Commentaries on Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. Vol. 1 The Messiah Chapter 17: The boundless within you

BELOVED OSHO,

AND TELL ME, PEOPLE OF ORPHALESE, WHAT HAVE YOU IN THESE HOUSES? AND WHAT IT IS YOU GUARD WITH FASTENED DOORS?

HAVE YOU PEACE, THE QUIET URGE THAT REVEALS YOUR POWER?

HAVE YOU REMEMBRANCES, THE GLIMMERING ARCHES THAT SPAN THE SUMMITS OF THE MIND?

HAVE YOU BEAUTY, THAT LEADS THE HEART FROM THINGS FASHIONED OF WOOD AND STONE TO THE HOLY MOUNTAIN?

TELL ME, HAVE YOU THESE IN YOUR HOUSES?

OR HAVE YOU ONLY COMFORT AND THE LUST FOR COMFORT, THAT STEALTHY THING THAT ENTERS THE HOUSE A GUEST, AND THEN BECOMES A HOST, AND THEN A MASTER?

AY, AND IT BECOMES A TAMER, AND WITH HOOK AND SCOURGE MAKES PUPPETS OF YOUR LARGER DESIRES.

THOUGH ITS HANDS ARE SILKEN, ITS HEART IS OF IRON.

IT LULLS YOU TO SLEEP ONLY TO STAND BY YOUR BED AND JEER AT THE DIGNITY OF THE FLESH.

IT MAKES MOCK OF YOUR SOUND SENSES, AND LAYS THEM IN THISTLEDOWN LIKE FRAGILE VESSELS.

VERILY THE LUST FOR COMFORT MURDERS THE PASSION OF THE SOUL, AND THEN WALKS GRINNING IN THE FUNERAL.

BUT YOU, CHILDREN OF SPACE, YOU RESTLESS IN REST, YOU SHALL NOT BE TRAPPED NOR TAMED.

YOUR HOUSE SHALL BE NOT AN ANCHOR BUT A MAST.

IT SHALL NOT BE A GLISTENING FILM THAT COVERS A WOUND, BUT AN EYELID THAT GUARDS THE EYE.

YOU SHALL NOT FOLD YOUR WINGS THAT YOU MAY PASS THROUGH DOORS, NOR BEND YOUR HEADS THAT THEY STRIKE NOT AGAINST A CEILING, NOR FEAR TO BREATHE LEST WALLS SHOULD CRACK AND FALL DOWN.

YOU SHALL NOT DWELL IN TOMBS MADE BY THE DEAD FOR THE LIVING.

AND THOUGH OF MAGNIFICENCE AND SPLENDOR, YOUR HOUSE SHALL NOT HOLD YOUR SECRET NOR SHELTER YOUR LONGING.

FOR THAT WHICH IS BOUNDLESS IN YOU ABIDES IN THE MANSION OF THE SKY, WHOSE DOOR IS THE MORNING MIST, AND WHOSE WINDOWS ARE THE SONGS AND THE SILENCES OF NIGHT.

It is one of the most unfortunate examples that a man like Kahlil Gibran could not get rid of his Christian upbringing. Neither could he be free from the Western unawareness about the real home of man's soul. He goes on talking about houses -- as if he has never heard the word "home." And unless your house is transformed into a home, you cannot reach the doors of the temple of the divine.

The house is the most superficial thing in your life.

The home touches your heart.

But you will never be satisfied and wholly contented unless your home becomes a temple of God.

It is a great tragedy: he is a great thinker, a great philosopher, and one of the greatest poets that have ever walked on the earth; still he is as poor as anyone else, because he does not know the eternal, the ultimate, which abides in you.

Almustafa continues and says:

AND TELL ME, PEOPLE OF ORPHALESE, WHAT HAVE YOU IN THESE HOUSES?

Nobody can have anything in houses. Your houses, if they remain houses, are going to be your graves and nothing else. Yes, they give you a certain security, safety... but they take away so much in return that they leave you as soulless as they are.

There is an ancient story.

A king had conquered many kingdoms and had naturally created many enemies, and had killed so many people that slowly slowly he started becoming afraid that the same could happen to him; he could be assassinated. To protect himself, he created a beautiful palace, with no windows -- just one door. The palace was beautiful, cut out of the best marble.

