Baul Mystics, Vol. 2 The Beloved Chapter 1: The Roots And The Flowers Are One

THE MILK OF THE LIONESS

IS SEEN AT ITS BEST

WHEN STORED

IN A GOLDEN CUP.

WORSHIPPING PROSPERS

IN A PROPER CONTAINER.

THE LOVER WHO WHOLLY LOVES,

CAN REACH REALITY,

COMPREHENDING THE UNATTAINABLE MAN.

THE SECRETS OF DEATH

ARE REVEALED TO HIM

WHILE HE IS FULLY ALIVE.

WHAT DOES HE CARE

FOR OTHER SHORES OF LIFE...?

Humanity is split. The very human mind is split because of two extremist life philosophies. Both are exaggerations; both are logical extremes.

One is what people call the philosophy of `eat, drink and be merry', the materialist standpoint that life is just an accident. It is not going anywhere. There is no meaning in it, no significance, no coherence. You are not preparing for something. Nothing is going to happen, so you are left in the moment; make the most of it. Death is going to destroy utterly, nothing will survive, so don't be bothered about the other shore. Don't think in terms of goals. Don't think that God, truth, liberation, MOKSHA, NIRVANA have to be achieved. These are all just illusions; they don't exist -- empty, dreams of the human mind. They are not substantial, so squeeze out of the moment whatsoever you can. But there is no undercurrent of meaning in life. Life is accidental: you are not created for any purpose.

Many live that way and miss much -- because there IS purpose, because life is not an accident, because there is a running thread in each moment of eternity, because life is an unfoldment. Something is going to happen. The future is not barren, it is going to be creative. Preparation is needed so that you can unfold, so that your seed can become manifested, so that your essence is achieved, so you can know who you are and what this existence is.

Life is not just a madman's thought. It is very systematic. It is not chaos, it is a cosmos. There is order. Even behind disorder there is order; only eyes are needed to penetrate to that depth. On the surface maybe you can see only a sequence of moments and you cannot see eternity. On the surface maybe you can see only the body and nothing more. Just as when you go to the ocean, standing on the beach you cannot see the depth of the ocean, only the waves. But the ocean is not just waves. In fact, waves cannot exist without the ocean; the ocean can exist without the waves. Waves are not separate from the ocean. Waves are nothing but ocean waving, and ocean has tremendous depth. But to know that depth one has to go into that depth, one has to dive deep.

The materialist standpoint makes life absolutely empty of meaning. Then whether you live or you commit suicide makes no difference, because life and death are just the same. Life is nothing but a way of dying. You are going to die; how you die does not matter, when you die does not matter. How long you live and then die does not matter. Nothing matters. This standpoint is a half-truth -- and half-truths are dangerous, more dangerous than lies because they have something of truth in them. That something can be very, very deceiving. A complete lie is not so dangerous because it cannot deceive for long. Sooner or later you will come to know that it is a lie. Half-truths are very dangerous because something is true, and that something true may keep you hooked and you may never be able to know the lie.

The other extreme is that of the spiritualist. He says, "This moment is useless. Time is useless, only eternity has meaning. So don't waste this moment in rejoicing, delighting. Don't waste this moment, prepare for the future. Sacrifice the present for the future. Sacrifice all that you have for that which the future holds in itself as a promise. Make life a constant approach towards truth. Make life a constant effort to realize oneself, or God, or NIRVANA. This is not significant, but THAT. HERE is not significant, but THERE. The other shore is significant. This shore is to be used only as a jumping board. But you have to go to the other shore. Real life is on the other shore. On this shore there is only illusion, MAYA, so don't waste your time in anything that keeps you on this shore. Don't be happy on this shore, because if you are happy on this shore, how will you be able to leave it? Become sad, become serious. This shore is the shore of sorrow. This shore is not the shore of life, but death. This shore is nothing but accumulated sin, so be sad that you are here, be indifferent to whatsoever this shore can give to you. Don't be attached to anything here. Don't fall in love with someone. Don't fall in love with the beauty of this shore. Be alert and remember the other shore, keep your eyes on the other shore."

This too, is another extreme. It also carries half of the truth, and is as dangerous as the first extreme.

