Chapter 1
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No Bigger Lie Thah28 October 1969 pm iation Camp at Dwarka, Gurujat, India We bee free from that which we have known.
We also triumph over that which we have known.
Our failure a are only because of norance.
Defeat is because of darkness; when there is light, defeat is impossible -- light itself will bring triumph.
The first thing I would like to tell you about death is that there is no bigger lie thah.
A, death appears to be true.
It not only appears to be true but even seems like the cardinal truth of life -- it appears as if the whole of life is surrounded by death.
Whether we fet about it, or bee oblivious to it, everywhere death remains close to us.
Death is even closer to us than our shadow.
We have even structured our lives out of our fear of death.
The fear of death has created society, the nation, family and friends.
The fear of death has caused us to chase money and has made us ambitious of higher positions.
And the biggest surprise is that ods and our temples have also been raised out of the fear of death.
Afraid of death, there are people who pray on their knees.
Afraid of death, there are people who pray to God with folded hands raised towards the sky.
And nothing is more false thah.
That is why whatever system of life we have created, believih to be true, has bee false.
How do we know the falsity of death? How we know there is h? Until we know that, our fear of death will not go.
Until we know the falsity of death, our lives will also remain false.
As long as there is fear of death, there ot be authentic life.
As long as we tremble with the fear of death, we ot summon the capacity to live our lives.
Only those live for whom the shadow of death has disappeared forever.
How a frightened and trembling mind live? And wheh seems to be approag every sed, how is it possible to live? How we live?
No matter to what extent we may remain oblivious to death, it is never really fotten.
It makes no difference if we put the cemetery outside the town -- death still shows its face.
Every day someone or other dies; every day death occurs somewhere, and it shakes the very foundation of our lives.
Whenever we see death happening, we bee aware of our owh.
When we cry over somebodys death, it is not just for that persoh alone, but also for the hi of our own.
Our suffering from pain and sorrow is not only over someone elses death but also over the apparent possibility of our own.
The occurrence of every death is, at the same time, our owh.
And so long as we remain surrounded by death, how we live? Like that, living is impossible.
Like that, we ot know what life is -- her its joy, nor its beauty, nor its beion.
Like that, we ot reach the temple of God, the supreme truth of life.
The temples which have beeed out of the fear of death are not the temples of God.
The prayers which have been posed out of the fear of death are not prayers to God either.
Only one who is filled with the joy of life reaches the temple of God.
Gods kingdom is filled with joy ay, and the bells of Gods temple ring only for those who are free from all kinds of fears, for those who have bee fearless.
Because we like to live ihis seems difficult.
But this is not possible -- only one of the two things be right.
Remember, if life is true theh ot be true -- and if death is true then life will be nothing but a dream, a lie; then life ot be true.
These two things ot exist simultaneously.
But we hold on to both together.
There is the feeling that we are alive and there is also the feeling that we are dead.
I have heard about a fakir who lived in a faraway valley.
Many people would go to him with questions.
Once a man came and asked him to explain something about life ah.
The fakir said, "You are wele to know about life; my doors are open.
But if you want to know about death then go somewhere else, because I have never died nor will I ever die.
I have no experience of death.
If you want to know about death men ask those who have died, ask those who are already dead.
" Then the fakir laughed and he said, "But how will you ask those who are already dead? And if you ask me to give you the address of a dead person, I ot do it.
Because ever since I have e to know that I ot die, I have also e to know that no one dies, that no<code>.99liｂ?</code> one has ever died.
"
But how we believe this fakir? Every day we see someone dying; every day death happens.
Death is the supreme truth; it makes itself apparent by peing the ter of our being.
You may shut your eyes, but no matter how far away it is from you, it still remains apparent.
No matter how much we escape from it, run away from it, it still surrounds us.
How you falsify this truth?
Some people do, of course, try to falsify it.
Just because of their fear of death people believe in the immortality of the soul -- just out of fear.
They dont know; they simply believe.
Every m, sitting in a temple or a mosque, some people repeat, "No one dies; the soul is immortal.
" They are wrong in believing that just by repeating this, the soul will bee immortal.
They are uhe impression that death be falsified by repeating, "The soul is immortal.
" Death never bees false by such reiterations -- only by knowih it be falsified.
This is very strange, remember: we always accept the opposite of what we go oing.
When someone says he is immortal, that the soul is immortal -- when he repeats this he is simply indig that he knows, deep down, he will die, he will have to die.
If he knows he will not die then there is o go on about immortality; only one who is frightened keeps oing it.
And you will see that people are more scared of death in those tries, in those societies which talk the most about the immortality of the soul.
This try of ours talks untiringly about the immortality of the soul, a is there anyone oh more scared of death than us? There is no one more afraid of death than us! How we recile these two?
Is it ever possible for people who believe in the immortality of the soul to bee slaves? They would rather die; they would be ready to die because they know there is h.
Those who know that life is eternal, that the soul is immortal, would be the first to land on the moon! They would be the first to climb Mount Everest! They would be the first to explore the depths of the Pacific O! But no, we are not among those.
We her climb the peak of Everest nor land on the moon nor explore the depths of the Indian O -- and we are the people who believe in the immortality of the soul! In fact, we are so scared of death, that out of the fear of it we go oing, "The soul is immortal.
