---
section: Library
booktitle: "I Say Unto You, Vol 1"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "ISAY1"
dategiven: "30 October 1977 am"
place: " in Buddha Hall"
chapternum: "Chapter #8"
chaptertitle: "Live in Eternity"
acode: "7710300"
shorttitle: "ISAY108"
audio: "Yes"
video: "No"
esttime: "98mins"
displaytitle: "I Say Unto You, Vol 1: Chapter #8"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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<p class="question">SINCE I HAVE BEEN WITH YOU I HAVE COME TO KNOW JESUS IN A NEW LIGHT. AS A JEW I COULD NEVER ACCEPT HIS TEACHINGS. NEVER BEFORE DID I THINK OF HIM AS AN ENLIGHTENED BEING, AS I THINK ABOUT THE BUDDHA. WHEN I FIRST CAME IN CONTACT WITH BUDDHIST TEACHING IN NEPAL. I FELT AN IMMEDIATE AFFINITY TOWARDS IT. HERE NOW IN POONA, JESUS' SAYINGS ARE BECOMING COMPREHENSIBLE AND ACCEPTABLE. YET STILL DOUBTS PERSIST. WHY DID HE SAY IT ALL IN SUCH A ROUNDABOUT WAY, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THAT HE WAS TALKING TO THE COMMON PEOPLE? AND LOOK AT ALL THE CONFUSION THAT HAS NOW BEEN CAUSED BY THE MANNER IN WHICH HE SPOKE. IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE TO ME, AND I WON'T FEEL COMPLETELY AT EASE WITH JESUS AS I DO WITH THE BUDDHA UNTIL THIS QUESTION IS RESOLVED. I HAVE THE FEELING THAT IF I NEED TO READ THE NEW TESTAMENT I WOULD STILL REJECT IT.</p>


The question is from Swami Anand Akam. First, it is very easy to accept something that is absolutely strange to you. To a Jew Jesus is not a stranger, a Buddha is a stranger. It is very easy to accept Buddha, it is very difficult to accept Jesus.


First, with Jesus you are acquainted, and acquainted through a certain conditioning -- the Jewish conditioning. Jesus is a rebel for the Jew. The same is the case with Buddha for a Hindu: the Hindu finds it very difficult to accept Buddha. It is easier to accept Jesus, because for the Hindu and the Hindu mind nothing is involved with Jesus, no attitudes are involved; the relationship is a new one. But with the Buddha much is involved. Buddha was a rebel who spoke against Hindu orthodoxy, who tried to destroy the Hindu organisation. Although he was the highest flowering of Hindu consciousness, still he was against the Hindu past. He was the future, but he was against the past. And the future has to be against the past.


So was the case with Jesus: he was the crescendo of Jewish consciousness, he was the ultimate flower of the whole Jewish history. But because he was the ultimate flower, he had to reject many things. He had to rebel against Jewish lethargy, the Jewish past, Jewish prophets. And the Jew feels very hurt.


It is like... I was born in a Jain family. Now the most difficult thing for the Jain is to accept me. It is not so difficult for a Christian, for a Jew, for a Hindu. The most difficult thing is for the Jain to accept me, because he has involvements with me. He was hoping that I would confirm his past. He was expecting that I would go to the world and spread the message of Mahavir. Then he would have been happy. But now I have my own message, his expectations are destroyed. And not only my own message, I have a thousand and one things to say against the Jain tradition -- that hurts.


So here it is very rare to find a Jain. You can see it. You will not find many Indians here, because to them also I am close, and it hurts. But for the non-Indian it is not a problem. In the first place the Jew has no expectations of me, so there is no involvement. He is not expecting anything from me. He comes to me with an open heart, without any prejudice. He wants to understand me, he does not want to manipulate me. The Jain wants to manipulate me, then there is difficulty. Because of the expectation... the frustration.


The Jews were waiting for the Messiah for thousands of years. They were hoping the Messiah would come and would fulfil all their desires. And the Messiah would come and would prove that they were the chosen people of God. 'The Messiah will come, and that will bring a Jewish era in the world...'


And then comes Jesus... and all the hopes are destroyed forever. After Jesus, the possibility of the world turning into a Jewish world has become impossible. After Jesus, the chosen people are no more chosen. After Jesus, Christians have become the chosen people of God. The Jews were hoping that Jesus would give them more consolidation, and he started to uproot them. And he had to uproot -- that is the only way to bring the future in. The past has to be destroyed, the old has to be destroyed to give birth to the new. The known has to be thrown -- that is the only way to invite the unknown.


Naturally, Jews were very much offended. They were very much offended by Jesus. And then these two thousand years after Jesus... Because of Jesus, Jews have been in misery for these two thousand years: Christians have been torturing them, killing them, murdering them. and all that the Christians have done in these two thousand years provokes again and again a great enmity towards Jesus.


So the first thing to be understood: it is very easy to accept a stranger. Jesus says two things again and again. One: Love your neighbour, and another: Love your enemy. And my feeling is that both are the same -- the neighbour is the enemy. It is the most difficult thing in life to love your neighbour. It is very easy to love a stranger. You meet a certain man or a woman on the train. You don't know anything about him, he does not know anything about you. And how open you become! Within minutes of being introduced, you are saying things to each other that you have not even said to your beloved. Nothing is involved -- the next station will come and he will get down and disappear forever -- you will never see him again. You can be open to him, you can be true with him. Have you not observed this? With strangers you start confessing things that you cannot dare confess to anybody you are related with, because then there is danger. No danger with a stranger...


