AS HIGHER AWARENESS, THEY TEACH WHAT THEY EXPERIENCE WITHIN.

WHAT FETTERS THEM THEY WILL CALL LIBERATION.

A GLASS TRINKET COLOURED GREEN, TO THEM IS A (PRICELESS) EMERALD,

DELUDED, THEY KNOW NOT A GEM

FROM WHAT THEY THINK IT SHOULD BE.

THEY TAKE COPPER TO BE GOLD. BOUND BY DISCURSIVE THOUGHT

THEY THINK THESE THOUGHTS TO HE ULTIMATE REALITY.

THEY LONG FOR THE PLEASURES EXPERIENCED IN DREAMS.

THEY CALL THE PERISHABLE BODY-MIND ETERNAL BLISS SUPREME.

BY THE SYMBOL EVAM (THEY THINK) SELF-CLEARNESS IS ACHIEVED,

BY THE DIFFERENT SITUATIONS THAT DEMAND FOUR SEALS

THEY CALL WHAT THEY HAVE FANCIED SPONTANEITY,

BUT THIS IS LOOKING AT REFLECTIONS IN A MIRROR.

AS UNDER DELUSION'S POWER A HERD OF DEER WILL RUSH

FOR THE WATER IN A MIRAGE WHICH IS NOT RECOGNISED,

SO ALSO THE DELUDED QUENCH NOT THEIR THIRST, ARE BOUND BY CHAINS

AND FIND PLEASURE IN THEM, SAYING THAT ALL IS ULTIMATELY REAL.

Tantra is transcendence. It is neither indulgence nor repression. It is walking on a tightrope: it is one of the greatest of balances. It is not as easy as it appears; it needs very delicate awareness. It is a great harmony.

It is very easy for the mind to indulge. The opposite is also very easy to renounce. To move to the extreme is very easy for the mind. To remain in the middle, exactly in the middle, is the most difficult thing for the mind, because it is a suicide for the mind. The mind dies in the middle, and the no-mind arises. That's why Buddha has called his path MAJJHIM NIKAYA --  the middle path.

Saraha is a disciple of Buddha, in the same lineage, with the same understanding, with the same awareness. So this very fundamental thing has to be understood, otherwise you will misunderstand Tantra: What is this razor's edge? What is this being exactly in the middle?

To indulge in the world, no awareness is needed. To repress worldly desires, again no awareness is needed. Your so-called wordly people and your so-called other-wordly people are not very different. They may be standing back-to-back but they are not very different at all; they are of exactly the same type of mind. Somebody is hankering for money, and somebody is so against money that he cannot even look at currency notes. He becomes afraid and a trembling arises in him. These people are not different -- for both of them money is of great importance. One is in greed, one is in fear; but the importance of the money is the same -- both are obsessed with money.

One is continuously thinking of women, dreaming, fantasizing. Another has become so afraid that he has escaped to the Himalayas just to avoid women -- but both are the same. For both, the woman is important, or the man; the other is important. One seeks the other, one avoids the other, but the other remains their focus.

Tantra says: The other has not to be the focus, neither this way nor that way. This can happen only through great understanding. The lust for a woman has to be understood -- neither indulged in, nor avoided, but understood. Tantra is very scientific.

The word 'science' means understanding. The word 'science' means knowing. Tantra says: Knowing liberates. If you know exactly what greed is, you are free of greed; there is no need to renounce it. The need to renounce arises only because you have not understood what greed is. The need to take a vow against sex is needed only because you have not understood what sex is. And the society does not allow you to understand it.

The society helps you NOT to understand. The society has been avoiding the very subject of sex and death down through the centuries. These subjects are not to be thought about, not to be contemplated, not to be discussed, not to be written about, not to be researched; they are to be avoided. Through that avoidance, a great ignorance has existed about them, and that ignorance is the root cause. Then there are two types of people who come out of that ignorance: one who indulges madly, and one who becomes very tired and escapes.

Tantra says: The one who is indulging madly will never understand, because he will simply be repeating a habit. And he will never look into the habit and the root cause of it. He will never look into the causality of it. And the more he indulges, the more mechanical he becomes.

Have you not observed it? Your first love had something superb, the second was not so superb, the third was even more ordinary, the fourth, just mundane. What happened? Why has the first love been so praised? Why have people always said that love happens only once? Why? Because the first time it was not mechanical, so you were a little alert about it. The next time, you were expecting it: you were not so alert. The third time, you thought you knew about it, so there was no exploration in it. The fourth time it was just mundane; you had settled into a mechanical habit.

Through indulgence sex becomes a habit. Yes, it gives a little release, just like a sneeze -- but not more than that. It is a physical release of energy. You become too burdened with energy, you have to throw that energy just to gather it again through food, through exercise, through sunlight again gather it and again throw it. That's what the person who indulges goes on doing: he creates great energy and then throws it -- for no purpose, for no significance. Having it, he suffers the tension of it. Throwing it, he suffers the weakness of it. He simply suffers.

Never think that the man who indulges is a happy man. Never! He is the most miserable man in the world. How can he be happy? He hopes, he desires happiness, but he never achieves it.

But remember, saying these things, Tantra does not propose that you move to the other extreme. Tantra is not saying that you should escape from this world of indulgence. Escaping will again become a mechanical habit. Sitting in a cave, the woman will not be available, but that doesn't make much difference. If any time the woman does become available, the man who has renounced will be more prone to fall than the man who was indulging in the world. Whatsoever you repress becomes very powerful within you.

I have heard....

There was a fireman who was horridly mean both to his wife and his lodger. One night he brought home a splendid pork pie and ate half of it for his supper. His wife and the lodger had to make do with dry bread and cheese. He carefully put the rest of the pie away and they all went to their beds.

In the middle of the night the firebells rang and off the landlord had to run. The wife, stark-naked, entered the lodger's room, shook him awake and said 'He has gone out. Quick! Now is your chance.'

'Are you sure it's all right?' inquired the lodger.

'Of course. Hurry up! Lose no time!' So the lodger went downstairs and finished the pork pie.

Now that must have been his repression -- the pork pie. He must have been dreaming about it, thinking about it, fantasizing about it. The stark-naked woman had no attraction for him, but the pork pie...