" And we are uhe illusion that perhaps by repeating it, it will bee true.
Nothing bees true by repetition.
Death ot be denied by repeating that death does .
Death will have to be known, it will have to be entered, it will have to be lived.
You will have to bee acquainted with it.
Instead, we keep running away from death.
How we see it? We close our eyes when we see death.
When a funeral passes by on the road, a mother shuts her child behind closed doors and says, "Dont go out; someone has died.
" The cremation ground is put outside the town so it rarely meets your eyes, so that death wohere, right in front of you.
And if you ever mentioh to somebody, he will forbid you to talk about it.
Once I stayed with a sannyasin.
Every day he would talk about the immortality of the soul.
I asked him, "Do you ever realize that you are ing closer to death?"
He said, "Dont say suinous things.
It is not good to talk about such things.
"
I said, "If, on the one hand, a person says that the soul is immortal, but also he finds it ominous to talk about death, then this fouls up the whole thing.
He shouldnt see any fear, any omen, anything wrong in talking about death -- because for him there is h.
"
He said, "Although the soul is immortal, I heless do not wish to talk about death at all.
One should not talk about such meaningless and threatening things.
" We are all doing the same thing -- turning our backs oh and esg from it.
I have heard: Once a ma mad in a village.
It was a hot afternoon and the man was walking along a lonely road all alone.
He was walking rather fast, trying not to be scared: it is possible to be scared when someone is already there, but how anyone be scared when there is no one around? But we do feel scared when there is no one around.
In fact, we are afraid of ourselves, and when we are alohe fear is eveer.
There is no one we fear more than ourselves.
We are less afraid when apanied by someone and more afraid whe all by ourselves.
That man was alone.
He became scared and began running.
Everything was still and quiet -- it was afternoon; there was no one around.
As he began to run faster, he sehe sound of runni ing from behind.
He grew frightened -- maybe someone was following him.
Then, afraid, he glanced behind out of the er of his eye.
He saw a long shadow chasing him.
It was his own shadow -- but seeing that some long shadoursuing him, he ran even faster.
Then that man could op, because the faster he ran, the faster the shadow ran after him.
Finally the ma mad.
But there are people who even worship madmen.
When people saw him running like that through their villages, they thought he was engaged in some great ascetic practice.
Except in the darkness of night, when the shadow would disappear and he would think there was no one behind him, he opped.
With daybreak he would start running again.
Then he didnt even stop at night -- he figured that in spite of the distance he had covered during the day, while he rested at night the shadow had caught up with him and would follow him in the m once again.
So even at night he tinued running.
Then he went pletely mad; he her ate nor drank.
Thousands of people watched him run and showered flowers upon him, or someone might hand him a piece of bread or some water.
People began worshipping him more and more; thousands paid their respects to him.
But the man became more and more crazy, and finally one day, he fell down on the ground and died.
The people of the village where he died made his grave uhe shade of a tree, and they asked an old fakir of the village what they would inscribe on his gravestone.
The fakir wrote one line on it.
In some village, someplace, that grave is still there.
It is possible you may pass it by it.
Do read the line.
The fakir wrote on the gravestone: "Here rests a man who fled from his own shadow all his life, who wasted his whole life esg from a shadow.
And the man did not even know as much as his gravestone does -- because the gravestone is in the shade and does not run, heno shadow is created.
"
We also run.
We may wonder how a man run from his shadow, but we too run from shadows.
And that which we run away from starts pursuing us itself.
The faster we run, the faster it follows because it is our own shadow.
Death is our own shadow.
If we keep running away from it we will not be able to stand before it and reize what it is.
If that man had stopped and seen what was behind him, perhaps he would have laughed and said, "What kind of a person am I, running away from a shadow?" No one ever escape from a shadow; no one ever win a fight with a shadow.
This does not mean, however, that the shadow is strohan we are and that we ever be victorious; it simply means that there is no shadow, that there is no question of being victorious.
You ot win against that which does .
Thats why people keep fag defeat by death -- because death is merely a shadow of life.
As life moves forward, its shadow moves along with it too.
Death is the shadow that forms behind life, and we never want to look back, to see what it is.
We have fallen, exhausted, so many times -- after having run this race again and again.
It is not that you have e to this shore for the first time, you must have been here before -- maybe it was not this shore; then some other shore.
It may not have been this body; then some other body -- but the race must have been the same.
The legs must have been the same; the race must have been the same.
Through many lives we live, carrying the fear of death, a we are her able t nor to see it.
We are so scared and frightehat wheh approaches, when its total shadow closes in on us, out of fear we bee unscious.
Generally, no one remains scious at the moment of death.
If, even once, oo remain scious, the fear of death would disappear forever.
If, just once, a man could see what dying is like, what happens ih, then the ime he would have no fear of death because there would be h.
Not that he would be victorious over death -- we achieve victory only over something which exists.
Just by knowih, it disappears.
Then nothing remains over which to be victorious.
We have died many times before, but whenever death has occurred we have bee unscious.
This is similar to when a physi or a surgeon gives ahesia before aion so you wohe pain.
We are so very afraid of dying that at the time of death we bee unscious willingly.
We bee unscious just a little before dying.
We die unscious, and then we are reborn in a state of unsciousness.
We her see death, nor do we see birth -- and hence we are never able to uand that life is eternal.
