Indian, Gorakh, Death is Divine Chapter 4: See the unseeable, Question 3

The third question:

Question 3

WHY IS GORAKH NATH AGAINST PUNDITS?

What else can he do? A pundit means a parrot who reads and writes, a parrot who repeats the name of Rama. But Rama never enters his heart. The Geeta can also be repeated, the gayathri mantra can be recited, the verses of the Koran can be memorized, but his life will not become juicy. He sits like a stone in the river but he doesn't get wet. If a parrot repeats Rama-Rama do you think Rama has entered his heart?

This is exactly the state of the pundit. The pundit is deceiving himself, the pundit is deceiving others. No experience has happened. No taste has descended in his being, no drop of honey has fallen, no flower has blossomed. But borrowed words have been memorized, he goes on repeating them. And going on and on repeating he stands proud.

Not only Gorakh has opposed them, all enlightened ones have opposed them, because scholarship is the enemy of knowing. Scholarship is pretension of knowing, it is counterfeit, a mockery. No one becomes enlightened through scholarship, ignorance merely gets covered up. Ignorance is not destroyed. Just as darkness is not destroyed by talking about lamps, likewise the inner lamp is not awakened by talking about Brahma. Nor is hunger destroyed by talking about food. It is destroyed by food. And a pundit is immersed only in talking. He has forgotten that food needs to be cooked. A pundit goes on carrying cookbooks. Even if you keep a thousand cookbooks they are not more valuable than a single piece of dry bread. They are less valuable. Dry bread will fill the stomach, will make flesh and bones. Even if the songs of the mystics are not very embellished... no, Gorakh's songs are not very embellished. They are plain, direct and decisive words, clear and simple, not loaded with metaphors. Perhaps the scholar's language is more refined, more cultured. The very word Sanskrit means refined.

You will be surprised to know that Buddha spoke in the local dialect, Mahavira spoke in the local dialect, Gorakh spoke in the local dialect, Kabir, Nanak, Dadu spoke in the local dialect. No one used Sanskrit. Why? The reason is clear. Sanskrit had become a language only of the pundits. It no longer had any connection with people's lives. Pundits were already using Sanskrit out of cunning. What cunning? Using a language that people cannot understand. When you use a language that people don't understand, then people will never know whether you know or not. You blabber ridiculously, you go on talking meaningless nonsense, and people will listen with great faith. They don't understand. And when people don't understand they think, "Surely he is saying some profound and serious thing, that's why we don't understand."

Truth is simple and direct. Direct, extremely direct, it is immediately understood. To understand truth intricate strategies don't need to be used. Untruth is very subtle. You have seen how when a doctor writes down a prescription he doesn't write it in Hindi or Marathi or English. He writes the name of the medicine in Latin or Greek. There is a reason it is written in Latin or Greek, so you won't understand. And have you seen the handwriting of a doctor? His writing is so bad that if he has to read it again, he himself will get stuck.

Mulla Nasruddin is the only literate man in his village. One villager came to him to have a letter written. Mulla said I can't write it. Today I can't write it. For at least eight days I won't be able to write it. There is so much pain in my knuckles, pain in the knuckles of my toes."

The man said, "Mulla, talk sense. What need do you have of your toe knuckles? The letter is to be written by hand."

Mulla said, "If you don't understand then don't speak. I will write it, but who will read it? Only I can read my writing and sometimes I too get stuck. Once it even happened that a man came to have a letter written..."

Now this is a very strange business, first write the letter then you have to go to the next village to read it, because no one else can read it. One man was having a letter written. After having the whole letter written -- a letter to his beloved -- after having the long letter written down he said, "Nasruddin, now read it out once so my heart can be satisfied that I have said what I want to write."

Nasruddin said, "This is a difficult matter."

He said, "Why? What's the harm in reading it?"

Nasruddin said, "The first thing is that it is not addressed to me so how can I read it?"

The villager said, "It is a legal question. It looks correct. Yes you are right, if it is not addressed to you, so how can you read it?"

Mulla said, "Do you understand? First the letter is not addressed to me. And then why should I bother, it is the worry of the one it is addressed to, let him figure it out. If he can read it then read, if he can't read it then don't read."

Doctors write in Latin and Greek and that too written so it can't be read.

I have heard, a doctor sent an invitation to a patient of his, that my daughter is getting married, and your are invited for dinner tomorrow evening. The patient saw the letter and thought the doctor had sent a prescription. He went to the chemist shop and the chemist quickly prepared a mixture and gave it to him. He drank the mixture for two days. Then the doctor phoned to say, "Friend, you didn't come. My daughter got married. I sent a letter to you too." Then the whole mystery was revealed. Whether the chemist could read it or not, he quickly prepares a mixture. This is the reason it is written in Latin and Greek. Otherwise you would not pay fifteen rupees at the chemists. For instance if you wrote AJWAN seed extract, then you cannot pay fifteen rupees. Common ajwan extract -- you will say, "You are asking fifteen rupees for a quarter rupee purchase!" But if a long unknown Latin name is written, if it is asked you will have to pay not just fifteen but fifty rupees. You will not know that it is ajwan extract.

Sanskrit is used by pundits, so that people can be fooled. It is not that it only happens in this country -- Popes and priests go on using Latin and Greek. Using ancient languages, that are long dead, that no longer have any life, that people don't know. Mystics speak simply and directly, they speak in the people's dialect. They speak the language you understand. To share one's experience with people one needs to speak the dialect people understand. But those that have no experience, that have nothing to share, it is more appropriate that they speak a language that no one understands. If they are understood they will be caught.

A pundit is phoney, second hand. He has not seen god for himself. Yes, he has read scriptures which discuss about god. He has debated, has thought, considered. He is not meditative. He has not experienced. This is why the opposition. There is no enmity towards scholars in this opposition, but compassion for scholars. They too have to be alerted, they too have to be awakened.

Gorakh's comment:

YOU HAVE SOUGHT THE REAL THROUGH READING PUNDIT, NOW LOOK FOR THE REAL THROUGH LIVING,

YOUR OWN DOING WILL TAKE YOU ACROSS.

He is saying to some pundit: YOU HAVE SOUGHT THE REAL THROUGH READING PUNDIT.. You have seen by reading and study, now see by doing something. ... NOW LOOK FOR THE REAL THROUGH LIVING... Now also see by living the real a little. I want to tell you one thing :

YOUR OWN DOING WILL TAKE YOU ACROSS.

Only if you act will you get across.

YOUR OWN DOING WILL TAKE YOU ACROSS.

These books will drown. They are paper boats. Don't take them out on the ocean. Don't say but we have made this boat from the Vedas. It will not work. It is a paper boat. It will sink. It will sink itself and drown you too. And the danger is you go on explaining to others, they too will all be drowned. You are blind yourself and think you are indicating the path to other blind people. "The blind leading the blind, both fall in a well." They will both fall into a well.

YOU HAVE SOUGHT THE REAL THROUGH READING PUNDIT...

He says, you have seen all you can by reading and reading, what have you got? What reality did you find? ... now LOOK FOR THE REAL THROUGH LIVING. Now listen to me. Get into life a little. Get connected to life a little. Don't go on just thinking and thinking about samadhi. What connection does samadhi have with thought? Now be without thought. Let samadhi descend ... NOW LOOK FOR THE REAL THROUGH LIVING...

YOUR OWN DOING WILL TAKE YOU ACROSS,

And the one who acts gets across. The one who knows, gets across. Only he will make a boat that will take him across. And the boats of others will not work for you. In this world no borrowed knowledge will work. Borrowed knowledge only covers ignorance.