Remember, whatsoever you repress will become your attraction, will have a magnetic pull on you. The repressed becomes powerful; it gains power out of all proportion.

Listen to this anecdote.

Deep in a beautiful woodland park stood two lovely bronze statues: a boy and a girl, posed in attitudes of love and longing. They had stood thus for three hundred years, their arms held out yearningly to each other, yet never touching. One day a magician passed by and with compassion said 'I have enough power to give them life for one hour, so I am going to do this. For one hour they will be able to kiss, to touch, to embrace, to make love to each other.' So the magician waved his magic wand. Immediately the statues leaped off their pedestals, and hand in hand ran into the shrubbery.

There was a great commotion, loud thumps, shouts, squawkings and flutterings. With irresistible curiosity, the magician tip-toed over and peered into the leaves.

The boy was holding down a bird, over which the girl squatted. Suddenly he jumped up. 'Now it is your turn to hold him down while I shit upon him!' he exclaimed.

Three hundred years of birds shitting upon them... Then who bothers about love making? That was their repression.

You can go and sit in a cave and become a statue, but that which you have repressed will hover around you, will be the only thing that you will ever think about.

Tantra says: Beware. Beware of indulgence and beware of renunciation. Beware of both: both are traps. And either way you are trapped in the mind. There where is the way?

Tantra says: Awareness is the way. Indulgence is mechanical, repression is mechanical; both are mechanical things. The only way out of mechanical things is to become aware, alert. Don't go to the Himalayas, bring a Himalayan silence within you. Don't escape, become more awake. Look into things deeply with no fear... without fear, look into things deeply. Don't listen to what your so-called religious people go on teaching. They make you afraid: they don't allow you to look into sex, they don't allow you to look into death. They have exploited your fears tremendously.

The only way to exploit a person is: first, to make him afraid. Once you are afraid, you are ready to be exploited. Fear is the basis, it has to be created first. You have been made afraid. Sex is sin, so is fear. Even while making love to your woman or man, you never look directly into it. Even while making love you are avoiding. You are making love AND avoiding. You don't want to see into the reality of it -- what it is exactly, why it infatuates, why it has a magnetic pull over you? Why? What is it exactly, how does it arise, how does it take possession of you, what it gives, and where does it lead? What happens in it and what happens out of it? Where do you arrive again and again making love? Do you arrive anywhere? These things have to be encountered.

Tantra is an encounter with the reality of life. And sex is fundamental. So is death. They are the two most basic, fundamental chakras -- MULADHAR and SWADHISTAN. Understanding them, the third chakra opens. Understanding the third, the fourth opens, and so on and so forth. When you have understood the six chakras, that very understanding hits the seventh chakra and it blooms into a one-thousand-petalled lotus. That day is of superb glory. That day God comes to you, that day you come to God. That day is the meeting day. That day is the day of cosmic orgasm. That day you embrace the divine and the divine embraces you. That day the river disappears into the ocean forever and forever. Then there is no coming back.

But, from each state of your mind, understanding has to be gained. Wherever you are, don't be afraid. That is the Tantra message: Wherever you are, don't be afraid. Drop only one thing  -- fear. Only one thing has to be feared, and that is fear. Unafraid, with great courage, look into the reality, whatsoever the reality is. If you are a thief, then look into that. If you are an angry person, look into that. If you are greedy, look into that. Wherever you are, LOOK into it. Don't escape. Looking into it, go through it. Watching, go through it. If you can walk the path into greed, into sex, into anger, into jealousy, with eyes open, you will be freed of it. This is the Tantra promise: Truth liberates. Knowing frees. Knowing is freedom. Otherwise, whether you repress or you indulge, the end is the same.

It happened:

There was a man who had a most attractive wife. But he began to be suspicious of her...

It is natural, the more beautiful the wife that you have, the more the suspicion.

Mulla Nasruddin has married one of the ugliest of women. I asked 'Why Mulla? What went wrong? What took possession of you?'

He said 'Nothing, just understanding.'

I said 'What type of understanding is this?'

He said 'Now I will never be jealous, and I will never suspect my wife, because I can't imagine any person being in love with her.'

This man was very suspicious of her. At last he could stand it no longer. Being on nights, he asked the foreman for a pass out, and went home at two in the morning to find his best friend's car outside, just as he had feared. He let himself in, crept up the stairs and rushed into his wife's bedroom. There she lay on top of the bed, stark-naked but smoking a cigarette and reading a book.

He went wild and searched under the bed, in the wardrobe, even in the airing-cupboard, but he could not find any man. He went berserk, wrecked the bedroom. Then he started on the living room -- threw the TV out of the window, slashed the armchairs, overturned the table and sideboard. Then he turned his attention to the kitchen, where he smashed all the crocks and then threw the fridge out of the window. Then he shot himself.

When he got up to heaven's gates, who should he see waiting for admission but his late best friend, who said 'What are you doing up here?'

So the wronged husband explained all about how he had lost his temper, and added 'But how does it come about that you are up here too?'

'Ah, me? I was in the fridge.'

Both end the same way -- whether you are in the Himalayan cave or in the world does not make much difference. The life of indulgence and the life of repression both end in the same way because their mechanism is not different. Their appearance is different, but their inner quality is the same.

Awareness brings a different quality to your life. With awareness, things start changing, changing tremendously -- not that you change them, no, not at all. A man of awareness does not change anything, and a man of unawareness continuously tries to change everything. But the man of unawareness never succeeds in changing anything, and the man of awareness simply finds change happening, tremendous change happening.

It is awareness that brings change, not your effort. Why does it happen through awareness? Because the awareness changes you, and when you are different the whole world is different. It is not a question of creating a different world, it is only a question of creating a different YOU. YOU are your world -- so if you change, the world changes. If you don't change, you can go on changing the whole world -- nothing changes; you will go on creating the same world again and again.

You create your world. It is out of you that your world is projected. Tantra says: Awareness is the key, the master key which opens all the doors of life.

So remember, it is really delicate: if I talk about the foolishness of repression, you start thinking about indulging. If I talk about the foolishness of indulgence, you start thinking about repression. It happens every day: you move to the opposite immediately. And the whole point is not to be tempted by the opposite.