Birth ah are nothing more than stopping places where we ge clothes or horses.
In olden times there were no railroads and people traveled in horse-drawn carriages.
They traveled from one village to another, and when the horses grew tired they exged them for fresh horses at an inn, and they ged them again at the village.
However, the people ging the horses never felt that what they were doing was like dying and being bain, because when they ged horses they were fully scious.
Sometimes it used to happen that a horseman would travel after drinking.
When he would look around in that state, it would make him wonder how everything had ged, how everything appeared so different.
I have heard that once a drunk horseman even said, "Could it be that I am ged too? This doeso be the same horse I was riding.
Could it be that I have bee a different man?"
Birth ah are simply stations where vehicles are ged -- where the old vehicles are left behind, where tired horses are abandoned and fresh ones are acquired.
But both these acts take pla our state of unsciousness.
And one whose birth ah happens in this unscious state ot live a scious life -- he funs in an almost half-scious state, in an almost half-awakeate of life.
What I wish to say is that it is essential to see death, to uand it, t.
But this is possible only when we die; one only see it while dying.
Then what is the way now? And if one sees death only while dying, then there is no way to uand it -- because at the time of death one will be unscious.
Yes, there is a way now.
We gh an experiment of entering into death of our own free will.
And may I say that meditation or samadhi is nothing else but that.
The experience of enterih voluntarily is meditation, samadhi.
The phenomenon that will automatically occur one day with the dropping of the body -- we willingly make that happen by creating a distance, inside, between the self and the body.
And so, by leaving the body from the inside, we experiehe event of death, we experiehe occurrence of death.
We experience death today, this evening -- because the occurrence of death simply means that our soul and our body will experience, in that jourhe same distin betweewo of them as when the vehicle is left behind and the traveler moves on ahead.
I have heard that a mao see a Mohammedan fakir, Sheikh Fareed, and said, "We have heard that when Mansoors hands and legs were cut off he felt no pain.
.
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which is hard to believe.
Even a thorn hurts when it pricks the foot.
Wont it hurt if ones hands and legs are cut off? It seems that these are all fantastic stories.
" The man also said, "We hear that when Jesus was hanged on the cross he did not feel any pain.
And he ermitted to say his final prayers.
What the bleeding, naked Jesus -- hanged on a cross, pierced with thorns, hands stuck with nails -- said in the final moments hardly be believed!"
Jesus said, "Five these people, they dont know what they are doing.
" You must have heard this sentence.
And the people all over the world who believe in Christ repeat it tinuously.
The sentence is very simple.
Jesus said, "O, Lord, please five these people, because they know not what they are doing.
" Reading this sentence, people ordinarily uand Jesus is saying that the poor people didnt know they were killing a good man like him.
No, that was not what Jesus meant.
What Jesus meant was that "These senseless people do not know that the person they are killing ot die.
Five them because they dont know what they are doing.
They are doing something which is impossible -- they are itting the act of killing, which is impossible.
"
The man said, "It is hard to believe that a person about to be killed could show so mupassion.
In fact, he will be filled with anger.
"
Fareed gave a hearty laugh and said, "You have raised a good question, but I will a later.
First, do me a little favor.
" He picked up a ut lying nearby, gave it to him and asked him to break it open, cautioning him not to break the kernel.
But the ut was unripe, so the man said, "Pardon me, I ot do this.
The ut is pletely raw, and if I break open the shell the kernel will break too.
"
Fareed asked him to put that ut away.
Then he gave him another ut, one which was dry, and asked him to break that one open.
" you save the kernel of this one?" he asked.
And the man replied, "Yes, the kernel be saved.
"
Fareed said, "I have given you an answer.
Did you uand?"
The man replied, "I didnt uand anything.
What relation is there between a ut and your answer? What relation is there between the ut and my question?"
Fareed said, "Put this ut away too.
There is o break it or anything.
I am pointing out to you that there is one raw ut which still has the kernel and the shell joiogether -- if you hit the shell, the kernel will also break.
Then there is the dry ut.
Now how is the dry ut different from the raw ut? There is a slight differehe kernel of the dry ut has shrunk inside and bee separated from the shell; a distance has occurred between the kernel and the shell.
Now you say, even after breaking open the shell, the kernel be saved.
So I have answered your question!"
The man said, "I still do.
" The fakir said, "Go, die and uand -- without that you ot follow what I am saying.
But even then you will not be able to follow me because at the time of death you will bee unscious.
One day the kernel and the shell will be separated, but at that moment you will bee unscious.
If you want to uand, then start learning now how to separate the kernel from the shell -- now, while you are alive.
"
If the shell, the body, and the kerhe sciousness, separate at this very instant, death is finished.
With the creation of that distance, you e to know that the shell and the kernel are two separate things -- that you will tio survive in spite of the breaking of the shell, that there is no question of you breaking, of you disappearing.
In that state, even though death will occur, it ot pee inside you -- it will occur outside you.
It means only that which you are not will die.
That which you are will survive.
This is the very meaning of meditation or samadhi: learning how to separate the shell from the kernel.
They be separated because they are separate.
They be known separately because they are separate.
Thats why I call meditation a voluntary entry into death.
And the man who enters death willingly, enters it and es to know that, "Death is there, a I am still here.
"
Socrates was about to die.
