Kabir says:

 

MY INSIDE, LISTEN TO ME, THE GREATEST SPIRIT, THE TEACHER, IS NEAR, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!

 

The original is:

 

PARMATMA GURU NIKAT VIRAJE, JAG JAG MAN MERE....

 

 

Your real Master, your God, is very close by. You need not go to Kaaba or to Kashi in search of him.

 

He is so close by that even to say that he is close by is not right, because closeness also shows a little distance. He is exactly you! God asleep - that's what you are. If you awake you need not go anywhere else.

 

The difference between you and a Buddha is not the difference of any physical distance, is not the difference of any quantitative changes. The distance is only of one thing, otherwise you are exactly the same: you are asleep, he is awake. Open your eyes and you are a Buddha, be awake and you are a Buddha.

 

PARAMATMA GURU NIKAT VIRAJE...

 

For whom are you searching? He is just within you, and He is the real Master. The outer Master only functions as a mirror; he simply shows you who you are. He does not impose anything upon you, he only reflects.

 

The pseudo Master imposes things upon you. He teaches you this and that, he conditions you, makes you a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Christian, creates great greed in you for the other world, for heavenly pleasures, makes you afraid of hell. He is using a very psychological strategy.

 

That's what the most materialistic school of psychologists goes on teaching, the school of the behaviorists - Watson, Skinner, Pavlov. Their whole teaching is that man can be conditioned only by two things, and those two things are fear of punishment and greed for reward - punishment and reward. That's how they go on working on rats, and when they succeed in conditioning a rat they think the same can be done with man. They don't give you more respect than they give to the rats.

 

And in a way they are right; about ninety-nine percent of you they are right. They are not right only when a person is awake; they are not right about a Buddha. Otherwise humanity works almost like rats, there is not much difference. The rats function through punishment and reward, and that's how man functions.

 

The false Master simply makes you afraid of hell, greedy for heaven, and through this strategy he exploits you. The real Master does not make you afraid and does not make you greedy either. Then what is the function of a real Master?

 

The function of the real Master is to be a pure mirror so you can see your own face, so that you can recognize your own face. Once you have seen your own heart throbbing in the mirror, your own being reflected, you will become aware of the inner Master.

 

The function of the outer Master is to make you aware of the inner Master. Once that is done then the outer mirror is no longer needed. You may remain grateful to it because it helped you, you may remain thankful to it for ever and ever, but it is no longer needed. The real Master works hard so that he is no longer needed. His success will simply make him unneeded.

 

The false Master works in such a way that he is always needed, that without him you cannot move a single inch. He makes you dependent on him. He does not give you awareness, eyes to see, to function; he gives you ready-made formulas. And of course life goes on changing, and those formulas become out-of-date every day.

 

I have heard...

 

A certain rich man was suspicious that his secretary was fooling around. He asked her but she was very adamant, stubborn. Not only that, she became very angry and she said, "I am a virgin!"

 

The boss said, "Then you produce a certificate from a medical man."

 

She managed somehow - she bribed the doctor, got a certificate that she was a virgin, and brought the certificate to the boss. He looked at the certificate, and then looked at the secretary and said, "But it is dated yesterday!"

 

Twenty-four hours have passed... who knows? One can lose one's virginity within seconds.

 

And that's how it happens in your life: whenever fixed, ready-made answers are given to you, they are dated, they are always lagging behind. If you ask me how to behave in a certain situation and I give you a particular answer, you will always be in trouble and dependent on me, because the same situation is never going to happen again - never exactly the same - and the answer is never going to fit any particular situation. You will always be a misfit. Your whole life will become a great misery of trying to fix square pegs into round holes. Your whole life will be a long, long story of frustration, and you will be worried about why it is not working.

 

You can see Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, Jains, Buddhists - nothing seems to be working.

 

Their lives are a proof! What more proof is needed? What Mahavir said is now twenty-five centuries old; how can it fit in this world? But people are still trying, they don't take any note that twenty-five centuries have passed.