To be tempted by the opposite is to be tempted by the devil. That is the devil in the Tantra system: to be tempted by the opposite. There is no other devil. The only devil is that the mind can play a trick upon you, it can propose the opposite. You.are against indulgence? The mind says 'So simple... now repress. Don't indulge, escape. Drop this whole world. Forget all about it.' But how can you forget all about it? Is it so simple to forget all about it? Then why are you escaping far away? Then why are you afraid? If you can forget all about it so simply, then be here and forget all about it. But you can't be here, you know the world will tempt you. And this momentary understanding, this false understanding that you think you have got, will not be of much use. When the temptation comes from desires, you will be a victim. You know it. Before it happens you want to escape, you want to escape fast. You want to escape from the opportunity. Why? Why do you want to escape from the opportunity?

In India, the so-called saints won't stay with householders. Why? What is the fear? In India, the so-called saints won't touch a woman, won't even look. Why? What is the fear? From where does this fear come? -- just avoiding the opportunity. But to avoid the opportunity is not a great achievement. And by avoiding the opportunity, if you attain to a certain celibacy, that celibacy is just false.

I have heard...

A countryman went into a London pub with a dog. The man ordered a pint. The dog ordered a whisky. 'What the hell...?' said the barman.

'Yes' said the owner' he is the most intelligent dog in the West Country. I brought him to see the sights of the town.'

'If I give him five pence will he get me a paper?' said the barman 'because I forget to get one.'

'Of course I will' piped the dog. Then receiving the money: 'Be back soon. Ta, ta.'

The dog did not return. So after an hour the worried owner went in search. He finally found his dog in a back alley nicely on the job with a bitch.

'Well, I am damned!' said the owner. 'You have never done that before.'

'No' said the dog 'I have never had the money before.'

Just avoiding the opportunity is not of much use. It is just a false facade. You can believe in it, but you cannot deceive God. In fact, you cannot even deceive yourself. Continuously, in your dream, that which you have left behind in a repressive way will be popping up again and again. It will drive you crazy. Your so-called saints are not even able to sleep well. They are afraid of sleep. Why? Because in sleep, the world that they have repressed asserts itself in dreams; the unconscious starts relating. The unconscious says 'What are you doing here? You are a fool.' The unconscious spreads its net again.

While you are awake you can repress, but when you are asleep how can you repress? You lose all control. The conscious represses, but the conscious goes to sleep. That's why in all the old traditions saints have always been afraid of sleep. They cut down their sleep from eight hours to seven, from seven to six, from six to five... four, three, two. And foolish people think it a great achievement. They think 'This saint is a great saint. He sleeps only two hours.' In fact, he is simply showing one thing: that he is afraid of his unconscious. He does not allow the unconscious time to relate.

When you sleep for two hours, the unconscious cannot relate, because those two hours are needed for the body's rest. You dream better dreams, good dreams, beautiful dreams by the time your sleep is complete -- that's why you dream better in the morning, in the early morning. First the body need has to be finished; the body needs rest. Once the body has rested, then the mind needs rest -- that is a secondary thing.

One thing is that when the mind needs rest, then the unconscious, in a restful mood, releases its desires and dreams arise. The second thing is that if you only rest for two hours in the night there may be dreams, but you will not be able to remember them. That's why you remember only the late dreams that you dream early in the morning. You forget the other dreams of the whole night because you are so deeply in sleep that you cannot remember. So the saint thinks he has not dreamt about sex, he has not dreamt about money, he has not dreamt about power, prestige, respectability. If he sleeps for two hours, the sleep is so deep, it is such a necessity for the body, that it is almost like a coma, so he cannot remember. You remember dreams only when you are half awake and half asleep. Then the dream can be remembered, because it is close to the conscious. Half asleep, half awake, something of the dream filters into your conscious, moves into the conscious. In the morning you can remember a little bit of it. That's why you will be surprised that if you go and ask a labourer who works hard the whole day 'Do you dream?' he will say 'No.'

Primitive people don't dream. It is not true that they don't dream; they can't remember, that's all. All dream, but they can't remember. Working hard the whole day chopping wood or digging a ditch or breaking stones is such hard work, eight hours, that when you fall asleep you are almost in a coma. Dreams come, but you cannot remember, you cannot recapture them.

Now your so-called saints have always been afraid of sleep.

Once a young man was brought to me. He was going crazy. He was a follower of Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. I asked him 'What is the matter with you?' He said 'Nothing is the matter. I am a spiritual man. People think I am going crazy.' I inquired of his parents -- they were very worried -- I went into the details.

The details were this: he went to Swami Sivananda, and Sivananda said 'You sleep too much. This is not good for spiritual health. You should sleep less.' So he cut his sleep to three hours -- from eight hours to three! Now he started feeling sleepy the whole day, naturally. So Sivananda said 'You are TAMASIC, you have very low, bad energy in you. Change your food. You must be taking food which makes you heavy and sleepy.' So he started living just on milk. Now he started becoming weak. First sleep was cut, then food was cut. Now he was in such a state that at any time he could topple over.

Without food it becomes more difficult for you to go into deep sleep even for three hours; food is a must for a good sleep. When the stomach has nothing to digest, the whole energy moves into the head -- that's why on a fasting-day you cannot sleep well. The energy is not in the stomach, it is releasing to the head. When the energy is needed in the stomach, the head cannot get it because the head is secondary, the stomach is primary.

There is a certain hierarchy in the body... first things first. The stomach is basic. The stomach can exist without the head, but the head cannot exist without the stomach; so the stomach is basic, more fundamental. When the stomach needs energy, it pulls energy from everywhere.

Now, he could not even sleep for three hours. His eyes became dull, dead. His body lost all lustre, aliveness, and there was a subtle trembling. Holding his hand, I could feel his whole body trembling; the body had not rested for months. And now he thought that he was becoming spiritual.

This type of nonsense has continued long enough to have become respectable. When a thing continues for long enough it becomes respectable -- just because it has been there for so long.