So when a Jew comes across Buddha, it is very easy to understand, because there is no prejudice, no presupposition. Your being a Jew does not become a hindrance with Buddha. He is so far away, so unrelated. He was not against Moses, he was not against Abraham, he was not against David; he is not related to Jewish history at all -- alien, a foreigner. You can accept him as a guest.


But Jesus? Jesus is not alien to you. He was born into your family, and then he started destroying the very house. Then he started to destroy the very temple that you and your ancients had worshipped in always, although he says 'I have come not to destroy, but to fulfil.' But to fulfil he has to destroy. The old has to be dismantled, the old has to be completely effaced from the earth; only then can the new temple be built.


So the name of Jesus HURTS. YOU cannot forgive Jesus yet; it is impossible to forgive UNLESS you drop your Jewish conditioning. Then there will be no problem, then Jesus will be as comprehensible as Buddha or Krishna. The problem is coming from your Jewish conditioning, the problem is not coming from Jesus. The problem is in you, not in the New Testament.


You say: SINCE I HAVE BEEN WITH YOU I HAVE COME TO KNOW JESUS IN A NEW LIGHT.


Yes, through me it will be easier, because I am not a Jew. Through me, Jesus becomes non-Jewish. The way I interpret him is the way I would like to interpret Buddha, Patanjali, Shankara. The way I interpret Jesus has nothing to do with the Jewish mind. Then you can start looking at Jesus in a new light because I am throwing a new light on him. In my light, he starts changing; he is no more Jewish. I don't put him in the context of the Jewish mind -- I CANNOT, because I am not a Jew. You will find it easier, far easier, to approach Jesus through me, because through me Jesus is no more a Jew.
SINCE I HAVE BEEN WITH YOU I HAVE COME TO KNOW JESUS IN A NEW LIGHT. AS A JEW I COULD NEVER ACCEPT HIS TEACHINGS.


It is not that you could not accept his teaching, it is the JEW within you. The Jew has to be dropped. And when I say the Jew has to be dropped, I am saying the Hindu has to be dropped, the Buddhist has to be dropped, the Mohammedan has to be dropped. Then your eyes will be open, then you will have a clarity, a transparency to your vision. You will be able to see through and through, and things will come into a totally new context. And then Jesus will look beautiful. He was one of the most beautiful persons who have walked on the earth.


But, it is unfortunate, Jews missed him just the way Buddha was missed by the Hindus. It has always been the tragedy. It is very difficult for a Hindu to understand Buddha. The very name... and antagonism arises, because he said things which are against the Vedas. He said things which are against the BRAHMINS, he said things which are against the code of Manu. He said things -- not only said, but he started creating a new society; a non-Hindu world he created. He created a world where there would be no distinction between the SHUDRA, the untouchable, and the BRAHMIN, the high priest. He created a world which would be classless, with nobody inferior, nobody superior. He started putting down foundations for an utterly new society. The Hindus were angry: they destroyed Buddhism .


Do you know that Buddhism no more exists in India? Buddha is almost a foreigner. He is loved in China, in Tibet, in Japan, in Ceylon, in Thailand. The whole of Asia is Buddhist except for India; and he was born in India, and he is no more here. What happened? The Hindus took revenge: they destroyed... And remember, their destruction was far more clever than the Jewish destruction of Jesus -- because the Jews killed Jesus, and that is where they committed a great mistake. The Hindus didn't kill Buddha, they are a far more clever people... they didn't kill Buddha, but they killed Buddhism.


The Jews killed Jesus, but because they killed Jesus, they made Jesus so important, so significant -- the very centre of human history -- because of the crucifixion. If they had neglected Jesus there would have been no Christianity. You cannot conceive of Christianity without the crucifixion, or can you? If Jesus was not killed, was ignored, and people were not worried what he was saying, he would have disappeared without leaving a mark; not even a trace would have been there. But because he was killed, because he was raised on a cross, he became very very significant. The death became the seal. And when he was killed, that proved that he had something very significant to say, otherwise, why kill him?


The Hindus are more clever. They didn't kill Buddha; on the contrary, they accepted Buddha as one of the incarnations of God. I would like you to know the story of how they manipulated the whole thing...


They were against Buddha, they were against his ideas, against his revolution, but they accepted Buddha as an incarnation of God. Just as Rama is an incarnation, Krishna is an incarnation, Buddha is also an incarnation. But they played a trick in it.


The story is that God made the world, he made heaven and hell. Then millions of years passed, and nobody went to hell, because nobody was committing sin. People were pious, simple, innocent. Everybody would die and would go directly to heaven. And what about the management which was looking after hell -- the devil, and the devil's disciples, the mini-devils, and the whole government? They became very tired, bored. Not a single entry! And they were sitting there in their offices, at their doors with their registers and files, and nobody was coming.


The Hindu story is: they went to God, and they prayed: 'What is the point? Close this thing completely! Nobody has ever come for millions of years. We are tired, we are bored! Either send people, give us work and occupation or close this thing!'


Their problem was real, and God pondered over it. And he said 'Don't be worried. Soon I will be born as Gautam Buddha, and I will corrupt people's. minds, and they will start going to hell.'


You see the point? 'I will corrupt people's minds. I will manage to confuse them, and once they are confused, hell will be overflowing.' And that's exactly what it has been. Hindus say that since Buddha, hell is overcrowded. God has to come in the form of Buddha just to help the hell management.


Now they have done two things. One: they have accepted Buddha as God's incarnation, and they have rejected his teaching, because the teaching is a corruption; it is to corrupt. 'To be a Buddhist is to be corrupted. To be a Buddhist is a guarantee for going to hell. So pay respect to the Buddha because he is an incarnation of God, but never listen to what he says. Never follow him. Be watchful. Be alert.'


