Pythagoras, The golden verses of Pythagoras, Vol. 2 Philosophia Perennis Chapter 11: Only God Is

... THAT THESE UNFORTUNATES SEEK AFAR THE GOODNESS WHOSE SOURCE WITHIN THEY BEAR.

FOR FEW KNOW HAPPINESS: PLAYTHINGS OF THE PASSIONS, HITHER; HITHER TOSSED BY ADVERSE WAVES, UPON A SHORELESS SEA, THEY BLINDED ROLL, UNABLE TO RESIST OR TO THE TEMPEST YIELD.

GOD! THOU COULDST SAVE THEM BY OPENING THEIR EYES.

BUT NO: 'TIS FOR THE HUMANS OF A RACE DIVINE TO DISCERN ERROR, AND TO SEE THE TRUTH.

NATURE SERVES THEM....

... THOU WHO FATHOMED IT. O WISE AND HAPPY MAN, REST IN ITS HAVEN. BUT OBSERVE MY LAWS, ABSTAINING FROM THE THINGS WHICH THY SOUL MUST FEAR, DISTINGUISHING THEM WELL; LETTING INTELLIGENCE O'ER THY BODY REIGN.

SO THAT, ASCENDING INTO RADIANT ETHER, MIDST THE IMMORTALS, THOU SHALT BE THYSELF A GOD.

THE LAST SUTRAS OF PYTHAGORAS ON PERFECTION.... The first thing to be remembered: that perfection is not a goal. No enlightened person has ever been goal-oriented; he cannot be. Goal-orientation is the way of the mind. Mind exists through goals, mind exists in the future, mind exists in ambition. Mind is always an achieving mind.

The enlightened person lives in no-mind. No-mind is enlightenment. Hence, the enlightened one cannot be goal-oriented; he has no future, for him all is present. And that's why he's continuously misunderstood. He talks of the present but people hear him through their minds, and minds immediately distort. Minds immediately change it into a goal, into some idea that has to be achieved in the future.

Perfection is not a goal but a reality. It has not to be achieved but only recognized. All that is needed is a recognition of something which is already present. You ARE perfect -- it is not that you have to become perfect. There is no should implied in it; you are already it. It has only to be recognized, you have to become alert to it, you have to be aware of it -- what you are. Perfection is already the case.

But people go on making it a goal. They say, "We have to be perfect. We have to become enlightened. We have to attain nirvana. We have to enter into paradise." They make a faraway beautiful goal and then the mind can continue.

Mind needs future -- any kind of future will do. You have to become rich, you have to become powerful, you have to become beautiful, you have to become wise, you have to become enlightened -- it doesn't matter. If BECOMING IS there, mind will persist. And the persistence of mind is your whole misery. It keeps you tense. It keeps you in anxiety, anguish, a continuous fear of missing the goal. It keeps you greedy -- a continuous lust to attain the goal. And whatever the goal is, it does not matter -- money or God, success or samadhi -- it doesn't matter at all.

Let it sink deep in your heart: wherever the goal is, the mind is; wherever the future is, the mind is. Tomorrow is another name for the mind. Tomorrow exists nowhere else except in the mind; they are dependent on each other. If you drop tomorrows, mind will simply evaporate; it cannot exist.

Mind has no present tense; it cannot be herenow, so it goes on giving you new ideas. If you are tired of the world it says there is another world. If you are tired of this life it says, "Don't be worried, there is an after-life -- but go on running."

Stephen Crane has written these beautiful lines:

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;

Round and round they sped.

I was disturbed at this;

I accosted the man.

"It is futile," I said.

"You can never..."

"You lie!" he cried,

And ran on.

This running, this continuous running after the horizon which exists nowhere, which is an illusion... but it appears to be there. And so close and so alluring, so tempting, so magnetic, and SO close, that it seems just a little effort, just a little effort more.... It is just a few miles ahead. And it is so clearly there, so radiantly there -- how can you remain untempted? It appears within reach, but you can go on running and running... you will never arrive. The distance between you and the horizon will always remain the same, because the horizon exists nowhere except in your mind. It is an appearance, it is an illusion. All goals are illusory -- worldly, other-worldly. To be herenow is the way of being in truth, in reality.

