FRIEND, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO ABOUT

THIS WORLD

I HOLD TO AND KEEP SPINNING OUT!

I GAVE UP SEWN CLOTHES AND WORE A ROBE,

BUT I NOTICED ONE DAY THE CLOTH WAS WELL WOVEN.

SO I BOUGHT SOME BURLAP, BUT I STILL

THROW IT ELEGANTLY OVER MY LEFT SHOULDER.

I PULLED BACK MY SEXUAL LONGINGS,

AND NOW I DISCOVER THAT I'M ANGRY A LOT.

I GAVE UP RAGE AND NOW I NOTICE

THAT I AM GREEDY ALL DAY.

I WORKED HARD AT DISSOLVING THE GREED,

AND NOW I AM PROUD OF MYSELF.

WHEN THE MIND WANTS TO BREAK ITS LINK

WITH THE WORLD

IT STILL HOLDS ON TO ONE THING.

Kabir says: LISTEN MY FRIEND,

THERE ARE VERY FEW THAT FIND THE PATH!

MAN IS A DILEMMA, BECAUSE MAN IS A DUALITY. Man is not one single being: man is the past and the future. The past means the animal, and the future means the divine. And between the two is the present moment, between the two is man's existence -- divided, torn apart, pulled in diametrically opposite directions.

If man looks backwards he is an animal. That's why science cannot believe that man is anything more -- just another animal -- because science only searches into the past. Charles Darwin and others, they are right that man is born of the animals. It is true about the past, but it is not true about man's totality.

Religion looks into the possible, into that which can happen and has not yet happened. Science dissects the seed and cannot find any flowers there. Religion is visionary, it dreams -- and is capable of seeing that which has not happened yet: the flower. Of course, it cannot be found, that flower cannot be found, by dissecting the seed. It needs great insight, not capacity to analyse, but some intuitive flight, some vision, some poetic approach. It needs a real dreamer who can see that which has not happened yet.

Religion looks into the possible and finds man is not an animal, but divine: man is God -- both are true. The conflict is baseless. The conflict between science and religion is futile. Their directions, their methods of work, their fields, are totally different.

Science always reduces everything to the source, and religion always takes a flight to the goal. Man is both, hence man is a dilemma, a constant anxiety: to be or not to be, to be this or to be that?

Man can find peace only in two ways: either he becomes an animal again -- then he will be one, then there will be no division, then again there will be peace, silence, harmony.... And that's why millions of people try to be animals in different ways.

War gives a chance for man to become animal; hence war has great attraction. In three thousand years' history man has fought five thousand wars -- continuously, somewhere or other, the war continues. Not even a single day passes when man is not killing other men. Why such tremendous joy in destruction, in killing? The reason is deep down in the psychology of man.

The moment you kill, suddenly you are one; you become the animal again, the duality disappears. Hence, in murder, in suicide, there is a tremendous magnetic force. Man cannot be persuaded yet to be non-violent. Violence erupts. Names change, slogans change, but the violence remains the same. It may be in the name of religion, in the name of political ideology, or any absurd thing -- a football match is enough for people to get violent, a cricket match is enough.

People are so much interested in violence that if they cannot do it themselves -- because it is risky and they think of the consequences -- they find vicarious ways to be violent. In a movie, or on the TV, violence is a must; without violence, nobody is going to see the film. Seeing violence and blood, suddenly you are reminded of your animal past; you forget your present, you completely forget your future -- you become your past. You become identified; what is happening on the screen somehow becomes your own life. You are no more a spectator -- in those moments you become a participant, you fall en rapport.

Violence has great attraction. Sexuality has great attraction, because it is only in sexual moments that you can become one; otherwise you remain two, divided, and the anxiety and the anguish persist. Violence, sex, drugs, they all help you, at Least for the time being, temporarily, to fall back, to become all animal. But this cannot become a permanent state of affairs.

One fundamental law has to be understood: nothing can go backwards. At the most you can pretend, at the most you can deceive, but nothing can go backwards because time docs not move backwards. Time always goes ahead. You cannot reduce a young man to a child, and you cannot reduce an old man to a young man -- it is impossible. The tree cannot be reduced back to the original seed -- it is impossible.

Evolution goes on and on and there is no way to prevent it or to force it backwards. Hence all efforts of men to become animals and find peace are doomed to fail. You can be drunk through alcohol or through other drugs -- marijuana, LSD -- you can be completely drowned. For the moment all the worries disappear, for the moment you are no more part of a problematic existence, for the moment you move in a totally different dimension -- but for the moment only.

Tomorrow morning you will be back, and when you are back the world is going to be more ugly than it ever was before, and life is going to be more of a problem than it ever was before. Because while you were intoxicated, unconscious, asleep in the drug, the problems were growing. The problems were becoming more and more complicated. While you were thinking that you had gone beyond the problems, the problems were taking root more in your being, in your unconscious.

Tomorrow again you will be back in the same world -- it will look more ugly compared to the peace that you had attained by reduction, by intoxication, by forgetfulness. Compared to that peace, the world will look even more dangerous, more complex, more scary. And then the only way is: go on increasing the doses of your drug. But that too does not help for long. And this is no way to get out of the dilemma. The dilemma remains, persists.

The only way is to grow towards the divine, the only way is forwards. The only way is to become that which is your potential -- the only way is to transform the potential into the actual.