The same they did with Mahavir: they ignored Mahavir. Not even the name of Mahavir is mentioned in any Hindu scripture. Such a potential being, such a powerful being, such a magnetic personality -- and not even the name is mentioned? They ignored him; they played another trick: just to ignore.


The Jews crucified Jesus and committed a grave mistake. They made Jesus very important. I am not saying that he was not an important man, he was: he was absolutely important. But if they had ignored him, there would have been no Christianity. Because they killed Jesus? Christianity took revenge -- with vengeance! And down the ages, for two thousand years, Christians have been killing Jews in one way or another.


And the wound remains open. You cannot forgive Jesus. In fact, you cannot forgive YOURSELF that you crucified this man. It has been the gravest error. Now there is no way to undo it. It is the Jew within you that will not allow you to understand Jesus.


You say: As A JEW I COULD NEVER ACCEPT HIS TEACHINGS.


And his teachings are nothing but the flowering of the Jewish tradition. The Jewish tradition has come of age in Jesus. It is the fulfilment of all the Jewish desires, ambitions and longings. It is the fulfilment of Moses.


But certainly the root of a tree looks different from the flower of the tree. They don't look alike.


The root is ugly, the root is not beautiful. To be beautiful is not its function. Its function is something totally different: to nourish the tree, to nourish the leaves, the foliage, the fruits, the flower. And it hides underneath the ground, it doesn't come up, it doesn't show up. It remains there hidden underneath the ground and goes on working there. If you have seen a rose flower, and then you dig for the roots and put the roots by the side of the flower, you will be surprised. There seems to be no relationship. And yet, I say to you, the flower is the fulfilment of the root. And the root has existed for the flower, and without the flower the root was meaningless. Its existence would have been sheer wastage.


And so is the case with Moses and Jesus. Moses functions like the root. Of course his statements are not so beautiful as Jesus' -- they cannot be, his function is different: he is the lawgiver. He gives a pattern, a discipline, a code to the society. He makes the primitive society into a civilised society. He changes the primitive mind, the crude mind, into a more sophisticated, cultured mind, because only in that cultured mind, the egoist mind, can Jesus be possible. The third mind arises out of Moses. Jews have become very very egoistic -- the chosen people of the world, God's special people. A special covenant has happened between God and the Jews; they are not ordinary people. They have God's book, and they are his representatives on the earth.


This ego was given by Moses. Only through this ego can the mind evolve. Yes, one day the ego has to be dropped, but you can drop it only when you have it. If you don't have it, it cannot be dropped. The dropping is utterly beautiful, but the dropping is possible only when you have it. And you have to have it so much that it becomes anguish and you have to drop it. Moses gives the ego, the definition, the identity to the people. And then comes Jesus as a fulfilment and he wants you to surrender, he wants you to drop the ego. He gives you love. Moses gives you law. And they are different, they are really different.


In many ways they are opposite. Love is beyond law, and when love is there, no law is needed. So whenever Jesus says: It has been told to you of old that you take an eye for an eye; and if somebody throws a brick at you, you have to throw a rock at him -- this is justice. But I say unto you: Love your enemy. Love those who hate you and persecute you. And if somebody hits you on your face, give him the other side too. And if somebody takes your coat, give him the other side too. And if somebody takes your coat, give him the shirt too. And if somebody forces you to carry his load and burden for one mile, go for two miles with him.


Now, this is different -- utterly different, a new vision. But this new vision is possible only because Moses has cleared the ground. Moses has gone underneath as the root, and now Jesus comes as a rose flower. He looks different, he looks opposite. Do you know? Roots go downwards and the flowers go upwards. They are opposites. Their dimension is different, their direction is different. Roots go downwards, deeper into the earth in search of more water. And the flower goes upwards in search of light, more sun, more air. They go diametrically opposite.


To understand that they are one needs GREAT clarity. To understand that Moses and Jesus are one needs meditation. To understand that the Vedas and Buddhas are one needs insight, great insight -- a radical change in your mind.


You say: AS A JEW I COULD NEVER ACCEPT HIS TEACHINGS.


It is your JEW, not YOU. You can understand, but the Jew cannot understand. The Jew is the one who has killed Jesus -- how can he understand? And if the Jew understands Jesus. then there will be great repentance. and he will never be able to forgive himself, because he has killed! So the Jew has something like an investment in NOT understanding Jesus. If the Jew understands Jesus, then... then how will you be able to forgive yourself? Then you will not be able to forgive yourself and your forefathers. Then your whole tradition will be condemned, then your whole heritage will be criminal! This is too much.


Just for one man, this fragile-looking Jesus... just for one man you cannot condemn your whole race and five thousand years of existence. It is better to condemn this man and accept your heritage -- five-thousand-year-old race, rich history, meaningful incidents. That's how it goes on in the mind. You cannot understand Jesus because there is great investment in not understanding him.


And the conditioning goes very deep. The conditioning becomes your blood, your bone, your marrow.

The other day I was reading an anecdote.


Schwartz and Pincus, complete strangers, were sitting across from each other, nude, in the steam room.
'I never met you before' said Schwartz 'and yet I'll bet you were born in Brooklyn.'
'That's right!' said Pincus.
'In fact' said Schwartz, to his naked companion 'you're from my old neighbourhood, Bensonhurst, and you went to the Seventy-Ninth Street Synagogue, and your rabbi was Nathan Nussbaum.'
'Amazing!' said Pincus. 'You can tell all that just by looking at me?'
'Of course' said Schwartz 'Rabbi Nussbaum always did cut on the bias.'


It goes deep. It goes into the blood, into the bones, into the marrow.