 

Mahavir had said not to eat in the night. He was not aware that one day there would be electricity.

 

He had said it so that insects, mosquitoes and anything else, are not eaten. People used to eat in the dark; they still do in India. In villages, they eat in the dark. The people are so poor that they cannot even afford a kerosene lamp. Mahavir was not aware; how could he have been? But still the Jain goes on insisting that he cannot eat in the night. Now, there is no problem at all.

 

Once I was staying at the home of a very religious Jain, a very rich man and a very beautiful man too, in Calcutta. He has an absolutely centrally air-conditioned palace, soundproofed, but he will not eat in the night. I said, "Why? No mosquito can enter, no insects can enter. Why not?" Just because Mahavir had said... When people become too much obsessed with principles, this happens.

 

The real Master never gives you principles, he gives you only insights. He gives you understanding, not commandments. He simply makes you more aware so whatsoever the situation is you can always respond to the situation on your own. You need not follow a certain fixed principle. He makes you more fluid, more flexible, because life goes on changing and if you are very very inflexible you will suffer.

 

PARMATMA GURU NIKAT VIRAJE, JAG JAG MAN MERE....

 

Kabir says: The only thing worth doing is to wake up my mind. The God, the REAL guru, is inside.

 

The word 'guru' is untranslatable. Neither does the word 'teacher' nor the word 'Master' have that beauty. In fact, the phenomenon of the guru is so deeply Indian that no other language of any country is capable of translating it. It is something intrinsically Eastern. The word 'guru' is made of two words, 'gu' and 'ru'. 'Gu' means darkness, 'ru' means one who dispels it. Guru literally means 'the light'. And you have the light within you, yes! If you come across a Buddha or a Jesus or a Krishna or a Mahavir, it will be of tremendous help to you in finding your inner guru, because seeing Buddha, suddenly a great enthusiasm and hope will arise in you: "If it can happen to Buddha" - who is just like you, the same body, the same blood, bone, marrow - "if it can happen to this man, why not to me?" The hope is the beginning. Meeting with the Master on the outside is the beginning of a great hope, a great aspiration.

 

And this can happen only if you meet a living Master. It cannot happen just by reading about Buddha, because who knows whether this man was really historical or not? And the way the story is being; told is such that nobody can believe that he was historical.

 

The followers always go on creating more and more unnecessary stories about their Masters. Maybe they do it with good intentions, but even good intentions coming out of unconscious people are of no use; they are harmful. Maybe they want to impress people so people can become more attracted, but what really happens is just the opposite.

 

Now the Buddhist story is that when Buddha was born, the mother was standing, was walking in a garden. Buddha was born while the mother was walking. And not only that, the first thing that he did was that he himself walked seven steps. The first thing the child did - he walked seven steps! Not only that, the second thing that he did after the seventh step was that he declared, looking at the sky, "I am the awakened one, I am the great Buddha! Nobody has ever been like me and nobody will ever be like me."

 

Now these stupid stories naturally make intelligent people suspicious. And one thing is absolutely certain: that Buddha is not like us, so maybe, perhaps, he became enlightened, but he gives no hope to us. Jesus is born of a virgin mother - nonsense, patent nonsense! But how can you become enlightened? You are not born of a virgin mother. Krishna is born as God, he is an incarnation of God; YOU are not an incarnation of God.

 

Rather than these stories creating a hope in you, they create a kind of hopelessness.

 

You need living Masters who have not yet become myths. You need living Masters who are just like you and yet different, just like you but with something plus, something mysterious surrounding them in every other way the same as you, but only in one respect different: they have a certain understanding which is missing in you, they have a certain luminosity which is missing in you, they have a certain grace, a certain climate which is missing with you. But in every other way they are exactly like you: they fall ill, they need food, they become thirsty, they are tired, they have to go to sleep; they are just exactly like you in every possible way. Then great hope arises: maybe the 'one plus' thing that has happened to them is also latent in you and can become manifest.