MAN IS POTENTIAL GOD, and unless he becomes actual God there is no possibility of contentment. People have tried that too: How to become divine? And becoming divine, what to do with the animal? The simplest solution that has appeared again and again down the ages is: repress the animal. It is the same solution; either repress the divine -- through violence, through sex, through drugs -- forget about the divine. That is one solution -- which never succeeds, cannot succeed; in the very nature of things it is bound to fail. Then the second suggestion that comes to the mind is: repress the animal, forget the animal; keep the animal at the back, don't look at it. Throw it deep down in the basement of your unconscious so you don't come across it in your daily life, so you don't see it.

Man thinks almost in the same way as the ostrich. The ostrich thinks if he cannot see the enemy, the enemy does not exist. Hence, when the ostrich encounters the enemy he simply closes his eyes. By closing his eyes he thinks now there is no enemy because he cannot see him.

That's what has been done down the ages by ninety-nine percent of religious people. In that one percent I leave Buddhas, Krishnas, Kabirs. Ninety-nine percent of religious people have just been doing nothing but an ostrich exercise -- an exercise of utter futility. Repress the animal! But you cannot repress the animal because the animal has great energy. It has been your whole past; it is millions and millions of years old. It has deep roots in you; you cannot so easily get rid of it, just by closing your eyes. You are simply being stupid.

And the animal is your base, it is your very foundation. You are born as an animal; you are not different from any other animal. You CAN be different but you are not -- just by being born you don't become different. Yes, you have a different kind of body, but not very much different. You have a different kind of intelligence, but not very much different. The difference is only of quantity, not of quality.

Now modern research into plants says that even plants are intelligent, sensitive, alert, aware -- what to say about animals? A few researchers say that even metals have a kind of intelligence of their own. So the difference between man and the elephant. between man and the dolphin, between man and the monkeys, is not of quality, it is only of quantity, only of degrees. We have a little bit more intelligence, that's all.

It is not much of a difference, at least not a difference that makes any difference. The qualitative change happens only when a man becomes fully awakened, when a man becomes a Buddha -- then the real difference happens. Then he is no more an animal. Then he is simply divine -- but how to attain it?

That ninety-nine percent of religious people has been doing something utterly wrong -- just the same logic. The same logic that is being followed by the violent people, the sexual people, the alcoholics. The same kind of logic: forget the animal. Many techniques have been developed to forget the animal: chant mantras so that you can forget the animal, become occupied in chanting; go on repeating "Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama." Repeat it so fast that your whole mind be-comes full of the vibe of this single word 'Rama'. This is simply a way to avoid the animal -- and the animal is there.

You can go on chanting Rama for centuries... the animal is not going to be changed by such a simple trick. You cannot deceive the animal. It will remain only a very superficial religiousness. Scratch any religious man and you will find the animal inside; just scratch a little. It is not even skin-deep, the so-called religiousness. It only pretends, it is only a formality, a social ritual.

You go to the church, you read the Bible, you read the Gita, you do chanting, you do prayer, but it is all formal. Your heart is not in it. And your animal inside goes on laughing at you, he ridicules you. He knows you perfectly well, who you are, where you are. And he knows how to manipulate you. You can go on chanting for hours, and then a beautiful woman passes by and suddenly all chanting disappears and you have forgotten all about God. Just the smell from the bakery... and all is gone; Hare Krishna Rama, all is gone.

Just any small thing is enough! Somebody insults you and there is anger, and the animal is ready to take revenge, you are in a rage. In fact, religious people become more angry than anybody else -- because others don't repress. And religious people are more sexually perverted than anybody else, because others don't repress. The religious person's dreams have to be watched, because in the day he can go on repressing, but what about the night when he is asleep?

Mahatma Gandhi wrote that even at the age of seventy he was having sexual dreams. At the age of seventy, why sexual dreams? He said, "In the day I have become disciplined -- the whole day not even a single thought of sex comes to me. But in the night I am incapable, I am unconscious, so the hole discipline and control disappears."

Sigmund Freud's insight is very valuable, that to know about a man you have to know his dreams, not his waking life. His waking life is pseudo. His real life asserts itself in his dreams, because his dreams are more natural -- no repression, no discipline, no control. Hence, psychoanalysis does not bother about your waking life. Just see the point: your waking life is so pseudo that psychoanalysis docs not believe in it at all. It is worthless. Psychoanalysis penetrates into your dreams because dreams are far truer than your so-called waking life.

This is ironical that the waking life, which we think is real life is not thought by psychoanalysis to be real; it is thought to be more unreal than your dreams. Your dreams are far more real, because you are not there to distort, you are fast asleep; the conscious mind is asleep and the unconscious is free to have its say. And the unconscious is your true mind, because the conscious is only one tenth of your total mind. Nine tenths is the unconscious -- nine times more powerful, nine times bigger than your conscious mind.

And what will you do when you are fighting with your sexuality, anger, greed? You will go on throwing them into the unconscious, into the darkness of the basement, thinking that by not seeing them you are getting rid of them. You are not getting rid of them. Not even a man like Mahatma Gandhi... what to say about small mahatmas like Morarji Desai etc.