You are not brought up as a man. You are brought up as a Jew, as a Hindu, as a Christian. You don't know who you are. You know only your conditioning, you know only the mind that has been put inside you from the outside. And that mind won't allow you to understand Jesus. That mind will have to be dropped.

NEVER BEFORE DID I THINK OF HIM AS AN ENLIGHTENED BEING, AS I THINK ABOUT THE BUDDHA.


It is easier. For Buddha you can open yourself. He has not uttered a single word against Jews, so you can open yourself towards him. He does not hurt your ego in any way. In fact, you can enjoy him very much because he is so much against the Hindu scriptures.

WHEN I FIRST CAME IN CONTACT WITH BUDDHIST TEACHING IN NEPAL,


And they are the same. Jesus had come to India and had lived in a Buddhist monastery, Nalanda. In fact, Jesus' whole teaching is more Buddhist than anything else. The language is different, he talks like a Jew, but the message is the same.


But for that you will have to be really unprejudiced. Good, at least you can understand Buddha and love Buddha. Love Buddha, go deep into Buddha, and soon you will be surprised that from that understanding you will be able to learn much about Jesus too.


If you can love ONE enlightened person, sooner or later you will understand ALL the enlightened persons of the world, because their taste is the same! Languages differ, their words are different. Buddha speaks a totally different language; naturally, he was talking to a different kind of people. And Jesus was talking to a different kind of people: Jesus had to speak the language of those people. Wherever Buddha says 'truth', Jesus says 'kingdom of God'. But they mean the same. Wherever Buddha says: Be a nobody. Drop the ego. ANATTA: be a no-self -- Jesus cannot say that because nobody will understand. He says: Drop your will, surrender your will to God's will.


Buddha never speaks about God. Jesus brings God in -- but the strategy is the same. Whether you drop your will just by looking into it and into the misery of it, or you surrender it to a certain God who is there -- 'My Father in heaven' as Jesus says, that Father in heaven is just an excuse -- the whole point is to drop the ego, to drop your will. Once the will is dropped you become one with the whole. Whether God exists or not does not matter!


But Jesus had to speak in a Jewish world, in the Jewish way, in the Jewish language, and he had to use the metaphors, the parables of the Jews, otherwise he is a Buddha.
HERE NOW IN POONA, JESUS' SAYINGS ARE BECOMING COMPREHENSIBLE AND ACCEPTABLE. YET STILL DOUBTS PERSIST.
They will persist while the Jew persists in you.


Just as the Jew cannot understand Jesus, so the Christian cannot understand Moses. Only a man who has no ideas, who is simply like a mirror, can understand everybody and can become very much enriched by it. If you can understand Buddha, and Jesus and Moses and Mohammed and Mahavir and Zarathustra and Lao Tzu, your richness is growing. Because Lao Tzu will bring a new breeze in your being which only he can bring, because he opens a door which nobody else can open. He is a Master, a master technician. He knows how to open a certain door, and at that door, nobody else is more skillful than him. Zarathustra opens another door into your being. And your being is BIG, enormous! It is not finished with one door! You can have millions of doors in your being, and from each door, when you come in, you have a new taste, a new vision; a new treasure becomes available to you.


Now people are unnecessarily poor. When I see a Christian, I see a poor man. When I see a Hindu, I see a poor man. When I see a Jew, I feel great compassion. Why be so poor? Why not claim the whole history of man? Why not claim ALL the enlightened people as yours? That's my work here. That's why one day I speak on Buddha, another day on Jesus, another day on Lao Tzu -- I go on changing. My effort here is to make you enriched, to make you available to all the joys possible in the spiritual world, to make you capable of all kinds of ecstasies. Yes, Buddha brings one kind of ecstasy: the ecstasy that comes through intelligence. And Jesus brings another kind of ecstasy: the ecstasy that comes through love. Krishna brings another kind of ecstasy: the ecstasy that comes through action. And Lao Tzu brings another kind of ecstasy: the ecstasy that comes through inaction. These are very very different paths, but they all come into you, and they all meet you in your innermost core.


Be simply a man, a human being, with no Jewish, Christian, Hindu ideologies hanging around you. Drop all that dust and let your mirror be clear, and you will be in continuous celebration, because then the whole existence is yours. Why go on worshipping one flower when all the flowers can be yours? And why go on putting only one flower in your garden, when all the flowers of the world can flower there? Why not be rich? Why have you decided to be poor?
YET STILL DOUBTS PERSIST. WHY DID HE SAY IT ALL IN SUCH A ROUNDABOUT WAY...?


No, he has not said anything in a roundabout way -- just the languages have changed in two thousand years. Now, one thing has to be understood: Buddha's language is still modern for a certain reason, because Buddha was so logical, so rational. His approach is of intelligence. The world can still understand him; the world is still becoming intelligent, still becoming rational. In fact, science and the explosion of science have made people more capable of understanding Buddha than ever. That's why Buddha has a certain appeal for the modern mind. Buddha is very contemporary. His logic, his rationality, his utter intelligence -- he talks the way intelligence can understand. And the world has become more intelligent. And Buddha has a certain affinity.


But Jesus has fallen very far back for a certain reason: the world has grown into logic, but the world has not grown into love, that is the trouble. That's why Jesus looks roundabout -- because the language of love has disappeared from the world.


Love? -- yes, it creates a sound in the ear, but no meaning.

I have heard...


Two hippies were sitting in front of a church, just outside in the garden. And then the ambulance came and the priest was brought out on a stretcher. And those two hippies were sitting there for hours, just sitting there, doing nothing. They suddenly became alive, and the one hippy asked the other. 'What's the matter? What happened to this priest?'