The final moments were approag; the poison was being ground to kill him.
He kept asking, "It is getting late, how long will it take to grind the poison?"
His friends were g and saying to him, "Are you crazy? We want you to live a little longer.
We have bribed the person who is grinding the poison; ersuaded him to go slowly.
"
Socrates went out and said to the man who was grinding the poison, "You are taking too long.
It seems you are not very skilled.
Are you very o this? Have you never ground it before? Have you never given poison to a ned person?"
The man replied, "I have been giving poison my whole life, but I have never seen a crazy man like you before.
Why are you in so much of a hurry? I am grinding it slowly so that you may breathe a little more, live a little longer, remain in life a little more.
You keep talking like a crazy man, saying it is getting late.
Why are you in such a hurry to die?"
Socrates said, "I am in a great hurry because I want to see death.
I want to see what death is like.
And I also want to see, even wheh has happened, whether I survive or not.
If I dont survive, then the whole affair is finished -- and if I do survive, theh is finished.
In fact, I want to see who will die with death -- will death die or will I die? I want to see whether death will survive or whether I will survive.
But how I see this unless I am alive?"
Socrates was given the poison.
His friends began to mourn; they were not in their right senses.
And what was Socrates doing? He was telling them, "The poison has reached up to my knees.
Up to the knees my legs are totally dead -- I will not even know if you cut them off.
But my friends, let me tell you, even though my legs are dead, I am still alive.
This means ohing is certain -- I was not my legs.
I am still here, I am totally here.
Nothing within me has faded yet.
" Socrates tinued, "Now both my legs are gone; up to my thighs everything is finished.
I wouldnt feel anything if you cut me right up to the thighs.
But I am still here! And here are my friends who go !"
Socrates is saying, "Dont cry.
Watch! Here is an opportunity for you: a man is dying and inf you that he is still alive.
You may y legs entirely -- even then I wont be dead, even then I will still remain.
My hands are also drifting away; my hands will die too.
Ah! How many times I identified myself with these hands -- the same hands that are leaving now -- but I am still here.
"
And, like this, Socrates tialking while dying.
He says, "Slowly, everything is being peaceful, everything is sinking, but I am still intact.
After a while I may not be able to inform you, but dohat make you think I am no more.
Because, if I am still here, even after losing so muy body, how then would an end e to me if a little more of the body is lost? I may not be able to inform you -- because that is only possible through the body -- but still I will remain.
" And at the very last moment he says, "Now, perhaps I am telling you the final thing: my tongue is failing.
I wont be able to speak a single word further, but still I am saying, I exist.
" Until the final moment of death he kept saying, "I am still alive.
"
Iation, too, one has to enter slowly within.
And gradually, oer ahings begin to drop away.
A distance is created with ead every thing, and a moment arrives when it feels as if everything is lying far away at a distance.
It will feel as if someone elses corpse is lying on the shore -- a you exist.
The body is lying there and still you exist -- separate, totally distind different.
Once we experience seeih face-to-face while alive, we will never have anything to do with death again.
Death will keep on ing, but then it will be just like a stopover -- it will be like ging clothes, it will be like wheake new horses and ride in new bodies a out on a new journey, on new paths, into new worlds.
But death will never be able to destroy us.
This only be known by enterih.
We will have to know it; we will have to pass through it.
Because we are so very afraid of death, we are not even able to meditate.
Many people e to me and say that they are uo meditate.
How shall I tell them that their real problem is something else? Their real problem is the fear of death.
.
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aation is a process of death.
In a state of total meditation we reach the same point a dead man does.
The only difference is that the dead man reaches there in an unscious state, while we reach sciously.
This is the only difference.
The dead man has no knowledge of what happened, of how the shell broke open and the kernel survived.
The meditative seeker knows that the shell and the kernel have bee separate.
The fear of death is the basic reason why people ot go into meditation -- there is no other reason.
Those who are afraid of death ever enter into samadhi.
Samadhi is a voluntary invitation to death.
An invitation is given to death: "e, I am ready to die.
I want to know whether or not I will survive after death.
And it is better that I know it sciously, because I wont be able to know anything if this event occurs in an unscious state.
"
So, the first thing I say to you is that as long as you keep running away from death you will tio be defeated by it -- and the day you stand up and enter death, that very day death will leave you, but you will remain.
These three days, all my talks will be oeiques of how you enter death.
I hope that, these three days, many people will e to know how to die, will be able to die.
And if you die here, on this shore.
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And this is an incredible seashore.
It was on these very sands that Krishna once walked -- the same Krishna who told Arjuna in a certain war, "Dont be worried; have no fear.
Dont be afraid of killing or of being killed, because I tell you that her does anyone die nor does anyone kill.
" her has anyone ever died, nor anyone ever die and that which dies, that which die, is already dead.
And that which does not die and ot be killed -- there is no way of its dying.
And that is life itself.
Tonight, we have uedly gathered on this seashore where that very Krishna once walked.
These sands have seen Krishna walk.
People must have believed that Krishna really died -- since we know death as the only <tt>.9９ｌｉb?t>truth; for us everyone dies.
This sea, these sands, have never felt that Krishna died; this sky, these stars and the moon have never believed in Krishnas death.
In faowhere is there any room for death in life, but we have all believed that Krishna died.