This moment is also part of eternity, and this shore belongs to the river as much as the other shore. And the beauty on this shore, and the song and the poetry of this shore is as divine as the song and the poetry of the other shore. This very moment is eternity available to you. So just sacrificing this moment for the future is foolish, because the future will always come as this moment. The other shore will always come as this shore. And, if you have learned a trick that spiritualists have learned, and that they have taught to the whole humanity and corrupted the mind -- how to destroy this moment, how to be negative on this shore -- then you will be negative anywhere. Wherever you are you will be negative. Wherever you are you will be destructive. Wherever you are you will remain sad and sorrowful. This is not religion.

THE BAUL attitude is a great synthesis between these two polarities. The Baul understanding uses both half-truths and makes a whole truth out of it. The Bauls say, "This moment is not all, right; but to say that this moment is nothing is wrong." The Bauls say, "Life is a preparation, but the preparation is nothing but to be blissful in this moment." They are not materialists and they are not spiritualists. They are religious people. Religion is a great synthesis. And if you don't understand this, you will be a victim of either this extreme or that. Or, you can be a victim of both, half-half. That's how schizophrenia arises.

Schizophrenia is not a disease that happens to a few people -- it is the normal state of humanity. Everybody is divided, split. You can watch it in your own life. When you are not with a woman, with a man, not in love, you think, you fantasize about love. Love seems to be the goal. That seems to be the very meaning of life. When you are with a woman or with a man and in love, suddenly you start thinking in terms of spiritualism: "This is attachment, this is possessiveness, this is lust." A condemnation arises.

You cannot be alone and you cannot be with somebody. If you are alone you hanker for the crowd, for the other. If you are with somebody you start hankering to be alone. This is something to be understood, because everybody has to face this problem. You are born in a schizophrenic world. You have been given double standards. You have been taught materialism, and you have been taught spiritualism, together. The whole society goes on teaching you contradictory things.

I was staying with a Vice Chancellor, and he told me that he was very worried about the new generation. He has two young boys and he was worried about them. He wants them to be humble. He wants them to be true, honest; he wants them to be religious, prayerful.

I said, "That's okay. What else do you want them to be?"

He said, "Of course, I would like them to succeed in life."

I insisted, "What do you mean by success?"

He said, "At least I have become a Vice Chancellor. I would like them to be well-educated, to reach to high posts, to succeed materially as far as wealth is concerned: a good house, a good car, a good wife, respect in the society." And then he became a little uneasy, and he said, "But why are you asking this?"

I said, "I am asking this because both are contradictory. On the one hand you want your son to be humble, on the other hand you want him to be ambitious. Now both will make him just split. On the one hand he will try to carry the ideal of humility, humbleness, simplicity; on the other hand, the ideal to succeed, to be ambitious, to achieve. An ambitious man cannot be humble; a humble man cannot be ambitious. And you want him to be prayerful? And you want him to be true and honest? A man who is trying to succeed in the world HAS to be dishonest. Of course, he has to be dishonest in such a way that nobody ever discovers it. He has to be very cunningly dishonest. He has to pretend to honesty and remain dishonest. He has to pretend to humbleness and remain egoistic. But these are such different, diametrically opposite goals, and you put them inside one person -- that person will always remain divided. If he succeeds he will think,'What happened to my humbleness, what happened to my prayer, what happened to my compassion?' If he becomes humble he will think,'What happened to my ambition? I am nowhere'."

You are born in a schizophrenic world. Your parents were schizophrenic, your teachers were schizophrenic, your priests, your politicians are schizophrenic. They go on talking about two diametrically opposite goals, and they go on creating the split m you.

The Bauls are very healthy people -- not schizophrenic, not split. Their synthesis has to be understood; the very understanding will help you tremendously.

They say, "This world and the other world are not opposite." They say, "To eat, drink and be merry, and to be prayerful, are not opposite." They say, "This shore and the other shore belong to the same river of God." So they say that each moment has to be lived as a materialist, and each moment has to be given a direction as a spiritualist. Each moment, one has to be delightful, rejoicing, celebrating, and at the same time, remaining alert and conscious, remaining fully aware about the future unfoldment. But that unfoldment is not against this moment's rejoicing. In fact, because you rejoice in this moment, the next moment your flower opens more. The more you are happy m this moment, the more you will become capable of being happy in the next moment. If today has been a heaven, tomorrow cannot be a hell because it will be born out of today. If today has been tremendously beautiful, a day of song, a day of dance and laughter. then how can tomorrow be a day of sorrow? From where can sadness enter in? It is going to be YOUR tomorrow. And whenever it will come, it will come as today, and you have learned the secret of how to live today.