And the other hippy said 'They say he slipped in his bath-tub and had broken his leg.'


The first one brooded for a while and then said 'What's a bath-tub?'


The second hippie said 'How am I supposed to know? I am not a Catholic.'


Now, a hippy is a hippy. He may never have been in a bath-tub. That word is meaningless. He says 'How am I supposed to know? I am not a Catholic.' As if a bath-tub has something to do with Catholicism.
It depends.


Jesus' language is no more relevant, because man has fallen very far away from his heart. He is more in the head, and Buddha is the Master there. Buddha is the supreme Master there, the incomparable Master there. If you want to argue, then Buddha is the right person to convince you. He will never say a single thing which cannot be proved logically. Not that he remains confined to logic -- he goes beyond it, but he goes through it. He takes you to the very end of logic and then helps you to jump out of it. But he is never against logic. He goes beyond logic, but he is never against logic. You can walk with him with perfect ease, he will not create any trouble for you. He will not talk about the 'Father who is in heaven'. You cannot say to Buddha that this is father-fixation -- he never talks about the Father. Freud can walk with him perfectly at ease, so can walk Marx; there is no trouble. Einstein can have a good conversation with him, and there will be no conflict.


But with Jesus, it is difficult. He bypasses logic. He is illogical. Love IS illogical. Only lovers can understand his language, otherwise it will look very roundabout. Have you listened to lovers talking to each other? It looks very roundabout what they are saying. To a rational person it looks absurd. And they go roundabout and roundabout. And one who is not in love will simply be bored. 'What are they doing? Why do they go on, 'gaga' -- why not be pertinent, to the point? If you want to go to bed with the woman why not simply say "I want to go to bed with you"? Why talk about the stars and the moons and the flowers, and poetry, and all that nonsense -- and finally you go to the bed? So why not jump directly? This looks very roundabout -- that "I love you" and looking into each other's eyes. For what? Come to the point! Be direct!' To the logical person that will be the right thing.


Yes, Jesus is roundabout, but he is roundabout because you have forgotten the language of love. He speaks in parables, he speaks in stories, he speaks in metaphors. He is metaphoric because he is poetic. In fact, no comparison exists.


Jesus' words are so potent, so full of love, so full of poetry, that no comparison exists. I have not come across such potent words. Buddha's words are very balanced, direct, mathematical; he never exaggerates. Jesus' words are overflowing; exaggeration is not the exception there but the rule. Love exaggerates because love has enthusiasm, because love has zest, gusto, and love speaks in metaphors because love is a poetic approach towards reality.
WHY DID HE SAY IT ALL IN SUCH A ROUNDABOUT WAY, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THAT HE WAS TALKING TO THE COMMON PEOPLE?


Yes, that's why, precisely that's why -- because he was talking to the common people. And common people are the people who can understand love more easily than logic. And he knew how to communicate with the common people.


The common people have always known the language of love. The common people can understand Shakespeare very easily. They cannot understand Shakespeare very easily. They cannot understand Albert Einstein that easily. It is said that while Albert einstein was alive, only one dozen people in the whole world were capable of understanding him rightly. Of course, he speaks very mathematically, he is very particular, he never goes round about. But only a dozen people capable of under-standing him? What is the matter?


But down the ages love poetry has been understood by everybody; even the primitive person understands love poetry, understands the song, the music. Absolutely unsophisticated, not knowing anything of philosophy, but he can understand tears and laughter, and can understand a dance, a song, can understand the whispering of two lovers.


Jesus speaks to the common people. He is not a philosopher. That's why he speaks in metaphors, in parables. A parable is a beautiful way of saying tremendous truths, because a parable can be understood on many levels. A parable can be understood by a child; he will understand it on his level. The parable can be understood by an ordinary man; he will understand it on his level. The parable can be understood by a philosopher, by a logician, by a poet, by a very very cultured person, by a wise man. They will all understand on their own levels. The parable can easily have as many meanings as there are people trying to understand it.


Mathematics has one meaning: 'two plus two is four'. There are not other levels in it. It is simple, direct. The meta-phoric language has many levels, and that is the beauty of Jesus' sayings. You read those sayings today and mark which sayings are very appealing to you. Then meditate for a few months, then again read. And you will be surprised... now the meaning has changed. Now you don't mark and under-line the same lines, now you choose something else to mark. Something else has become important. Meditate for a few months more, and then go to the Bible. And you will be surprised again and again. And that is co with the Gita, and that is so with the Koran, because all those are metaphorical treatises. One can go on reading them again and again -- they are never exhausted!


You cannot read a logical treatise again and again. Once understood it is finished, then there is nothing else in it. If you have understood Albert Einstein's treatise on the theory of relativity, once understood it is finished. Now you cannot go on reading into it, there is nothing else.


But Jesus' sayings you can go on reading every day -- morning, evening -- and always there is something new coming up, something new surfacing, because you are changing and your insight is growing deeper. Your life experience is becoming more mature, you will be able to see more every day. Because you grow, the scripture will grow with you: it can go as deep as you can go. And for lives together one can go on and on. It has an eternal quality to it, endlessness, and a depth which knows no bottom. It is abysmal.
IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE TO ME, AND I WON'T FEEL COMPLETELY AT EASE WITH JESUS AS I DO WITH THE BUDDHA, UNTIL THIS QUESTION IS RESOLVED.


It is not only a question to be resolved, it is an insight to be evolved. You have to see the point that it is the Jew that is disturbing you. Drop the Jew and then look again, and you will find great harmony arising between you and Jesus.