In fact, listen to your body, your bodily needs. Listen to your mind, listen to your mind's needs. Don't avoid. Go into those needs, explore those needs with loving care. Befriend your body, befriend your mind, if you want to get beyond them one day. Befriending is very essential. That is the Tantra vision of life: Befriend life energies. Don't become antagonistic.

Now the sutras. The sutras are of great significance.

Says Saraha to the king

AS HIGHER AWARENESS, THEY TEACH WHAT THEY EXPERIENCE WITHIN.

WHAT FETTERS THEM THEY WILL CALL LIBERATION.

A GLASS TRINKET COLOURED GREEN, TO THEM IS A (PRICELESS) EMERALD;

DELUDED, THEY KNOW NOT A GEM FROM WHAT THEY THINK IT SHOULD BE.

He is talking about the so-called MAHATMAS, the so-called yogis -- in the same way that I talk again and again about the so-called saints.

Saraha is saying

AS HIGHER AWARENESS, THEY TEACH WHAT THEY EXPERIENCE WITHIN.

Now this is a GREAT statement; it has to be decoded.

First: the ultimate experience of reality is not an experience at all, because when you experience something, there is always duality: the experiencer and the experienced. So there cannot be any ultimate experience in the sense that you experience yourself, no. How can you experience yourself? Then you will be divided in two, then the subject-object duality will come in.

Tantra says: Whatsoever you know, know that you are not that. This is a great statement, a very penetrating insight. If you see something, know well that you are not that thing because you are the seer. You can never be the seen. You cannot be reduced to an object. You are subjectivity, pure subjectivity, irreducible subjectivity. There is no way to turn yourself into an object, into a thing. You cannot put yourself in front of yourself, or can you? You cannot put yourself in front of yourself, because whatsoever you put there will not be you. You will always be the one in front of whom the thing is put.

Saraha says: Truth is not an experience -- cannot be. Truth is an experiencing, not an experience. It is a knowing, not knowledge.

The difference is great. You experience a thing when it is separate from you. You cannot experience yourself in the same way. So Tantra has coined a different word: 'experiencing'. In Sanskrit we have two words: ANUBHAV, ANUBHUTI. ANUBHAV means 'experience'; ANUBHUTI means 'experiencing'. There is nothing to experience. There is nothing in front of you, there is just emptiness; but YOU are there, fully there, with nothing to obstruct. There is no object -- pure subjectivity; only the container, no content; the movie has stopped, only the screen, the pure white screen. But there is nobody to lock at this white screen: YOU ARE THE WHITE SCREEN. Hence a new word: ANUBHUTI, experiencing.

In English there is no separate word, so I have to use 'experiencing'. To show the difference: experience becomes an object; experiencing is a process, not an object. Knowledge is an object, knowing is a process. Love is an object, loving is a process.

And Tantra says: Your innermost core consists of processes, not of things. Knowing is there, not knowledge. Loving is there, not love. Nouns exist NOT, only verbs! This is a profound insight into reality... only verbs. When you say 'This is a tree' you are stating a very wrong thing -- this is a tree-ing not a tree because it is growing; it is not a static thing. When you say 'This is a river' just look at what you are saying. Nonsense. It is a river-ing: it is moving, it is dynamic. Not for a single moment is it the same, so why do you call it 'river'? Even a rock is not a rock; it is also a process.

Existence consists not of things but of events. Don't say to a woman 'I love you', just say 'I am in that state of loving.' Love is not a thing. You can only be in a state of loving; you cannot love.

There are Buddhist languages in which everything exists as a process. When, for the first time, the Bible was being translated in certain Buddhist countries, Burma, Thailand, the Christian missionaries were at a loss, they could not find a word for God. Because it is okay if you say a river is river-ing, and a tree is tree-ing, and a man is man-ing, and a woman is woman-ing -- it is okay; but about God -- he IS! There is no becoming in God. But in Burmese all words are verbs really. Each verb shows becoming.

But to call God 'becoming' a process -- was very hard for Christians, very difficult. God is... always the same, eternally the same. Nothing ever happens to God. Buddhists say 'If nothing ever happens to God, then he is dead! Then how can he be alive?' Life is where things happen. Life is happening. And about the ultimate experience... It is okay to say this about mundane reality. You can say 'This is a chair' and there is no need to bother much about it; it is simple. Now to say about everything 'This is a chair-ing, and this is a tree-ing' will create difficulty in expression..

But about the ultimate reality one should be very alert.At least there, one should be alert.

Saraha says

AS HIGHER AWARENESS, THEY TEACH WHAT THEY EXPERIENCE...

Now, if you have read Pundit Gopi Krishna's books, he says 'Kundalini is the ultimate experience.' It cannot be. Saraha would not agree; he would laugh at Pundit Gopi Krishna.

If you experience a certain energy rising in your spine, you are the one who is seeing it. The spine is separate, so also is that kundalini rising in it separate. How can you BE it?

I can see this hand. Just by seeing this hand I have become separate from this hand. I cannot be this hand. I am using this hand, but I am separate from this hand. Maybe I am inside the hand, but I cannot BE the hand.

Kundalini is not a spiritual experience. Spiritual experience simply means the moment when there is nothing to be experienced. All experiences dissolved, you sit alone in your purity. You cannot call it an experience.

So Saraha says: These so-called yogis and saints go on saying that they have attained to higher consciousness. And what have they attained? Somebody's kundalini has risen, somebody has seen a blue light inside -- and things like that. Somebody has seen visions: somebody has seen Krishna, and somebody has seen Mohammed, and somebody has seen Mahavir, and somebody has seen the Mother Kali -- but these are all imagination.

All experience is imagination.

The word 'imagination' is beautiful; it comes out of 'image'. All experience is nothing but images floating in your consciousness. When nothing floats in your consciousness -- remember, not even 'nothing' floats in your consciousness -- when your consciousness is simply there without content, that contentless purity is what Tantra calls real experience.

You cannot call it an experience. By its very nature, it is not. When you witness the witness, how can you call it witnessing? When you know the knower, how can you call it knowledge?

So the first thing he says is

AS HIGHER AWARENESS, THEY TEACH WHAT THEY EXPERIENCE WITHIN.