 

The outer Master is simply a mirror so that you can see your face, so that you can see that you also have-the same face, the same possibility, the same potential. And once this has settled in your heart, that "I have also the same potential, the same seed", a great journey has started. You will never be the same again. Looking into the eyes of a living Master, something synchronizes in you, something is triggered in your being, a process has already started.

 

MY INSIDE, LISTEN TO ME, THE GREATEST SPIRIT, THE TEACHER, IS NEAR, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!

 

But we have been asleep so long, for millions of years, for millions of lives, that sleep has become a deep-rooted habit, almost our nature. So it is possible that you may even be with a living Master and

 

miss, because the mind goes on creating new ways to go on sleeping, new rationalizations. The mind will say, "Now I have found the guru, I have found the Master. Now what more is needed? It is enough. Now by his blessings I will become enlightened one day."

 

Now this is a trick of the mind. Blessings are of immense help, but only blessings will not make you enlightened. Otherwise one Master would make the whole earth enlightened, because his heart is not miserly about blessings. He can bless the whole world - he blesses the whole world - but just his blessings won't do.

 

But the mind can give you these ideas - that there is no need for you to wake up. The mind always thinks in its own old patterns.

 

A teacher was checking her children's knowledge of proverbs.

 

"Cleanliness is next to what?" she asked. "Impossible!" a small boy replied with great feeling.

 

Now the boy knows that the most difficult thing is cleanliness, just next to impossible. His response comes out of his experience.

 

When you are with a living Master your responses are bound to come from your own experience.

 

There is every possibility you may distort. The Master may mirror your real face, but you may close your eyes, you may start dreaming about your face, you may project something else.

 

"What did you learn in school today?" a mother asked her young son.

 

He replied, "We learned that one and one, the son of a bitch makes two. Two and two, the son of a bitch makes four. Four and four, the son of a bitch makes eight."

 

The mother was shocked. She went to school and complained to the teacher, "How could you teach your class such a terrible thing?"

 

"Madam," said the teacher, "I taught them 'one and one, the sum of which makes two'."

 

The real Master can also be misunderstood, misinterpreted. He may reflect your face, but you may go on seeing something else. You have been asleep so long that you will need to be shocked again and again.

 

Hence a constant companionship with the Master is needed; it can't be a hit-and-run affair. A few people come here and they say, "We have come here for three days. Is something possible?" They don't see the absurdity of it. They don't see how long they have been asleep; they want to be awakened within three days. In fact, by the way they say that they are here for three days, it seems as if they are obliging me by being here for three days. Even if in three lives you become awakened, that would be too early.

 

And yes, still I say it can happen in a single moment - it depends on you.

 

The story is that two soldiers, utterly drunk, met in a training camp. "Where you from?" inquired one.

 

"Mobile, Alabama!" replied the second.

 

"Mobile?" exclaimed the first. "Why, I am from Mobile!"

 

"What street do you live on in Mobile?" asked the second.

 

"Main Street and Elm Avenue," replied the first.

 

"That's where I live too!" said the second southern lad. "I live at 1195 Main Street."

 

"Me too. Say, are you married?" asked the first soldier.

 

"Sure am," replied the other. "Married a gal whose name was Daisy MacLee."

 

"So did I!" ejaculated the first soldier. Then he paused for a moment. "Hey," he drawled, "you reckon that we could be husbands-in-law?"

 

The fact is that there were not two soldiers, only one was standing before a mirror. But when you are utterly drunk everything is possible. When you are utterly drunk, it takes constant hammering from the Master. And the truth is not far away...

 

MY INSIDE, LISTEN TO ME, THE GREATEST SPIRIT, THE TEACHER, IS NEAR, WAKE UP, WAKE UP!