And I am not saying become a Christian. If you become a Christian -- you drop being a Jew and become a Christian -- then you simply change your disease. Then you have fallen from one disease into another: from one prison you have moved into another prison. Maybe while you are changing from one prison to another, for a few moments or a few hours in between you will be under the open sky, that's all. Sooner or later you will be in another prison, and again the same misery will start.


Never be a prisoner to any mind. And all minds are prisons. Beware of the mind and remain always above the mind. Remain always unprejudiced, remain without an ideology, and then the whole world and the whole world's treasures are yours.
<p class="question">DOES A MASTER'S RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS HIS DISCIPLES CEASE UPON THE PHYSICAL DEATH OF THE MASTER? WHAT DID JESUS MEAN WHEN HE SAID 'AND KNOW THAT I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD'? WITH THIS ASSURANCE THEN, HOW COME THE INFANT CHURCH RECEIVED PAUL INSTEAD OF PETER, WHOM JESUS APPOINTED AS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH?</p>


The first thing about the question: a Master has no responsibility at all -- responsibility as you understand the word. He IS RESPONSIBLE, but he has no responsibility at all, it is not a duty. Duty becomes a burden, duty becomes a tension, duty creates concern, anxiety. A Master has no responsibility, although he is responsible. The difference is great.


When I say he is responsible, it simply means he is loving, he is compassionate. If you ask for help, the help will be given. But he has not taken it on his shoulders that he HAS TO redeem you anyhow. It has not become a burden on him that you have to be redeemed. It is not his anxiety.


He is available. If you ask, it shall be given; if you knock, the door shall be opened unto you; if you seek, you will find. If you are ready to partake, the Master will pour his whole being into you. But it is not a kind of responsibility. He is not a missionary. He is not after you! He is not bent upon redeeming you. That's why I say he has no responsibility. He is responsive. Whenever you are ready to take, you will always find him ready to give.


But there is no anxiety in his mind. If you decide to be ignorant, it is perfectly your freedom. If you decide to remain in the world, if you decide to remain in the imprisonment, that's perfectly your choice. It is not his ambition to free you. Nobody can free you against your own will; only you can free yourself. Yes, you can partake of all kinds of help that a Master makes available...


So the first thing: DOES A MASTER'S RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS HIS DISCIPLES CEASE UPON THE PHYSICAL DEATH OF THE MASTER?


Even while he was alive he was not burdened by any responsibility. But the disciple's mind always creates such kinds of bondages. The disciple would like the Master to be responsible so that the Master becomes answerable, so that the disciple can claim. 'If I am not redeemed yet you are responsible!' This is a trick of the disciple to protect himself and to throw the responsibility on the Master's head. And then you can go on living the way you want to live, because what else can you do? You have accepted Jesus as your Master, now it is HIS responsibility.


This is not the way to become free. This is not the way towards NIRVANA or MOKSHA. This is not the way towards liberation. You are playing tricks even with your Master. And the disciple would like that the Master remain in a kind of contract -- even when he is dead he has to look after you. And what have you done? What have you done on YOUR part? You have not done anything. In fact, you are trying to do everything to hinder, to obstruct. You are clinging to the prison, and the responsibility is the Master's.
Don't befool yourself.


The question is from Chintana. She has been a nun and that mind goes on lingering around her. Christians have done that. Millions of Christians are thinking in their minds that they can do all kinds of things, whatsoever they want, and finally Jesus is going to redeem them. On the Day of Judgement he will he standing there, and he will call to all his Christians 'These are my children. Come and stand behind me.' And all the Christians will be standing behind Christ, and will enter into heaven with flying flags. And all others will go into hell... obviously. Those who are not with Christ -- they will go to hell.


And that is the idea of everybody. The Mohammedan thinks the same: that only those who are Mohammedans will be saved -- the prophet will come and save them. These are stupid ideas. If you go on living the way you are living, nobody can save you -- no Jesus, no Mohammed.


You will have to change your quality of life, you will have to change your vision, and then you are saved. You can learn the art of changing your vision from Jesus, from Mohammed, from Krishna, from Buddha; from any source you can learn how to change your vision. But you will have to learn the art and you will have to practise the art. Nobody else is going to transform you -- nobody can do that. And that is beautiful that nobody can do it. If it were possible for somebody to transform your being, then you would have been a thing, not a person. Then you wouldn't have any soul.


That is the difference: A thing can be made. You can make furniture out of wood, you can make a statue out of stone, but you cannot make a soul out of a man. You cannot create enlightenment out of a man. If somebody from the outside can do it, that will be very very insulting; it will be below human dignity. And what kind of freedom will it be which has been created by somebody else? If that some-body else changes his mind, then he can create your slavery again. It won't be much of a freedom.
Freedom is freedom only when you have attained it!


So the first thing to be understood is: Learn from Jesus, learn from me, learn from any other source that appeals to you. But remember, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for your life, nobody else is responsible. And don't go on befooling and kidding yourself. Don't go on believing in such beautiful dreams and consolations.
DOES A MASTER'S RESPONSIBLITY TOWARDS HIS DISCIPLES CEASE UPON THE PHYSICAL DEATH OF THE MASTER?


In the first place there has never been a responsiblity. The Master was sharing -- not out of responsibility but out of compassion. He was sharing because he had so much that he had to share. He was not obliging you; he was sharing just as a flower shares its fragrance to the winds -- what ELSE can it do? Just like a rain cloud shares its rains with the earth -- what ELSE can it do? When a Master has come home, has become full of light and fragrance, he has to share it. But it is not a responsibility. That word 'responsiblity' is not a beautiful word; it is not some kind of duty that he is fulfilling, it is his joy to share.