And the second thing to be remembered: the distinction between within and without is again falser It is good on a certain plane. You are living in the without, so you have to be told to go within. But without and within are two aspects of the same coin. One day, you have to be told to drop both as you have dropped the without, now drop the within too. Be transcendental  -- neither without nor within.

The within is as much without as the without: that is the Tantra insight.

What is within? I am looking at you; you are without. Then I close my eyes and I see my kundalini -- is it within'? Whatsoever I can see is without, is 'out' of me; it cannot be 'in' me. Then I see a blue light; that is without. Of course, I am seeing it with closed eyes -- it is closer to me -- but still without. I am seeing you with open eyes; you are without. In the night I see a dream, and you come in my dream -- then are you within? You are also without, although my eyes are closed; but I am seeing you just as I am seeing you right now.

Whatsoever is seen is without. The seer is neither without nor within.

So Saraha says: These people first go on talking about their experiences without, and then they start talking about their experiences within.

Just the other day we discussed this: you make love to a woman  -- this woman is without. Now, the energy, the fire of your sexuality rises high in you, comes to your throat, to VISUDDHA, to the throat chakra. And there you start masturbating it with your tongue turned inwards. You call it within? It is without. It is as much without as it was while you were making love to a woman.

Tantra is such a great insight, such a profound insight that it says: One has to drop the without; one has to drop the within too. One has to be in such a state where one can say 'I am neither out nor in. Neither an extrovert nor an introvert, neither a man nor a woman, neither a body nor a mind.' One has to come to a point where one can say 'I am neither in SAMSARA, nor NIRVANA.' This is the point, the door from all dualities: the exact middle of all dualities.

WHAT FETTERS THEM THEY WILL CALL LIBERATION.

Now this will be a new fetter -- maybe a little more beautiful than the outer fetters. Maybe the outer fetters are made of iron and this fetter is made of gold, but a fetter is a fetter -- whether made of iron or of gold does not make any difference -- you are fettered.

Now this new fetter will become your bondage. Kundalini rising, visions, spiritual visions, cosmic visions -- now these will become your fetters. Now you will hanker for them, you will desire them. First you were desiring money, now you will desire these spiritual experiences. First you were desiring power, now you will desire SIDDHIS, spiritual powers -- but the desire remains there, and the desire is the fetter. Only in non-desire is there liberation.

A GLASS TRINKET COLOURED GREEN, TO THEM IS A (PRICELESS) EMERALD;

DELUDED, THEY KNOW NOT A GEM FROM WHAT THEY THINK IT SHOULD BE

If you don't know, if you are not alert and aware, you can be deceived. A GLASS TRINKET COLOURED GREEN... and you may think this is an emerald. Yes, the colour is the same, the shape may be the same, even the weight may be the same, but still the value is different, and the value is the thing.

Yes, people have powers in the outside world. A president, a premier has some power, and then a yogi, a MAHATMA has some other powers -- of the inner world -- but nothing to be compared with the real emerald. The outer was a glass thing, and this 'inner' is also a glass trinket, coloured, cut in the same shape, of the same weight as if it were the spiritual thing; it is not.

Spirituality is the pure sky where no cloud exists. So a real spiritual man cannot claim any spiritual experiences, because all spiritual experiences are glass trinkets coloured green; they are not emeralds.

That's why Buddha remained silent. When people would ask him Have you realised?' he would keep quiet. When people would say 'Do you know God?' he would not say anything. He would smile or laugh it away. Why? Why did he avoid it? And foolish people will think he avoided because he had not known, he avoided because he had not experienced. He avoided BECAUSE he had experienced. He avoided because he knew that to talk about it would not be good; that would be a sacrilege.

Truth cannot be talked about. We can talk about the Way, but we cannot talk about the truth. We can talk about how to attain to it, but we cannot say what it is when we attain it.

Saraha is saying: All those who claim experiences are bogus.

DELUDED, THEY KNOW NOT A GEM FROM WHAT THEY THINK IT SHOULD BE.

THEY TAKE COPPER TO BE GOLD. BOUND BY DISCURSIVE THOUGHT

THEY THINK THESE THOUGHTS TO BE ULTIMATE REALITY.

THEY LONG FOR THE PLEASURES EXPERIENCED IN DREAMS.

THEY CALL THE PERISHABLE BODY-MIND ETERNAL BLISS SUPREME.

THEY TAKE COPPER TO BE GOLD... The baser, the objective, they think is the subjective. The knower is not known yet. They have known something else, and they have misunderstood: they think they have known the knower. They may have known the kundalini; they may have known some spiritual visions -- great visions of poetry, Feat visions of splendour and grandeur -- great visions, psychedelic, but

THEY TAKE COPPER TO BE GOLD. BOUND BY DISCURSIVE THOUGHT THEY THINK THESE THOUGHTS TO BE ULTIMATE REALITY.

And these so-called saints and MAHATMAS are bound by logic, BOUND BY DISCURSIVE THOUGHT... They go on arguing; they even go on trying to prove that God exists.

In Christianity, two thousand years have been wasted in proving that God exists. How can you prove that God exists? And if it can be proved, then it can be disproved too. Logic is a double-edged sword. Logic is a whore. If it can prove that God is, it can prove that God is not. And in fact the beauty of it is this: the same argument can prove that God is, and the same argument can prove that God is not.

Now the greatest argument that these so-called saints have been giving to the world is that the world needs a creator, because how can the world exist without a creator? Now it looks appealing -- to childish minds at least; to immature minds it looks appealing. Yes... such a vast existence! How can it be there without a creator? Somebody must be there who created it. And then just a small pinprick, and the logic is gone, and the logic is gone, and the balloon explodes: somebody asks 'And who created the creator?' It is the same logic. If you say the world needs a creator, then again your creator will need a creator, and so on and so forth, ad nauseam. You can go on and you can say 'Number one created the world, and number two created number one, and number three created number two.' You can go on and on, but the ultimate question will remain the same: who created the first, the original?

If you accept that the original was not created, then what is all this fuss about? Then why not say that the world is uncreated? If God can be uncreated, then what is wrong in simply saying that the world has been there without anybody having created it? That would seem more reasonable, rather than going into this foolish logic which leads nowhere.