He was so suspicious and afraid of death that he was not satisfied with one guard -- he put seven guards on the gate, in a certain order. The first guard had to be guarded by the second guard, and the second guard had to be guarded by the third guard.... He was making it an absolute certainty that no murderer could enter the palace.

One of his friends, also a great king, heard about this beautiful palace, with such impeccable security. He went to see the palace, and the owner of the palace was immensely happy to see his friend. He took him inside and showed him -- everything in the palace was a piece of art. And the system of guarding was his invention -- never before had it been done. One guard, guarding another... it was a sevenfold measure of security.

The guest king was very happy, and he said, "I am going to make the same palace for myself." This he said when they had come out of the palace and they were standing in the beautiful garden surrounding it. A beggar was sitting outside the gate of the garden -- he started laughing.

The owner of the palace was obviously offended, and he asked the beggar, "What is the meaning of your laughter? If you cannot explain it you will lose your head just now."

The beggar said, "There will be no need, because once I was also a great king -- greater than you. My kingdom was vaster than the kingdoms of you both. But just to find security I escaped, renounced those palaces, those guards. As a beggar I am so perfectly secure -- nobody even takes note of me. Who is going to waste a bullet for a poor beggar? We are all three in the same boat: you have your idea of security, I have my idea of security -- and I emphasize the fact that your idea has a loophole."

The two kings could not believe that this beggar had been a great king, greater than themselves. They asked him, "Then please show us what the loophole is."

He said, "You can have your palace guarded by seven hundred guards -- still, the door is there, and death can enter from that door any moment. If you really want to be absolutely secure, go inside the palace and tell your masons and sculptors to close the door. Then you will be perfectly secure; even death cannot enter."

Both the kings said, "What are you suggesting? There will not be any need for death -- we will be dead without death! These beautiful palaces will become graves. If there is not even a single door, then what is the difference between a grave and a palace?"

The beggar said, "You seem to be intelligent. Now I can tell you why I was laughing, and now you will be able to understand. You have closed all the doors and all the windows -- that much life has disappeared from you. Just a small life has remained because one door is open. And you have agreed with me that if this door is closed, the house will become a grave. But 99.9 percent it has already become a grave; it is just a question of .1 percent. You are not living, you are suffering from a nightmare.

"If you really want security you can join me. When I was the king, my whole life was nothing but paranoia. Since I have been a beggar, my life is absolute freedom. I don't possess anything, I am nobody -- who is going to kill me? for what?"

The story is significant, because Almustafa is asking the people of Orphalese:

AND WHAT IS IT YOU GUARD WITH FASTENED DOORS?

Have you ever thought of what it is that you are afraid of losing? You don't have anything. Everybody inside his clothes is as naked as he was born, as naked as he is going to die. Of what are you afraid? What are you guarding?

HAVE YOU PEACE, THE QUIET URGE THAT REVEALS YOUR POWER?

HAVE YOU REMEMBRANCES, THE GLIMMERING... from the past... ARCHES THAT SPAN THE SUMMITS OF THE MIND?

This is why I say Kahlil Gibran could not get rid of his Christian upbringing, because he is talking about summits of the mind. Mind knows no summits. It knows only the darkest valleys possible.

The mind is absolutely unaware of beauty, of silence, of peace, of joy. All that it knows is nothing but madness.

One of the great Jewish philosophers, Joshua Learman, has written a book: PEACE OF MIND. And I don't think anybody will object to the title. It has been sold all over the world, in many languages, in many editions. But when it came into my hands I wrote a letter to Joshua Learman, returning the book and telling him: "I cannot start reading the book because your title essentially indicates that the book is written by a man who knows nothing beyond mind."

PEACE OF MIND -- in fact there is peace when there is no mind. Therefore, peace of mind is not possible.

Mind is the problem. Mind is your anxiety, mind is your anguish.

Yes, you can have a normal kind of madness. It will not be noted by anybody, because they belong to the same category. Just don't cross the boundary of the normally insane. The moment you cross the boundary you are declared mad.

The difference between the mad and those who are not mad is only of degrees, not of quality. And a difference of degrees is not of much value. You are always on the borderline; a small thing can push you beyond the normal. Your business fails, you go bankrupt, your wife escapes with somebody else. And the stupidity of the mind is such... for years you have been hoping, "If this woman who is torturing me somehow dies..." But now she has escaped with somebody else and you are miserable!