We believe so because we are always haunted by the thought of our owh.
Why are we so preoccupied with the thought of our death? We are alive right now, then why are we so afraid of death? Why are we so very afraid of dying? Actually, behind this fear, there is a secret which we must uand.
There is a certain mathematics behind it, and this mathematics is very iing.
We have never seen ourselves dying.
We have seen others dying, and that reinforces the idea that we will have to die too.
For example, a raindrop lives in the o with thousands of other drops, and one day the suns rays fall on it and it turns into vapor, it disappears.
The other drops think it is dead, and they are right -- because they had seen the drop just a little while ago, and now it is gone.
But the drop still exists in the clouds.
Yet how are the other drops to know this until they themselves bee the cloud? By now that drop must have fallen into the sea and bee a drop again.
But how the other drops know this until they themselves set out on that journey?
When we see somebody dying around us, we think the person is no more, that yet another man has died.
We dont realize that the man has simply evaporated, that he has ehe subtle, and the out on a new journey -- that he is a drop which has evaporated, only to bee a drop once again.
How are we to see this? All we feel is that one more person is lost, that one more person is dead.
Thus, somebody dies every day; every day some drop is lost.
And it slowly bees a certainty for us that we too will have to die, that, "I too will die.
" Then a fear takes hold: "I will die.
" This fear grips us because we are looking at others.
We live watg others, and that is our problem.
Last night I was telling some friends a story.
Once a Jewish fakir became very upset by his troubles -- who does upset? We are all bothered by our woes, and reatest bother is seeing others happy.
Seeing that others are happy, we tinue being unhappy.
There is more mathematics behind this, the same kind of mathematics I spoke about in refereo death.
We see our misery and we see the faces of others.
We dohe misery in others; we see their smiling eyes, the smiles on their lips.
If we look at ourselves, we will see, in spite of being troubled inside, we go on smiling outwardly.
In fact, a smile is a way to hide the misery.
No one wants to show he is unhappy.
If he ot really be happy then at least he wants to show that he has bee happy, because to show oneself as unhappy is a matter of great humiliation, loss a.
Thats why we keep a smiling face outwardly, and inside, we remain as we are.
On the iears keep colleg; oside, we practice our smiles.
Then, when someone looks at us from the outside, he finds us smiling; however, when that person looks within himself he finds misery there.
And that bees a problem for him.
He thinks the whole world is happy, that he alone is unhappy.
The same thing happened with this fakir.
One night, in his prayers to God, he said, "I am not asking you not to give me unhappiness because if I deserve unhappihen I should certainly get it -- but at least I pray to you not to give me so much suffering.
I see people laughing in the world, and I am the only one g.
Everyone seems to be happy; I am the only one who is unhappy.
Everyone appears cheerful; I am the only one who is sad, lost in darkness.
After all, what wrong have I doo you? Please do me a favor -- give me some other persons unhappiness in exge for mine.
ge my unhappiness for that of anyone else you like, and I will accept it.
"
That night, while he slept, he had a strange dream.
He saw a huge mansion which had millions of hanging pegs.
Millions of people were ing in and every one was carrying a bundle of unhappiness on his back.
Seeing so many bundles of unhappiness, he got very scared, he grew puzzled.
The bundles brought by other people were very similar to his own.
The size and shape of everyones bundle was exactly the same.
He became very fused.
He had always seen his neighbor smiling -- and every m when the fakir asked him how things were, he would say, "Everything is just fine" -- and this same man was now carrying the same amount of unhappiness.
He saw politis and their follurus and their disciples -- everyone ing with the same size load.
The wise and the ignorant, the rid the poor, the healthy and the sick -- the load in everyones bundle was the same.
The fakir as dumbfounded.
He was seeing the bundles for the first time; up to now he had only seen peoples faces.
Suddenly a loud voice filled the room: "Hang up your bundles!" Everyone, including the fakir, did as anded.
Everyone hurried to get rid of his troubles; no one wao carry his miseries even a sed longer and if we were to find such opportunity, we would also hang them up right away.
And then another voice sounded, saying: "Now, each of you should pick up whichever bundle he pleases.
" We might suspect that the fakir quickly picked up someone elses bundle.
No, he did not make such a mistake.
In panic, he ran to pick up his own bundle before anyone else could reach it -- otherwise, it could have bee a problem for him, because all the bundles looked the same.
He thought it was better to have his own bundle -- at least the miseries in it were familiar.
Who knows what kinds of miseries were tained iher peoples bundles? Familiar misery is still a lesser kind of misery -- it is a known misery, a reizable misery.
So, in a state of panic, he ran arieved his own bundle before anyone else could lay his hands on it.
When he looked around, however, he found that everyone else had also run and picked up their own bundles; no one had selected a buhat was not his own.
He asked, "Why are you in such a hurry to collect your own bundles?"
"We became frightened.
Up to now wed believed that everyone else was happy, that only we were miserable," they replied.
In that mansion, whomsoever the fakir asked, the reply was that theyd always believed everyone else was happy.
"We even believed that you were happy too.
You also walked dowreet with a smile on your face.
We never imagihat you carried a bundle of miseries inside you too," they said.
With curiosity, the fakir asked, "Why did you collect your own bundle? Why didnt you exge it for another?"
They said, "Today, each of us had prayed to God, saying we wao exge our bundles of misery.