Look at the arguments that have been given for God; they are all foolish and stupid, that's why you cannot convince a single atheist about your God. Those who are already convinced, yes, they are convinced -- that is not the point. You cannot convince a single skeptical mind; your arguments will not help. In fact, your own arguments will create difficulties for you.

What is Saraha saying? Saraha is saying: A man who has known his inner reality, knows that there is no proof other than realising it. He does not believe in discursive thoughts. He does not give any logic for it; it is illogical, it is beyond reason. It is so. You can experience it, or you can leave it, but there is no way to prove it or disprove it. Theism and atheism are both meaningless. Religion has nothing to do with them; religion is an experiencing of that which is. Call it by whatsoever name you choose to call it -- call it God, call it NIRVANA, call it XYZ, anything, that doesn't matter -- but experience it.

Tantra believes in experience. Tantra is not cerebral, it is existential.

THEY TAKE COPPER TO BE GOLD..

And this God proved by arguments they think is their God. Then they make images of the god, and then they worship: they are worshipping their own syllogism. What is in your churches and temples and mosques? -- nothing but syllogism. The world needs a creator, so you believe in a creator. This is a belief, and all beliefs are false. Belief is a homemade thing. Yes, it consoles, it gives you a certain security, comfort; it is convenient to believe that somebody is looking after the world. Otherwise one becomes afraid: nobody looking after it, at any moment anything could go wrong. It gives you confidence.

It is almost like when you are in an aeroplane and you know that the pilot is there and he is looking after things. And suddenly you go and look into the cockpit, and there is nobody! Now what will happen? Just a moment ago you were sipping tea, and you were talking, and you were interested in the woman who was sitting by your side, and you were trying to touch her body... and everything. Now everything is gone: the pilot is not there. Up to this moment everything was convenient. You will become very nervous. You will start trembling. You will lose all interest in men and women, and food and drink -- and everything is finished! Your breathing will be disturbed, your blood pressure will be disturbed, your heart will start fluttering and you will start perspiring... in an air-conditioned plane!

It is convenient to believe that in the cockpit there is a pilot who knows, and everything is going well -- God takes care. You can remain the way you are. He is 'the father'; he knows everybody. Not even a single leaf falls without his will, so everything is good. This is a convenience.

Mind is very cunning. This God is part of the cunning mind. Saraha says: Belief is not truth, and truth is never a belief; truth is an experiencing.

THEY THINK THESE THOUGHTS TO BE ULTIMATE REALITY.

THEY LONG FOR THE PLEASURES EXPERIENCED IN DREAMS.

These are pleasures experienced in dreams.

THEY CALL THE PERISHABLE BODY-MIND ETERNAL BLISS SUPREME.

Sometimes you are deluded by the body. And somehow, if you manage to go beyond the body, you are deluded by the mind, which is more of a deluder.

The first three chakras belong to the body. The next three chakras belong to the mind. And the seventh chakra is beyond both.

Ordinarily, the people who indulge remain in the first three lower chakras -- they hang there. Those first three chakras: MULADHAR, SWADHISTAN and MANIPURA are earth-bound. They are earthly chakras, they are attracted by gravitation, they are pulled downwards. The next three chakras: ANAHATA, VISUDDHA and AJNA are sky-bound. Gravitation does not affect them. They are under another law called levitation; they are pulled upwards. These three consist of the mind. The body is pulled downwards, mind is pulled upwards.

But you are neither. You are the seventh, which is neither body nor mind.

So the people who indulge live in the first three chakras. And the people who repress the first three chakras start living in the second three chakras. But they create a dream-world.

It is almost like this: one day you fast, and in the night you dream that you have been invited by the Queen of England, and a great feast is being given in your honour. And you are eating all sorts of things -- all the things that you always wanted to eat but the doctor wouldn't allow. The fast creates this dream, but this dream cannot nourish you. In the morning you will be as hungry as before -- more.so. But this dream helps a little bit. How does it help? It helps you to continue sleeping, otherwise your hunger would wake you again and again; you would keep waking up. This dream is a trick of the mind. The mind says 'There is no need to wake up; there is no need to go in the dark and search for the fridge. You can just sleep well. Look, the Queen has invited you! There are so many foods on the table, why don't you eat?' And you start eating. This is a trick of the mind. It helps you to keep on sleeping.

It happens many times. Your bladder is full, and you start dreaming that you are in the bathroom. This helps. Not that it unburdens the bladder, but it keeps you deluded and the sleep can continue.

Your beliefs, your imagination, your dreams, your temples, your churches, your GURUDWARAS, help you to remain asleep. They are tranquillisers.

THEY CALL THE PERISHABLE BODY-MIND ETERNAL BLISS.SUPREME.

Sometimes they think the bliss supreme is there in the body, and then they start thinking in the imagination of the mind that kundalini is rising... Light, and a thousand and one visions and experiences. Beware of these visions. A really spiritually-oriented person is not interested in any content of consciousness; he is interested in consciousness itself.

BY THE SYMBOL EVAM (THEY THINK) SELF-CLEARNESS IS ACHIEVED,

BY THE DIFFERENT SITUATIONS THAT DEMANDFOUR SEALS

THEY CALL WHAT THEY HAVE FANCIED SPONTANEITY,

BUT THIS IS LOOKING AT REFLECTIONS IN A MIRROR.

Through mantras, through sounds, one can achieve a certain mental tranquillity. Yes, through TM one can achieve a certain delusion: if you repeat a certain sound continuously it soothes you. It gives you a certain rhythm in the mind; it is rhythmic. If you repeat, 'Om, Om, Om' or 'Evam, Evam, Evam' or any mantra... 'Coca-Cola' will do; if you repeat 'Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola' very lovingly and respectfully, it will help. You can also keep a Coca-Cola bottle in front of you, and put some flowers and fruit before it. You have to create an atmosphere. You can burn some incense before the Coca-Cola bottle and repeat the mantra. If you do it long enough, there is every possibility that you will feel good. You have autohypnotised yourself, you have suggested something to yourself: you have suggested that tranquility is coming, silence is coming, happiness is coming. It is nothing but auto-suggestion, very indirect auto-suggestion.