Do you think this is sanity? You should rejoice! You should celebrate, and you should pray for the poor fellow who is now in the hands of your wife. The sane person is going to do exactly that.

I have heard, one man entered a post office and asked the postmaster, with tears in his eyes, "Please write it down -- I am reporting that my wife has been missing for seven days."

The postmaster said, "I have all sympathy for you, but I am sorry, I cannot help you. This is a post office, not a police station. The police station is just on the opposite side of the street."

The man said, "I cannot go there!"

The postmaster said, "You are strange -- reporting a crime in the post office, and you cannot go just a few yards and report it to the police?"

He said, "The problem is, she has also escaped one time before and foolishly, I reported it to the police immediately, and the next day they found her. This time I have waited seven days. Even if the police find it out on their own, without my report, then too my wife will have gone far away. But my neighbors have been torturing me continuously for seven days, saying, `What are you doing here sitting joyously, singing on your flute? We have never heard your flute before -- have you gone mad? Behave normally, don't be abnormal! Just go and report it.'

"Tired of those idiots, I have come to report. Just please write it down on any rubbish paper and throw it in the wastepaper basket so that my neighbors stop torturing me. I have never enjoyed my life. These seven days have been a blessing from the beyond -- no anxiety, no problem...."

If you don't have a wife it is very difficult to have anxiety and problems. If you don't have a husband, from where are you going to get all kinds of problems and jealousies?

And these people are "normal" people.

I wrote to Joshua Learman that "You don't understand anything at all. `Peace' and `mind' cannot co-exist. Peace is in the transcendence of the mind. You can choose: either the mind or peace, but you cannot have both together."

And the coward has not answered my registered letter!

Almustafa is asking, Have you peace?

Peace is not something that you can go into the market and purchase it. Peace is something that you have to deserve, by being a witness of the mind.

The moment the mind stops there is peace -- peace that passeth understanding, because there is nobody to understand it. That old fellow mind is no more there, who has always been trying to understand everything.

... AND THE QUIET URGE THAT REVEALS YOUR POWER?

Still the attraction is for power.

Peace is not a power. Peace is simplicity, peace is humbleness.

Are the roses in the garden powerful? They are beautiful, but not powerful -- the thorns are powerful, although they are not beautiful. Just a strong wind and all your roses will be gone; their petals will fall on the ground and disappear into the original source -- the juice that created them -- they have gone back to the same source. Have you seen a more humble, yet beautiful phenomenon as a roseflower?

Do you want to become a roseflower or a machine gun?

Do you want to become a meditator or a police commissioner?

The police commissioner has power; what power has the meditator?

Have you remembrances?... Almustafa is showing his ignorance completely, because all remembrances are part of your mind, of your memory system, which is a mechanism. A computer is far more capable of having all the memories.

... THE GLIMMERING ARCHES THAT SPAN THE SUMMITS OF THE MIND? Nobody has ever uttered such nonsense -- GLIMMERING ARCHES THAT SPAN THE SUMMITS OF THE MIND.

There are glimmering arches, but you see them only when the mind is no longer blocking the way.

It is the mind that is your enemy, and it is the mind that the society goes on training, teaching, educating, making more and more strong. Your enemy is within you, and the society goes on nursing it. Almost one-third of the life of a person is nothing but an effort to make your enemy as strong as possible.

And nobody ever thinks, is there anything more in you than the mind? And if there is anything more in you than the mind then all your universities and all your colleges and all your schools are poisoning you, because the stronger the mind becomes the more and more difficult it will be to transcend it.

That's why people feel meditation is so difficult. Meditation is not difficult, it is your mind which has become so strong that you cannot go beyond it. It has become a China wall.

And people are respected for their minds!

People should be respected for only one thing: that they have come to the space where mind has disappeared, with all its memories and all its garbage which you used to think of as knowledge.

When you have come to the innocent state of a child, then you will be able to see those glimmering peaks all around. Wherever you will look, you will see the invisible... it is not invisible, it is invisible because your mind does not allow you to see it. Once the mind is no more, suddenly everything becomes a mystery unto itself.

And you are surrounded by the miraculous; there is no need for any search. Therefore I say again and again: Wherever the man of meditation sits, the place becomes holy, sacred. It becomes really a Kaaba.

