERE WILD FLOWERS COME UP THROUGH THE LEAFY FLOOR,
AND THE FRAGRANCE OF 'I AM HE' FLOATS ON THE WIND.
NOW THIS IS SOMETHING UNTRANSLATABLE. The Sanskrit word that Kabir uses is SOHAM. Literally it means 'I am he' -- 'I am that.' But that is not the point. SOHAM is not a word but a sound. If you become utterly silent, you will hear this sound arising from the deepest core of your being: SOHAM. It is not a word; it is a sound, pure sound. It is a kind of inner music which is heard when all the noise of the mind has left you. Because it is heard only when the mind has left you, when there are no longer any thoughts to disturb, no interference, the whole world forgotten, and you are in absolute aloneness, and everything has stopped, time has stopped, space has disappeared, when there is only pure consciousness vibrating -- that's what Zen people call the sound of one hand CLAPPING: SOHAM -- because this sound is heard only when you have reached the very center of your being, and because with this sound, once heard, you become absolutely certain, not convinced, not that you start believing, you become absolutely certain through knowing that 'I am he' -- hence the sound has gathered a meaning around it, but basically it is a sound.</p>


And the mystics say that the whole existence is full of this sound, SOHAM. Whenever you are silent, you will hear it. This is the voice of God, and this voice reveals to you who you are.
<p class="sutra">... AND THE FRAGRANCE OF 'I AM HE' -- SOHAM -- FLOATS ON THE WIND.
THERE THE BEE OF THE HEART STAYS DEEP INSIDE THE FLOWER...</p>


Then who wants to go out? The sound of SOHAM showers on you as nectar. Then who wants to go out? for what? All that you have been desiring is suddenly fulfilled; all that you have asked is given. The door is open.
<p class="sutra">THERE THE BEE OF THE HEART STAYS DEEP INSIDE THE FLOWER, AND CARES FOR NO OTHER THING.</p>
<p class="sutra">DON'T GO OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE TO SEE FLOWERS.
MY FRIEND, DON'T BOTHER WITH THAT EXCURSION.
INSIDE YOUR BODY THERE ARE FLOWERS.</p>


HE IS INDICATING TOWARDS THE SEVEN CENTERS -- the seven chakras. Those seven chakras are called seven flowers. We become aware only of the first, and that too in a very dim and dismal way -- a sound heard from far away, or just an echo. We become aware of the first center only, the sex center, and that too only once in a while.


All your sexual experiences don't bring you to the awareness of the flower. Only when you have a deep orgasm, only when you have a total orgasm, when your whole body pulsates with joy, when each fiber of your body dances with joy, when each cell of your body goes mad, wild with joy -- then only do you become aware of the first flower.


Even that is very rare; not more than one percent of people become aware of it. Ninety-nine percent know sex only as a relief; they don't know its orgasmic quality. Even if they think they are having an orgasm, it is not orgasm -- it is just genital relief.


Orgasm has nothing to do with genitals as such. Genitals are involved in it, but orgasm is total -- from the head to the toes, it is all over you. Nothing is being held behind. A total involvement in the moment, a total merger -- then you become aware of the first flower.


And there are six higher flowers, and as you move higher, deeper orgasmic experiences are waiting for you. The seventh, the last, is called SAHASRAR -- the one-thousand-petalled lotus. And when the seventh, that is in the head, opens up, you have transcended humanity, you are no more a human being. You may be in the human body, but you are a God.


The Western mind finds it very difficult; they cannot understand why we call Buddha a God, why we call Mahavira a God, why we call Krishna a God. They don't even call Jesus a God; they only call him 'the son of God'. Their idea of God is: one who created the world.


But in the East we have gone far deeper than that. Nobody has ever created the world; in the Christian sense there is no God at all. God is not a creator but the creativity, the energy that has become manifest in existence. God is in the tree, in the rock, in the river, in you, in me. But then why do we call Buddha a God if God is everywhere? Buddha has awakened to his godliness, others are fast asleep.


By calling Buddha a God we don't mean that he created the world, we don't mean that he controls the world -- we simply mean that he has attained to the seventh orgasm, that he has come to the seventh flowering, that the ultimate has opened in him, that he is no more an individual, that he has become universal.


Your head has an opening.... Just try to understand: your sex center has an opening; that opening joins you with nature, that opening takes you downwards. Exactly like the sex center, on the opposite pole, is SAHASRAR -- that opens upwards. Just as sex takes you downwards, SAHASRAR takes you upwards.


Sex is under the law of gravitation and SAHASRAR IS beyond the law of gravitation. It functions under a totally different law -- you can call it levitation, or you can call it 'grace'. The law that pulls you down is gravitation, and the law that pulls you up is grace.