Emile Coue proposes direct suggestions. Think 'I am getting happier' -- direct suggestions. Emile Coue is a Western man -- more honest, true and direct. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi suggests that you repeat 'Om, Om', 'Ram, Ram' -- this is indirect, more of the Eastern mind; not direct, but indirect. But all the suggestions are given: that if you repeat this mantra twice every day for twenty minutes in the morning and twenty minutes in the evening, you will become more healthy, you will become more silent, you will become more blissful, this and that. All things are promised -- even your salary will increase. You will be getting promotions, and the whole world will cooperate with you in your ambitions.

This is given indirectly. And then you are not interested in the mantra. You are interested in these things: health, wealth, power, prestige, silence, joy -- you are interested in these things. Because of this interest you repeat the mantra. But each time you repeat 'Om', you know that these things are going to happen. And these mantras work only to the extent that you believe in them. If you don't.believe, they won't work. If you don't believe, Mahesh Yogi will say 'How can they work? You have to believe them, then they work.'

Truth works without your belief. Truth needs no belief on your part. Only untruth works through belief. Untruth needs belief on your part, because only if you believe can you create a mind attitude, an auto-suggestion, a climate in which it works.

BY THE SYMBOL EVAM (THEY THINK) SELF-CLEARNESS IS ACHIEVED.

And Saraha is saying that this is nonsense. By repeating a certain sound no clarity is attained, you only become more cloudy. Not that you become more intelligent and aware, you become more sleepy. Of course, you will have a better sleep -- that is the good part of it. And it is 40t accidental that Mahesh Yogi's TM has become influential in America, because America is the country which is suffering tremendously from insOmnia. People cannot sleep; they need some trick to sleep. TM can help good sleep. And I am not against TM if you are just using it for good sleep; I am all for good sleep. But remember, it cannot lead you to any other realm. It cannot become your spiritual journey. It is a solace.

BY THE DIFFERENT SITUATIONS THAT DEMAND FOUR SEALS..

These four seals have to be understood. Tantra talks about four seals, four MUDRAS. To attain to the ultimate, a person passes through four doors; he has to open four locks. Those four locks are called four seals, four MUDRAS. These are very important.

The first MUDRA is called KARMA MUDRA. It is the outermost door, the very periphery of your being. It is so outermost -- just like action, that's why it is called KARMA MUDRA. KARMA means action. Action is the outermost core of your being; it is your periphery. What you do is your periphery. You love somebody, you hate somebody, you kill somebody, you protect somebody -- what you do is your periphery. Action is the outermost part of your being.

The first seal is opened through becoming total in your action... TOTAL in your action. Whatsoever you do, do totally, and there will arise great joy -- not by repeating some mantra, but by doing it totally. If you are angry, be totally angry; you will learn much out of total anger. If you are totally angry and fully aware of your anger, anger will disappear one day. There will be no point in being angry anymore. You have understood it. It can be dropped now.

Anything that is understood can be dropped easily. Only non-understood things go on hanging around you. So be total, whatsoever it is. Try to be total and alert: this is the first lock to be opened.

Remember always, Tantra is very scientific. It does not say: Repeat a mantra. It says: Become aware in your action.

The second seal is called GYANA MUDRA -- a little deeper than the first, a little more inner than the first -- like knowledge. Action is the outermost thing, knowledge is a little deeper. You can watch what I am doing, you cannot watch what I am knowing. Knowing is inner. Actions can be watched; knowings cannot be watched, they are inner. The second seal is that of knowing, GYANA MUDRA.

Now, start knowing what you really know, and stop believing things which you really don't know. Somebody asks you 'Is there a God?' and you say 'Yes, God is' -- remember, do you really know? If you don't know, please don't say that you do. Say 'I don't know.' If you are honest and you only say what you know, and you only believe what you know, the second lock will be broken. If you go on knowing things, believing things which you don't really know, the second lock will never be broken. False knowledge is the enemy of true knowledge. And all beliefs are false knowledge; you simply believe them. And your so-called saints go on telling you 'First believe, then you will know.'

Tantra says: First KNOW, then belief is there. But that is a totally different kind of belief; it is trust. You believe in God, you know the sun. The sun rises; you need not believe in it -- it is simply there, you know it. God you believe in. God is bogus; your God is bogus.

There is another God -- the God which comes through knowing. But the first thing to be sorted out is: drop all that you don't know but believe that you know. You have always believed, and you have always carried the load -- drop that load. Out of a hundred things you will be unburdened of almost ninety-eight things -- unburdened. Only a few things will remain there that you really know. You will feel great freedom. Your head will not be so heavy. And with that freedom and weightlessness you enter the second MUDRA. The second lock is broken.

The third MUDRA is called SAMAYA MUDRA. SAMAYA means time. The first, outermost layer is action, the second layer is knowing, the third layer is time. Knowledge has disappeared, you are only in the now; only the purest of time has remained. Watch, meditate over it. In the now-moment, there is no knowledge. Knowledge is always about past. In the now-moment there is no knowledge; it is completely free from knowledge. Just this moment, looking at me, what do you know? Nothing is known. If you start thinking that you know this and that, that will come from the past. That will not come from this moment, not from now. Knowledge is from the past, or a projection into the future. The now is pure of knowledge.

So the third is SAMAYA MUDRA -- to be in this moment. Why does Saraha call it SAMAYA, time? Ordinarily you think that past, present and future are three divisions of time -- that is not the Tantra understanding. Tantra says: Only present is time. Past is NOT, it has already gone. Future is NOT, it has not come yet. Only the present is.

To be in the present is to be really in time. Otherwise you are either in memory or you are in dreams, which are both false, delusions. So the third seal is broken by being in the now.

First, be total in your action -- the first seal is broken. Second, be honest in your knowing -- the second seal is broken. Now, be just here-now -- the third seal is broken.

And the fourth seal is called MAHAMUDRA, the great gesture... innermost, like space. Now, purest space has remained. Action, knowing, time, space -- these are the four seals. Space is your innermost core, the hub of the wheel, or the centre of the cyclone. In your innermost emptiness is space, sky. These are the three layers: the first layer is of time, then the second is of knowing, then the third is of action. These are the four seals to be broken. By reciting a mantra, it is not going to happen. Don't befool yourself.