Mind has valleys only, no summits.

Mind knows darkness only, no light.

Mind knows death only, no life.

And those who have remained confined in their minds have missed the great opportunity that existence has given, to explore the beyond. The beyond is not to be explored by rockets, the beyond is to be explored by closing your eyes and learning the alchemy of how to transcend the mind.

I call that transcendence witnessing.

If you can witness your mind patiently, one day the spring comes. The mind is gone and all around you there are flowers and flowers -- flowers of eternity, flowers of love, flowers of beauty.

And he is asking a stupid question to the poor people of Orphalese:

HAVE YOU BEAUTY, THAT LEADS THE HEART FROM THINGS FASHIONED OF WOOD AND STONE TO THE HOLY MOUNTAIN?

Even the words stink of christianity.

Beauty is known only by those who can see with absolute clarity, no dust of the past gathered on their eyes. Only innocent eyes can see beauty. And only the innocent lives through the heart.

Almustafa is mentioning the word "heart" but it is just like saying to a woman, "I think I love you." What has love to do with thinking? Thinking can doubt, but cannot trust and cannot love.

HAVE YOU BEAUTY, THAT LEADS THE HEART FROM THINGS FASHIONED OF WOOD AND STONE, TO THE HOLY MOUNTAIN?

Where is this holy mountain? For the Hindus, the Himalaya is the holy mountain; for the Jainas, Sikharji and Girnar are the holy mountains. For the Jews, Sinai is the holy mountain. But I say to you: If you can step out of the prison of your mind, you are climbing the holy mountain which is within you.

Everybody carries the holy Himalayas, the highest peaks -- still young and growing, covered with eternal snow which has never melted -- everybody has that Himalaya within his own being. He just has to make the mind change from a stumbling stone into a stepping stone -- and this is the whole art of being religious.

Tell me, have you these in your houses? You can have these in your consciousness, but not in your houses.

OR HAVE YOU ONLY COMFORT AND THE LUST FOR COMFORT, THAT STEALTHY THING THAT ENTERS THE HOUSE A GUEST, AND THEN BECOMES A HOST, AND THEN A MASTER?

This is what I say, that conditioning becomes your second nature; it clings to you, you cling to it. Your mind may be filled with beautiful words, great philosophies, but you will remain tethered to the small things of life.

I am not against those small things. I say, what is wrong in being comfortable? It is these religions which have made everything that is pleasant so condemned that such a simple thing as comfort has become a sin. All the religions teach: "Torture yourself, because to torture yourself is virtuous. It is going to lead you to the kingdom of God." And I have always wondered, from my very young age, that if comfort in paradise is perfectly acceptable -- not only acceptable but is given to every saint as a reward -- then how can the same comfort be a sin on the earth? What kind of logic is this?

When Swami Muktananda died, the next day one of his disciples could not bear the separation -- jumped into a well and died. He wanted to be with his master.

And when he entered through the gates of paradise, he was shocked. For a moment he closed his eyes. "What am I seeing? -- Muktananda, my great master who has always been teaching that all pleasures have to be renounced..." was under a beautiful tree, full of flowers and a fragrance that he has never known, was lying on the lawn naked with a naked woman -- and no ordinary woman, but a famous Hollywood star, Marilyn Monroe. Even President Kennedy was after the woman continuously. What President Kennedy missed, Muktananda got!

Naturally the disciple thought, "Certainly virtue, renunciation, torturing your body is far more glorious than being the president of America."

He rushed, touched the feet of the master, looked all around. Perhaps he can also get some actress, an extra... but there was nobody around. He said, "Master, I always knew you would be rewarded and now I am seeing with my own eyes that you are rewarded."

But the naked Marilyn Monroe stopped him, and told him, "Shut up, you idiot. I am not his reward, he is my punishment!"

It seems to be a simple thing: that if in heaven, in paradise, in moksha you are going to have all that is blissful, all that is pleasant, then on this earth you should enjoy as much as possible just as a training. Otherwise, your dodo saints will find themselves in immense difficulty. Their whole life they trained themselves for discomfort, and suddenly all that is beautiful, comfortable, luxurious, is available to them. They will not know what to do with it.

And it means that the earth is not in tune with the heaven. It seems there is some antagonism. And God created both -- the earth and the heaven. God created everything; there must be an undercurrent running which makes them all harmonious.