Science is not yet aware of the other law; that is unfor-tunate. But religion is basically the art of helping you enter into the realm of the second law, the law of grace. And once your SAHASRAR, the one-thousand-petalled lotus, has opened, you disappear as an ego: God appears in you. Your form will remain human, but in the form of the human the superhuman starts descending.


Hindus call this state AVATARA. The word AVATARA means descendence: when a person is open towards the sky, the sky descends in him, he becomes an AVATARA.
DON'T GO OUTSIDE, says Kabir, YOUR HOUSE... has all that you are searching and seeking outside.
<p class="sutra">DON'T GO OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE TO SEE FLOWERS.
MY FRIEND, DON'T BOTHER WITH THAT EXCURSION.
INSIDE YOUR BODY THERE ARE FLOWERS.
ONE FLOWER HAS A THOUSAND PETALS.</p>


Six are lower. Up to the sixth you remain a human being -- you become a very superior human being, but you remain a human being. Up to the sixth you remain a sage. Entering into the seventh you become a God.
<p class="sutra">ONE FLOWER HAS A THOUSAND PETALS.
THAT WILL DO FOR A PLACE TO SIT.</p>


And once you have arrived at the seventh, you have come home. Now you can sit at rest, now you can relax. Now there is nowhere to go. Now all is completed, fulfilled.


This was the search... and you ran in all directions. In all the ten directions you were running, hither and thither for thousands of lives, and not even a glimpse was found. But once you have reached the seventh, all is fulfilled. Suddenly now you can rest. Now there is nowhere to go, no goal to attains no object for your dec;ire -- hence desirelessness happens naturally.
<p class="sutra">SITTING THERE YOU WILL HAVE A GLIMPSE OF BEAUTY...</p>


And this is what WE call beauty in the East. Unless the seventh flower has opened in you, you know nothing of beauty. You only say that the rose is beautiful, the sky is beautiful, the river is beautiful. You are using the word 'beautiful', but you don't know exactly what beauty is.


If somebody persists, insists, "Define what beauty is," you will be at a loss. You will not be able to define it -- in fact, you have not known, you have simply heard. Others say the rose is beautiful, so you say the rose is beautiful. You are simply repeating others' opinions.


Just fifty years ago, nobody had heard that the cactus is beautiful -- now the cactus is on the throne, the rose is dethroned. Now to talk about the rose and its beauty seems very outdated; now people have not rose plants in their houses but cactuses. The more sophisticated a person is, the more he will appreciate the beauty of the cactus.


The fashion has changed. Fashions change! The rose has lost its face. After a few days, the rose will come back, because people get tired -- cactus and cactus and cactus -- and then one day they decide enough is enough. Again, suddenly, they have to change. Watch people's dresses: each year they go on changing, and after ten, twelve years the old dress comes back, because from where are you going to get new ideas? You can ask Padma -- just the SAME ideas go on moving in a circle.


You don't know what beauty is. You use the word, certainly, but your word is empty. Beauty is known only by one who has known the inner beauty, one who has known the inner flower opening. Then whenever a flower is seen, it reminds you of your inner beauty.


Yes, Kabir seeing a roseflower will start dancing, will start singing, because the rose flower on the outside will simply trigger his inner experience of his own flower. Seeing the starry night, he will start singing or playing on his flute, because suddenly the starry night will remind him of his own inner sky -- which is far more beautiful.
<p class="sutra">SITTING THERE YOU WILL HAVE A GLIMPSE OF BEAUTY
INSIDE THE BODY AND OUT OF IT,
BEFORE GARDENS AND AFTER GARDENS.</p>


Once you have seen the inner beauty, then you will be able to see the outer also as beautiful. Once you have seen God within, you will be able to see him without too. The original is very beautiful:


BAGO NA JA RE NA JA,
TERI KAYA MEN GULJAR.
Don't go to the gardens!
The garden is within you.
Don't go, don't go, don't go to the gardens.


BAGO NA JA RE NA JA,
TERI KAYA MEN GULJAR.
Within your own body is the garden of gardens.


SAHAS-KANVAL PAR BAITH KE
TU DEKHE RUP APAR.


Find out where this one-thousand-petalled lotus is within you,
and then sit upon it,
and then see the beauty of the formless,
then see the beauty of the invisible,
then see the beauty of the intangible,
then see the beauty of the unknowable.


Those who have only known the known have known nothing. Those who have only seen the seeable have not seen anything. Unless you become capable of seeing the unseen and hearing the unheard, you have not come yet to your full potential.


God gives you a great gift of potential. The only way to return the gift in gratitude and thankfulness is to make the potential actual. Be what your seed is carrying within you. Become it! Be it!


This small body is not small: it contains a universe. And this body is not just a body: it is the temple of God. Love it, respect it, explore it. And don't get stuck at the first center. You have to move from sex to samadhi. Unless your sexual energies are transformed into samadhi you are not fulfilling your destiny, you are not fulfilling your nature. You are missing the great opportunity that life is.
			

> [!info]
> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
>