A man like Mahatma Gandhi continued to have sexual dreams. That simply shows that his whole effort in the waking life was futile, that whatsoever he was trying to do in the waking life was of no use. And he recognized it -- at the very end of his life he recognized the whole futility of his discipline. His whole life had been a wastage; he recognized it. And in the end, just before he died, for two years he was experimenting with the science of Tantra. It is not talked about, not at least by the Gandhians -- they are very much afraid of those two years. He was advised by his followers, "Please, don't do such experiments."

You will be surprised: even Morarji Desai had advised him, "Don't do such experiments!" Why? They were afraid about the prestige of the Mahatma. They were afraid about themselves too. But he was a man of courage; howsoever wrong, he was a sincere man. He had the courage to accept that his effort of disciplining according to the traditional way had failed. In the last two years he was sleeping with naked women -- just for the first time not repressing but expressing, being loving, open, for the first time not on guard.

My own understanding is that those two years of his life which are not talked about are the most important -- not only were they not talked about: the followers deny, hide those facts. And those two years are the most important in his life. In those two years, for the first time he became aware that sexual energy need not be repressed: it can be transformed.

His life was cut short because a fanatic from this very city, Poona, killed him. Otherwise it would have been a totally different story. If he had lived ten more years, then all these so-called Gandhians would have left him. Many had already left when he started experimenting with Tantra. If he had lived ten more years it would have been a great boon to humanity, because he would have been able to say, "My whole life's effort of repression failed while Tantra succeeded."

Ninety-nine percent of religious people go on repressing, and whenever you repress something it goes deeper in you, it becomes more a part of your being. And it starts affecting you in such subtle ways that you may not even be aware of it. It takes very devious routes: it cannot come in direct ways because if it comes directly, you Repress it. Then it comes in such subtle ways, such devious ways, such deceptive ways, with masks, that you cannot even recognize that it is sexuality.

It can even use masks of prayer, of love, of religious ritual. But if you go deep down, if you allow yourself to be exposed to somebody who can observe and who understands the inner functioning of your mind, you will be surprised that it is the same energy moving through different channels. It has to move through different channels, because no energy can ever be repressed.

Let it be understood once and for all: no energy can ever be repressed. Energy can be transformed, but never repressed. The real religion consists of alchemy, of transforming techniques, methods. The real religion consists not of repressing the animal but of purifying the animal, of raising the animal to the divine, using the animal, riding on the animal to go to the divine. It can become a tremendously powerful vehicle, because it is power.

Sex can be used as a great energy -- you call ride on it to the very door of God. But if you repress it you will become more and more entangled. This is a very modern approach, but the sutras of Kabir will say to you that what Sigmund Freud discovered is not a discovery -- it is only a discovery in the West. As far as the East is concerned, it is an ancient truth. The sages have always known about it.

These sutras are very beautiful, very scientific. Meditate over each sutra:

FRIEND PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO ABOUT

THIS WORLD

I HOLD TO AND KEEP SPINNING OUT!

The original is:

AVADHU, MAYA TAJI NA JAI.

AVADHU LITERALLY MEANS A FRIEND, but it has a special meaning, not just a friend. In English there is no word to give the real meaning of AVADHU, but it can be explained. AVADHU means a friend, a companion, a comrade, on the way towards the divine -- a special kind of friendship. The friendship of two seekers, the friendship of those who are in search of the unknown and the unknowable, the friendship of those who are ready for the ultimate venture, who are ready to go into the uncharted sea. AVADHU means friends in the search for truth. It is risky; such a friendship needs guts. It is no ordinary friendship -- it is utterly extraordinary, it is not of this world.

This friendship means SATSANG: when many seekers gather together around a man who has known, because such a friendship is possible only around a man who has known, such a gathering is possible only around a Buddha, around one who has awakened -- because he will function as the center of the commune. Without the center, the commune will not have any significance; it will be an ordinary crowd.

Without Christ, Christians are just a crowd, an ordinary crowd. With Christ, it is a communion, it is satsang -- it is the ultimate friendship. Christ can call his disciples AVADHU -- friends, comrades, companions, soulmates -- that's exactly the meaning of AVADHU. The friendship is not worldly, has no motive. The friendship is not that of dependence. The friendship has no relationship which can be explained in any worldly way -- but two souls in a deep rhythm, two soulmates.

It is difficult to search alone -- the path is arduous, hazardous. dangerous; there is every possibility of getting lost. It is easier it people move with friends. It is like Gurdjieff used to say... when he was travelling in Sufi countries, a Sufi Master gave him a technique. The technique was that twenty friends of Gurdjieff had to go deep into the desert, but at least one person had to remain awake. Including Gurdjieff, there were twenty-one persons. Twenty persons could go to sleep, but one had to be awake constantly, twenty-four hours a day. When he WAS tired he had to wake somebody else; he could go to sleep, then the other had to remain awake. But one had to be awake!

If you are alone you will have to fall asleep once in a while, but if you are moving with friends at least one can always be awake. And in a desert, or in a forest, in a jungle, it is needed that at least one should be awake.

And when you go on the journey, the ultimate pilgrimage to God, it is good to have a few friends with you, because at least one can always be awake. And the person who is awake will become your protection, and the person who is awake will help you not to go astray, and the person who is awake will keep you together, and the person who is awake will become a kind of glue which will integrate your energies.

But if you can find a man who is awake, twenty-four hours awake -- that's the meaning of being a Buddha -- then naturally a commune of friends gathers around him. His light, his under-standing, slowly slowly permeates their being too.

