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Christianity

VOL. 1, COME FOLLOW YOURSELF

Chapter-4

Mirroring Christ

Third Question

 

 

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Question 3

SURELY THAT WHICH HAPPENS IN THE INSTANT OF DEATH BY DROWNING IS THE TRUE EXPLANATION OF JESUS' BAPTISM AT THE HANDS OF JOHN. WAS NOT THE SKILL AND STRENGTH OF THE BAPTIST THAT OF TAKING A MAN TO THAT POINT, AND THE PREPARATION YOU TALK OF BEFOREHAND EMPLOYED SO THAT A MAN BE TRANSFORMED BY THE EXPERIENCE RATHER THAN TERRIFIED BY IT?

Yes, exactly so. The baptism is possible only when you are ready to die. That is the symbolic meaning: that John the Baptist used to take his disciples to the river when they were ready to die, when they were ready to let go, when they were ready to flow with the river. When the resistance was broken, when they were no longer fighting, when the whole struggle to survive had disappeared, only then would he take them to the river. They were ready to be drowned by him, to be murdered by him.

There is a story I would like to tell you about a Sufi mystic, Sheikh Farid. He was going towards the river one day to take his morning bath. A seeker followed him and asked him, "Please, just wait for one minute. You look so filled with the divine, but I don't even feel a desire for it. You look so mad and just watching you I have come to feel that there must be something in it. You are so happy and blissful and I am so miserable, but even the desire to seek the divine is not there. So what to do? How to create the desire? "

Farid looked at the man and said, "You come with me. I am going to take my morning bath. You also take a bath with me in the river and maybe, right while you are taking a bath, the answer can be given. Otherwise we will see after the bath. You come with me."

The man became a little puzzled. This Sheikh Farid looked a little mad: while taking a bath how was he going to answer? But nobody knows the ways of the mystics, so the man followed.

They both went into the river and when the man was taking a dip, Farid jumped on him and pressed him down in the river. The man started feeling restless. What type of answer was this? At first he thought Farid was joking, but then it became dangerous. He was not going to leave him! He struggled hard.

Farid was a very heavy, strong man and the seeker was very thin -- as seekers are. But when your life is at stake.... Even that thin-looking man threw Farid off, jumped on him and said, "Are you a murderer? What are you doing? I am a poor man. I have just come to ask you how the desire can arise in one's heart to seek the divine and you were going to kill me!"

Farid said, "Wait. A few questions first. When I was pressing you down in the river and you were suffocating, how many thoughts were in your mind?"

The man said, "How many? Only one thought -- how to get back to the air to take a breath."

Farid asked, "How long did that one thought stay?"

The man said, "That, too, did not stay long because my life was at stake. You can afford thinking when nothing is at stake. Life was in danger -- even that thought disappeared. Then to come out of the river was not a thought; it was my whole being."

Farid said, "You have understood. This is the answer. If you are feeling suffocated in this world, pressed from all sides, and if you feel nothing is going to happen in this world except death, then the desire to seek truth or God, or whatsoever you name it, will arise. And that, too, will not last long. By and by that desire is no more a desire, it becomes your being. The very thirst becomes your being.

"I have shown you the path," said Farid. "Now you can go."

Just try to understand the whole situation in the world. If it is already destroying you, jump out of it. The real question is not how to seek God; the real question is how to understand that where you are thinking life is, there is no life but only death.

John the Baptist, or anybody who has ever baptized anybody else, who has ever initiated anybody else, who has ever brought anybody to the world of truth out of the world of dreams, has to prepare you for death. Yes, that is the meaning. By baptism he was saying, "Your old self has gone down the river; you are no more the same. A new identity has arisen; now you have a new nucleus. Function through it and don't function through the past."

The same has been done through initiation by fire. In India initiation by fire, not by water, has been used traditionally. There have been a few side-currents that have been using water baptism also, but the main current in India has been using fire. So in every Master's house -- what they used to call GURUKUL, the family of the Master -- there was a fire constantly burning in the middle of the house: a constantly burning fire, twenty-four hours a day. All the teachings were delivered near the fire. By and by, the fire symbol became deep-rooted in the disciples.

There is a beautiful story in the old Upanishads about when a disciple, a very famous disciple, Svetketu, was with his Master. The Master waited for twelve years and wouldn't initiate him into the mysteries. The disciple served and served, tending the fire in the house -- for twenty-four hours the fire had to be kept alive. It is said that the fire itself became very much worried about this Svetketu. For twelve years he had been serving the fire, tending it, bringing wood from the forest.

The story is beautiful. It says that the fire became worried. Even the fire started feeling that the Master was a little too hard, a little unjust. The fire started feeling compassion for Svetketu.

The fire talked to the Master's wife when the Master was out and said, "This is going too far. This Svetketu has been serving so silently for twelve years. He has earned it already; the secret has to be revealed to him. You persuade your husband."

The wife said, "But he won't listen. If I say anything, he may even become harder. He is not a man who can be persuaded. One has to wait. He knows how to work and how not to work, what to do and what not to do, and I cannot say anything."

It is said that the fire became so much concerned that the fire itself revealed the secret to Svetketu. And when the secret was revealed, the Master danced. He said, "Svetketu, I was waiting. Because when the fire reveals itself, that's something. I was forcing the fire itself to reveal the secret because compassion WILL arise, existence is compassionate. I could have given you the secret any day, but that would not have been so vital. It would have been from me. But now the doors of existence have been opened for you by the existence itself. Now you are in communion with fire itself -- you have been initiated by fire."

What secret can the fire give to you? The secret of death. In India we have been burning dead bodies so that fire becomes associated with death. Even those who are not seekers also know that fire is the symbol of death -- one dies in it. But those who know and seek on the path also know that one is resurrected through it: dies and is reborn.