 

RUN TO HIS FEET - HE IS STANDING CLOSE TO YOUR HEAD RIGHT NOW.

 

The original is:

 

DHAYA KE PITAM CHARANAN LAGE, SAI KHADA SIR TERE....

 

The original has some beauty in it:

 

DHAYA KE PITAM CHARANAN LAGE...

 

Don't waste time, not even a single moment. Run, fall at the feet of the beloved. He has been standing there for so long, waiting and waiting for you. For lives and lives God has been waiting for you; His patience is infinite. There are only two things that are infinite: God's patience and man's stupidity!

 

If you are fortunate enough to be in the presence of a Master, look into his eyes and RUSH inwards.

 

Don't waste time!

 

DHAYA KE PITAM CHARANAN LAGE...

 

The beloved is within you, the worshipper is the worshipped. The beloved is within you; you just need to go to the very core of your being. Descend from the head to the heart, and from the heart to the being. Move from thinking to feeling and from feeling to being. Just be! and that is the meeting with the beloved. And the meeting has already been happening, you are just not aware, you are just unconscious.

 

RUN TO HIS FEET - HE IS STANDING CLOSE TO YOUR HEAD RIGHT NOW.

 

And without finding Him you will remain dissatisfied, discontented. Whatsoever you do, everything is doomed to fail. Except God, nothing succeeds. They say, "Nothing succeeds like success," and I say to you: Nothing fails like success. Once you succeed in your so-called worldly matters - money, power, prestige, respectability - then you will know that all has failed. The money is there and so is your inner poverty; it has not changed even an iota. In fact because of the richness now you will become more and more aware of your inner poverty; in contrast, you will be able to see it more.

 

That's why poor people look a little more satisfied than the rich - not that the poor people are satisfied, not that poverty has something spiritual about it, not that poverty has to be preached.

 

Enough of all those stupid things that have been told to people down the ages! But the poor person looks a little satisfied for a totally different reason. The reason is, he has nothing to compare himself with, he has no contrast. He is a white line drawn on a white board. The rich man is a white line drawn on a blackboard... the contrast.

 

The richer a country gets, the more frustrated it becomes. Indians brag very much; they think their satisfaction, their so-called contentment, has something to do with spirituality. It has nothing to do with spirituality at all! It is a simple psychological fact: you are so poor you cannot afford even to be discontented. Only rich people can afford to be discontented. Only rich people really become aware of discontentment.

 

But one thing is certain: whatsoever you attain - you can become rich, you can become respectable, you can become virtuous, you can become a so-called saint, a mahatma, worshipped by thousands of people - but if you have not attained the inner beloved you will remain poor, you will remain in misery deep down, you will remain in darkness.

 

No one is ever satisfied. Poor men wish they were rich, rich men wish they were handsome, bachelors wish they were married, and married men wish they were dead, and so on and so forth, it goes and it goes....

 

Have you ever come across a person who is really contented? If you come across a person who is really contented, then be with him, then imbibe as much of the vibes of his being as possible, because that is the only way to find your inner beloved. The person who is contented must have found him.

 

Buddhas are surrounded by tremendous contentment, a great silence, almost tangible; you can.touch it, you can feel its texture. Buddhas are surrounded by great grace; if you are not closed you will be overwhelmed by it. Buddhas are just pure love; if your hearts are open and beating, if you

 

are still alive, then IMMEDIATELY a great dance will arise in your being. You will start celebrating IMMEDIATELY, because seeing the Buddha you will become immediately aware of the inner Buddha that has been asleep so long. But so what? Even if you have been asleep for millions of lives it makes no difference, you can wake up right now, this very moment.

 

YOU HAVE SLEPT FOR MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF YEARS - says Kabir - WHY NOT WAKE UP THIS MORNING?

 

JUGAN JUGAN TOHI SOBAT BITA AJAHU NA JAG SABERE?...

 

... Don't be foolish any more! The time has come, THIS IS the time!