Kabir is not talking to the public -- he is talking to a few friends. Hence he says:

AVADHU, FRIENDS, MAYA TAJI NA JAI.

It is very difficult to drop this mind -- it is very difficult to drop this mind because who is going to drop it? Even the idea of dropping is part of the mind. It is very difficult to drop the mind, because even if you drop it the one who drops it will remain -- that will become your mind. It is a very vicious circle. How to come out of it?

This mind is illusory, hence he calls it 'maya -- all illusion. It is NOT really there; it has no substance, but still it persists continuously -- day in, day out, your mind continues. Thoughts, dreams, desires, imagination, memory... the traffic goes on and on. All is non-substantial! If you wake up, suddenly you will find all the dreams, all the desires, all the thoughts, have disappeared. But how to drop this mind? Who is going to drop it? If you try to drop it, you are the mind.

You can escape to the Himalayan caves but the mind will go with you, because really the mind will be going to the Himalayan caves -- who else? You can renounce the family, but who will renounce? You can stand on your head, but it will be the same mind -- you are simply being stupid. It has to be understood.

Nothing has to be done on your part, because anything done is done always by the mind. Doing is the very function of the mind. So nothing can be done with the mind to drop it.

AVADHU, MAYA TAJI NA JAI.

So Kabir says: It is very difficult, friends, to drop this mind and its illusions. In the first place they are so non-substantial -- if they had been substantial it would have been easy. You can Leave the house, you can renounce your wife, your children, you can go away from the world -- it is very substantial! But how will you leave your mind? It will be with you.

When Bayazid, a Sufi saint, went to see his Master, he re-nounced his family, his friends, and he went to the Master. The Master used to live in the ruins of an old mosque. When Bayazid entered he said, "Now I have come, I have renounced all -- please accept me."

The Master looked at Bayazid and looked around and said, "And why have you brought this crowd with you?"

Bayazid was surprised. He looked back -- there was nobody else. Has this man gone mad? He said, "What crowd are you talking about?"

And the Master said, "Don't look back -- look in. All those people that you have left behind are there."

And Bayazid closed his eyes... and the Master was right, he was not crazy. The wife was still crying, the children were telling him, "Daddy, don't go." The friends were holding his hands to the very last. When he said goodbye to them, they all followed him as far as possible; he had to persuade them again and again, "Please go back. I have decided, and my decision is absolute." And when he closed his eyes they were all there.

And the Master said, "Bayazid, it is easy to renounce the world, but how are you going to renounce the mind? Because the mind is the real world! They are all there. You will sit meditating, and you will remember your wife; you may not have ever remembered her when you were with her -- that's how mind functions. That which is, it takes it for granted; that which is not it hankers for. Now you will be more and more involved with your wife, your children. More and more memories will come: 'What is happening to my children? What is happening to my wife? Has she betrayed me? Has she gone with somebody else? Can she do that?' Jealousy, possessiveness, and all kinds of things are bound to arise."

There is a beautiful story in Jaina scriptures:

A great king, Bimbisar, went to see Mahavira, the last Jaina teerthankara -- the last Jaina prophet. On the way, he met one of his old friends. They had studied in the same school; he was also a son of a king, but he had renounced and he had become a Jaina monk -- he was standing naked underneath a tree.

Bimbisar was overwhelmed with tremendous respect for this man and started feeling a little guilty also about himself: "I am still involved in the world -- money, power, prestige, war. And look at my friend: he was also a king, he would also have been a king like me, but he has renounced -- a man of courage." He bowed down, he touched the feet of his old friend. Then he went to see Mahavira.

Just a few yards further away was Mahavira, sitting underneath a tree. Bimbisar asked him, "One question arose in my mind -- when I saw my old friend Prasannachandra, who has become a monk, a disciple of yours, a question arose in my mind: if he dies right now, where will he be born?"

Jainas say there are seven hells and seven heavens -- "Into what heaven will he be born?" Bimbisar asked. "Of course, there is no question of his being born in hell -- he has renounced such a great kingdom and all -- in what heaven?"

And Mahavira said, "He would have gone to the seventh hell -- if he had died the time you touched his feet."

Bimbisar was shocked. He said, "Into the seventh hell? Then what about me? There are no other hells below the seventh. My friend, who has renounced all and looks so pious and so silent and so serene, he is going to be born into the seventh hell?"

Mahavira said, "Don't be worried: if he dies now, he will be born into the seventh heaven." And just a few minutes had passed.

Bimbisar said, "You puzzle me very much. Now you have confused me even more. What has happened within these few minutes that he will be born into the seventh heaven?" Mahavira said, "You don't know the whole story. Just before you, your prime minister had passed. He had come to accompany you just to see that everything is safe. Your prime minister, your generals and your guards, they passed just a few minutes before you. And your prime minister said, 'Look at this fool, this Prasannachandra! He would have been a great king and he has become hypnotized by this Mahavira. And now standing naked in this heat, wasting his life.... He used to be a beautiful man -- now look at his body. And he is an utter fool, because he has trusted his prime minister and has given the whole kingdom to him till his children are grown up enough to take possession of it -- and the prime minister is a cheat. And by the time the children are grown up, there will be nothing left in the treasury.'