The Bauls say, "Learn from the materialist the way to live. "Learn from an Epicurean, a CHARVAK; learn from him the way to live this moment. Learn the direction from real spiritual people -- a Buddha, a Mahavir, a Krishna -- and make a synthesis out of both. Don't divide time and eternity; don't divide matter and mind; don't divide earth and sky. Don't divide the roots and the flowers; they are together.

This togetherness is the goal of the Baul. And when inside you divisions disappear, and inside you there is no conflict, and inside you you are one, you become luminous. A great grace arises in you. Then you will be as happy as Epicurus and as silent as Buddha.

IN the soul of a Baul, Buddha and Epicurus embrace each other. And this is my goal also, and this is my teaching also. If somehow you can become a Buddha without becoming an Epicurus simultaneously, you will miss much. You will become a stone Buddha; you will not be alive. Or if you can become an Epicurus without becoming a Buddha, you will miss much. You may enjoy a few fleeting moments of life, but that's not enough. Life has more to give and you live only on the waves, you never reach the depths.

I would like you to become capable of living on the waves, with the sun shining and the storm raging and great winds blowing, and to go into the depth also, where all storms cease, where deep darkness exists without any penetration from the sun, where everything is silent and peaceful and tranquil, and there is no disturbance. But, I would like you to become capable of both. If one makes you incapable of the other, then you are not a very rich human being. Then you are half-human. Then half of your being is dead. Then you are paralyzed; then you are not fully alive.

You must have heard what the existentialists say. They have a very basic dictum: that existence precedes essence. They say that man is born first, and then, by and by, he creates his own essence, his own soul. Man is born empty, with no content in him, just a blank paper. Then, by and by, he has to write his own autobiography on it. He has to make his own signature; he brings none. He comes as an emptiness.

The Bauls say just the opposite thing. They say: Man is born with essence, the ADHAR MANUSH. The essential man is always there, maybe manifest or not manifest. The tree is already in the seed. Essence precedes existence, not otherwise. The Bauls say that life is not a creation of something new, it is just unfoldment. You already have it; it just has to be unfolded, barriers just have to be removed. Obstacles just have to be put aside and your life starts unfolding. You are like a bud: when obstacles are no more there, you start flowering, your lotus opens.

BUT that which you are going to become you already are, in essence -- "Because if you are not already," the Bauls say, "then you cannot become." You can become only that which you are. You can become only your being. There is no other way of becoming, there is nothing else you can become. A rosebush will grow roses, a lotus plant will grow lotuses. You are already carrying your destiny; just obstacles have to be removed.

This is what Bauls call preparation. To prepare oneself means to remove the obstacles on the path. If you remove hate, love starts flowing. You are not to create love; nobody can create love. If you were to create love then it would be impossible. Just remove the hate and you will see love streaming. Remove unconsciousness, and you will see knowing arising in you. Remove the negative, and the positive starts unfolding itself. Then the whole preparation is just negative. It is almost as if a rock is blocking a small stream: you remove the rock and the stream starts moving. With the rock blocking her path, it may not ever have been possible for her to come and be manifested.

We are carrying many rocks within our beings -- call them blocks in your energy -- but those blocks have to be dissolved and removed.

The methods of the Bauls are very simple. They say that if you can dance, many blocks will disappear from your being -- because when a person dances and really moves into dance, and becomes movement, then he becomes liquid. Have you not seen it? If you have seen somebody lost in dancing, can't you see it? that he is no longer solid? He is flowing. The solidity is gone; he has become liquid. This liquidity melts the blocks. So dancing is the Yoga of the Baul; he dances for hours together. When the moon is in the sky in the night, the Bauls will dance the whole night -- because for them the moon is a symbol of their Beloved, Krishna. They call Krishna 'the moon'. When the moon is there they will dance, and they will dance madly. And this dance is not a performance. It is not for somebody else to see. If somebody sees it and watches, that's another thing. The Baul dances for himself, for his own pleasure.