 

Buddhas always speak of this moment.

 

AJAHU NA JAG SABERE?...

 

... The morning has come. THIS is the morning for which you have been waiting for so long, THIS is the moment! Buddhas know only one time, that is now, and only one place, that is here. Their time is always now and their space is always here. They don't talk about the yesterdays and they don't talk about the tomorrows.

 

AJAHU NA JAG SABERE?...

 

... The morning has come, and you are still asleep? Are you not going to wake up? Are you not going to wake up and see the sun rising? You have missed so long, so long, but forget all about it; you can still wake up, it is still early. Whenever you wake up, it is early....

 

But the weight of the old habits is not easy to throw away. You listen, you may even feel a little understanding arising, but still your investment is in the sleep. You have been dreaming such beautiful dreams in your sleep, and now suddenly Kabir comes, and he says, "Wake up!" You would like to awake, but not right now - and the insistence of the Masters is RIGHT NOW. They don't want to wait, they start shaking you. You feel angry, naturally. All the great Buddhas of the world have created great anger in people against them for a simple reason: they disturb your sleep, and who wants to be disturbed? and particularly in the early morning when it is cold, and you would like to have a turnover and pull the blanket and tuck yourself in again just a little more, and you are having such a beautiful dream. Particularly in the early morning, people have beautiful dreams. You have become the president of America or something, and here comes Kabir and says, "Wake up!"

 

AJAHU NA JAG SABERE?...

 

... The morning has come. And what are you doing here? You would like to tell him, "Shut up! Is this the moment to wake me up? It has been a hard, hard struggle for me to become the president

 

of America. Somehow I have managed, now here you come. Where had you been before?" The weight of the dreams, of the sleep, of all the investments is great.

 

A man arrived at the Pearly Gates, and on being asked his name replied, "Charlie Graball."

 

"I don't think we have any notice of your coming," he was informed. "What was your occupation in earthly life?"

 

"Scrap metal merchant," the visitor said.

 

"Oh," said the angel, "I will go and enquire."

 

When he returned Charlie Graball had disappeared. So had the Pearly Gates.

 

Old habits...! A scrap metal merchant... even at the gate of heaven! Who cares about heaven?

 

When you can escape with the gate, who bothers about heaven?

 

And this is the reason why people go on finding new excuses to go on sleeping. You cannot believe how much you have invested in your sleep. And the most cunning thing that the mind can do is to make you convinced that you are not asleep at all, that you are already awake: "Kabir must be talking to somebody else."

 

That's what happens when I am talking here - you always think that I must be talking about other people. I am talking about you! Sometimes it happens that when I go on Looking for two, three seconds at one person, he starts looking here and there: I must be looking at somebody else - because nobody can think that he is Charlie Graball, no. It is always somebody else. This is one of the MOST powerful strategies of the mind to keep you asleep.

 

Gurdjieff used to tell a story again and again:

 

There was once a magician who had many sheep. Every day one fat sheep was to be killed for him, and of course - sheep are not so foolish as man! - they became alert. One thing was certain, that everybody was to be killed one day or other. They started escaping into the hills, into the forest. The magician was at a loss as to what to do; the sheep were becoming aware about their destiny.

 

Then he invented a strategy: he gathered all the sheep, hypnotized them, and told every sheep different things. For example, he told a few, "You are exceptional, you are not ordinary. What happens to others is never going to happen to you." Since that day those sheep stopped escaping.

 

You could have killed another sheep in front of them, but they were not afraid any more because they knew they were exceptional.

 

Just watch your mind deep down - you all have that idea, that "I am exceptional."

 

One Arabian proverb says that when God creates a man and sends him into the world, before He drops him, He always whispers one thing in his ear: "You are unique, exceptional." He goes on playing that joke, and every person carries that deep down in his heart, that "I am exceptional."

 

That's why you go on seeing people dying, but you never think, "I am going to die." It is always somebody else who dies, it is never I - "I am exceptional."