"Hearing this, Prasannachandra forgot completely that he has become a monk -- completely! He was so shocked and be-came so angry, and he said inside his heart, 'I am still alive.' And his hand, just out of old habit went to his sword -- which was not there. He pulled the sword out of the sheath and said, 'I will go and kill this man immediately.' And in his imagination he cut the head of the prime minister.

"When you touched his feet," Mahavira said, "he had just killed the prime minister. Hence, I told you that in that moment if he had died he would have gone to the seventh hell -- he was in a murderous attitude. Now, things have changed. When he put his sword back into the sheath, he recognized, 'What am I doing? Where is the sword, and where is the sheath? And what have I done? Killed my prime minister in imagination! It is as much a crime as actually killing a person.

" 'Mahavira says, "Whether you think of killing or you kill, it makes no difference -- it is the same, psychologically it is the same." What have I done? When I have renounced, have renounced! Who am I to interfere now? If he cheats that is HIS business; if he breaks the trust, HE will suffer for it. But who am I to punish him? I am finished with all this. And who are my children, and what is my kingdom?'

"And a great understanding came to him. He became quiet, silent, serene, detached. Right now if he dies, he is in such a beautiful space that he will be born in the seventh heaven."

The question is of the mind, not of the world. You can go to the Himalayan caves, but what are you going to think about? You will think of the world. That's why Kabir says:

AVADHU MAYA TAJI NA JAI.

It is very difficult to drop this mind.

FRIEND, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO ABOUT

THIS WORLD...

the world of the mind

... I HOLD TO, AND KEEP SPINNING OUT!

I GAVE UP SEWN CLOTHES AND WORE A ROBE,

BUT I NOTICED ONE DAY THE CLOTH WAS WELL WOVEN.

HE SAYS: I RENOUNCED BEAUTIFUL CLOTHES and wore a robe, but then one day I saw, "Even this robe is well woven -- my mind has played a trick. I am still as much concerned about my clothes as before. I still want to look beautiful, I still want to look special, I still want to look somebody. The mind has played a trick with me. I am the same man.

I have dropped those beautiful clothes and now I am wearing a single robe, but it doesn't matter -- the mind can project in the same way." The screen makes no difference: the film continues the same. You can use the wall as the screen, and you can project the same film. You need not have a perfect screen. The film is the same, even projected on the wall; the wall may be rough, may be a poor man's house wall, but it makes no difference -- the film is the same.

Kabir says: I recognized it, "Mind is still functioning in the same way. I still walk in such a way that people should recognize me, that I am no ordinary man. I used to walk in my beautiful clothes -- why do people use beautiful clothes? So that they look special. Now I am wearing a robe, but still, deep down, the same desire persists."

The original is:

GIRAH TAJ KE BASTAR BANDHA,

BASTAR TAJ KE FERI.

I have left the house, I have moved to the cave, with only a small bag, but then one day I recognize that the cave has become the home, the cave has become the house. And the small possession that I brought with me can function perfectly well for my possessiveness. My possessiveness remains the same! Now if somebody enters into the cave, I am going to say, "Get out! This is my cave."

You can go and see this. Go to the Himalayas, enter into some cave and some yogi will be sitting there, and he will say, "Get out! What are you doing here? This is my cave. I have lived here for thirty years. If you want to live in a cave, find your own."

Now what is the difference? -- 'my house' or 'my cave'. The question is of 'my' and 'mine'. So Kabir says: I left the house with a small bag, went to the cave, but I found it was the same -- because I am the same. So I left the cave and I left that small possession and became a wanderer, but nothing changes. Now I feel great that I am a wanderer, that I am no ordinary monk who lives in the shelter and safety of a cave. I live in insecurity -- look! This is how one should live. I am a wanderer with no security, no safety. Now this wandering has become a prop to my ego.

GIRAH TAJ KE BASTAR BANDHA,

BASTAR TAJ KE FERI.

Now I have become a vagabond, but great pride has arisen in me.

SO I BOUGHT SOME BURLAP, BUT I STILL

THROW IT ELEGANTLY OVER MY LEFT SHOULDER.

Seeing that the robe was well woven, I purchased coarse canvas and made a shawl out of it -- BUT STILL I THROW IT ELEGANTLY OVER my LEFT SHOULDER. The same mind.

You can stand naked in the sun -- it doesn't matter: it will be the same mind. How is one going to drop the mind? It comes from the backdoor; it finds new ways to enter back into you.

I PULLED BACK MY SEXUAL LONGINGS,

AND NOW I DISCOVER THAT I'M ANGRY A LOT.

THIS IS OF TREMENDOUS IMPORTANCE TO UNDERSTAND. Kabir has looked deep into the human mind and its workings, its subtle cunning ways. And he has found exactly the whole process of inner alchemy. If you repress, this is how things happen.

I PULLED BACK MY SEXUAL LONGINGS,

AND NOW I DISCOVER THAT I'M ANGRY A LOT.

If you repress sex you will become angry; the whole energy that was becoming sex will become anger. And it is better to be sexual than to be angry. In sex at least there is something of love; in anger there is only pure violence and nothing else. If sex is repressed, the person becomes violent -- either to others he will be violent, or to himself These are the two possibilities: either he will become a sadist and will torture others, or he will become a masochist and will torture himself. But torture he will.