So this is the first thing to be remembered, otherwise Pythagoras will be misunderstood by you, Pythagoras will be distorted by your mind. You will start thinking, "How to become perfect?" It is not a question of becoming -- you are already perfect. Perfection is your being. Becoming is running after a goal; being is relaxing into your nature, relaxing herenow, resting in the moment... and suddenly that which was not available becomes available. You were not aware of it; suddenly you are awakened to it. Perfection is an awakening.

... THAT THESE UNFORTUNATES SEEK AFAR THE GOODNESS WHOSE SOURCE WITHIN THEY BEAR.

Pythagoras calls those people unfortunates who live in the mind, in the becoming, in the tomorrows. And when you live in the tomorrows you automatically also live in the yesterdays. They go together, they are not separate -- the yesterday and the tomorrow. And you are sandwiched between these two falsities. The yesterday is no more and the tomorrow is not yet. The yesterday is gone forever and tomorrow never comes. Between the two is the present moment.

Jesus says: Look at the lilies in the field -- how beautiful they are! They think not of the morrow; they live in the here-now. And even Solomon, attired in all his grandeur, was not so beautiful.

To be herenow is to be attired in divine glory. To be herenow is to attain the splendour of existence. To be herenow is to be in bliss, is to be in paradise.

... THAT THESE UNFORTUNATES

SEEK AFAR THE GOODNESS WHOSE SOURCE WITHIN THEY BEAR.

Pythagoras says: Those people who go on seeking and searching for something far away are unfortunates, cursed. And nobody has cursed them; they have cursed themselves. Nobody has planned their unfortunate life; they are solely responsible for it. That is their whole invention, their own invention.

Your misery is your invention: your bliss is your nature. Misery needs much effort, it has to be planned, it has to be earned. It is going against nature, hence it is very arduous. It is going upstream. It is a continuous conflict with nature.

Nature knows no future, nature is always here. Nature is always THIS moment and nothing else. The trees are growing this moment and the rivers are flowing this moment. Everything is happening this moment, except your mind. Even your body is growing this moment. Your blood is circulating this moment, your heart is beating this moment. Except your mind everything is herenow. Mind is far away.

And this mind is the root cause of your misery. It is not because of past karmas that you are suffering, no. It is not that God has destined you to suffer, no. It is not because Adam and Eve committed sin that you are suffering, no. These are tricks to avoid the responsibility -- then anything will do: Adam and Eve. Poor Adam and Eve, and they become scapegoats. Or if that parable loses vitality, as every parable, every metaphor does as time passes by, as it becomes a cliche, it loses potential, power, then you create new ideas.

Then the theory of karma -- that in the past lives you have done so many wrong things, that's why you are suffering. Don't blame your past lives. You were the same in your past lives; you were suffering then too. Your suffering has a cause herenow; it is not in the past lives. This is just unburdening yourself, and very dangerous is this unburdening because then you will never change, you will remain the same. What can you do about the past lives? They are gone, nothing can be done. You have to suffer.

Or kismet -- fate.... Nobody is doing you any harm, God is not evil; God has not preordained you to suffer. If this was so, then God would have been a sadist, pathological, far worse than any devil -- preordaining innocent people to suffer for no reason at all? Then existence would have been very unjust, unfair, not worth living. And religion would have been a mockery. God has not preordained, predestined you to suffer. But that, too, by and by lost its potential over people's minds. It was repeated too often. Then the theory of karma was dropped. Then the idea of predestiny was dropped.

Now we have invented new ideas. Karl Marx is against religion but basically he is not different. He says it is historical necessity. Again, in other words, the same idea of fate. Your suffering is predetermined by history -- you are suffering because of an economic fate, because of class struggle. And unless classes disappear, suffering cannot disappear. Again you are unburdened -- what can you do? When the utopia comes, when communism comes on the earth, then suffering will disappear. Suffering is caused by the rich people, suffering is caused by the capitalist. But the capitalist himself is suffering. In fact, the rich people are suffering more than the poor. Why? -- because the rich people have all that one needs not to suffer and yet they see the futility of it, the utter futility of it. Their suffering is tremendous.