I am not against comfort. I am certainly against you being hooked.

... AND SCOURGE MAKES PUPPETS OF YOUR LARGER DESIRES...

You have to be a master here if you don't want to be a slave in the other world. Love everything, but don't be in any bondage. Enjoy everything that life offers, but like an emperor, not like a beggar. But Almustafa is saying:

Ay, and it becomes a tamer... Your desires, your comfort, your luxury -- he is saying it becomes a tamer, and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires. If you allow, it becomes your master; otherwise how can things become masters of living beings, of conscious people?

I have lived in all kinds of luxuries. I have been in the greatest palaces of the world. But I have never found that anything becomes my master.

In our commune in America, we had eighty-four thousand acres of land; almost a small country. And my sannyasins brought their offerings of love to me from all over the world. I was telling them, "What am I going to do with so many Rolls Royces?" The greatest record for having Rolls Royces was one billionaire sheik of Arabia -- but it was only thirty-three Rolls Royces, rotten, old, just for show. I had ninety-three Rolls Royces, two Rolls Royce limousines... and five were on order so that the number becomes one hundred. But I had never gone to the garage, which had become the talk of the whole world. I myself have never seen all those Rolls Royces standing in a line.

I used to drive one Rolls Royce -- any one that my people who were taking care of those Rolls Royces would choose for the day. And they were all exactly the same, because I liked only that model. So even for me it was difficult to know whether they were giving me the same Rolls Royce every day. It was a problem for them, too.

One of my chauffeurs, Anandadas is here. It was a difficult problem to clean and keep all those Rolls Royces. They were the latest models, and they broke all the records. I don't think anybody else in the world is going to have that many Rolls Royces again. But I was not the owner of them.

I have never looked back. I have never inquired what happened to those Rolls Royces. What happened to those eighty-four thousand acres of land into which we poured three hundred million dollars? I have never inquired. This is not my way of life, to look backwards.

How can anything make you a slave?

My sannyasins had brought me thousands of watches, unique pieces. But what does it matter to me? Perhaps each discourse time, once or twice I look at the watch. And sometimes I even forget that.

I left all those watches with the commune, because I don't own anything. I can use something, because you have brought it with so much love, but I cannot possess it because I don't have any desire to possess anything.

This way life remains light, unburdened; this way life remains a dance; this way you can go on reaching higher and higher peaks. Because with burdens, possessions, howsoever valuable, you cannot go very high. As the air becomes thinner the burden becomes greater. Just to carry your body becomes a burden.

The U.S. government got hold of all my watches. I had distributed them to the sannyasins. Only forty-six watches were in the commune; otherwise people were using all those watches. Those forty-six watches got confiscated. And they had promised me, that because those watches were used by me, they would be returned to me as I was released from jail.

I used to think that America is a rich country of super-rich people, but I found them as much enslaved by things as anybody. When I was released from jail they did not return the watches. Each watch was worth ten lakh rupees, fifteen lakh rupees, twenty lakh rupees, twenty-five lakh rupees, thirty lakh rupees, and they showed and exposed their greed and their poverty -- and their criminal act, because for no reason at all were they entitled to keep those watches with them.

It took almost six months' continuous fight in the courts -- I was not there -- and finally they agreed in the court to return them. But when our attorneys went to take them, they only gave twelve watches, and they said the remaining watches were going to stay with the government. For what reason? I have never heard that governments use watches.

But they became so hypnotized by those watches... the governor, the attorney general and perhaps the president himself, because they had exhibitions of those watches in Washington, in Portland, in San Francisco. They were all unique pieces -- each watch is one of a kind, it will never be produced again. For what were they having these exhibitions?

My attorneys are asking them what happened to the other watches, and the president is silent, the government attorney general is silent; they have simply swallowed them! But I would like to remind them that my sannyasins are there all over America. They may have managed to get those watches distributed amongst themselves, but they will not be able to use them. Those watches are unique pieces and my sannyasins can recognize them immediately, so they can keep them but they cannot use them.

And they have committed a criminal act against a person whom they ordered to leave America within fifteen minutes, for the simple reason that if I had been there at least for one week I would have forced them to return everything that they had taken from the commune. Their first idea was that if I was not there, who was going to fight? They seized all the money that we had in the banks, so naturally... five thousand sannyasins, how could they live? They had to leave.