Somebody asked Tulsidas, a great poet, "Why have you written RAMAYAN? Why?" -- because he devoted his whole life to it. Said Tulsidas, "SWANTAHSUKHAI TULSI RAGHUNATH GATHA": for my own pleasure I have been singing the story of Ram -- SWANTAHSUKHAI; for my own pleasure, for my sheer pleasure, but for my own pleasure. It is not a performance, it is not for somebody else.

The Bauls dance SWANTAHSUKHAI, for their own pleasure.

Singing is another of their methods, They have chosen very aesthetic methods, not hard, but very soft methods, feminine methods, Taoist methods. They sing and they are lost completely in their singing. Singing is chanting for them; singing is prayer for them. And they sing about their Beloved, and they sing about their Lord, about their God. If you are lost in your singing you are lost in NADABRAHMA, you are lost in 'the soundless sound'. And their singing and dancing is not a ritualized thing. There is no ritual. Each Baul is individual. You will not find two Bauls singing the same song or singing in the same way. And you will not find two Bauls dancing the same dance or dancing the same way. They don't follow any ritual.

This has to be understood, because this is very, very fundamental for them. And this I would like you to remember: if anything becomes a ritual, then drop it; it is useless now -- because a ritual means a repetition. Mohammedans do their NAMAJ in a certain way every day; it becomes a ritual. Christians do their prayer. the same prayer again and again. They become so habitual with it that no consciousness is required. They can do it and they can think many thoughts in the background. It has become robot-like. They can repeat the words. They know the words, they have repeated them so many times. It is a dead ritual.

Bauls say, "Let your prayer arise in each moment. What is the need to carry the past? Can't you talk to your God directly? What is the point of repeating the same thing again?" Today is different from yesterday -- the prayer has to be new, as new as the morning sun or the morning dewdrop. Say something that arises in your heart. If nothing arises, bow down in deep silence, because He knows. He will understand your silence. Some day you feel like dancing -- dance. Now that is the prayer for that moment. Some day you want to sing -- but don't repeat anybody else's song, because that is not your heart, and that is not the way you can pour your heart into the divine feet. Let your own song arise. Forget about metre and grammar. God is not too much of a grammarian, and He is not worried about what words you use. He is more concerned about your heart; He is more concerned about your intention. He will understand.

So Bauls make their own songs on the spur of the moment. It is spontaneous. They just relax in the moment: they let the dance happen, they let the singing happen. That's why they are known as mad people, because on some day they may be quarrelling with God! It has to be so. When you love God you can quarrel also. Some day they may be very angry and they will say, "No, I'm not going to pray to you today. What have you done to me? I am very angry." But this is beautiful; this is prayer. This will be heard. This will reach to the very core of existence. When you love, sometimes you are annoyed also. When you love, sometimes you are angry also, sometimes you dance also, sometimes you complain also. Man is very helpless, and a Baul lives in total helplessness. That's why he leaves all possessions and becomes a beggar on the road. He leaves himself in the hands of God. He says, "I will trust you."

JUST the other day I was reading one prayer of a Baul, and the Baul says, "Okay, if you want to test me, test. And if you want to give me pain, give. I will try to tolerate as much as I can. Okay." But his talk is not mere talk; it is a communication. And he's not repeating scripture. He creates his scripture. And when you CREATE your scripture, only then do you live it. If it is borrowed you cannot live it. A borrowed song is not a song, and a borrowed dance is not a dance. Let it arise in you. Don't be worried about performance, because we do performance because we are too concerned about the opinion of others. The Baul is not performing anything; his approach is direct. He talks to God as a small child talks to his father or to his mother, or a lover talks to his beloved: it is alive.

The song for today:

THE MILK OF THE LIONESS

IS SEEN AT ITS BEST

WHEN STORED IN A GOLDEN CUP.

WORSHIPPING PROSPERS

IN A PROPER CONTAINER.

So Bauls say, "Prepare yourself." But when they say to prepare yourself, they don't mean to be against the world. Their preparation is life-affirmative. When they say 'prepare', they don't mean it as other spiritualists mean it. The other spiritualists say, "Prepare"; they are saying: drop enjoying, drop delighting in life, move against life. Start destroying all attachment, all love, all celebration. These spiritualists seem to be, in some deeper way, very masochistic. Suffering becomes a very great value for them. They start creating suffering for themselves.