And don't throw your responsibility on anybody. Remain responsible for yourself, otherwise you will become lethargic, lousy, and you will become dull and dead. You will lose your vitality, because then you will be simply waiting. The Last Judgement Day will come and Jesus will save you. You have turned the whole life into an ugly affair.


Transform yourself. Learn from any source that appeals to you. Learn from all the sources. Become as rich as possible, but change your life, transform your life -- and don't wait for the Day of Judgement! There is no Day of Judge-ment. Each moment is the moment of judgement. Each moment we are facing our God, because each moment we are living our life. Let each moment be decisive. Let it be lived with art, awareness, skill.
WHAT DID JESUS MEAN WHEN HE SAID 'AND KNOW THAT I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD'?


He was perfectly right. He is with you until the end of the world, but ARE YOU WITH HIM? -- that is the point.


The sun is there, and it is there always, but if you are sitting with closed eyes, what does it matter whether the sun is there or not? You can sit inside your room with all the windows and doors closed, with a blindfold on your eyes -- you will be living in darkness. When Jesus says 'AND KNOW THAT I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD' he is simply saying: Whenever you want you can partake of me. I am available.


Once a being has become enlightened, he is available forever, forever. Because he has become part of foreverness, he has become part of eternity, he has become part of God! Where can he go?


Raman Maharshi was dying, and somebody started crying and said 'Bhagwan, are you really leaving us? Will you leave us?'


And Raman opened his eyes and he said 'What nonsense you are talking about! Where can I go?' And closed his eyes and died.


The last words were 'Where can I go? I will be here!' Raman has become part of that foreverness. Where can he go? He is part of eternity -- nowness. If you are available you can drink of him. His fountain is flowing there.


But don't think in terms of law and court, don't think in terms that when you go to God you will make him feel guilty. You will say 'Look at this man Jesus. He has said that he will live forever with us, and we were stumbling in darkness and he never came. And we were committing this and that, and he never came to stop us. And we did many wrong things and he never prevented us.'


No, he cannot prevent you, he cannot change you. He is just like the sun, the light. Open your eyes and it is there, close your eyes and it is not there. And when Jesus says 'I will be there forever with you' he does not mean 'I will be there in opposition to Buddha, I will be there in opposition to Krishna, I will he there in opposition to Moses.' No He simply means 'I will be there as part of Buddha, Krishna, Moses, Zarathustra.' They have all disappeared as persons, they have become one-ness.
WITH THIS ASSURANCE THEN, HOW COME THE INFANT CHURCH RECEIVED PAUL INSTEAD OF PETER, WHOM JESUS APPOINTED AS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH?


I have never said that he appointed Peter as head of the church. He had simply said 'You will be the foundation', not the head.


He was not creating an organisation. He was not making Peter the head, the boss, the chief, the chairman, no. He was simply saying 'Peter -- I call you Peter.' 'Peter' means rock. 'I call you Peter because you are rock-like, because you have attained to that consciousness which is rock-like. If on that consciousness one makes one's house, it remains forever. You be the foundation.' He is simply saying in a metaphor 'Let awareness be the foundation of my church.'


But, a nun is a nun, Even if she is an ex-nun, even if she has become a sannyasin, that past is there. 'HEAD of the church'...!


Peter was not the head. He was not meant to be the head, he was meant to be the foundation. A foundation disappears into the earth like roots. You cannot see the foundation -- the foundation is invisible. So is awareness invisible.


And you ask 'Then how did it happen?' The question is a complaint. She is saying that 'Christ says "I will be with you, and I will remain responsible" -- then how come he didn't help his own church, the infant church, and allowed Paul to dominate it, instead of making Peter the head of it? Where is he, and what is he doing?'


He has committed a breach. He has betrayed, he has not been true to his word! He has not even helped his own church -- and the church was infant. That's why she makes it clear: 'infant church' -- helpless. His help was needed!
WITH THIS ASSURANCE THEN, HOW COME THE INFANT CHURCH RECEIVED PAUL INSTEAD OF PETER WHOM JESUS APPOINTED AS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH?


Paul was a politician. and politicians dominate everything. Paul was a dangerous fellow, murderous. First he was trying to destroy Christianity -- he was against Jesus, the arch-enemy -- he was going to the Holy Land to persecute Christians. And then, on the road towards the Holy Land, the miracle happened that he heard the voice of Jesus calling him 'Why? Why do you persecute me? What have I done to you?'


It came from his own unconscious. Let it be clear. It was not coming from Jesus. Jesus had never said, even to the real persecutors who were persecuting him when he was alive, 'Why do you persecute me?' He wouldn't come to Paul to say this on that lonely road. It was his own unconscious, because his conscious was full of hatred for Jesus, because he was full of enmity, jealousy, anger, rage.


The unconscious is always against the conscious; they move like polar opposites. If you love a man through the conscious, you hate the man through the unconscious. That's why you love and hate the same man, the same woman. In the conscious, he was full of hatred, but in the unconscious there must have been love, because only then could the hatred exist. They exist together.


Love never exists alone, and so does hate never exist alone; they always exist together. If you ask psychoanalysts, they say 'Love-hate IS ONE relationship.' Lovehate is one word. Even the hyphen that joins them is not needed; they are one word. From one side it is love. from the other side it is hate.


So in the conscious there was hate, in the unconscious was love. And when the hate was too much, extreme... the swing of the pendulum to the other side, and his unconscious said 'Why? Why are you persecuting me?' The unconscious became the voice of Jesus.


He fell on the ground; he could not believe. This was a miracle, and he was converted by this miracle. He turned and became a Christian. But he remained the same person. First he was trying to persecute Christians, then he started putting his energy into converting people to Christianity -- but the same energy, the same aggression. First he is there to destroy Christianity, now he is there to create Christianity. It is the same man.