Do you know, down the ages, the soldiers have not been allowed to have sexual relationships? Why? Because if soldiers are allowed to have sexual relationships they don't gather enough anger in them, enough violence in them. Their sex becomes a release, they become soft, and a soft person cannot fight. Starve the soldier of sex and he is bound to fight better. In fact, his violence will be a substitute for his sexuality.

And Sigmund Freud is again right when he says that all our weapons are nothing but phallic symbols: the sword, the knife, the bayonet -- they are nothing but phallic symbols. The soldier has not been allowed to enter into somebody's body. into some woman's body. Now he is going crazy to enter; now he can do anything. A great perverted desire has entered into his being now. Repressed sex -- he would like to enter into somebody's body through a bayonet, through a sword...

Down the ages, the soldier was forced to repress his sexual desires.

In this century we have seen one thing happening. American soldiers are the most well-equipped soldiers in the world -- scientifically, technologically, they are the most well-equipped soldiers, but they proved weaker than any other soldier. In Vietnam, a poor country, for years on end they tried and had to accept defeat. Why? For the first time in history the American soldier is sexually satisfied -- that is the problem. The first soldier in history who is sexually satisfied, who is not starved sexually. He cannot win. A poor country like Vietnam, a small country like Vietnam -- it is a miracle; if you don't understand the psychology, it is a miracle. With all the technology, with all the modern science, with all the power... and the American soldier could not do anything.

But this is not new; this is an ancient truth. The whole history of India proves it. India is a big country, one of  the biggest, next only to China, the second biggest country in the world, and it was conquered many times by small countries. Turks, Mongols, Greeks -- anybody came and this big country was immediately defeated, conquered. What was the reason? And those people who had come to conquer were poor people, starving.

My own analysis of Indian history is that in the past India w as not sexually repressed. Those were the days when temples like Khajuraho, Konarak, Puri, were built -- India was not sexually repressed. In spite of the few so-called mahatmas, the greater part of the country was sexually satisfied; there was a softness, a loving quality, a grace. It was difficult for India to fight. For what? Just think of yourself: if you want to fight, you will have to starve yourself sexually for a few days. You can ask Mohammed Ali and other boxers: before they fight, for a few days they have to become celibates. That's a must! You can ask the Olympic competitors: before they participate in Olympic competitions, for a few days they have to starve themselves sexually. It gives a thrust, it gives great violence -- it makes you capable of fighting. You run faster, you attack faster, because the energy is boiling within. Hence the soldier has been repressed.

Just allow all the armies of the world to be sexually satisfied and there will be peace. Just allow people sexual satisfaction, and there will be less Hindu/Mohammedan riots, less Christian and Mohammedan crusades -- all that nonsense will disappear. If love spreads, war will disappear -- both cannot exist together.

Kabir is exactly right. He says:

I PULLED BACK MY SEXUAL LONGINGS,

AND NOW I DISCOVER THAT I'M ANGRY A LOT.

A great observer he is, a very minute observer. This is what awareness is. He is watching: he represses his sexual desire and watches -- "Now what is happening inside?" Soon he finds that he becomes more angry -- for no reason at all, just angry, irritated, ready to fight with anybody, any excuse will do.

And remember, sex can be transformed because it is a natural energy; anger is not so natural, one step removed from nature. Now it will be difficult to change anger. First anger will have to be changed into sex, only then can anything be done -- that's what my work here is. And that's what I am being condemned for all over the world.

I am trying to change your anger into sex -- first that has to be done. That is the way of inner change. First all your perversions have to disappear, and you have to become a natural human being. You have to become a natural animal, to be exact. And then only can you become divine. The animal can be transformed into the divine, but your animal is also very perverted, your animal is not sane -- your animal has become insane. First the insanity has to be transformed, changed. Change anger!

That's why I send people first to encounter groups and then to Tantra. First they have to go into some encounter group type phenomenon; some process where their anger can be expressed, relaxed. Then only can they move into some process of Tantra, into some inner alchemy that can use sexual energy as a vehicle.

But people who are angry will not understand it. Anger does not allow understanding. Now if you want to become a politician, you have to repress your sex -- otherwise you will not be able to compete, you will not be able to reach New Delhi -- impossible. It is not an accident that Morarji Desai has reached there -- fifty years of sexual repression is bound to help him become the prime minister of the country. So much rage! It is difficult to compete with such people; they go madly into competition. They don't look sideways, they simply go ahead; they don't care what happens. By fair or foul means, but they have to reach the top.

Politicians can succeed only if they are sexually repressed people. Adolf Hitler was sexually repressed, very repressed. Had he been in deep love with a single woman there would have been no Second World War. Had he loved a single human being deeply, the whole history of humanity would have been different. But he was very sexually suppressed.

He was as big a mahatma as Morarji Desai -- in fact a little bigger. He was a vegetarian, you will be surprised to know. To find a vegetarian in Germany is difficult! but he was a vegetarian. He was not a smoker; he was against drinking any kind of intoxicating beverages. He used to go early to bed and would get up early in the morning. He avoided all kinds of loving relationships -- what to say about love? -- he had not even a single friend. There was not a single man vv-ho could call him friend. He never allowed that much closeness. He was afraid, continuously afraid of his sexuality.