The poor person suffers because he is hungry. The rich person suffers, not because he is hungry, but because now he knows that you may have a good house, good food, a good wife, a cozy family, a warm atmosphere, and still inside you ARE hungry -- a spiritual hunger. Life is meaningless, pointless, accidental, empty. A great suffering arises. The poor suffers physiologically; the rich suffers psychologically.

Why are the rich suffering? If it is only a question of richness, then the rich should not suffer. But it is again an alibi, a rationalization, so that you can continue in your old ways and your old patterns. That too proved to be another fallacy; now it too has become a cliche.

Then Sigmund Freud invented something else. He said, "It is because of your unconscious instincts, passions that you have carried from your animalhood -- it is because of those wounds in the unconscious that man is suffering." Now what can you do about the unconscious?

These are just different names for the same trick, the same strategy, "I am not responsible. Something else.... The unconscious, history, economics, God, fate, karma, anything will do -- XYZ -- anything will do. But one thing is certain, that I am not the cause of my suffering." And that is where your whole misery lies, in that trick.

UNDERSTAND WELL: you are the cause of your suffering, nobody else. To recognize this is the first step into being a religious person. You don't throw your responsibility onto others, you simply recognize the fact that "I am the cause of my suffering." And with that, of course, you will feel a little sad, you will look a little stupid. If you are the cause, then why do you go on creating suffering for yourself? -- because you don't LIKE to suffer.

In the beginning you will feel a little sad, stupid, puzzled, confused. But soon you will feel a great freedom. If you are the cause of your misery, then you can be the cause of your blessing, of your bliss; then great freedom is attained. When one takes responsibility on oneself, one becomes free. You become free from past karma, you become free from fate, kismet, you become free from history, you become free from psychology. You become free from ALL excuses. And once you have pinpointed the real cause, things start changing.

... THAT THESE UNFORTUNATES SEEK AFAR THE GOODNESS WHOSE SOURCE WITHIN THEY BEAR.

We are searching for bliss, we are searching for happiness, but very far away, in faraway lands, in utopias, in fantasy, we are dreaming. And life remains a suffering, and we go on dreaming about better lands, better states of the society, better states after life -- paradise, moksha. These are all fantasies! They are created by us so we can bear our suffering, so hope remains. But this is very unfortunate. It is because of this hope that you remain in a hopeless state. It is because of this seeking that you go on missing. Lao Tzu says: "Seek and you will miss." Why? -- "Seek and you will miss." Because it is INSIDE you. It can be found only when all seeking ceases.

Seeking means you are running after something, some shadow, some illusion, some dream, some desire. And when you are occupied with some dream you cannot look within. You cannot look into the seeker when you are running after the sought, you cannot turn in. Your eyes are focussed on the horizon. You remain an extrovert -- you cannot look within because you have become obsessed with the without.

The without becomes your whole life from birth to death -- not even a single empty moment when you can rest and relax to feel who this seeker in you is.

A Zen Master was talking to his disciples and somebody, a stranger who was not aware of the Master's way, had also come to listen. And the Master said, "You need not go anywhere, you need not seek, you need not even inquire."

The stranger who was in the audience could not understand, because he had always understood religion as a seeking, as a search, as an inquiry, a search for truth, seeking God, an inquiry into reality. "And what is this man saying? -- no inquiry, no search, no seeking?" He stood up and he said, "What are you talking about? What are you teaching to these people? Without seeking, how am I ever going to find myself?

The Master stepped down from the podium, went into the audience, took hold of the stranger by his collar, and shook him hard. The stranger was even more puzzled. "What kind of man is this?" For a moment his thinking stopped because he was not expecting such an act on the Master's side -- he was looking like a ferocious lion, dangerous. His thinking stopped for a moment. In such moments it happens.

