---
section: Library
booktitle: "Philosophia Ultima"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "ULTIMA"
dategiven: "23 December 1980 am"
place: " in Buddha Hall"
chapternum: "Chapter #13"
chaptertitle: "Make it Your Only Longing"
acode: "8012230"
shorttitle: "ULTIMA13"
audio: "Yes"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "Philosophia Ultima: Chapter #13"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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<p class="sutra">SOYAM ATMADHYAKSARAM, ONKARO'DHIMATRAM
PADA MATRA, MATRAS CA PADA
AKARA UKARO MAKARA ITI.
JAGARITA-STHANO VAISVANARO'KARAH
PRATHAMA MATRA APTER ADIMATTVA
DVA, APNOTI HA VAI.
SARVAN KAMAN, ADIS CA BHAVATI,
YAEVAM VEDA.</p>
<p class="sutra">SVAPNA-STHANAS TAIJASA UKARO
DVITIYA MATRA UTKARSADU-
BHAYATVAD VA UTKARSATI HA VAI
JNANA-SANTATI, SAMANAS CA BHAVATI
NASYABRAHMA-VIT KULE BHAVATI
YA EVAM VEDA.</p>
<p class="sutra">SUSUPTA-STHANAH PRAJNO
MAKARAS TRTIYA MATRA
MITER APITER BA, MINOTI HA VA
IDAM SARVAM, APITAS CA BHAVATI
YA EVAM VEDA.
AMATRAS CATURTHO'VYAVAHARYAH
PRAPANCOPASAMAH, SIVODVAITA
EVAM OMKARA ATMAIVA
SAMVISTYATMANATMANAM
YA EVAM VEDA, YA EVAM VEDA.</p>
<p class="sutra">THIS PURE SELF AND AUM ARE AS ONE;
AND THE DIFFERENT QUARTERS OF THE SELF
CORRESPOND TO AUM AND ITS SOUNDS, A-U-M.
EXPERIENCE OF THE OUTER WORLD CORRESPONDS TO A,
THE FIRST SOUND.
THIS INITIATES ACTION AND ACHIEVEMENT.
WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS ACTS IN FREEDOM AND
ACHIEVES SUCCESS.</p>
<p class="sutra">EXPERIENCE OF THE INNER WORLD CORRESPONDS TO U,
THE SECOND SOUND.
THIS INITIATES UPHOLDING AND UNIFICATION.
WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS UPHOLDS THE TRADITION
OF KNOWLEDGE AND UNIFIES THE DIVERSITIES OF LIFE.
EVERYTHING THAT COMES ALONG SPEAKS TO HIM OF
BRAHMAN.
THE STATE OF DREAMLESS SLEEP CORRESPONDS TO M,
THE THIRD SOUND.
THIS INITIATES MEASUREMENT AND MERGING.
WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS MERGES WITH THE WORLD
AND HAS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS.</p>
<p class="sutra">THE PURE SELF ALONE,
THAT WHICH IS INDIVISIBLE,
WHICH CANNOT BE DESCRIBED,
THE SUPREME GOOD,
THE ONE WITHOUT A SECOND,
THAT CORRESPONDS TO THE WHOLENESS OF AUM.
WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THAT BECOMES THE SELF.
AUM
PURNAMADAH
PURNAMIDAM
PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE
PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA
PURNAMEVA VASHISYATE.</p>


THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE is the most ancient language in the world, hence it has a certain beauty, a certain flexibility, a certain poeticness which has disappeared in the modern languages. The modern languages are scientific; they are closer to prose, mathematics logic. The modern languages insist on definite meanings, hence they are not flexible; they are solid blocks with clear-cut definitions.


The Sanskrit words have many meanings. Each word is a rainbow, a whole spectrum of meanings. Hence there is much scope to interpret in different ways, on different planes. So each Sanskrit word can be defined in many ways, multi-dimensionally.
This fundamental sutra, the BEEJ MANTRA --
<p class="sutra">AUM
PURNAMADAH
PURNAMIDAM
PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE
PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA
PURNAMEVA VASHISYATE.</p>


-- consists only of one word: PURNA. This word PURNA can be translated in three ways. The first meaning can be 'perfection'; that's how it is being translated ordinarily by the scholars, pundits, professors. But that is the lowest meaning of it, the grossest meaning of it, for the simple reason that the idea of perfection is inapplicable to existence.