We had to arrange from outside for their tickets to go to their own countries. On what grounds was their money in the banks seized? And they are not giving a letter -- it is now almost one year, and they go on postponing, saying that "We are going to give it next week," but that next week never comes -- the letter of permission to sell the commune properties. They know perfectly well that unmaintained, its price is going down every day. If they can delay it longer, it will lose all its value.

And we cannot maintain it -- where five thousand sannyasins used to be, there are only twelve sannyasins whom we are keeping just as guards, because the American police and the American guards are on the commune land. Their desire is, if all the sannyasins leave, to bulldoze all the properties, houses and everything that five thousand people created in five years, working twelve hours, fourteen hours, sometimes sixteen hours a day.

And just now I have been informed by my sannyasins that it is an unnecessary wastage, because they are not giving the letter of permission to sell the property. And to maintain twelve people there... in the first place they feel very sad. They miss the whole joy, the whole dance that was there. Now it is a desert. They have said, "It is absolutely futile; it is better we should leave."

The desire of the American government is that once these sannyasins leave, then the property is theirs. These are the greedy people.

I have been so disillusioned in America, that the richest country in the world is so poor and so criminal. It is not only in other countries, it is the same all over the world. And the reason is very strange: because for thousands of years man has been told to renounce comfort, to renounce riches, to renounce luxuries, to renounce everything that makes you happy, the repression has become so heavy that now that repression is surfacing everywhere.

There is a limit to everything.

Those repressed people are almost insanely possessed with the desire to have all the pleasures. And the problem is, the repression pulls them to have all the pleasures and their religion pulls them back, saying that it is against God. Religions have turned man into a schizophrenic.

I say to you, enjoy your life with totality, without any guilt. Because life is from existence, and the idea of guilt is man-made -- and made by the primitive man, who had no idea what comfort is, what luxury is, what beauty is.

THOUGH ITS HANDS ARE SILKEN, ITS HEART IS OF IRON.

It is true. If you get caught and become a slave of your desires, you are getting into a trouble you are not aware of.

THOUGH ITS HANDS ARE SILKEN, ITS HEART IS OF IRON.

But what is the need to get caught in desires? Use them -- they are your servants. Everything that science has produced is to serve you; everything that man's genius has created is to make your life more joyous, more happy, more healthy. But they are all your servants; your mastery remains untouched.

The problem arises only when mind becomes your master. Then you are imprisoned. And if you don't know anything beyond mind, you are not acquainted with yourself and your mastery. I want you to use the mind as a servant, and use your consciousness as a master.

As a servant, mind is beautiful. As a master, it is a monster.

It is in your hands.

And the religions were trying to renounce the world because they had no insight that there is no need to renounce when you can be the master here, in the world, and use the world and all its beauties and all its treasures.

IT LULLS YOU TO SLEEP ONLY TO STAND BY YOUR BED AND JEER AT THE DIGNITY OF THE FLESH.

All this happens for a single reason. You don't have many problems, your problem is only one, and that is how not to be inside the mind. Being outside, the mind immediately becomes your servant. And this I am saying to you on my own authority, on my own experience. I am not a philosopher and I am not a poet.

I have lived life, I have tasted all its joys and all its sorrows. But I continued to search for something that is beyond the mind, because if I cannot find something beyond the mind then the whole life becomes meaningless. Death will destroy everything, because mind is part of the body -- so is the heart. Before death knocks on your doors you have to find within you something which is deathless. And once you have found it you are the master of your own destiny. Then there is no need to renounce.

That's why I am against renunciation. That is for the cowards and the escapists; it is not for the people who have some dignity, some individuality, some intelligence.

IT MAKES MOCK OF YOUR SOUND SENSES...

If you are imprisoned in the mind it does two things: one, it mocks your senses. That's why your saints try in every possible way to dull their sensitivity. And a man who is not sensitive -- sensitive to beauty, sensitive to all the mysteries that surround him -- is not alive. Each of your senses is nothing but an extension of your consciousness.

If mind is not allowed to interfere, your eyes will see that which cannot be seen, and your ears will hear that which cannot be heard, and your hands will touch that which is intangible.

But mind works both ways: on the one hand it goes on destroying the body....