This man became the cause of the greatest war the world has known. My own feeling is that had he smoked a little bit, had he become drunk once in a while, had he fallen in love with a woman, the whole history of humanity would have been different. Then he would have been soft, then he would have been more human, more accepting of his own limita-tions, and hence more accepting of others' limitations. He would have been more humane.

Says Kabir:

I PULLED BACK MY SEXUAL LONGINGS,

AND NOW I DISCOVER THAT I'M ANGRY A LOT.

I GAVE UP RAGE, AND NOW I NOTICE

THAT I AM GREEDY ALL DAY.

SO HE REPRESSED HIS ANGER -- hm? -- that s what one will  logically do. You repress sex, anger bubbles up; you repress anger. But he is a close observer, a very minute observer. He says: The moment I repressed my anger I became greedy.

This too is proved: if you watch human history you will find a thousand and one proofs for it. For example, in India Mahavira taught non-violence, and the result has been that all the followers of Mahavira became the most greedy people in the world -- they are the Jews of India. The Jainas are the Jews of India. Why did they become so greedy?

Mahavira taught them to be non-violent. Obviously, they started repressing anger; that is the only way that seems possible to the stupid mind: Repress anger! Don't be violent. And they tried really hard; in every possible way they tried not to be violent. They even stopped agriculture because it is a kind of violence: you will have to pull the plants and cut the crop, and that is violence because plants have life. So Jainas stopped agriculture completely.

Now, they cannot go to the army, they cannot be KSHATRIYAS -- they cannot become warriors -- because of their ideology of non-violence, and they cannot even be agriculturalists, gardeners; that is impossible. They would not like to become SUDRAS -- the untouchables -- who clean the roads, the sweepers and the cobblers, because that is too humiliating. And brahmins won't allow them to function as brahmins -- brahmins are very jealous about that. They have been in power for centuries and they don't allow anybody: nobody can become a brahmin; one has to be a brahmin only by birth. You may become a great, learned man -- that doesn't matter -- but you can't be a brahmin. There is no way of becoming a brahmin; you have to be born one only. You have to be very careful when you choose your parents; that is the only opportunity to become a brahmin.

So Jainas could not be brahmins, would not like to become SUDRAS were not able to become warriors -- then what was left for them? Only business -- they became business people. And all their repressed anger became their greed. They became great money-maniacs. Their number is very small; in India their number is so small, not more than thirty LAKHS. In a country of sixty CRORES thirty LAKHS IS nothing. But they possess more money than anybody else. You will not find a Jaina beggar anywhere; they are all rich people.

Mahavira wanted them to be non-violent, and what really happened was totally different: they became greedy. Repress your anger and you will be greedy.

I GAVE UP RAGE AND NOW I NOTICE

THAT I AM GREEDY ALL DAY.

I WORKED HARD AT DISSOLVING THE GREED,

AND NOW I AM PROUD OF MYSELF.

So he repressed his greed and the ultimate result is: he has become a great egoist; he finds himself being very proud. "Look! I have repressed sex, repressed anger, repressed greed -- I have done this, I have done that. I have done impossible things!" Now a great 'I' arises, the ego becomes strengthened.

That's wh you will find the most crystallized egos in the monks and the nuns. You will not find such crystallized egos anywhere else. The more a person renounces, the more he represses, the more egoistic he becomes. Indians are very egoistic and the reason? -- they have all tried in some way or other to be religious. And the only way seems to be repression -- and repression brings ego.

A non-repressed person becomes a non-egoist; he cannot carry the ego. There is no prop to support it. He becomes humble, he becomes simple, he becomes ordinary, he has no claim -- he knows he is nothing. This whole process that Kabir is describing is beautiful.

Repression is not the way: transformation is the way. Don't repress anything. If sexuality is there, don't repress it otherwise you will create a new complexity -- which will be more difficult to tackle. And if you repress anger, greed is even more difficult then, and if you repress greed, arises ego, pride, which is the MOST difficult thing to drop.

Move back: from pride to greed, from greed to anger, from anger to sex. And if you can come to the natural, spontaneous sexuality, things will be very simple. Things will be so simple that you cannot imagine. Then you energy is natural, and natural energy creates no hindrance in transformation. Hence I say: from sex to superconsciousness. Not from anger, not from greed, not from ego, but from sex to superconsciousness.

The transformation can happen only if first you accept your natural being. Whatsoever is natural is good. Yes, more is possible, but the more will be possible only if you accept your nature with totality -- if you welcome it, if you have no guilt about it. To be guilty, to feel guilty, is to be irreligious. In the past you have been told just the opposite: Feel guilty and you are religious. I say to you: Feel guilty and you will never be religious. Drop all guilt!

You are whatsoever God has made you. You are whatso-ever existence has made you. Sex is not your creation: it is God's gift. Something tremendously valuable is hidden in it -- it is just a shell of your samadhi. If the seed is broken, the shell is broken, the flower will bloom -- but not by repression. You will have to learn inner gardening, you will have to become a gardener, you will have to learn how to use dirty fertilizers, manure, and transform manure into roses.

Religion is the most delicate art.

WHEN THE MIND WANTS TO BREAK ITS LINK WITH

THE WORLD, says Kabir,

IT STILL HOLDS ON TO ONE THING.