Only in one way can existence be said to be perfect, and that is that existence is perfect in its imperfectness. If existence were REALLY perfect then there would be no possibility of evolution; perfection would mean death, absolute death. But life is growing, not only on the outside but on the inside too. Life is continuously moving like a river towards the ocean, towards the horizon -- which always appears to come closer and closer, but still a distance remains; one never absolutely arrives.


In other words, life is a pilgrimage without a goal -- and that's its beauty, that's why it is alive. If the goal is achieved, then there is no meaning left; then there is no point in going on existing. Perfection will mean suicide; hence the meaning of PURNA as perfect is only scholarly. It is used by people who have not experienced existence, who have studied the scriptures but who have not merged into the ocean of life, who have not tasted it. It is a childish interpretation.


A first-grade schoolteacher was taking her pupils on a field trip to the local zoo. Each child was given a turn at guessing the names of the various animals. The camel, lion, giraffe, bear and the elephant all were named correctly.


"Now it's your turn," the teacher said to a little girl. She pointed to a deer and said, "What's the name of that animal?"


The little girl hesitated for a long time, and the teacher tried to prompt her by saying, "Think hard. What does your mother call your father at home?"


"So that's what a baboon looks like!" the little girl exclaimed.


That is the most childish meaning and it is dangerous too, because all perfectionism leads to neurosis. The perfectionist is not a healthy and sane person. He is bound to go insane because he is always trying to be perfect, and life is always imperfect. He is trying to go against the current, he is trying to go against the law, the universal law: AIS DHAMMO SANANTANO. He is not flowing with existence, he is not in a let-go. He is trying hard to do the impossible -- that is an ego trip.


So those who have interpreted the word PURNA as perfection have given it a wrong color. But the Sanskrit language allows it; its flexibility is such, its poetry is such that you can play with any word in many ways.


The second meaning is a little better than the first, and that is 'totalness'; PURNA can also mean 'the total'. But that is also lagging a little behind the real meaning. The concept of totality is mathematical, the concept of perfection is egoistic. Totality means 'the sum of all', but the sum of all may not have any intrinsic, organic unity. The total may be missing the soul, that which connects it, keeps it together.


'The total' simply means the sum total of all, but that is not enough. Existence is something more than the sum total; that plus point is the hidden secret of life. It is an organic unity. So we cannot just call it 'total'.


The third meaning is 'wholeness', which comes closest to the reality; closer than that one cannot come through language. If one wants to come closer than that then one has to be silent, then no language can help. But 'wholeness' is the most approximate meaning. Hence we translate this BEEJ MANTRA, this seed, which contains all the Upanishads, the whole Upanishadic vision:
<p class="sutra">AUM
THIS IS THE WHOLE.
THAT IS THE WHOLE.
FROM WHOLENESS EMERGES WHOLENESS.
WHOLENESS COMING FROM WHOLENESS,
WHOLENESS STILL REMAINS.</p>


The world is an organic unity. We are not parts in a mechanical sense, because in a machine the parts can be replaced. The part is not absolutely essential, it is dispensable; another part will do the same. But we are not parts in that sense. Even a small blade of grass is indispensable, irreplaceable; the whole existence needs it, it is not accidental. Hence the part is not only the part but the whole too.


P.D. Ouspensky, one of the very close disciples of George Gurdjieff, says that in lower mathematics -- the mathematics that is taught in the schools, colleges and the universities -- the part is always less than the whole. Obviously, the part cannot be equal to the whole, and the part certainly cannot be bigger than the whole. The part MEANS smaller than the whole. How can my hand be equal to me or bigger than me? It is part of me! That being part itself is enough indication that it is smaller than the whole.


But Ouspensky says there is a higher mathematics too. The Upanishads belong to the higher mathematics. Then things start changing; then ordinary rules are no more applicable. Not only that -- they are inadequate -- they become absolutely contrary to the truth. In higher mathematics the part can be equal to the whole and in certain cases can be bigger than the whole.


You are equal to the whole -- each part is equal to the whole -- but when a part becomes a Buddha he becomes bigger than the whole. That's a totally different world of laws.


This universe is whole, the whole comes out of it, still the whole remains behind. You can take the whole out and nothing is lost; you can put the whole back, nothing is added.