 

... To a few other sheep that he hypnotized, he told, "You are lions, you are not sheep at all." And since that day they stopped escaping; they started roaring like lions.

 

To a few other sheep he told, "You are not sheep, you are men. You are here to keep all the other sheep imprisoned. You are to help me, you are my friends." Since that day those sheep became detectives against their own friends. They would inform the magician that a certain sheep was trying to escape.

 

To a few others he even told, "You are magicians - not only men but magicians. You can do miracles!

 

You are immortal!"

 

Once he had done these strategies no sheep were escaping, and every day they were butchered.

 

And every day YOU are butchered. Every day somebody dies, somebody is killed, somebody is murdered, somebody commits suicide. Every day it is going on, but somehow, deep down, you go on believing you are exceptional. When somebody goes mad you think, "Poor fellow." You don't think that you can also go mad... because the difference between you and mad people is not much; it is very nominal, very minimal, only of degrees. Maybe you are at ninety-nine degrees and he is at a hundred and one; just one degree more and you cross the boundary, and you are mad. Just one day before that other person was also as normal as you are - now he is mad. Today you are normal, tomorrow you can be mad. But in our deep sleep we have auto-hypnotized ourselves. This auto-hypnosis is what is meant by sleep, metaphysical sleep.

 

JUGAN JUGAN TOHI SOBAT BITA, AJAHU NA JAG SABERE?...

 

... How long have you remained auto-hypnotized, in a deep metaphysical slumber? And the dawn has come. Now wake up! It is time! Now don't postpone any more, you have postponed enough.

 

WHY NOT WAKE UP THIS MORNING?

 

THERE IS A FLAG NO ONE SEES BLOWING IN THE 'GAGAN,'

 

IN THE SKY-TEMPLE.

 

A BLUE CLOTH HAS BEEN STRETCHED UP, IT IS DECORATED WITH THE MOON AND MANY JEWELS.

 

GAGAN MATH GAIB NISAN URE CHANDRAHAR CHANDVA JAHAN TANGE, MUKATA-MANIK MARHE...

 

... If you wake up, you will be surprised that you are living in such a tremendously beautiful world.

 

But how can you know the beauty of it if you are asleep? You are not aware of the splendor that is showering all around. You are not aware of the glories of life, of the benediction that life is. How

 

can you be aware of it? You are so deeply asleep, you are dreaming your private dreams, utterly unaware that the whole existence is a constant celebration.

 

THERE IS A FLAG NO ONE SEES BLOWING IN THE SKY-TEMPLE.

 

A BLUE CLOTH HAS BEEN STRETCHED UP, IT IS DECORATED WITH THE MOON AND MANY JEWELS.

 

It is a very mysterious existence. You cannot conceive more mystery, more miracles, more splendor, more beauty. It is the ultimate in all that one can imagine, but we are missing it. It is like a man who is asleep in the garden and cannot see the rose blooming and cannot hear the distant call of a lonely bird, and cannot see a bird on the wing, cannot see the sun and the moon and the stars. He is fast asleep. The fragrance from the roses comes to his nostrils but he cannot be aware of it; the fragrance of the wet earth, but he is unaware; the dewdrops shining like pearls in the morning sun, but he is unaware of it, he is fast asleep. This is our situation.

 

WHY NOT WAKE UP THIS MORNING?

 

AJAHU NA JAG SABERE?...

 

... The morning is knocking on the door, the sun is rising, the call has come, and you go on sleeping?

 

This is the Master's work: to go on hammering his disciples, to go on hammering; in some moment maybe... the disciple will wake up. There are moments when you are more vulnerable; there are moments when you are very hard, impossible to penetrate. There are moments when you are more flexible, more feminine. Hence the Master goes on hammering every day. He goes on, without taking any note of whether you listen or not. He knows one thing: that ultimately everybody has to listen. Finally, everybody HAS to listen.