In India there was a great poet, Surdas. He was a great musician; hence his name, meaning that he was the master of the musical notes. Of course he must have been a very sensitive man -- all creative people are sensitive. But he was also a monk, and one day he saw a very beautiful woman. He had gone to beg and the woman came out of the house and he became so much afraid of his eyes... because the beauty of the woman was almost a hypnotic force.

Next day, he came to the same door. He had pulled out both his eyes and on a plate he offered his eyes to the woman. Blood was still flowing. The woman could not believe, she was so shocked. She said, "What has happened?"

He said, "It is not your fault, it was the fault of my eyes. They should not be so interested in beauty, because the scriptures say if you listen to the senses your life is going to be ruined by sensuality." Up to then he had been just an ordinary beggar, but suddenly because he had destroyed his eyes, he became a great saint. Now he is worshipped.

And this is what your saints have been doing all over the world -- destroy your sensitivity, afraid that if you allow your senses freedom you may become a slave. But I say all their reasoning is absurd. Even if you destroy your eyes you cannot destroy your lust. I am absolutely certain that Surdas must have continued to dream of that beautiful woman, because for dreaming eyes are not needed -- neither are glasses.

The whole past has lived in a paranoia. We have to destroy it completely, mercilessly, because that is the only way to get free of it, and to be reborn and to see the sun and the moon with fresh eyes, and to eat with taste.

Jainism makes it one of its basic principles that you should not eat with taste, and Gandhi has borrowed all the five principles from Jainism. First is aswad, tastelessness -- you should eat without any taste. What are you asking of human beings? And to make the food tasteless, he was mixing in every food the bitter leaves of a tree called neem. You should taste it at least once, because those few neurotics -- not more than twenty -- who lived in Gandhi's ashram, had to eat a sauce, a cupful, of neem leaves. Just one leaf makes the mouth so bitter that the bitterness continues for hours -- and this is "religious discipline."

No falling in love was allowed in Mahatma Gandhi's ashram, no tea was allowed in Mahatma Gandhi's ashram. Such innocent things... tea or coffee. But because you enjoy them, that is the problem. Your enjoyment has to be destroyed completely. You should live like a corpse, a ghost who has no senses, no body.

On one hand the mind destroys the senses and on the other hand it does not allow you to reach to the master of the house. And this enemy is being nourished by all religions, by all governments, by all those who are against man and his evolution.

VERILY THE LUST FOR COMFORT MURDERS THE PASSION OF THE SOUL, AND THEN WALKS GRINNING IN THE FUNERAL.

How can comfort murder the passion of the soul? If it can do anything it can intensify it. If the body can enjoy so much, how much will be the blissfulness of the soul? The body is the beginning of your search for blissfulness. From pleasure to blissfulness... there is no contradiction. Live the life of your body with totality and intensity. That's what I have called the Zorba. That very joy will make you aware that life cannot be just this much; that very pleasure of the body and the senses will take you on the pilgrimage in the search of something more. And there is no end to the search.

There are caravanserais, overnight stays. But go on searching and you will find that the abundance of existence is so much you cannot exhaust it.

BUT YOU CHILDREN OF SPACE, YOU RESTLESS IN REST, YOU SHALL NOT BE TRAPPED NOR TAMED.

He is saying something right. But it seems it is borrowed, because he is not giving you the key. Just to tell someone, "Laugh!"... but the person will say, "At least give me some clue -- for what? Laughing for nothing, you yourself will condemn me."

He says: ...children of space... you shall not be trapped nor tamed. Perfectly right, but everybody is tamed and everybody is trapped. Now the question is not that you should not be, the question is how to come out of all these traps. Even Kahlil Gibran is not out of the traps; he remained a Christian his whole life. That is a condemnation of all his poetry. If he had really understood what he was saying he should have renounced Christianity.

A man should not be in chains; even if the chains are made of gold it makes no difference. Whether the chains are made in the name of Jesus Christ or in the name of Gautam Buddha, chains are chains. Prisons are prisons. But he remained chained, and I feel really sorry for him because he was not a man to be so easily lost. In him I can see clearly the possibility of a Gautam Buddha, but remaining a Christian he missed.

And that is the reason why his books are not on the blacklist of the pope. My books are on the blacklist -- no Catholic should read them, it is a sin.