This summarizes in essence the whole Mandukya Upanishad. I call the Mandukya Upanishad PHILOSOPHIA ULTIMA -- the philosophy of the ultimate. It is not an ordinary philosophy concerned with the mundane; it reveals the secrets of the ultimate. Hence you will have to be very very alert to enter these sutras -- these are the last sutras of the Mandukya Upanishad.
<p class="sutra">THIS PURE SELF AND AUM ARE AS ONE...</p>


By 'pure Self' is meant: when there is no content left in your consciousness, when the consciousness is contentless, when it mirrors nothing, when the mirror is left absolutely alone without any reflection. There is no thought, no memory, no desire, no imagination, no expectation -- no ripple on the surface of your consciousness. The lake of consciousness is absolutely still, resting in itself. That is called the 'pure Self'; you are no more, you are dissolved as an ego entity; you have become part of the whole. The dewdrop has slipped into the ocean; it has become the ocean.
<p class="sutra">THIS PURE SELF AND AUM ARE AS ONE...</p>


Remember the word 'as' -- it is not saying that they ARE one. Many fools have interpreted it as 'they are one'. That's why all over this country people are chanting the mantra AUM, thinking that they are remembering the ultimate.


It is just like a thirsty man going on chanting the formula H20. H20 is a formula: it represents exactly the constituents of water, but it is NOT water. It is AS water, but if you are thirsty it won't help. And we are thirsty for the ultimate. Just chanting the mantra AUM is not going to help -- this is sheer stupidity!


What Maharishi Mahesh Yogi calls Transcendental Meditation is only transcendental stupidity! Certainly it is transcendental -- it is no ordinary stupidity, it is very sacred! -- but stupidity is stupidity, and when it becomes transcendental it becomes more dangerous, more poisonous.
See the point:
<p class="sutra">THIS PURE SELF AND AUM ARE AS ONE...</p>


Remember the word 'as' -- don't forget it.


Jesus says: When you are AS small children you shall enter into my kingdom. Only when you are AS small children will the kingdom of God welcome you. Remember the word 'as'. He is not saying 'if you are children', he is saying 'AS children'. That simply shows, clearly shows, that it is not expected that you should be children; what is expected is that you should not be children but AS children. You should be grown-up, you should be mature, ripe, yet you should carry some innocence of childhood within you -- the same freshness, the same virgin consciousness, unpolluted, uncontaminated. The sage is not a child, but he is certainly AS a child.


AUM is only a formula, just like H20. It simply represents the whole reality. Before we enter into this, the greatest formula invented ever by man, you have to understand a few things. First: AUM is not written in Sanskrit in the ordinary Sanskrit alphabet; it has a special symbol for itself. It is a code word. To make it clear, the ordinary Sanskrit is not used for it -- a SPECIAL symbol, hence it is untranslatable.


It consists of three sounds AND the fourth, the soundless sound. It consists of four things: three are sounds and the fourth is only the harmony of those three sounds. Three sounds are AUDIBLY there, you can hear them. The fourth is heard not by the ears; it is heard only at the innermost shrine of your being.


So the symbol AUM consists of four things. Three are the basic sounds: aa-oo-ma -- A, U, M. These are the basic sounds; all other sounds are branches of these three sounds. This is the real trinity, the trinity of sounds. All these three have arisen out of the fourth, but the fourth is inaudible, unhearable. The fourth is represented only by a dot; that dot is called ANUSWAR.


If you go into an empty temple or a mosque or a church, or any empty house will do -- a newly built house, utterly empty... go inside and start chanting the mantra AUM. "AUM, AUM, AUM.... " You go on chanting, then stop suddenly. Now you are no more chanting, but the vibe is still there, a humming sound... disappearing, disappearing... every moment disappearing, becoming more and more subtle... the humming sound, the tail-end of M. When you say "AUMMMMM..." that tail-end of M will be heard when you have stopped chanting.


That is represented only by a dot; in Sanskrit that dot is called ANUSWAR. Out of that dot arise three sounds A-U-M. These four represent the whole existence, these four are the four dimensions of existence.


You can think of it in another way also: put a dot on a piece of paper -- this is the center -- then draw three concentric circles around it. The last concentric circle, the biggest will be A, the first. The second concentric circle U, will be just in the middle between the first and the third. And then the third concentric circle, closer to the dot, the center, will be M. And the dot -- the center of all these three concentric circles, these three circumferences -- is the ANUSWAR: the soundless sound; what Zen people call 'the sound of one hand clapping'. The Mandukya Upanishad calls it 'the fourth' -- TURIYA -- without giving it any name, simply a number.


The three, the first three, represent your three states, and the fourth, your self-nature. Man is also exactly as AUM; man is a miniature universe. If we can decipher man we will be able to decipher the whole of existence. If we can know a single dewdrop in its totality we will have known all the oceans, because we will have dissected a single drop which contains the secret of all the oceans. We will come to know the formula H20, and that's the secret.


Whether water exists on earth or it exists on other planets... it must be existing, according to scientists, on at least fifty thousand planets. Life is possible on at least fifty thousand planets, and that is the minimum; more are possible. This is a very orthodox number, the very minimum; less than that is not possible, more than that is possible. Fifty thousand planets: if they have life they must have water. Without water no life exists -- neither plants, nor animals, nor man. But we know the formula; the same formula will be applicable anywhere and everywhere.


You are a dewdrop of God, of the whole, of this organic infinity, of this eternity. The best way to understand the universe, the truth, the existence, is to understand yourself. Socrates is right when he says, "Know thyself," because, knowing that, you will be able to know all.
<p class="sutra">THIS PURE SELF AND AUM ARE AS ONE;
AND THE DIFFERENT QUARTERS OF THE SELF
CORRESPOND TO AUM AND ITS SOUNDS, A-U-M.
EXPERIENCE OF THE OUTER WORLD CORRESPONDS TO A,
THE FIRST SOUND.</p>


That is the outermost, the most superficial. And millions of people, unfortunately, die knowing only the A. Just their most superficial life and they think this is all there is to life: the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Blue Diamond Hotel... the family, the children, the market, money, power, prestige, respectability. All this consists of the most superficial life.
<p class="sutra">EXPERIENCE OF THE OUTER WORLD CORRESPONDS TO A,
THE FIRST SOUND.</p>


This first sound, A, represents your so-called waking state. Remember the word 'SO-CALLED' -- underline it in red. It is so-called waking, because a really awakened person becomes bigger than the whole. He becomes a Buddha, a Christ, a Krishna. Our waking is only so-called, only a very small fragment of our being becomes conscious.


When in the morning you wake up it is not much of a waking. You just open your eyes, you become capable of doing the most superficial things. You can prepare your breakfast and serve tea to your wife and make your children ready to go to school -- and all these things are done in a very mechanical way. You are not really conscious of what you are doing because you have been doing it for many many days, for many many years, for many many lives; you can function like a robot.
I have heard:


The difference between the three Celtic races is that the Scot keeps the Sabbath and everything he can lay his hands on, the Welshman prays on his knees on Sunday and on everyone else the rest of the week, while the Irishman doesn't know what he wants but he'll fight to the death for it.


But this is how the whole of humanity is. People are living, dying, not knowing why they live, not knowing why they die. People are struggling to survive not knowing for what. People are rushing with great speed, not knowing where. They are not even aware of who they are -- what kind of awareness is this?


Hence, call it so-called wakefulness. But this so-called wakefulness creates a world of its own.
<p class="sutra">THIS INITIATES ACTION AND ACHIEVEMENT.
WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS ACTS IN FREEDOM AND
ACHIEVES SUCCESS.</p>


This waking state is what Carl Gustav Jung calls extroversion. The extrovert person lives only outside himself, but because he lives totally outside of himself he is very active. He is so active, really, that he finds it difficult to fall asleep, he finds it difficult to rest. His life is more or less nothing but a restlessness.


A well-adjusted person is one whose intake of pep pills just overbalances his intake of tranquillizers, leaving enough energy for his weekly trip to the psychiatrist.


The extrovert lives in that way, but he achieves much: money, power, prestige, respectability. The great achievers -- Alexander, Napoleon, Nadir Shah, Genghis Khan, Tamurlane, Joseph Stalin, all these people -- they achieve much, but their achievements are almost like making sandcastles. They are bound disappear. Death will knock them down in a single blow.


At the Kremlin, the Moscow Communist Party headquarters, Joseph Stalin lay dying. He called his second-in-command, Nikita Kruschev, to his bedside. "I want to leave you something, Nikita," he whispered. "Any time something goes wrong for you as Party Head, open the first of these two envelopes."


A few years later Cold War problems arose; there was a political crisis with President Kennedy over Cuba, so Kruschev decided to open the first envelope. "Put everything on my back! Love, Joseph," was the advice.


Kruschev went straight ahead, throwing blame for the grave political situation onto Stalin, and his situation improved. But again a few years later the Kruschev government came under fire -- the Corn Revolt was worse than ever, the Americans succeeded in landing the first man on the moon, the country was gripped with inflation. So he decided it was time to open the second envelope.
Inside were the words: "Prepare two envelopes!"


All achievement in the outside world is just like that. It is writing your name on water: you have not even finished and it starts disappearing. It is making a house of playing cards: just a little breeze and the whole palace collapses.


But the extrovert achieves, certainly. He makes many palaces -- maybe they are only of playing cards; he launches many boats -- maybe they are only paper boats, but he is capable of doing things and he achieves. He becomes a Nobel Laureat, he becomes a president, a prime minister. His whole mind is full of achieving more and more.


The West is living in that kind of state. That's why the West has achieved much -- in technology, in industry, in affluence, in every possible way. The West has achieved much; the East has been an utter failure. As far as extrovert achievement is concerned, the West has defeated the East. And certainly the West has been more free; the East easily yielded to slavery. There was no resistance against slavery, no resistance against poverty -- no resistance at all.


For twenty-two centuries India has been in slavery, with no resistance. Not a single revolution has happened here. Even what Indians call revolutions were not revolutions. India became free in 1947 and the revolution happened in 1942. This is rare! Revolution happens five years before, and freedom comes after five years -- such a gap! Russia revolted in 1917 and in 1917 it became communist -- it got out of the slavery of the czars. There was no gap.


This revolution of 1942 in India was nothing much; it has nothing to do with the revolution that India attained freedom. The freedom came because of the international situation. If Churchill had been in power in England the freedom would not have come.


When Lord Mountbatten, the last British Governor-General and Viceroy, went back to England, he met Churchill at a party. Churchill shouted at him, "You have slapped me in the face!" turned about and didn't speak with him for years. He was against giving freedom to India; if he had been in power there would have been no possibility of it.


India is very easily ready to yield to any pressure from the outside, for the simple reason that India has not lived extrovertly. Science was born in the West, not in the East, because science belongs to the extrovert mind, to the objective approach towards reality.


The poverty of the East and the richness of the West can be understood, according to the Mandukya Upanishad, very easily the West is extrovert and the East is introvert, There is no need to go into any more details; it is very simple.


The West knows how to be free but it does not know what to do with freedom; the East knows what to do with freedom but does not know how to be free. The West knows how to create wealth but does not know how to use it, what to do with it. It has created immense power, and its own power is crushing itself.


Two cows in a pasture near a highway saw a tank truck pass by, with a sign on the side reading: "Pasteurized, homogenized, standardized, and Vitamin D added."


One turned to the other and remarked, "Makes you feel sort of inadequate, doesn't it?"


The West has gone far ahead of nature and the reason is simple...


When coming up the stairs one evening, quite inebriated, the husband fell over backwards and broke the bottle of liquor that he was carrying. Not wishing his wife to know what happened, he went to the bathroom to make the necessary repairs.


Next morning when he woke up, his wife said, "Well, you came home drunk again?"


"No," he replied. "Whatever would make you think so?'


"Well," she said, "if you were not drunk, why is all that adhesive tape on the mirror in the bathroom?"


Simply looking around... and you will be able to decipher what the root cause of things is. The root cause of things is always very simple.


A psychologist took a poll surveying just how people sat in their tubs. He discovered that out of a hundred people, ninety-nine sat facing the faucets, only one sat facing away from the faucets.


He asked the lone man why, and he said, "Very simple -- I have no plug for my tub!"
<p class="sutra">EXPERIENCE OF THE INNER WORLD CORRESPONDS TO U,
THE SECOND SOUND.</p>
<p class="sutra">THIS INITIATES UPHOLDING AND UNIFICATION.
WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS UPHOLDS THE TRADITION
OF KNOWLEDGE AND UNIFIES THE DIVERSITIES OF LIFE.
EVERYTHING THAT COMES ALONG SPEAKS TO HIM OF
BRAHMAN.</p>


The second is the state of dreaming. The first is the so-called waking state, the second is the dreaming state  -- it is introversion. The first creates science, the second creates art. The first is an objective approach towards reality, the second is a subjective approach towards reality. The poet, the painter, the singer, the dancer, the musician, they all belong to the second: the introverted state.


The East has given great poets, great musicians, great dancers to the world. It has shown great aesthetic sensibility, which is lacking in the West, but it has not shown any scientific growth, it has not developed any technology.


The introvert person is closed within himself; he is a dreamer. He is very skillful in dreaming, but only in dreaming. If he clashes with the extrovert he is bound to be defeated. It is like a fragile, soft, delicate poet wrestling against Mohammed Ali -- there is no possibility of winning over Mohammed Ali! The poet is like a roseflower and Mohammed Ali is like a rock. If the rose has to fight against the rock it is going to be defeated.


That's why the East has remained in slavery: it knows how to grow roses, it does not know how to throw rocks. It knows how to dream, but it does not know how to industrialize things, how to bring more technology. So it goes on dreaming -- beautiful dreams, sweet dreams -- but it goes on suffering in the outside reality. It knows how to be more satisfied, it is more satisfied with less than people in the West are with so much more. They have all that man can have, yet there is no satisfaction. The East is satisfied -- without anything; you can see that satisfaction on people's faces, but it is nothing to brag about. Both are lacking because both are half. Both are unfinished, both are missing.


And unless the extrovert and the introvert meet to create a new world we will not be able to survive long. We have gone different ways. Your left leg has gone on one side, your right leg has gone another, and you are continuously falling apart and the distance between your two selves is becoming too big -- every moment it is becoming bigger and bigger.


Rudyard Kipling says: West is West and East is East, and the twain shall never meet. Man has to prove Rudyard Kipling wrong; if Rudyard Kipling is NOT proved wrong, there is no hope for humanity at all.


My work here consists in proving Rudyard Kipling absolutely wrong. East and West CAN meet, SHOULD meet; there is no reason why they cannot meet, because extroversion and introversion are two sides of you. You can easily shift your gears. You just have to learn how to shift your gears, so when you are needed in the outside world you become an extrovert and when you are finished with the outside world you change your gear and you move into the inner world -- the world of poetry and music and dance. The inner world will bring you closer to God and the outer world will bring you closer to matter; both are immensely needed.
<p class="sutra">WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS UPHOLDS THE TRADITION OF KNOWLEDGE...</p>


That's why in the East people are so traditionalist, so orthodox -- fanatically orthodox, very intolerant of things new and very much obsessed with the old. The old is gold in the East -- howsoever rotten it is, that does not matter, it has to be old; if it is old then it is good. The older the better! And, obviously, the older it is the more rotten it will be -- it will be stinking! But people are obsessed with it.


A man walked into a bar, trailing an extremely foul odor behind him. He sat in a corner all alone. All evening he sat there nursing his beers.
Finally a lady felt so SORRY for him that she held her nose and went over to him.
"Yes," he said, "it is always like this, I am always alone. Nobody talks to me because of the smell -- it is my job at the circus. I pick up the shit after the elephants, and the stench is terrible. I have no friends and feel terribly lonely."
"In that case," she asked, "why don't you quit your job?"
'What!" gasped the man. "And give up showbiz?"


Nobody wants to give up anything. People become attached to the old because they become efficient with it. The West is always for the new, the East is always for the old. The West is continuously discovering the new, and the East is continuously trying to prove that "Our scriptures are older than you think."


Historians say that the Vedas can be at the most three thousand to five thousand years old, not more than that, but Hindus don't agree. Lokmanya Tilak tried to prove that the Vedas are at least ninety thousand years old. Why this obsession?
The Mandukya Upanishad says in this sutra:
<p class="sutra">WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS UPHOLDS THE TRADITION OF KNOWLEDGE...</p>


Tradition becomes more important than discovery. Past-orientation becomes the very life-pattern of the introvert. And the extrovert is future-oriented; he is always looking to the future, his golden age is yet to come. And the introvert? His golden age has passed long before -- RAMARAJYA, the kingdom of Rama. The golden age has passed; now there is only deterioration, every day man is falling.


The Eastern calculation is that the best days were in the beginning and now we are living in the worst days. The Western vision is totally different: the past was nothing important; now we are starting to live, beginning to live. So there is hope in the West; in the East there is a kind of hopelessness, a despair, a fatalist, determinist attitude that nothing can be done. The time is such: this is KALI YUGA, the worst time. The most you can do is to make as much good out of it as possible. Nothing much is possible, but do whatsoever you can do. Decorate it a little, arrange things in a better way, just somehow pass the time. Soon this creation will be dissolved and a new creation will begin, again there will be the first age: SATYA YUGA, the age of truth. But this is the age of darkness.


Beware! Future-orientation has its own difficulties, because you cannot live in the present. Past orientation also has the same problem: you cannot live in the present. So neither does the West live in the present nor does the East; the East lives in the past and the West lives in the future.


The explorer heard the sound of drums coming from deep within the jungle, so in the spirit of discovery he slashed his way through the thicket in search of the drums. At last he came to a clearing where a witchdoctor of a strange tribe was beating on a hollow log.


Through his native interpreter the explorer said to the witchdoctor, "Why doctor make boom-boom?"


'We need water, we want water," the witchdoctor said.


'So," the explorer said, "witchdoctor beat drum for rain?"


The interpreter did not bother to translate that question. Instead he turned to the explorer and said, "Don't be silly! He is calling the plumber."


If people who are obsessed with the past are given modern technology they will go on living with their old ideas. Even with the latest technology they will not have the MIND of a scientist.


That is happening every day in India. People go to the West to learn science, but their superstitions remain with them. They come back with Ph.D.s and D.Litt.s, but still they will do the YAGNA -- the fire worship -- when it is not raining. They will go to the temple of Hanuman, the monkey god, and worship there. Even doctors, scientists, all kinds of people who are wellversed in technology... but their minds don't change, they remain the same.


Church was over and the lady was backing out of the parking lot when she discovered she did not have her handbag. She quickly parked her car again and rushed back to the pew where she had been sitting. Sure enough, her handbag was gone.


As she stood there trying to think what to do, the minister walked up to her and said, "I am sure you are looking for your handbag. I saw it there and I thought I had better pick it up for safe-keeping."


"Ah, thank you," the woman said. "But surely no one would steal my handbag in church?"


"No, I don't suppose so," the minister said. "But knowing my Indian congregation as well as I do, someone might have seen it and considered it an answer to a prayer."


But this introvert has come a little closer to the center:
<p class="sutra">EVERYTHING THAT COMES ALONG SPEAKS TO HIM OF BRAHMAN.</p>


A man went to the hospital to get a cardiogram. After the cardiogram had been taken he was given a sheet of paper with a whole bunch of jiggly lines on it. He took it home and put it into his player piano and it played back 'Nearer, my God, to thee'!


The introvert is nearer; he has not reached, and if he remains an introvert he will never reach, but he is nearer.


The first can be called, according to modern psychology, consciousness; the second, subconsciousness; and the third, unconsciousness.
<p class="sutra">THE STATE OF DREAMLESS SLEEP CORRESPONDS TO M,
THE THIRD SOUND.
THIS INITIATES MEASUREMENT AND MERGING.
WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THIS MERGES WITH THE WORLD
AND HAS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS.</p>


The third is a negative state of transcendence, JAD SAMADHI; it is not true SAMADHI, but very close. The man has fallen into a deep unconsciousness, but he is silent; there is no turmoil within. But it is a negative state; there is no light, there is only darkness. Even dreams have gone. There has happened a certain merging. He has tasted THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS, but in a deep unconscious state.


It is just as when you wake up in the morning and you say, "I slept a very deep sleep last night. It was so beautiful!" But it is only later on that you say it. When it was there, the DEEP sleep, you were not aware of it. It is only a later reflection, a later glow. In the morning you feel yourself so refreshed that you can see, you can infer, that you must have gone into deep sleep.


But this is not true SAMADHI. We call it JAD SAMADHI -- unconscious SAMADHI -- but it has come very close. This is the closest to the fourth, TURIYA.


The first man becomes scientific, objective; the second becomes introvert, a dreamer, poetic, aesthetic; and the third becomes a mystic. He knows but he cannot say anything, because his knowing is still lost in a deep darkness. He FEELS; there is a certain experience hovering around him, but he cannot define it, he cannot pinpoint it, he cannot show it to the world.


You will find many people in India -- if you go to the caves and the monasteries you will find many people who look immensely blissful, but very stupid at the same time. I have come across a few persons who were very very blissful, but at the same time very stupid too. Their eyes don't give the indication of a Buddha -- not that awareness, not that sharpness -- but they are very innocent. Their innocence is more like ignorance than wisdom.


Beware of the third, because many seekers have got lost in the third and thought they have arrived. This is the MOST dangerous place. The extrovert can NEVER feel that he has arrived; he knows that his life is insane, feverish. The introvert cannot accept the idea that he has arrived, because all that he has is a vague dreamworld. He cannot catch hold of those dreams; there is nothing to catch, only vapor, only clouds.


But the third person, one who has experienced dream!. less sleep, he is neither extrovert nor introvert; he has slipped out of that duality. He has had a certain merging with existence, hence the danger: he can think that he has arrived. And people can start worshipping him, seeing his innocence, seeing his childlike qualities. They will call him Paramahansa. But he has yet to go one more step....
<p class="sutra">THE PURE SELF ALONE,
THAT WHICH IS INDIVISIBLE,
WHICH CANNOT BE DESCRIBED,
THE SUPREME GOOD,
THE ONE WITHOUT A SECOND,
THAT CORRESPONDS TO THE WHOLENESS OF AUM.
WHOEVER AWAKENS TO THAT BECOMES THE SELF.</p>


The third has only tasted of God, the fourth has become God himself. He can say, "AHAM BRAHMASMI -- I am the Supreme, I am the Absolute!" He can say, "ANA'L HAQ!" like Mansoor al-Hillaj -- "I am the truth." Only then... but this can be said only when your unconsciousness becomes luminous, when the darkness of the third disappears, when its negativity disappears and it becomes a positive experience in full awareness. We call this state Buddhahood. and reaching the fourth, TURIYA, the part becomes bigger than the whole. The miracle has happened. The miracle is so immense that it cannot be described -- words fall short.


No song can sing it, no poetry can contain it, no music can define it! And it is indivisible; you cannot divide it into parts. In fact, unless you achieve the fourth you should not call yourself an individual.


The root of 'individual' is the same as the root of 'indivisible'; they both mean the same: that which cannot be divided. Unless you attain to the fourth you are not an individual; you are only a person; a personality -- and a person is a phony thing. A personality is a mask, individuality is your true nature. It is the supreme good, the SUMMUM BONUM. All virtue flows out of it.


Then you need not follow any morality, then you need not follow any discipline. Then you need not listen to any scripture -- you ARE your own scriptural. Your own consciousness gives you every commandment. And because now you are fully conscious you can live spontaneously, moment-to-moment. Only the fourth lives in the present and lives consciously.


The third is also in the present, but unconscious. The first is in the future, the second is in the past, the third IS in the present but unconscious, the fourth is in the present AND consciously in the present. The fourth is the state of a Buddha, of a Christ, of a Krishna, of a JINA.


This is the goal of all sannyas. Unless this is achieved life has been a sheer wastage. Unless this is known you have not known anything at all. Unless you have reached this fourth state, the center, the very center, the innermost shrine of your being, your life cannot have meaning and significance. Then you missed the spring. Then you lived only a so-called life -- futile, ugly.


The fourth brings you to the optimum. You become the Everest, the peak, the fulfillment, the flowering; the one-thousand-petaled lotus opens up. Then all the blessings of existence are yours, all the love of existence is yours, all the freedom of existence is yours.


And the most remarkable thing to be remembered is: the fourth contains all the three. So the fourth can be scientific, can be poetic, can be restful. It is possible for the person who has achieved the fourth to move in all the dimensions, all the other three dimensions.


Man has come to a point where he needs the fourth; only with the fourth will we be able to give birth to a new man. And the new man is urgently needed -- the old man is finished, he is outdated. He is just lingering somehow, stale and dead. Out of old habit he goes on and on. But this century's end will be very decisive: either we will be able to give birth to a new man or we will have to commit suicide.


My effort here is to prepare the ground for the new man. Sannyas, according to me, is only a preparation to herald the new man. Hence I am teaching you the PHILOSOPHIA ULTIMA. This is the ultimate philosophy: the method, the technique, the device, to reach the fourth. make it your only longing, your only desire. Become this longing, that you have to reach the fourth. And once you are committed, involved, there is no reason why you cannot reach -- it is your potential, it is your birthright.
			

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> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
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