 

THE SUN AND THE MOON CAN BE SEEN IN THAT PLACE; WHEN LOOKING AT THAT, BRING YOUR MIND DOWN TO SILENCE.

 

MAHIMA TASU DEKH MAN THIR KAR, RAVI-SASI JOT JARE.

 

Says Kabir: If you can do only one thing, if you can attain to silence, you will know the splendor of God.

 

MAHIMA TASU DEKH...

 

You can see that splendor, you can see that infinite beauty. That joy is yours. Just do one thing:

 

become silent. It is another way of saying wake up - because the mind remains asleep because of so many thoughts. Sleep simply means a continuous thought process inside you, a procession of thoughts, a continuous traffic. And it is always rush hour there: day in, day out, thousands of thoughts and desires and imaginations and projections and memories go on rushing in a crowd.

 

You are always surrounded by a big crowd; this is your sleep.

 

This inner talk has to stop. You can call it being awake, you can call it. being silent - it is the same thing. To be silent is the way to be awake, or, to be awake is the way to be silent; both methods have been used.

 

Buddha uses the method of being silent so that you can be aware. Krishnamurti uses the method of being aware so that you can be silent. They both are two aspects of the same coin; if you have one you will have the other automatically.

 

MAHIMA TASU DEKH MAN THIR KAR..

 

... Stop this constant traffic of the mind, stop this thought process. Then you can see the infinite beauty.

 

... RAVI-SASI JOT JARE...

 

... You will see the sun and the moon and the stars inside yourself The whole sky is yours. Even the sky is not the limit - you are all. If you are ready to die as a drop you will become the ocean.

 

I WILL TELL YOU THE TRUTH:

 

THE MAN WHO HAS DRUNK FROM THAT LIQUID WANDERS AROUND LIKE SOMEONE INSANE.

 

This world is almost a madhouse. To be sane here will look like becoming insane.

 

H.G. Wells has written a story:

 

There is a valley somewhere in Mexico where a small tribe lives, hidden deep in the mountains.

 

They are all blind. A fly is found in that valley; once a person is bitten by that fly he becomes blind.

 

Every child is born with eyes, but it is difficult to avoid that fly. It is very common, every house is full of those flies. So one day, two days, three days, at the most a week or two weeks; if a child is very fortunate then one month, two months, three months, but sooner or later he is going to be bitten by the fly and he will become blind. By the time he becomes a little conscious he finds himself blind.

 

So the whole community is blind.

 

A man comes from another community to visit, to see. He had heard rumors. He could not believe that the whole community was blind. He saw, but he could not believe his eyes. He fell in love with a blind girl of that community, but the community wouldn't allow them to be married because it had never happened, there was no precedent. And they could not believe that he had eyes, and of course they were in the majority. They thought he was mad. Nobody had ever heard about eyes - what was he talking about? Rainbows and colors and the sun and moon... he must be mad, utterly mad! Who had ever heard about these things?

 

But he was in such love, and the girl was in such love, that finally the community conceded, but with a condition. They said, "We have never married our girls to another community, never before. This is happening for the first time. We will allow you to marry our girl, but with a condition: we will have to

 

destroy your so-called eyes. We cannot allow our girl to be married to a madman. If you are ready to be blind, as you think we are, then only can you marry the girl."

 

Their logic was right - if they had never heard of anybody having eyes, how could they believe?

 

Kahlil Gibran also writes a similar story:

 

A magician came into the town, chanted a few mantras, threw something into the well of the town, and said, "Whosoever will drink the water of this well will go mad."

 

Now there were only two wells in the town: one was for the common people and one was inside the palace for the king and the queen and his ministers. Of course by the evening the whole town became mad; they had to drink the water. The king was very happy, the queen was very happy, that they had a special well. Otherwise they would also have gone mad.