And the Master said, "This is it! Without seeking, without inquiry -- you ARE it! "

This is it! And whenever your mind stops, you will find it. It is not a question of searching and seeking. It is a question of relaxing into your own self. Search means going out -- of necessity, search means going out. And the Lord of Lords abides within. You are Gods, just unaware, fallen asleep in your seeking. Your seeking is your sleep.

... THAT THESE UNFORTUNATES SEEK AFAR THE GOODNESS WHOSE SOURCE WITHIN THEY BEAR.

Jesus goes on saying again and again: "The kingdom of God is within you." But Christians go on seeking God outside. Jesus has repeated this statement so many times, but it still seems that nobody has heard it. If the kingdom of God is within you then you need not go anywhere, a single step outside and you will be going away from the kingdom. You will not be coming closer to the kingdom. Seeking means going away. Lao Tzu is right: "Seek and you will miss. Do not seek and find immediately," he says.

Just think of those beautiful moments when you are not doing anything. Yes, everybody has tasted it a little bit. They come in spite of you, they come as gifts from God. You may not have recognized them. Some day, just taking a sunbath on the seashore, doing nothing, just being... and suddenly existence changes its quality. There is joy, for no reason at all! It starts welling up within you. There is no cause for it, no outside cause; something is happening inside you. Resting in the sun, in the wind, suddenly you are transported to another world, to another realm, to another dimension of your being.

Man can be in two states: becoming and being. Becoming is misery, being is bliss. Becoming is going out, being is coming back home. Becoming is seeking, being is non-seeking. Becoming makes you miserable, makes you unfortunate. Learn the ways of being. Some day, looking at the sunset, you have felt it -- for a moment, just for a moment, like lightning a flash comes and goes. Holding the hand of your beloved, your friend, sometimes that taste has come to you, the taste of bliss. Sometimes just looking at a flower and something has opened up within you; the flower triggered a flowering in you. And sometimes looking at the stars something started shining within you -- those stars started reflecting in your consciousness, you became a starry night. And there was joy, and there was immense celebration, and there was a song born in your heart.

It comes and goes, because you don't know the art of remaining in that moment forever. It comes in spite of you. But you can invite it, you can invite it consciously. And then, slowly slowly, you can learn the knack of being in that moment, or entering into that moment whenever you want. Then even in the marketplace you can enter into that space any time you want; any time you relax it is there. Then even when you are in the turmoil of the world you can go into your deepest core and be rejuvenated.

You are the center of the cyclone and you. are living as the cyclone and you have forgotten the center completely. Becoming is the cyclone, being is the center. And we all live on the circumference, hence we are miserable, sad, serious, joyless, juiceless. Come back home.

FOR FEW KNOW HAPPINESS...

WHY? IT IS EVERYBODY'S BIRTHRIGHT! To be happy is a natural phenomenon. Look at the trees, look at nature -- everything is happy. Happiness is simply the case. Only man has fallen apart, only man has taken a new route -- the mind. Only man has developed dreaming and has gone further and further away from his being.

FOR FEW KNOW HAPPINESS...

It is everybody's birthright but only a few know it. Once in a while a Buddha, a Jesus, a Mohammed, a Pythagoras, a Patanjali -- only once in a while. It should not be so! This is a very pathological state. Just think: you have millions of plants in your garden and only once in a while one plant brings one flower. What kind of a gardener are you? And what kind of garden is this?

If we understand a little bit, if we look inside a little bit, just the reverse will be the case: only once in a while will you find a man who has missed bliss -- only once in a while. The world should be full of Buddhas! Only once in a while will you find a man who has not known it, who has not lived it. That can be understood, that once in a while a man has missed. But this is completely non-understandable: that EVERYBODY IS missing.

And the people who don't miss are misunderstood -- not only misunderstood but destroyed. The people who have eyes are destroyed by the blind. The people who are healthy and whole are destroyed by the ill and the pathological, because the pathological is in the majority. Of course democratically he is decisive.

Before Jesus was crucified, Pontius Pilate asked the people... because it was the tradition in those days that on certain holidays one person could be forgiven. There were four persons on that day to be crucified. It was a holiday: three thieves and one Jesus -- four persons were to be killed. Pontius Pilate was hoping that people would ask for Jesus to be forgiven, because he had looked into Jesus' eyes and found simple innocence and nothing else.

When he had asked Jesus, "What is truth?" Jesus had not answered, he had not uttered a single word. He remained simply quiet, silent, just a pool of restfulness, just serenity he was. That was his answer. And Pontius Pilate COULD understand it -- truth cannot be said but only shown. He could feel the presence of the man. He was innocent, childlike; he was tremendously beautiful. And Pontius Pilate was feeling a little guilty to crucify this beautiful man. But the crowd was asking to kill him; the crowd was very thirsty for his blood. He was hoping that finally he would be able to persuade people to forgive this man. He asked, but they all shouted, "Forgive any one of the three thieves, but not Jesus. He has to be crucified! "

What had he done? What wrong had he done?

And one thief was released, but Jesus was killed. What was the crime of this man? His crime was this: that he was blissful amongst people who didn't know what bliss is. His crime was that he was truthful amongst people who lived in lies. His crime was this: that he was innocent amongst people who were cunning. His crime was this: that he had eyes amongst people who were blind. And the blind were offended, and they have ALWAYS been offended.

They were offended by Pythagoras. They are offended by me! They have always been offended. And the simple reason is that whenever a man like Jesus or Pythagoras walks amongst people, his height makes them feel like pigmies; his depth makes them feel so shallow that they cannot forgive him. They have to destroy this man. It feels as if this man is offending, hurting them, because "If he can attain such bliss then why can't I? If he can live in the kingdom of God then why can't I?" Great jealousy is aroused.

This is strange. People should learn the art when there is a man who is blissful -- but, on the contrary, they become jealous. They become so jealous that a great murderous thirst arises in them.

FOR FEW KNOW HAPPINESS: PLAYTHINGS OF THE PASSIONS, HITHER, THITHER TOSSED BY ADVERSE WAVES, UPON A SHORELESS SEA, THEY BLINDED ROLL, UNABLE TO RESIST OR TO THE TEMPEST YIELD.

This is the situation of the so-called normal man -- he is not normal at all. Buddha is normal, Pythagoras is normal, because they are natural, hence they are normal. But the word 'normal' has another meaning too: it comes from 'norm' -- average. Normal in ordinary language means the average. Then Buddha is abnormal; then he's not normal, he is not the norm. Then Pythagoras is abnormal. And the millions who are known as normal are not normal at all, because they are not natural. They are in the majority, true, but truth needs no votes; it does not depend on votes.

Galileo was alone when he said that the earth moves around the sun, not vice versa. The whole world had believed for millennia that the sun moves around the earth. Still in language the old habit persists: we say 'sunset', 'sunrise' -- still. And I think this is going to persist. The sun never rises and never sets, it is simply there; only we go on round and round around it. When Galileo said it for the first time, of course, the church and the state were offended. He was forced to go into court and he was asked by the priests to apologize, because "How can you dare? Millions of people forever and ever have believed. How can so many people be wrong and you alone right? Have you gone mad? What kind of egoist are you?"

Galileo must have been a tremendously beautiful man, not at all pathological. He said, "Okay, then I apologize. But my apology won't make much difference -- the earth will still go on round and round the sun. My apology will not make ANY difference. I can apologize. I can say, 'Yes, the sun goes round the earth,' but let me remind you, this won't make any difference at all. Things will remain as they are."

He was told, "How can so many people be wrong?"

But truth is not decided by voting. It is not a question of how many people believe in it. It has always been an individual experience. Pythagoras knows it -- he has experienced it. The knowing depends on his experiencing, not on your votes. Truth cannot be decided democratically. Truth still remains aristocratic, because it is based, rooted in individual experience; it is not of the mob and the herd.

FOR FEW KNOW HAPPINESS: PLAYTHINGS OF THE PASSIONS...

And what is the situation of the ordinary person in the world?

HITHER, THITHER TOSSED BY ADVERSE WAVES...

YOU CAN WATCH YOUR OWN MIND, what kind of state you live in. You don't have one mind -- the first thing to be understood -- you have many minds. You don't have a single self, you have many many small selves. You are a crowd inside. Outside there is a crowd, and inside there is a crowd. You are really crowded! You are poly-psychic; many minds exist in you. And you can see it: one moment you are so loving and another moment you are so full of hatred. You don't have any individuality, you don't have any integrity. One moment you can be trusted, another moment you cannot be trusted at all -- because one moment one mind functions in you, another moment another mind has come on top in you. You are like a wheel moving: one moment one spoke is on the top, another moment it has gone down, another spoke has come on the top. And this goes on, this wheel goes on moving.

Before going to sleep you decide, "Tomorrow morning I am going to get up at five o'clock." At five o'clock you say, "All nonsense -- who cares?" You take another turn, you tuck yourself up well, back into the blanket, and fall asleep. In the morning again you repent. You say, "What happened?" And you have been doing this your whole life: deciding and cancelling. In fact, the reality is: the mind that had decided in the evening was not there at five o'clock. It was another mind who said, "All nonsense. Who cares?"

And then again when you were taking your breakfast and feeling very bad... mm? because you have again cheated yourself, deceived yourself. You have again failed; in your own eyes you look unworthy. You could not manage to do a small thing of getting up at five o'clock. You feel very very bad because you don't have any will, not even such a small will. You feel impotent, hence great repentance arises in you. But this is again another mind -- it may be the third mind -- and this way round and round you go.

You love the person and you hate the same person. In the morning you are a lover, by the evening you are the enemy. One moment you would like to DIE for the other person if it is needed. And after just a few moments you may even be ready to kill the person. Both are your possibilities.

You are not one, you are not crystallized, you are not centered, you are not an individual. You are not yet one mind, one self. And that is how you are living: tossed hither and thither by adverse waves. You are just a plaything of passions. You don't know what you are doing and why you are doing it. You simply go on doing things like a robot, as if somebody else goes on pulling your strings. You are not a master of your own self -- you are a driftwood...

UPON A SHORELESS SEA, THEY BLINDED ROLL, UNABLE TO RESIST OR TO THE TEMPEST YIELD.

Neither can you resist the temptation nor can you yield to it. You are always half-half, you are never total in anything. If you are total in anything, immediately you will become an individual. Totality brings individuality. But you are partial in everything. Only a part goes into it, only to a certain extent do you go, and then you stop yourself -- only so far. You live a lukewarm life; you are neither cold nor hot.

Coldness has its own beauty and heat has its own beauty, but you are neither: you are just lukewarm. And to live a lukewarm life is to live a very lousy life. You don't know what intensity is, what totality is. You don't know any moment in which you were drowned totally, utterly lost. If you had known that moment you would have known prayer. Drowned, drunk, lost, totally, one hundred percent -- you would have known prayer, your life would have changed. You would have become a new man, you would have been reborn.

Or, if you had known TOTAL aloneness, remembrance -- full remembrance, just awareness and nothing else, one hundred percent awareness, not lost at all -- then you would have known what meditation is and that would have changed you.

Prayer means: lost totally, drowned totally, surrendered totally, nothing is being held back, you have gone one hundred percent into it -- ANYTHING, and it becomes prayer. If in your dance you can go one hundred percent into it, it becomes prayer. Making love, if you can go one hundred percent into it, it becomes prayer. Anything! It doesn't matter what it is.... The quality of prayer comes by being one hundred percent into it; you have forgotten yourself utterly, you are a drunkard.

Prayer is the way of the drunkard, the way of the lover -- one who can abandon himself, one who can cease to be, one who is ready to evaporate. It is the way of trust. But ninety-nine percent won't do, not even ninety-nine-point-nine percent, no. It has to be one hundred percent.

And the other pole is meditation: one hundred percent remembrance, mindfulness, awareness; you are just pure light. It is the way of being alert, aware, watchful, of being a witness. It is the path of the alone.

In prayer two are implied -- the lover and the beloved. That's why Sufis call God the Beloved. Zen has no idea of God at all. Buddha says there is no God, there is no need. On the path of meditation God is not needed, because meditation is not a relationship -- prayer is. Prayer is relating. Meditation is total freedom, aloneness, the flight of the alone to the alone. There is no other, so there is no question of drowning yourself, but one hundred percent mindfulness will be needed -- less than that won't do. And you become transformed. Whenever you are one hundred percent alive, at the optimum, the revolution happens.

But as people are ordinarily, they are never one hundred percent in anything. They are hotchpotch, they are always mixed. And the mixture keeps them in a contradiction: one part going to the south, another part going to the north, and they are constantly in strain and stress. Neither can they resist nor can they yield, and these are the two ways to attain perfection: either resist totally -- that is the way of meditation -- or yield totally -- that is the way of love. But people remain half-half, divided. And a house divided against itself is bound to fall sooner or later.

GOD! THOU COULDST SAVE THEM BY OPENING THEIR EYES.

IT IS A TREMENDOUSLY SIGNIFICANT STATEMENT. It is significant because Pythagoras does not stop at it. Sufism ends on this, the path of love ends on this. Pythagoras still goes on. He mentions it, but he is not the man of prayer -- he is the man of meditation. He is a Buddha, not a Bahauddin. He is a Mahavira, not a Meera. But he mentions it, he mentions:

GOD! THOU COULDST SAVE THEM BY OPENING THEIR EYES.

The man of prayer will stop here. There is no need for him to go any further. If this treatise had been written by the man of prayer, this would have been the last sutra -- then there is no other possibility of going anywhere. Prayer is the end. Prayer is the full point. This is prayer:

GOD! THOU COULDST SAVE THEM BY OPENING THEIR EYES.

What else can be done? One can pray to God: "Open our eyes. Open the eyes of all these people -- who are not born blind but are behaving as if they were blind, because they go on keeping their eyes closed."

The path of love is a prayer to the whole: "Only you can do something. We are small, tiny parts, nothing is possible on our own." But then one has to depend totally... and it happens. Then one has not to make any effort of any sort, then one has to simply surrender. And in that very surrendering -- the happening. In that very surrendering -- the transcendence. It is not that when you surrender, surrender will function as a cause and transcendence will come as an effect, no! The moment you surrender, the happening is simultaneous. Surrender AND transcendence happen together, INSTANTLY in the same moment. There is no gap between them.

But Pythagoras is not a man of prayer. He has to go on. He says:

BUT NO: 'TIS FOR THE HUMANS OF A RACE DIVINE TO DISCERN ERROR AND TO SEE THE TRUTH.

It seems as if off-guard he uttered this sentence:

GOD! THOU COULDST SAVE THEM BY OPENING THEIR EYES.

... as if off-guard he uttered this sentence. This is alien to his spirit. Or maybe he mentioned it just as a reminder that that too is a way. But that is not HIS way, so he immediately denies it. He says:

BUT NO: 'TIS FOR THE HUMANS OF A RACE DIVINE TO DISCERN ERROR, AND TO SEE THE TRUTH.

"No, we don't ask you, we cannot ask you. Even if I have asked, please don't do it. We have to do it on our own. We have to make all kinds of efforts to purify ourselves. We have to dig deep wells into our beings to discover the source of life. Please, don't you come in. Don't do it."

Buddha never prayed. Mahavira never prayed. Prayer does not cross their ways. They made every effort that is humanly possible, every possible effort -- one hundred percent. They risked ALL in the effort, and in that risking they became aware. They were cleansed, purified. Their unconscious disappeared, they became only consciousness. In that consciousness is the transcendence. They remembered themselves.

Pythagoras belongs to the same path as Mahavira, Buddha, Patanjali, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu. He does not belong to the other path: Krishna, Zarathustra, Jesus, Mohammed, Meera. But both paths are valid, and each one has to choose his own path, each one has to decide what his type is. