The third question:

Question 3

I HAVE BEEN TO SEE A GREAT NUMBER OF TEACHERS AND I HAVE GIVEN UP ALL THE PLEASURES OF LIFE. I HAVE FASTED, BEEN CELIBATE, AND STAYED AWAKE NIGHTS SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT. THIS WAY I HAVE SUFFERED A LOT AND YET I HAVE NOT BECOME ENLIGHTENED. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

GIVE up suffering. You seem to be a masochist, You love suffering -- these are all just excuses to torture yourself. Don't torture yourself any more; your torture is the barrier. Only a celebrating person becomes enlightened. How can you become enlightened by suffering? Suffering is pathological, it is morbid, it is neurotic. It is not natural, it is ugly.

But that's what has been taught. Remember one thing: humanity has been dominated by the patho-logical, it has not been dominated by the healthy. And there is a certain reason behind it. Because the healthy is too busy enjoying, he does not bother to dominate others. The unhealthy cannot enjoy; he puts his whole energy into dominating. One who can sing a song and can dance a dance, sings and dances -- he celebrates under the stars. But one who cannot dance, is crippled, is paralyzed, he lies down there in the corner and plans how to dominate people. He becomes cunning.

You will be surprised that hunchbacks, blind people, ugly people, are very cunning, very clever. They have to be; that is how they try to throw their weight around. One who can create, creates. And one who cannot create, destroys -- but he has to show to the world: 'I am here.'

The people who become interested in politics are always ill people. No healthy person has ever been interested in politics -- where will he find time for politics? He is so happy loving, he is so happy dancing, he is so happy creating. Heaven is showering on him -- why should he want to go to New Delhi?

I have heard about a man who went to his party chief; he wanted a ticket to stand in the elections. The party chief just jokingly asked him 'What is your intention, what is your motive? Why do you want to fight for parliament?' The man was also in a joking mood, he said 'I want to become the prime minister.' The chief could not believe it, he said 'Are you mad?' And the man said 'Is that a condition?'

Yes, that is a condition. The ill and the unhealthy and the ugly and the untalented, the uncreative, the mediocre, the stupid -- they are all very very clever in dominating people. They find ways and means to dominate; they become politicians, they become priests. And naturally, what they cannot do they cannot allow anybody else to do. They are against all joy.

How can a cripple allow you to dance? Just think of it. He cannot dance -- the only way he can feel good is if he can create a poison in your mind that dance is a sin. Then he feels perfectly okay, immensely happy. If he can create the idea that dance is a sin then he is no more a cripple, he is a saint. Look at the reasoning behind it. If he cannot enjoy, he can at least poison your enjoyment. And all the cripples can gather together and they can all put their heads into it and they can create great morality, they can condemn everything. And it is possible for logic to condemn any and everything -- you just have to search for the negative and you will find it, because the negative is part of all positivity.

For example, I was just saying that when you love, you hate the person also. Now, love is the positive part, hate is the negative part. A man who is impotent and cannot love can always fall upon the negative, can always magnify the negative, and can always tell you 'Listen, if you are in love you will suffer. You are falling in a trap, you will be in misery.' And naturally, whenever hate moments come and you are in misery, you will remember him -- he was right.

And they are bound to come. And there is a natural tendency to be aware of illnesses rather than to be aware of health. When you are healthy you tend to forget about your body. But when there is a headache or some pain or some ache in the stomach you cannot forget your body -- it is there, very prominently there, emphatically there; it knocks at your doors, it wants your attention.

So when you are in love and happy you tend to forget. But when there is fighting, hatred, anger, you tend to magnify it. And those cripples -- the moralists, the priests and the politicians -- they are shouting in a chorus 'Look! We told you beforehand but you didn't listen to us. Renounce love! Love brings misery. Renounce this, renounce that -- renounce life!'

And if you can go on repeating such things continuously, they have an impact; people become hypnotized. You have become hypnotized. You say you have been fasting, you have been a celibate. What has fasting to do with enlightenment? What has celibacy to do with enlightenment? Irrelevant. All that you have been doing -- 'I have been awake nights seeking enlightenment...' Can't you seek enlightenment in the day? And why should you be awake in the night? Why go against nature?

Enlightenment is not something against nature. It is the fulfillment of nature, it is the crescendo of nature, the climax. It is optimum nature. It is through being with nature that you arrive at it -- not being against it. It is not going against the current, it is flowing with the current. The river is already going to the sea, you need not start swimming against it. And that's what you have been doing.

Now you ask 'What should I do?' Give up suffering, give up your attachment to suffering. You are not in search of enlightenment, you are in search of suffering -- enlightenment is just an excuse.

Love life, be more happy. God can come only to a happy soul. Only when you are utterly happy is there a possibility, otherwise not -- because misery closes you, bliss opens you up. Have you not watched it, observed it, in your own life? Whenever you are miserable you become closed; a hard shell surrounds you. You start protecting yourself, you surround yourself with a great arm our -- because you know you already have so much pain, you cannot afford any more hurt from anywhere. You have to harden your surface.

Miserable people always become hard; they lose softness, they become like rocks. A happy person is a flower -- he is so happy, he is so blessed, that he can bless the whole world. He is so blessed that he can afford to be open. He has nothing to fear. All is so good, all is so friendly, the whole existence is befriending him -- why should he be afraid? He can open up. He can invite existence, he can become a host to existence. Only in that moment, God enters you. Only in that moment, light penetrates you and you become enlightened.

Enlightenment is not something that has to be fought for, it is something that you have to allow. It comes in a moment of let-go. In surrender it comes.

Now, you have been a warrior. And to warriors God is not available. God is available only to lovers. God is the Beloved, He is available only to a loving heart. Love life, love His creation -- that is the only way to love God. Creation is the visible God. He is green in the trees and red in the roses and gold in the rays of the sun. He is silver on the surface of a lake when the moon is mirrored. He is laughter, He is tears. He is this life in its totality. Don't become an escapist and don't brag about your masochism as spirituality. Give up suffering and start a joyous journey. If you want to enter into my temple then it has to be not celibacy but celebration, not a fast but a feast.