 

But by the evening their happiness started disappearing. In fact they became very much frightened and scared, because a rumor went around the town that "Our king has gone mad." The king's guards, the policemen, the army, everybody had gone mad. But now they were the majority. Only the king and the queen and his prime minister, these three persons were left. Now it was very dangerous; there was no protection and the whole town was convinced that these three people had gone mad.

 

The king asked the old prime minister, "Now what to do?"

 

He said, "I will keep these people engaged, I will talk to them. You and your wife go out through the back door and drink from that well, and later on I will go and drink. This is the only way."

 

The king and the queen went through the back door, they drank from the well. Of course then they didn't come through the back door, they went dancing to the front door. The people had never seen them in such a state; they were rejoiced! That night there was a great celebration in the town. They thanked God, that "Our queen and our king are again sane."

 

This is the situation: the whole world is insane, hence the man of God LOOKS insane. The whole world is neurotic; not to be neurotic here, just to be healthy and whole, is very dangerous. Hence you crucify Jesus, you kill Mansoor. That's why thousands of people are against me: for the simple reason that they ARE neurotic - but they are in the majority. They have drunk from the well, the contaminated well; now anybody who is not mad like them is a danger to their security, is a danger to their sanity, is a question mark. His presence is irritating, he has to be destroyed.

 

Kabir says:

 

I WILL TELL YOU THE TRUTH.

 

I will not tell you to wake up without telling the truth. He is saying, "Let me tell you the truth: if you decide to wake up one thing is certain - you will be thought mad. You have to take that risk.

 

Otherwise go on sleeping, go on dreaming, remain part of the mad crowd. Please don't blame me later on."

 

That's why Kabir says:

 

I WILL TELL YOU THE TRUTH.

 

If you decide to wake up... Maybe listening to Kabir or to Buddha or to me, you start deciding to wake up. The truth has to be told beforehand, before you decide to wake up.

 

THE MAN WHO HAS DRUNK FROM THAT LIQUID WANDERS AROUND LIKE SOMEONE INSANE.

 

You have to risk your so-called sanity. It is insanity! but you will have to risk it, and you will have to be ready to accept the world of the few sanest people. But they are very few - Mansoor and Jesus and Buddha and Kabir and Farid and Nanak.... They are very few, they can be counted on the fingers. If you wake up you will become part of that small, fortunate minority, but you will be thought insane by the people.

 

KAHE KABIR PIYE JOI JAN, MANA FIRAT MARE.

 

Not only that you will live like a madman in the world, you will also die like a madman. But it is worth it; the risk is worth taking. It is better to be mad like Kabir than to be sane like Morarji Desai. It is better to be mad like Jesus than to be sane like Pontius Pilate. It is a great decision; guts are needed, great courage is needed.

 

Sannyas - initiation into the world of truth - is not for the cowards. Cowards can go on rationalizing, cowards can go on sleeping, dreaming. Cowards can even start dreaming that they are awake, but they will not risk. They will remain part of the mob, of the insane crowd. And of course their lives will remain of misery, of pain, of agony.

 

If you want to be ecstatic, risk - risk all. Only by risking all does one attain the all. Blessed are those who are drunk with God. Blessed are those who are mad for God. Blessed are those who are no more part of the insane crowd but have learned a new way of insanity - the way of the Buddhas.

 

KAHE KABIR PIYE JOI JAN...

 

It is very rare that somebody decides, because it is very rare to be so courageous, so brave....

 

MANA FIRAT MARE.

 

Then he lives like a madman, in utter ecstasy, in absolute benediction, and he dies in utter ecstasy, in an absolute benediction. Life can be a celebration and death too, but you will need to risk.

 

And that's what my whole effort here is: to seduce you into risking all for God. Remember, you have slept enough and you have not found anything, you have dreamt enough and your hands are empty, you have thought enough and where have you arrived? Now wake up.

 

Friend, now wake up!

 

Enough for today?

 

- Osho, “The Guest, #10”