In both the cases, whether through water or fire, death is the point. One has to die to attain to life abundant, one has to carry one's cross. Nobody else can initiate you, only death. Death is the Master. Or, the Master is death.

If you are ready to die, then nobody can prevent you from being reborn. But this death should not be suicidal. Many people commit suicide. They are not resurrected. A suicidal death is not a death through understanding; a suicidal death is a death through misunderstanding. You die confused, in agony. You die obsessed with the world, you die attached to the world. You die as a complaint.

Watch people who think of committing suicide. They are not against life. In fact, on the contrary, they are so attached to life that life cannot fulfill them. They take revenge, they complain. They murder, kill themselves, just to lodge a complaint against the whole existence -- that it was not a fulfillment. They are grumbling; they are saying, "Life is not worth it."

But why is life not worth living? They expected too much; that's why it is not worth it. They asked too much; they never earned it. They asked too much and it was not delivered. They are frustrated.

One who is ready to die WITHOUT frustration.... Seeing the truth of life, seeing the truth that life is just a dream.... It cannot fulfill anything, it cannot frustrate also. Fulfillment, frustration, both are parts of the illusion that life is real. One who sees that life is unreal, just like a dream, becomes detached. A renunciation comes.

In the Upanishads there is one very vital saying: "TEN TYKTEN BHUNJITHA... those who have indulged in life have always renounced." It is very revolutionary; the implication is tremendous. It says: those who have indulged in life are bound to renounce because they have seen the truth -- that life is false. They have looked into it and found nothing. Not that they are frustrated, because if you are frustrated that only shows that you were still expecting something. Frustration shows deep expectation.

One who has become aware that life can only promise but can never deliver -- it is a dream! -- is neither frustrated nor fulfilled in life. Then comes renunciation. Renunciation is not leaving life; renunciation is seeing life as it is. Then one is ready to die because there is nothing in life.

That readiness for death is the point John the Baptist was driving people towards. When they were ready he would bring them to the River Jordan and perform the ritual, the final touch. With the water flowing over the head and down the river, the ego, the old personality, is gone. Pure essence -- bathed in a new sense of being, with a new mystery of being alive, with a new sense of existence -- is born.

Of course, death can either be a very terrifying experience or tremendously beautiful. It depends on the attitude. If you feel terrified in death then you will die, but you will not be resurrected. If death becomes a beautiful experience, then you are dying and at the same time resurrecting. Ordinarily death is terror; that's why you are so afraid to die. In life nothing beautiful happens until you die, but you are terrified.

A Master has to persuade you, by and by, about the beauty of death. He has to sing the glories of death. He has, by and by, to convince you and create a trust in death so that you can let go. Once you let go nothing dies, only the ego. You remain for ever and ever.

You are eternity, you cannot die -- the fear is absolutely futile and unbased -- but the ego has to die. The ego is a created phenomenon. It was not there when you were born, society created it. Society has given you the ego -- and that ego can be taken by the society... and that ego is absolutely going to be taken by death. You will go as you came: empty-handed you come, empty-handed you go -- the ego is just an illusion in between.

That ego is afraid of death. Once you understand that you are not going to die -- only the ego, only the disease -- you are ready. You are ready for baptism.

 

Next: Chapter 4, Mirroring Christ, The fourth question

 

Energy Enhancement          Enlightened Texts          Christianity          Come Follow Yourself

 

 

Chapter 4

 



  • Christianity, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 1
    Christianity, a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 1, A SINGLE SESSION OF YOUR DYNAMIC MEDITATION HAS LEFT WITHIN ME A GREATER BLISS AND SENSE OF BEING THAN TWENTY YEARS OF HAVING HAD TO LISTEN TO THE STORIES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AND TO PRAY TO AN ALMIGHTY AND DISTANT GOD WHO STAYED AN UNEXPERIENCEABLE GODOT TO ME. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS JUST MIGHT NOT BE HELPFUL TO ALL SEEKERS -- YES, MIGHT EVEN BE POISONOUS TO THEM, OR TO SOME? at energyenhancement.org
  • Christianity, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 2
    Christianity, a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 2, OFTEN DURING THE LECTURE I FIND A PART OF ME WAITING FOR YOUR GLANCE. WHEN YOU FINALLY LOOK AT ME, SOMETHING IN ME RUNS AWAY. THE FEELING IS LIKE BEING IN A DESERT, WAITING FOR AGES FOR SOME WATER TO COME, AND WHEN IT FINALLY RAINS, THE MOUTH SNAPS SHUT. WHY IS THIS? at energyenhancement.org

  • Christianity, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 3
    Christianity, a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 3, SURELY THAT WHICH HAPPENS IN THE INSTANT OF DEATH BY DROWNING IS THE TRUE EXPLANATION OF JESUS' BAPTISM AT THE HANDS OF JOHN. WAS NOT THE SKILL AND STRENGTH OF THE BAPTIST THAT OF TAKING A MAN TO THAT POINT, AND THE PREPARATION YOU TALK OF BEFOREHAND EMPLOYED SO THAT A MAN BE TRANSFORMED BY THE EXPERIENCE RATHER THAN TERRIFIED BY IT? at energyenhancement.org

  • Christianity, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 4
    Christianity, a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 4, YOU SAY THAT SERIOUSNESS IS A DISEASE. WHENEVER I REMEMBER MYSELF I FEEL SERIOUS, SO WHAT SHOULD I DO? at energyenhancement.org

  • Christianity, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 5
    Christianity, a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1 Come Follow Yourself Chapter 4: Mirroring Christ, Question 5, PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY WE DON'T FEEL THE DIVINE WHICH IS HERE/ NOW, WITHIN/WITHOUT, WHICH IS YOU, ME AND ALL at energyenhancement.org

 

 

 
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