No, a Baul is a lover of life. When he says prepare, he says to enjoy this moment so you are ready for the next moment. Make this moment golden. Let all your moments be a series of golden moments, and you will become a golden cup.

THE MILK OF THE LIONESS

IS SEEN AT ITS BEST

WHEN STORED IN A GOLDEN CUP.

BECOME a golden cup before you invite God to pour Himself into you. Enjoy, delight, rejoice, so that you can become capable of higher rejoicings. Celebrate this shore so that you can learn the ways of celebration and you can be called to the other shore. Only those who are ready will be called. If you are sad, gloomy, masochistic, torturing yourself, you are putting the other shore farther away. Because that shore belongs to those who can penetrate. That shore comes closer the more you celebrate. In fact, if your celebration comes to a peak, this shore turns to be that shore. When you are really at the peak of your celebration, when your dance is at the ultimate climax, immediately this shore is no more this shore; you are on the other shore. You are no more in the world, you are in God.

WORSHIPPING PROSPERS

IN A PROPER CONTAINER.

A right container is needed. If you are desiring to become a container for God, if you have invited Him to be your guest and you want to be His host, then you will have to learn the ways of paradise. You will have to live in such a way, herenow, that this very moment becomes a paradise, Only then can you invite God. Many people go on inviting without ever thinking if they are ready to receive.

If He comes, will He find you ready? If He comes, will you be able to welcome Him? Have you the golden cup ready if He pours down upon you? Where will you collect Him? Is your heart ready, open to receive Him? Are you receptive, sensitive? Nobody asks this.

Many people come to me and they say, "Where is God?" -- as if it is God's duty to prove Himself, to prove where He is. And if He cannot prove Himself, then they cannot trust. God is surrounding you herenow. He is within and without. Nothing else is; only God is. But you are not ready. The golden cup is missing. You don't have the eyes to see Him, and you don't have the ears to listen to Him, and you don't have the hands to touch Him. You are not ready, and you can receive only that for which you are ready. Not even a single moment is lost. Once you are ready, immediately -- not even a single moment's gap, immediately the moment you are ready -- He happens. Because He has already happened; only your readiness has to happen.

Even if sometimes we try to be ready, our efforts are very half-hearted.

THE songwriter, Bob Dylan, gives us a modern parable that expresses quite well what I wish to say to you. On the backside of his album, JOHN WESLEY HARDING, we read of three kings who visit a man named Frank. The first king explains their mission to Frank:

"Mr. Dylan has come out with a new record. This record, of course, feature's none but his own songs, and we understand that you are the key."

"That's right," said Frank, "I am."

"Well then," said the king in a bit of excitement, "could you please open it up for us?"

Frank, who all this time had been reclining with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them both as wide as a tiger. "And just how far would you like to go in?" he asked.

The chief of the kings replied, "Not too far, but just enough so we can say that we have been there."

Even when people are seeking God, they want only to go this far -- so that they can say to the world that they have seen Him. But they don't want to go far enough -- because if you go far enough into God, you never come back. They don't want to take another step -- because if you go deep, then there comes a point of no return. They only want to go a little bit, so that they can come back into the world and say to people that, "We have seen God also." But their whole interest is in the world and the respectability that the world can give to them. They have a big bank balance, they have a big palace today; now they even possess God in their homes.

This parable is beautiful.

Replies the chief of the kings, "Not too far, but just enough so we can say that we have been there."

WHEN you go to the temple you are still not going; your face is towards the marketplace. Have you seen it sometimes in you or in others? -- if you are alone in the temple, you don't enjoy your prayer very much. If there are many people watching, then there is great enthusiasm. Then you are so full of spirit. Then your prayer is great, you feel very high -- not because of the prayer, but because the whole town is watching you. And they will think how religious, how virtuous, how close to God you are. You would like them to feel jealous. It is a performance. But your performance is before the people; God is out of it. You are not contacting Him.

Contact Him alone, because it is not a performance. You are not to prove anything to anybody, you are just to open your heart.

The Bauls say,

As you wonder, sitting alone,

the time approaches for death.

Heedless of all, O my insane heart,

you have travelled eight million times

the painful ways of life to death,

to find the measured land,

the body of the man.

Why did you let such human

earth turn to wasteland?

Cultivated, it could have yielded

a harvest of gold.

Take up, my heart, the spade of devotion,

wrench out the weeds of sin;

the seed of faith will grow.

Just destroy obstacles.

Take up, my heart, the spade of devotion,

wrench out the weeds of sin;

the seed of faith will grow.

You are carrying the seed within you. It is already treasured in the deepest core of your being, waiting and waiting and waiting for obstacles to be removed so that it can unfold. God is your intrinsic quality; God is your destiny. You are the seed and God is going to be the flower out of this seed.

Human limbs are held together

by a pair of lotus blossoms

growing in the lower

and the upper regions of the body.

But the lotuses burst open

in search

as the sun in the body

rises and sets.

As your awareness rises and sets, your innermost lotuses open and close. Just as in the morning the sun rises in the sky on the horizon in the East, and the lotuses bloom, when night comes and the sun sets in the West, the lotuses close again. The Bauls say,

Human limbs are held together

by a pair of lotus blossoms...

... What the yogis call CHAKRAS: the vortexes of energy, the wheels of energy, the seven CHAKRAS. Bauls call them the seven lotuses.

...growing in the lower

and the upper regions of the body.

But the lotuses burst open

in search

as the sun in the body

rises and sets.

On which of these blooms

is the full moon born,

and on which

the darkest night of the month?

The lowest lotus is the sex lotus. If you remain there you will remain in a dark night. The last lotus, the seventh, SAHASRAR, is the lotus where the moon becomes full. Move from sex to love. Love is the quality or the function of the man who has come to SAHASRAR; sex is the quality and the function of the man who lives at the lowest lotus.

And don't be worried, the Bauls sing,.

My worries continue

for my crumbling boat

that can no longer carry.

Water rushes through her hulk

and salt eats at her keel.

My boat can bear no more

the burden of water.

O Master of my life,

open your eyes.

Show me your kindness

and hold me as I die.

Passions like bandits raided my boat

and went off with the spoils.

They cut the mooring rope

and left me adrift.

The Master says:

Wash away the stains of your heart

and your boat will thrive

in tranquility.

Just the stains on your heart have to be washed away. The heart just has to drop doubts, the heart has to drop suspicions. Once trust arises, you are washed clean. Trust is a tremendous cleansing of the heart. Then the lotuses open.

Sown on a slab of stone,

the seed of faith dries day by day,

never sprouting.

You may cultivate the arid earth,

but the hardened seed

will yield no harvest.

Great is the woodland where the sandal grows,

and the breeze, bearing the scent of sandal

perfumes the neighboring trees

turning them into sandalwood.

If on a very hard heart you want to sow the seed of God, it will not grow. Let your heart be soft, let it become receptive. Then it will be like the soft soil of the woodland where sandals grow. And these lines are beautiful:

Great is the woodland where the sandal grows,

and the breeze, bearing the scent of sandal

perfumes the neighboring trees

turning them into sandalwood.

AND when one man's seed flowers not only is he perfumed, all those who come in contact with him become sandalwood. Hence, the glory of SATSANG, the glory of the presence of a Master. He has become a sandalwood. Just coming in contact with him you will be perfumed, and your own seed will start sprouting.

Gathering planks and pieces of metal

you build a boat to float on the sea,

but the elements are alien to water.

The boat sails and the boat sinks

but the tie of love is never torn.

If the vehicle is not right, if the preparedness is not right, then the whole effort will be lost. You can make a heavy boat, but then it will sink. It will not float in the sea. The Bauls say that only in the boat of love, in soft, feminine passivity, in the boat of songs and dances, does one reach to the other shore. Become more feminine, more soft, like soft soil, and throw out all hard stones from your heart. We ordinarily do just the opposite: we go on gathering doubts and suspicions. We go on destroying our own soil.

WORSHIPPING PROSPERS

IN A PROPER CONTAINER.

THE LOVER

WHO WHOLLY LOVES,

CAN REACH REALITY,

COMPREHENDING THE UNATTAINABLE MAN.

"The lover who wholly loves, can reach reality, comprehending the unattainable man...."

Love is the path of the Baul; love, and nothing else -- wholly in love, totally in love, total trust.

To find nectar,

stir the cauldron on the fire,

and unite the act of loving

with the feeling for love.

ORDINARILY people love, but they don't have a FEELING for love. They exploit love. They even act like lovers, but their love is in the service of gratification. They don't have a feeling for love. They don't love love. They don't have respect, reverence for love. Love remains a lust; it never becomes worship, prayer.

TO FIND NECTAR,

STIR THE CAULDRON ON THE FIRE,

AND UNITE THE ACT OF LOVING

WITH THE FEELING FOR LOVE.

DISTILL THE SWEETNESS

OF THE HEART

AND REACH THE TREASURES,

DEVOTING YOURSELF

TO THOSE WHOLLY DEVOTED.

If you can find a person who is wholly devoted to God, then devote yourself to that person -- because love cannot be taught, it can only be caught. Nobody can teach you the ways of love; you will have to live in close vicinity of a lover. Nobody can teach you how to pray: you will have to live in close vicinity of one who is in prayer. Watching him, feeling him, moving around him, tasting the flavor of his being, will teach you what prayer is. Then prayer will not become a ritual. Then prayer will be a flowering within you, a spontaneous arising of a new vision.

Distill the sweetness

of the heart

and reach the treasures,

devoting yourself

to those wholly devoted.

That is the relationship between a Master and a disciple. Bauls move in search of a Master. Whenever they find somebody whose song, whose dancing is prayerful...and there is no intellectual criterion for knowing it; you have just to be with someone. How do you know that a person is in love? What is the criterion? Just be with him and see: see how he behaves, see how he responds. See his tears and his songs. Watch his moods in different moments. By and by, you will be able to feel what worship, what love, what prayer is. Yes, it cannot be taught, but it can be caught.

Will the day ever dawn

when the treasured man of my heart

will become my own?

Though not cast in any shape,

the man is evidenced

in the ways of love.

There is no proof for God, but there is enough proof in those people who have loved Him. There is no proof that God exists, but there is enough proof that a Meera existed, that Chaitanya existed. There is enough proof because we have seen a transfiguration happening in Meera, we have seen the transmutation happening in Chaitanya. We have seen. They were ordinary metal suddenly becoming gold. We don't know God exists; there is no proof -- but is it not enough proof? The Bauls say, "The man is evidenced in the ways of love." That is the only evidence.

VIVEKANANDA went to Ramkrishna. He wanted a proof for God, and Ramkrishna started laughing in his mad way. And suddenly, he touched Vivekananda's heart with his feet. Vivekananda fell into a swoon, a trance. The friends that had come with Vivekananda were all worried: "What has happened?" And Vivekananda was not the sort to fall easily into a trance. He was an intellectual, atheistic, skeptical, well trained in logic and philosophy. What had happened? What had this man done? And when Vivekananda came back, he was a totally different man. Then Vivekananda tried in thousands of ways to escape from this man Ramkrishna, but it was impossible. It was as if a great magnet was pulling him. He would escape for a few days and then come back, almost against his will. One day he would again find himself sitting before Ramkrishna, and he would tell Ramkrishna, "Leave me alone. Why are you haunting me?" Ramkrishna said, "What can I do? You asked,'Is there any God, is there any proof?' I don't know any proof. All that I know is that He is in me, so I allowed Him to touch you. What else can I do? Now it is for you to decide whether God is or not."

There is no proof, but there are enough proofs; no direct proof, but many indirect evidences.

Will the day ever dawn

when the treasured man of my heart

will become my own?

Though not cast in any shape,

the man is evidenced

in the ways of love.

Those who are absorbed

by the flavours of feelings

and are wholly living

with the knowledge of death

have won their foes --

pride and envy,

lust and anger,

ignorance and greed.

If your life,

flowing with life,

longs for the man,

the man will come with kindly steps.

Look at the worlds of gods, demons and man --

all held in your body.

He is already there.

God has already penetrated you: the news may not have reached yet, the gospel may not have been heard yet.

The English word 'gospel' is very beautiful. In the old English it was 'godspell', then it became 'gospel'. Godspell is even better.

He has already penetrated you. He is already there but the news has not reached you. Your head is too far away from your heart. Bring your head a little closer.

The man is evidenced in the ways of love, and the worlds of gods, demons and man -- all are held in your body. He is already there, holding all together. The Bauls go on crying and weeping; their tears are the proof. Their weeping is so authentic, their crying is so authentic that once coming in contact with a Baul, you will never ask whether God exists or not.

I shall not open my eyes again

if I don't see Him at first sight.