Great work is needed to go into your reality.

BY THE SYMBOL EVAM (THEY THINK) SELF-CLEARNESS IS ACHIEVED,

BY THE DIFFERENT SITUATIONS THAT DEMAND FOUR SEALS...

Clearness is NOT achieved without your breaking these four seals. Clarity is attained only when you have entered your pure space.

THEY CALL WHAT THEY HAVE FANCIED SPONTANEITY,

BUT THIS IS LOOKING AT REFLECTIONS IN A MIRROR.

Yes, you can create a mirror by chanting a mantra, and in the mirror you can see things. It is crystal-gazing; it is not of much value. It is just looking into the lake and thinking that the moon is there. The moon is not there; it only reflects there. It is looking into the mirror and thinking that YOU are there; you are not there. Don't be childish. Small children do that.

Have you watched a small child brought for the first time before a mirror? He tries to enter into the mirror. He grabs the mirror and tries to find a way to go into it and meet the child which is there. When he finds it difficult, he tries to go through the back of the mirror: maybe there is a room and the child is sitting there... This is what we go on doing.

Mind is a mirror, Yes, by repeating a TM mantra, you can make this mirror very, very clear. But looking into the mirror. you will not attain. In fact, the mirror has to be completely dropped, thrown away. You have to move inwards. And this is very practical. First action, then knowing, then time, then space.

AS UNDER DELUSION'S POWER A HERD OF DEER WILL RUSH

FOR THE WATER IN A MIRAGE WHICH IS NOT RECOGNISED,

SO ALSO THE DELUDED QUENCH NOT THEIR THIRST, ARE BOUND BY CHAINS

AND FIND PLEASURE IN THEM, SAYING THAT ALL IS ULTIMATELY REAL.

This is the last sutra.

Saraha says: Looking into the mirror you are looking into a mirage. You are dreaming. You are helping an illusion to be created around yourself. You are cooperating in a dream.

AS UNDER DELUSION'S POWER A HERD OF DEER WILL RUSH

FOR THE WATER IN A MIRAGE WHICH IS NOT RECOGNISED,

SO ALSO THE DELUDED QUENCH NOT THEIR THIRST, ARE BOUND BY CHAINS...

We are deluded by the reflections that are happening in our mind.

I have heard a beautiful story:

A man wishing to walk in the Welsh mountains, made his headquarters at a pub in a country town. He found his evenings dull, for nothing happened, and pub-conversation was mostly about sheep, mostly in Wales.

He asked the landlord how to set about finding the ladies of the town, and that worthy was shocked.

'Look man, this is Wales, man. We cannot have prostitutes; the chapel would never allow it.'

The visitor looked sad, and the man continued 'Of course, we have human nature the same as anywhere, but the thing you mention is kept out of sight.' He went on to explain that up the mountain, at the back, were caves, well-furnished and with all modicum. What the stranger must do was go up to the mountain at dusk and shout 'Yoo-hoo!' and if the lady 'yoo-hooed' back, terms could be negotiated. If she was already engaged there would be no answer.

That evening the Englishman yoo-hooed his way from cave to cave, but with no luck at all. He finally decided to go back and get drunk. But at the foot of the mountain he found a fresh cave. 'Yoo-hoo!' he shouted. 'Yoo-hoo! Yoo-hoo!' came back so clearly. He rushed into the cave and was killed by a train.

That is what a mirage is. You imagine, you fantasize, then you start seeing. And then any excuse will do. When a man is thirsty in a desert, lost, and the thirst burns like a flame inside, and he thinks only of water, only of water and nothing else, there is every possibility that he will start seeing water somewhere. He will project it. His desire is so much that he will project it. He will start seeing illusory water lakes; he will think a cool breeze has come. He will think he has seen a few birds flying, he will even think that he can see a few green trees -- not only green trees, but their reflections in the water. He will rush.

That's how we have been rushing for millions of lives... yoo-hooing from one cave to another. And you don't see that each time you go, you don't find any water; the thirst is not quenched. But you don't learn anything.

The greatest problem with man is that he does not learn. You loved one woman or one man, you were thinking that your thirst would be quenched -- it is not quenched. But you don't learn anything; you start moving towards another cave. You have no money and you thought that if ten thousand rupees were there, everything would be okay. And then those ten thousand rupees also happen, but you have not learnt anything. By that time you start thinking 'Unless there is one lakh of rupees, how can I be happy?' One lakh also happens, but you have not learned anything yet. Now you think that unless ten lakhs are there 'How can I be happy?' And so on and so forth you go... from one cave to another, from one birth to another, from one death to another! Man seems to be almost incapable of learning. Those who learn, only they know. Start learning. Be a little more alert. Let each experience give you some knowing.

You have asked so many times for so many things, and nothing happened. Now stop asking. You desired so many things, and each desire led you into frustration. Still you go on desiring? You did the same thing yesterday and the day before yesterday, and you will be doing the same thing today, and tomorrow too -- and nothing comes out of it. And you go on moving and doing the same thing again and again.

To learn is to become religious. The word 'disciple' is beautiful. It means 'one who is capable of learning'. It comes from a root which means 'learning': one who is capable of learning is a disciple.

Become disciples... disciples of your own life. Life is really your master. And if you cannot learn from life, where else can you learn from? If the great master of life is defeated by you and cannot teach you anything, then who will be able to teach you anything?

This universe is a university. Each moment is a lesson. Each frustration is a lesson. Each time you fail, learn something! By and by, the ray of knowing enters. Inch by inch, one becomes alert. Inch by inch, one becomes capable of not repeating the old mistakes. The moment you start learning, you are coming closer to God.

And don't trust small knowings. Don't think that you have arrived. A small learning sometimes satisfies people so much. Then they stop, then they stop moving.

It is a great journey, it is an endless journey. The more you learn, the more you will be able to learn. The more you learn, the more you will become aware that much more is yet to be learned. The more you know, the more intense becomes the mystery. The more you know, the less you feel that you know. With knowing, new doors open. With knowing, new mysteries are revealed.