AND THE ULTIMATE PROBLEM IS: you call leave one thing, but you cling to another. You leave that and you cling to another. You go on changing things, but the clinging remains. The clinging has to disappear. How can the clinging disappear? Only by understanding, awareness, meditation; not by doing anything about it. If you do, you will create a new clinging.

An ancient story:

A man was very much afraid of ghosts, and the problem was more troublesome because he had to pass through a cemetery every day while going to work and coming back from work. And sometimes, if he had to come in the night -- overtime work or something and he was delayed -- then it was really a problem to pass through the cemetery. It was only a three, four minute walk, but it was almost a death to him.

He went to a fakir and he said, "Do something. I have heard you do miracles. And I don't ask much -- I ask only a simple thing: give me somehow some protection so that I can pass through the cemetery without fear."

He said, "This is so simple, there is no problem in it. Take this locket and keep it always with you -- it will protect you from ghosts. No ghost can ever trouble you."

He tried and, really, no ghost troubled him. In fact, there are no ghosts; it was only his fear. With the locket in hand, he went through the cemetery, from this side to that, from that side to this. He tried at different times, even in the middle of the night -- and it worked. And he said, "It is really powerful. this locket! This man is a miracle man."

The whole miracle was this: that there were no ghosts -- there are no ghosts anywhere. But now this idea that he had a protection helped him.

But then a new problem arose: he started becoming afraid that somebody might steal it, or some day he might forget it somewhere, or he might have put it outside and be taking a bath and ghosts might come there.... So he had to carry it everywhere -- it became an obsession. The wife would say, "It looks embarrassing. People ask me, 'Why does your husband go on carrying this locket in his hand, this stupid locket? What is the matter with him? He never leaves it.'" Even in the night when he went to sleep he would keep it in his hand. Even once or twice in the night he would wake up to see whether the locket was in his hand or not, because it might have fallen in his sleep, and ghosts might jump on his chest: "And they must be waiting to take revenge!"

Now one problem is solved, another problem has arisen -- and far more complicated, because the ghosts used to torture him only once in a while when he was late or he had to pass through the cemetery. In twenty-four hours, just for one or two minutes the problem was there. Now it was a twenty-four-hour problem -- the locket: "If it is lost, if somebody takes it away, if I forget it somewhere.... " Even in sleep it was difficult to sleep totally. He had to keep a little alert. He started becoming ill because the sleep was not good, and he was so constantly afraid.

He went to another fakir who said, "I will give you another thing. Keep this box; this locket is creating trouble -- this box is far more powerful. You can even keep it six feet away from you and its power works."

He said, "This is far better. At least I can go into my bathroom leaving it outside."

But now the new problem arose. The locket he was always keeping in his hand; now he was taking the bath inside and the box was outside..."If children, just in playing, take it away or something happens?!" Now it was even more difficult: that six foot distance.

The story is significant: this is not the way to drop the ghosts! You will have to cling to something or other. The ghosts are not to be dropped; your eyes have to be opened so that you can see that there are no ghosts at all. The problem disappears. The problem is not solved but dissolved.

WHEN THE MIND WANTS TO BREAK ITS LINK

WITH THE WORLD

IT STILL HOLDS ON TO ONE THING.

And unless you drop ALL clinging -- ALL clinging, I say -- unless you are ready to be nothing, empty, nobody, with no protection, with no security, no safety, unless you are ready to be in that kind of space... which will look like death in the beginning. And it is a kind of death: the old dies, but then the new arises. And the new can arise only when the old is gone. The old has to cease for the new to be. Only when all clinging disappears -- you are not clinging even to the name of God, you are not clinging even to the Master, you are not clinging to the scripture, you are simply in a state of nonclinging -- then suddenly from your own inner source a great light wells up, a great bliss wells up. You are transformed.

Mind is not dropped -- it is a ghost. And if you try methods to drop it, you will cling to the methods. Then those methods will torture you. But you will remain always in bondage.

KABIR SAYS: LISTEN MY FRIEND,

THERE ARE VERY FEW THAT FIND THE PATH!

A FEW PEOPLE REMAIN INDULGENT, remain animals; a few people start repressing the animal, become obsessed with repressions, perversions. Only rarely does it happen that a person is neither indulgent, nor repressive -- only when a person is neither does he find the secret key to the door of the divine.

The original is:

MAN BAIRAGI MAYA TYAGI,

SHABD MEN SURAT SAMAI.

Kabir says: I have become a sannyasin, a renunciate, I have dropped the world, but that doesn't matter. Now I cling to God, now God has become my world.

MAN BAIRAGI MAYA TYAGI,

SHABD MEN SURAT SAMAI.

Now the name of God -- SHABD -- has become my treasure, now I cling to it. Now the idea of God has become the center of my clinging.

KAHAIN KABIR SUNO BHAI SADHO,

YAH GAM BIRLE PAI.

Very few people there are who have found the secret path. Out of a hundred, ninety remain indulgent in the animal; they never move beyond the animal. Out of the remaining ten, nine become repressive and pathological. Only one out of a hundred finds the true way. What is the true way?

The true way is that of understanding your mind, not of dropping it. The true way is: sitting silently and watching your mind -- all its cunning ways, subtle ways, all its strategies -- just watch, just be a witness to your mind. And, slowly slowly, by witnessing it you will understand what games it has been playing with you. You stop it from one door, it comes from another door; you stop it from that door, it makes a third door -- and it goes on and on, ad nauseam.