But when we saw that everyones miseries were just the same, we became scared; we had never imagined such a thing.
So we figured it was better to pick up our own bundle.
It is familiar and known.
Why fall into new miseries? By and by, we get used to the old miseries too.
"
That night, nobody picked up a buhat beloo someone else.
The fakir woke up, thanked merciful God for letting him have his own miseries back.
And decided o make such a prayer again.
In fact, the arithmetic behind it is the same.
When we look at other peoples faces and at our owy -- that is where we it <a>.９9ｌib?</a>a great error.
And with regard to our perception of life ah the same kind arithmetic is at work.
You have seen other people die, but you have never seen yourself dying.
We see other peoples deaths, but we never e to know if anything within these people survives.
Since we bee unscious at the time, death remains a strao us.
He is importaer death voluntarily.
If a person sees death once he bees free from it, he triumphs over death.
In fact, it is meanio call him victorious because there is nothing to win -- theh bees false; theh simply does.
If after adding two and terson writes down five, and the day he es to know that two plus two equals four, would he say hed triumphed over five and made it four? He would say, in fact, that there was no question of triumph -- there was no five.
Making it five was his error, it was his illusion -- his calculation was wrong, the total was four; he uood it as five, that was his mistake.
Once you see the mistake, the matter is over.
Would that man then say, "How I get rid of five? Now I see two and two are four, but before, I had added them up as five.
How I be free of five?" The man would not ask for such freedom, because as soon as one finds out that two plus two equal four, the matter is over.
There is no five any more.
Then what does one have to be free of?
Oher has to be free from death nor does one have to triumph over it.
One o know death.
The very knowing it bees freedom, the knowing itself bees the victory.
Thats why I stated earlier that knowing is power, that knowing is freedom, that knowing is victory.
Knowih causes it to dissolve; then suddenly, for the first time, we bee ected with life.
Thats why I told you that the first thing about meditation is that it is a voluntary entry into death.
The sed thing I would like to say is that one who enters into death willingly, finds, all of a sudderao life.
Even though he goes in search of death, instead of meetih he actually finds ultimate life.
Even though, for the purpose of his search he ehe mansion of death, he actually ends up iemple of life.
And one who escapes from the mansion of death never reaches the temple of life.
Allow me to point out to you that the walls of the temple of life are engraved with the shadows of death.
May I also point out to you that the maps of death are drawn on the walls of the temple of life, and since we run away from death we are also, in effect, running away from the temple of life! Only when t death will we be able to accept these walls.
If ever we could enter death, we would reach the temple of life.
The deity of life dwells within the walls of death; the images of death are engraved all over the temple of life.
We have simply been running away at the very sight of them.
If you have ever been to Khajuraho, you must have noticed a strahing -- all around its walls ses of sex have been sculpted.
The images look naked and obse.
If, after seeing them, a man simply runs away, then he will not be able to reach the deity of the temple inside.
Inside is the image of God, and outside are engravings, images, of sex, passion, and copulation.
They must have been a wonderful people who built the temples of Khajuraho.
They depicted a profound fact of life: they have veyed that sex is there, oside wall, and if you are to run away from there, then you will never be able to attain to brahmacharya to celibacy -- because brahmacharya is inside.
If you are ever able to get beyond these walls, then you will also attain to brahmacharya.
Samsara,the mortal world, is displayed on the walls, and running away from it will never bring you to God, because the one who is sitting ihe walls of samsara is God himself.
I am telling you exactly the same thing.
Somewhere, someplace, we should build a temple whose walls have death displayed on it and the deity of life would be sitting inside.
This is how the truth is.
However, since we keep esg from death, we miss the divinity of life as well.
I say both things simultaneously: meditation is entering voluntarily into death, and the one who enters death voluntarily attains to life.
That means: one who enters death ultimately finds that death has disappeared and he is in lifes embrace.
This looks quite tra<var>99lib.</var>ry -- you go in search of death and e across life -- but it is not.
For example, I am wearing clothes.
Now if you e in seare, first you will e ay clothes -- although I am not the clothes.
And if you bee frightened of my clothes and run away, then you will never be able to know me.
However, if you e closer and closer to me, without being frightened of my clothes, theh my clothes you will find my body.
But the body too, in a deeper sense, is a garment, and if you were to run away from my body, then you would not find the one who is seated inside me.
If you were not to bee frightened of the body and tinued your journey inside, knowing that the body is a garment too, then you would certainly e across that one who sits ihat one everyone is desirous of meeting.
How iing it is that the wall is made of the body and the divine is seated graciously inside.
The wall is made of matter and inside is the divihe sciousness seated in glory.
These are trary things indeed -- the wall of matter and the divinity of life.
If you uand rightly, the wall is made of death and the divine is made of life.
When an artist paints a picture he provides a dark background t out the white color.
The white lines bee clearly visible against the dark background.
If oo get scared of the black, he wouldnt be able to reach the white.
But he doesnt know that it is the black that brings out the white.
Similarly, there are thorns around the blooming roses.
If one bees frightened of the thorns he wont be able to reach the roses; if he goes on esg from the thorns he will be deprived of the flowers too.
But one ts the thorns and approaches them without fear finds to his amazement that the thorns are simply meant to protect the flower; they merely serve the purpose of being the outer wall for the flower -- the wall of prote.