Can you then tell me

through the sense of smelling

and through my listening ears

that He has come --

that He has come to the sky in the East --

that your friend has come to the sky of the East?

"I shall not open my eyes if I don't see Him at first sight": they go on singing, praying. Their song is so true, their prayer is so penetrating. How it is possible without God? Yes, God is evidenced in the ways of love.

THE LOVER

WHO WHOLLY LOVES,

CAN REACH REALITY,

COMPREHENDING THE UNATTAINABLE MAN.

The emphasis is on wholly, totally, utterly, completely. Immediately, when you are total you are ready, the golden cup is ready.

THE SECRETS OF DEATH

ARE REVEALED TO HIM

WHILE HE IS FULLY ALIVE.

WHAT DOES HE CARE

FOR THE OTHER SHORES OF LIFE...?

"The secrets of death are revealed to him while he is fully alive"...and the lover knows what death is. The lover knows that death is not. Only the lover knows that death is the most false thing in existence. Why? How does the lover come to know that death is not? -- because the lover has already died in his love. And he finds himself, he is still there -- not only there but more so, so much so that he has never been before. Dying, he is for the first time living totally. He dies in the love of God, in the love of the Beloved. He surrenders himself utterly, unconditionally.

JUST a few days ago Girisha wrote me a letter. She thinks she has too much work in the ashram. Maybe that's true, maybe it is not true. But in the letter she wrote something which is very meaningful. She wrote in the letter, "I have too much work and it is not surrender, it is sacrifice." Now surrender knows nothing about sacrifice.

If you have known surrender, you are sacrificed already. You are no more there to be sacrificed. Surrender means you have died already. If you have surrendered to me, then there is no problem. Then, more work or less work -- it has nothing to do with you. It is irrelevant. Then I have to look after it, I have to decide what work is more and what work is less. And I have to decide how much you have to be put into work and how long, and how much you have to be forced and pushed in a certain direction. But for you, it is not any longer a problem -- you are surrendered. But if you think that it is becoming a sacrifice and not a surrender, then you are not surrendered at all. Then anything will look like sacrifice. A lover knows nothing of sacrifice. When you are surrendered, you are dead as far as your ego is concerned. Then whatsoever happens, you not only accept it, you accept in deep gratitude.

The lover knows the secrets of death, because he has moved into death already through his love. There are two deaths: one that happens at the end of your life, and the other that can happen between death and birth -- the death of love, lovedeath. One who dies in love never dies again. Then all deaths are finished for him. He's already resurrected. He has come to know that only the ego dies. If you drop the ego then you are deathless.

THE SECRETS OF DEATH

ARE REVEALED TO HIM

WHILE HE IS FULLY ALIVE.

WHAT DOES HE CARE

FOR THE OTHER SHORES OF LIFE...?

In that tremendous moment of surrender -- this shore turns to be the other shore, this world becomes the other world -- what cares he for the other shore?

I have been reading a very significant story:

Four hundred years ago a gardener planted a small pine in one inch of soil in a shallow dish. He trimmed each root and branch as the tree grew. When he died, his son took up the task, and so on down through nineteen generations. Today that tree stands, never having outgrown the original dish, in the Kovala Gardens of Tokyo. After four hundred years it is only twenty inches high, and a twisted top some thirty-six inches across.

That little tree shouts a warning to everybody. The mind and soul can be cut back just like the tree, always with the same result -- a dwarf.

If you are not growing your roots into life, if you are not growing your roots and spreading your roots in love, in trust, you will remain a dwarf. You will never become the essential man, ADHAR MANUSH. Grow, grow towards depth -- because when your roots grow towards depth, your branches grow towards height. Depth and height grow together. The deeper you go into the earth, the higher you go into the sky. The deeper you go into this shore, the closer you reach to the other shore.

LOVE, love life, love all that surrounds you, and let your roots spread as far and as wide as possible. You will start touching the feet of God. Your flowers will start being offered to the divine feet. Otherwise, remember -- you will remain a dwarf.

Love is a must. It is the only nourishment for the soul. The body can exist with food; the soul can exist only with love. Let it not remain just a word; allow it to become a penetrating experience.

Love is worship for the Bauls, love is prayer for the Bauls, love is God for the Bauls.

Baul Mystics

VOL. 2, THE BELOVED

Chapter-1

The Roots And The Flowers Are One