NO VEDAS, NO HOLY BOOKS, NO TEACHINGS COULD DESCRIBE THE TRUTH, INSTEAD THEY COVER IT UP.

WITHIN THE SKY OF THE HEAD THE WORD ILLUMINES, THE TRUE SEEKER REALIZES IT HERE.

Gorakh says: the truth, the ultimate, has not been given an accurate explanation by the Vedas nor by any books of the 'religions of the book' -- not the Koran, not the Bible, nor any other. No teaching has been able to explain. Instead these all put it under covers. They have hidden it. Truth has been drowned, has been lost in these books. They have become a covering over it. Truth has not been discovered by them. The discovery of truth has been prevented and hindered by them. It can only be known in silent samadhi. Realize it right here. ... THE TRUE SEEKER REALIZES IT HERE.

The real seeker of knowledge, the real scientist finds it here -- in silence, in samadhi.

Gorakh says:

SAYING IS EASY, LIVING DIFFICULT, SAYING WITHOUT LIVING AN EMPTY NONSENSE.

THE CAT ATE THE KNOWLEDGEABLE, CONTEMPLATIVE PARROT, THICK TOME STILL IN HIS HAND.

SAYING IS EASY... It is very easy to say. ... LIVING DIFFICULT... It is very difficult to live.

... SAYING WITHOUT LIVING AN EMPTY NONSENSE.

And what you say without living, without experiencing, is completely false nonsense.

THE CAT ATE THE KNOWLEDGEABLE, CONTEMPLATIVE PARROT...

Do you think that the cat will leave a well-read parrot alone, because the parrot is repeating Rama-Rama? Thinking, "Leave him alone he is a devotee, look how he repeats Rama-Rama, how he is sitting wrapped in his sheet with Rama-Rama printed on it. Let him be, leave the devotee." But the cat will not leave him. The cat knows, "Go on repeating Rama-Rama, wear your sheet, what difference does it make? It is all false." The cat will not leave him alone.

THE CAT ATE THE KNOWLEDGEABLE, CONTEMPLATIVE PARROT...

A cat will eat up even a well-read parrot, the same way death will eat you up. Death will come like a cat and you are a well read parrot, not more than that. You will be eaten up, death will not leave you alone.

... THICK TOME STILL HIS HAND.

And when the cat attacks, when death grabs your neck you will have only a thick book in your hand. Completely false ... THICK TOME STILL IN HIS HAND. Nothing else will remain, all will be forgotten. All study and contemplation will become useless. When death attacks only what you know will work. One who knows will look at death and laugh.

Mansoor laughed loudly. People asked, "We are killing you, why are you laughing?"

Mansoor said, "I am laughing because the one you are killing is not me. And what I am you cannot even touch -- killing is out of the question."

Krishna has said, weapons cannot pierce it, fire cannot burn it.

Mansoor said, "I am laughing because it is very strange. You had said, 'We will kill you Mansoor.' Now you are killing someone else, who is not me. You are cutting my hand, I am not my hand. You have cut off my feet, the feet are not me. Now you will cut my neck also. I say unto you that I am not the neck, I am the witness sitting within. How will you cut him? No weapon can pierce it and no fire can burn it.

These are words of experience. The well-read scholar cannot say this. The well-studied parrot will start beseeching the cat. He will forget all about his mantra, he will begin to sing the praises of the cat, "Sister leave me, my errant ways are over, from today I will worship and pray to you, so what if I had fallen into those mantras."

WHO ECHOES WORDS IS CALLED DISCIPLE, WHO QUOTES THE DEAD IS GRANDSON,

WHO LIVES IT IS OUR MASTER, WE ARE COMPANIONS OF THE LIVING.

Gorakh says: WHO ECHOES WORDS IS CALLED DISCIPLE...

One who says only things he has overheard is a student, not one who knows. At the most a student. It is good. He is reading, he is writing.