The flower is blooming in the middle of the thorns; the thorns are not the flowers enemy.
The flowers are part of the thorns and the thorns are part of the flowers -- both have emerged from the same life-giving force of the plant.
What we call life and what we call death -- both are part of one greater life.
I am breathing.
A breath es <samp></samp>out; a breath goes in.
The same breath that es out goes ba after a while, and the breath that goes in es out after a while.
Breathing in is life, breathing out is death.
But both are steps of one greater life -- life ah, walking side by side.
Birth is oep, death is aep.
But if we could see, if we could pee ihen we would attain the vision of the greater life.
These three days we shall do the meditation of entering into death.
And I shall speak to you on many of its dimensions.
Tonight we shall do the first days meditation.
Let me explain a few things about it to you.
You must have uood my point of view by now: we have to reach a point within, deep inside, where there is no possibility of dying.
We have to drop the whole outer circumference, as happens ih.
Ih the body drops, feelings drop, thoughts drop, friendship drops, enmity drops -- everything drops.
The eernal world departs -- only we remain, only the self remains, only the sciousness remains aloof.
Iation too, we have to drop everything and die leaving only the observer, the witness within.
And this death will happen.
Throughout these three days of meditation, if you will show the ce of dying and drop your self a phenomenon occur which is called samadhi.
Samadhi, remember, is a wonderful word.
The state of total meditation is called samadhi and a grave built after a persoh is also called a samadhi.
Have you ever thought about this? -- both are called samadhi.
In fact, both have a o, a eeting point.
Actually, for a person who attains to the state of samadhi, his body remains just like a grave -- nothing else.
Then he es to realize that there is someone else within; outside there is only darkness.
Following a persoh we make a grave and call it a samadhi.
But this samadhi is made by others.
If we make our own samadhi before others make it, then we have created the very phenomenon we are longing for.
Others will have the occasion to make rave for certain, but erhaps lose the opportunity of creating our own samadhi.
If we create our own samadhi, then, in that state, only the body will die and there will be no question of our sciousness dying.
We have never died, nor we ever die.
No one has ever died, nor anyone ever die.
To know this, however, we will have to desd all the steps of death.
I would like to show you three steps we shall follow.
And who knows, that phenomenon might occur on this very seashore and you may have your samadhi -- not the samadhi others make, but the one you create of your own will.
There are three steps.
The first step is to relax your body.
You have to relax your body so much that you begin to feel as if your body is lying far away from you, as if you have nothing to do with it.
You have to withdraw the whole energy from your body and take it inside.
We have given the energy to our bodies -- whatever amount of energy we pour into the body goes into it; whatever amouhdraw gets pulled inward.
Have you ever noticed something? When you get into a fight with somebody, where does your body get the additional energy from? In that state of anger you lift a rock so big that you couldnt even budge it when you were calm.
Although it was your body did you ever wonder where the energy came from? You put the energy in -- it was needed, you were in trouble; there was dahe enemy was fag you.
You knew your life could be in danger unless you picked up the rock, and you put all your energy into the body.
O happened: a man aralyzed for two years and was bedridden.
He could not get up; he could not move.
The physis gave up, declaring the paralysis would remain with him for the rest of his life.
Then one night his house caught fire and everyone ran out.
After ing out, they realized the head of their family was trapped inside he could not even run; what would happen to him? Some people had brought torches with them, and they found that the old man was already out.
They asked him if he had walked out of the house.
The man said, "How could I have walked? How did it happen?" But he certainly had walked; there was no question.
The house was on fire; everybody was leaving it and for a moment he fot his paralysis; he put his entire energy bato the body.
But when people saw him iorchlight and asked how he had mao e out, he exclaimed, "Oh, I am paralyzed!" and fell down.
He lost the energy.
Now it is beyond him to prehend how this phenomenon occurred.
Now everyoarted explaining to him that he was not really paralyzed, that if he could walk that much he could walk the rest of his life.
The ma saying, "I could not lift my hand; I could not even lift my foot -- then how did it happen?" He couldnt say; he did not even know who had brought him out.
No one had brought him out; he had e out on his own.
He did not know, however, that in the face of danger his soul had poured all his energy into his body.
And then, because of his feeling of being paralyzed, the soul drew its energy inside again and the man became paralyzed once more.
Su i has occurred not with one or two people, on this earth hundreds of instances have happened where a man stri with paralysis has e out of his dition, where he has fotten his dition in the event of a fire or in the face of another dangerous situation.
What I am saying is that ut energy into our body, but we have no idea how to withdraw it.
At night we feel rested because the energy is drawn inside and the body lies in a relaxed state, and in the m we are fresh again.
But some people are not even able to draw their energy inwards at night.
The energy still remains locked in the body and then it bees difficult for them to sleep.
Insomnia is an indication that the energy put into the body earlier ot find the way to return to its source.
In the first stage of this meditatioire energy has to be withdrawn from the body.
Now, the iing thing is that just by feeling it the energy returns.
If, for a while, someone feel that his energy is withdrawing inside and his body is relaxing, he will find that his body is tinuing to relax and relax.
The body will reach to a point where the person will not be able to lift his hand even if he wants to -- everything will be relaxed.
Thus, through feeling it, we withdraw our energy from the body.
So the first thing is the returning of the vital energy, the prana, back to its source.
That will make the body lie still -- just like a shell -- and it will be observed throughout that a distance has beeed between the shell and the kernel within the ut -- that we have bee separate and the body is lying outside us, just like a shell, just like cast-off clothes.
Then the hing is to relax your breath.
Deep ihe breath tains the vital energy, the prana, and thats why a man dies when the breath distinues.
Deep down, the breath keeps us ected to the body.
Breath is the bridge between the soul and the body; thats where the link is.
Hence, we call breath prana.
As soon as the breathing stops, the prana leaves.
Several teiques are applied in this respect.
What happens when a person relaxes his breath pletely, allows it to be still and quiet? Slowly, the breath es to a point where a ma know whether he is breathing inside or not.
He often begins to wonder whether he is alive or dead, whether the breath is happening or not.
The breathing bees so quiet one doesnt know if it is moving at all.
You dont have to trol breathing.
If you try to do so, the breath will never be trolled -- it will try to force itself out, and if you trol it from outside, it will try to force itself in.
Hence, I say, you dont have to do anything from your side, just let it be more and more relaxed -- more and more quiet.
Slowly, at one point, the breath es to rest.
Even if it es to rest just for a moment, then in that moment one see an infinite distaween the soul and the body -- in that very moment the distance is seen.
Its as if lightnio strike right now and I were to see all your faces in one moment.
Afterwards, the lightning might no longer be there, yet I have seen your faces.
When the breath pauses for a momely right in the middle, then in that moment a lightning strikes within oire being and it bees apparent that the body is separate and that you are separate -- theh has happened.
So in the sed stage you have to relax your breath.
Ihird stage the mind is to be relaxed.
Even if the breath is relaxed but the mind is not, the lightning will of course strike, but you wont be able to know what happened because the mind will remain occupied with its thoughts.
If lightning should strike right now and I were to remain lost in my thoughts, I would only e to know of it after it had happened.
In the meantime, however, the lightning has occurred and I have been lost in my thoughts.
The lightning will strike, of course, as soon as the breath pauses, but it will only be noticed if thoughts have ceased; otherwise it woiced and the opportunity will be lost.
Hehe third thing is to relax the mind.
We shall gh these three stages and then, in the fourth stage, we shall sit silently.
If you wish, you may either lie down or sit.
It will be easier lying down -- this is such a beautiful beach; it be put to good use.
Everyone should make a space around himself and lie down.
It is all right if someone wants to sit, but the person should not trol himself if his body begins to fall -- because the body may fall o bees pletely relaxed, and then your trolling it will not allow the body to be totally relaxed.
So we shall follow these three stages and then in the fourth stage we shall remain in silence for ten minutes.
These three days, during that silehere will be an effort on your part to see death, to let it desd.
I will give suggestions for you to feel that the body is relaxing, that the breath is relaxing, that the mind is relaxing -- then I will remain quiet, the lights will be turned off, and, lying down quietly, you will remain for ten minutes.
You will remain still, in silence, watg whatsoever is going on inside.
Make enough space around you so that in case the body drops, it wont fall on anyone.
Those who wish to lie down should make a space around themselves.
It would be better if you were to lie down on the sand quietly.
Nobody should talk.
.
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no one should leave in the middle.
Yes, be seated.
Be seated wherever you are or lie down.
Close your eyes.
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close your eyes and relax your body.
Let it be loose.
Then as I give suggestions, begin to feel with me.
As you keep feeling, your body will beore and more relaxed -- then the body will be Lying down, totally relaxed, as if there is no life in it.
Begin to feel.
The body is relaxing.
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keep relaxing it.
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Keep relaxing your body ahat it is relaxing.
The body is relaxing.
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feel it.
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relax every part of your body.
And feel inside.
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the body is relaxing.
Your energy is returning inside.
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the energy from your body is withdrawing, turning in.
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the energy is withdrawing.
The body is relaxing.
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the body is relaxing.
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the body is relaxing.
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the body is relaxing.
Let go pletely, as if you are not alive anymore.
Let the body drop as it is.
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let it be totally loose.
The body has bee relaxed.
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the body has bee relaxed.
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the body has bee relaxed.
Let go.
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let go.
The body has bee relaxed.
The body has bee totally relaxed, as if there is no life in it.
The entire energy of the body has reached inside.
The body has bee relaxed.
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the body has bee relaxed.
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the body has bee relaxed.
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the body has bee relaxed.
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the body has bee relaxed.
Let go, let go pletely, as if the body is no lohere.
We have moved within.
The body has bee relaxed.
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the body has bee relaxed.
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the body has bee relaxed.
The breath is quieting down.
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relax your breathing also.
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relax it pletely.
Let it e and go on its own.
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let it be loose.
o stop it or slow it down; just let it be relaxed.
Let the breath e in as much as it .
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let it e out as much as it .
The breathing is being relaxed.
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the breathing is being calm.
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Feel it like this: the breathing is being calm.
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the breathing is being calm and relaxed.
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the breathing is relaxing.
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the breath is calming down.
The breath has calmed down.
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the breath has calmed down.
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the breath has calmed down.
Now let the mind be relaxed ahat thoughts are calming down.
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thoughts are calming down.
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the mind has calmed.
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the mind has calmed.
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