But everybody in the land of Italy is not dead. The Radical Party of Italy has invited me to be their president, and I am going to accept their invitation. Just with one suggestion: why keep the Radical Party confined to Italy? Make it the International Radical Party, so all my rebellious people can become part of it. Because seeing the ugliness of politicians, I have to make arrangements....

YOUR HOUSE SHALL BE NOT AN ANCHOR BUT A MAST.

But he goes on talking about the house. He must have been a mason in his past life, who knows only how to make a house. What he says is right, but before a house can become a mast, it will become -- it will HAVE to become -- a home. It will have to become a temple; only then it can become a mast. He is missing essential steps.

IT SHALL NOT BE A GLISTENING FILM THAT COVERS A WOUND, BUT AN EYELID THAT GUARDS THE EYE.

YOU SHALL NOT FOLD YOUR WINGS THAT YOU MAY PASS THROUGH DOORS, NOR BEND YOUR HEADS THAT THEY STRIKE NOT AGAINST A CEILING, NOR FEAR TO BREATHE LEST WALLS SHOULD CRACK AND FALL DOWN.

But his whole life he never behaved like what he is saying. If you had met him you would not have been impressed at all. On the contrary, you would have thought, "It would have been a great blessing if I had never seen this man." Just ordinary, Christian; once in a while he flies high but he comes back with a great thump on the earth. He does not have the wings....

YOU SHALL NOT DWELL IN TOMBS MADE BY THE DEAD FOR THE LIVING.

And where was he living?

What is a church? -- a tomb two thousand years old. What is a HOLY BIBLE? -- a book written by the dead. What are other scriptures of other religions? -- a very ugly desire of the dead to go on ruling over those who will be coming to live on the earth.

And they are ruling. I have been facing case after case in court because I have spoken against some dead man. Perhaps five thousand years before, he died, and there are still idiots who are following him. And if I want to help them to get rid of the dead... I know you love your mother, you love your father, but that does not mean that when they die you should go on carrying them on your shoulders all your life.

I know you will be sad and you will be in deep sorrow, but still -- the dead body of your mother or father or beloved has to be given to the fire or to the grave. You cannot keep it in the house.

But what about your mind? Your mind is nothing but a graveyard. Thousands of dead people are ruling, dominating, conducting your life.

AND THOUGH OF MAGNIFICENCE AND SPLENDOR, YOUR HOUSE SHALL NOT HOLD YOUR SECRET NOR SHELTER YOUR LONGING.

FOR THAT WHICH IS BOUNDLESS IN YOU ABIDES IN THE MANSION OF THE SKY...

No.

Three times no!

The boundless does not abide in the skies, it abides within you.

This is what he is condemning by saying "Don't be dominated by the dead." But that's what all the dead of the whole world have believed, that the God abides high above in heaven.

I say unto you: there is no God anywhere else except within you.

God is the very center of your life and your consciousness.

Make your body a temple of God.

FOR THAT WHICH IS BOUNDLESS IN YOU ABIDES IN THE MANSION OF THE SKY, WHOSE DOOR IS THE MORNING MIST, AND WHOSE WINDOWS ARE THE SONGS AND THE SILENCES OF NIGHT.

Beautiful words, but empty of content. Great poetry but without any experience. So whenever you read Kahlil Gibran, or anyone else, remember: don't become a victim of the beauty of expression.

Experience is the only thing that can liberate you, awaken you, and can make you a part of the immortal ocean of existence and life.

I have been saying that this city is the city of the dead, but every day letters are coming -- and certainly dead people don't write letters -- and they show life and understanding. Just yesterday I received another letter from the Mayor of Poona:

"With my deepest love and pleasure I wish to state that OSHO, presently residing at 17 Koregaon Park, Poona, in my home constituency, is undoubtedly an enlightened person. His authoritative views on religion are most needed in these turbulent times. He is one of the well-versed, great mystics and a spiritual master of our time. His conduct and loving behavior cannot and has never created any legal problems, nor has he ever been found guilty in any provisions of criminal law. In fact, his teachings are conducive to creating a very peaceful and tranquil atmosphere in the present circumstances when the country as a whole is passing through a very disturbed state."

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.

Kahlil-Gibrans-Prophet

THE MESSIAH, VOL 1

Chapter-17

The boundless within you