And another miracle happened: he became a Christian and destroyed Christianity by becoming a Christian. He created the church -- that was the best way to destroy it. If he had been on the same road, and if he had remained the same person hateful against Christ, there would not have been so much harm. Because this aggressive man, this violent man became a Christian and became a missionary; he started converting people and changed the whole quality of Christianity.


Christianity is no more related to Christ. It is Pauline: it is related to Paul.
Chintana is asking 'Why didn't Jesus interfere?'


Jesus never interferes. Buddha, Krishna or people like them never interfere. They give you total freedom. They give you as much freedom as God gives you. God never interferes. Even if you are going against God, he does not interfere. He can easily interfere -- he can stop your breathing. When you are going to steal, he can stop your breathing. 'Come home and you breathe again. Go to steal and it stops.' You are going to murder somebody, and you stop breathing. God can do that, but he never does it; he never interferes.


Freedom is respected. If people wanted to Create a church, if people wanted to create a church which goes against Jesus, then let it be so -- that is their own decision. If people want a Christianity like this, then let them have it. If they don't want to choose the right, they have the choice to choose the wrong. Freedom is the ultimate value.
<p class="question">WHY IS THERE SO MUCH HURRY IN THE WEST WHILE THE EAST SEEMS TO BE SO RELAXED?</p>


Different time orientation. The East thinks in terms of eternity, in terms of many many lives, incarnation after incarnation, one after another. The time span is very big, so there is no hurry. In the West the time span is very small, so there is hurry -- only one life. Only one life? -- and life is slipping by, it is going down the drain. If you live sixty years, twenty years will be lost in sleep; twenty years will be lost in some stupid job; fifteen years will be lost eating, defecating and things like that -- what is left? And whatsoever is left will be lost sitting before a TV -- finished!


Fear arises, one becomes very much frightened. Something has to be done before it disappears... great, hectic hurry!


The East thinks in a very very infinite span -- one life after another, the wheel of life goes on moving. If you miss in this life, there is no worry, you can do it in the next life... next time round when you will be here. There is no hurry, so the East moves very very slowly.

I have heard...


A surgeon was telling his patient 'We here believe in getting the patient on his feet as soon as possible after the operation. So, the very first day I want you to get out of bed and walk around your room for five minutes. The second day you'll walk ten minutes. On the third day you must walk around for a full hour. Okay? Any questions?'
'Yes, Doc' pleaded the patient 'for the operation, do you mind if I lie down?'


This must have happened somewhere in America. The East has a different vision, attitude.

I have heard...


One American was going from Delhi airport to Delhi city. The taxi was moving so slowly, and he was getting very worked up, and he was becoming very restless...'So much time lost?' So he asked the cabdriver 'Can't you go a little faster?'


And the cabdriver, the SARDARJI, said 'Yes, I can, but I am not allowed to leave the cab.'


It is different in the East. Nobody is in a hurry. The whole thing depends on the time orientation. The Western religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam are all offshoots of Judaism -- they all believe that there is only one life. That has created the trouble. The Eastern religions, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, are all offshoots of Hinduism -- they all believe there are many, many lives to live. Many you have lived, many you will be living. There is no hurry; infinite time is available. You can go as slowly as you want. In fact, there are only two religions: Judaism and Hinduism, only two standpoints.


Christianity and Islam are offshoots, and so are Jainism and Buddhism. And the basic difference is in their time concept. Both concepts have something good about them and something bad too. The West has become very tense. Great anxiety, fear -- the anxiety 'Whether I am going to make it or not' because this is the only time. So the West is very ill with anxiety and the East has become very very slow, dull, lazy. Nobody seems to be interested in DOING anything. 'Why worry? Next time... We can wait.'


The West has become very rich because something has to be done RIGHT NOW! And they have been doing many things. The East has become very poor, because with such a time span you cannot be very rich.


Both have their good points and both have their bad points. and something new is needed -- something more like a synthesis, something which makes you very much alive to the moment, very active, alive, vital, and yet does not create tension in you. Both the visions have failed because they are half-half. Something better is needed.


An earthworm meets a centipede. 'How are you?' inquires the earthworm.
'Not so good' sighs the centipede. 'My feet won't do any more as they used to. You are lucky you don't have any.'
'Ah' sighed the earthworm 'if you had my slipped discs, you wouldn't talk like that.'


And that's how things are. West has suffered, East has suffered -- both have suffered. And now that they have come very close there is a possibility of a third attitude. West lives with the idea of one life; East lives with the idea of many lives. One has a small time span, another has a big time span. but both are time orientations.


My vision is: Live in eternity -- neither one nor many. Live in eternity. And the only way to live in eternity is to live now. Because now is part of eternity. Don't live in the future. If you have a big future you will become lethargic, poor. If you have a small future. then you will become very restless -- rich, but very anxiety-ridden. Forget! -- the future has no meaning, it is eternity. Not one life, not many lives: we have always been here and we will always be here, so there is no need to worry about it. Now the only thing is how to live in this moment. We are not going anywhere. Remember Raman: 'Where can I go?' We are not going anywhere. We are part of this existence, we will be here. Nothing is ever destroyed, all remains. Only forms change.


But to live, there is only one way: to live this moment NOW and HERE. And live relaxedly! -- because there is no hurry. Time is never going to be finished. You cannot finish it, so live totally in the now; and live relaxedly, because there is no end to time.
<p class="question">WHY WAS JESUS NOT BORN IN AMERICA?</p>


They could not find three wise men there.
		

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