WHO ECHOES WORDS IS CALLED DISCIPLE, WHO QUOTES THE DEAD IS GRANDSON,

And if he has heard these utterances from some master and is speaking, only then is he a disciple, he is classed is a student. And if it is from some dead masters, dug up from ancient graves and brought out from the Vedas, then he is not even a disciple, he is even worse off. He is placed even lower. ... WHO QUOTES THE DEAD IS GRANDSON... The disciple is a son. Disciple means one who sits listening near a master and repeats. It is accepted that he doesn't know himself yet, but he is near the source of knowing. The source is not far away. Just like someone sitting near Gorakh listens and repeats. Gorakh says, "This is a student, he is my son. One day or another he will dissolve into me. He is near the source. He will not leave, will not run away. Okay, so now he is repeating, let him repeat. Slowly slowly he will grasp it. He has already taken the wrist, soon he will grasp the hand too. His intelligence has already grasped, soon his feeling will also grasp, the hand will reach to the heart too.

But one who recites the Vedas, reads from the books, who is not with a master, not with a living master, he is worse off. He is not even a son, consider him a grandson.

... WHO QUOTES THE DEAD IS GRANDSON.

He is further away. His relationship is distant.

ONE WHO LIVES IT, CALL HIM MY MASTER...

And Gorakh says: One who is living it within himself is a guru. He is the one we feel to worship as guru.

WHO LIVES IT IS OUR MASTER, WE ARE COMPANIONS OF THE LIVING.

And we are his companions, his friends -- of one who lives the truth. Who lives it just like it is. Who lives the naked truth. Then no matter what difficulties there are, how many hindrances come, crucified or enthroned, there is no difference to him -- he is living the truth. Insults come, epithets or praise come, success or failure, it doesn't make any difference to one who is living the truth.

... WE ARE COMPANIONS OF THE LIVING.

WHO LIVES IT IS OUR MASTER, WE ARE COMPANIONS OF THE LIVING.

UNDER NATURAL LIKING MOVE WITH THE MASTER, IF NOT, THEN MOVE ALONE.

Gorakh is in favor of independence. He says, do whatever happens from spontaneous feeling. If living near the master bliss comes spontaneously, then live near. If bliss comes while wandering alone, then wander alone, because god is present everywhere. But don't lose spontaneous bliss, take is as the criterion. Where you can be spontaneous is where there is meaning in being.

ONE WHO LIVES IT, CALL HIM MY MASTER, WE ARE DISCIPLES OF THE LIVING.

This feeling remains inside you, that the one who lives the truth is our master. Not a pundit, an enlightened one. Not one with great degrees, one with deep samadhi.

ONE WHO LIVES IT, CALL HIM MY MASTER, WE ARE DISCIPLES OF THE LIVING.

This feeling remains, that we will drown near him, at his feet -- the one who lives the truth.

UNDER NATURAL LIKING MOVE WITH THE MASTER

And if juice comes living near, then live near. The taste found near the master is not to be left.

UNDER NATURAL LIKING MOVE WITH THE MASTER, IF NOT, THEN MOVE ALONE.

There is no worry, then wander alone in the world, wander in aloneness, it doesn't make any difference. But first taste it once from some authentic source. Let a few drops of truth fall in your throat, let a small hint of samadhi come. Allow the call of that flute to be heard a little, then everything is good. Then be alone or be in satsang, be near the master or far away. It is all the same. But it is necessary to come near a burning lamp once so that your lamp which has gone out is lit. Then one does not need to always live near.

UNDER NATURAL LIKING MOVE WITH THE MASTER, IF NOT, THEN MOVE ALONE.

Knowing is freedom. Knowing is independence. Knowing is living experience. Scholarship is false.

Gorakh or others who know are not opposed to scholars through any enmity, rather because they themselves are deceived and they deceive others also. It is out of compassion, so that those others can awaken and the scholars too can awaken.

Gorakh

DEATH IS DIVINE

Chapter-4

See the unseeable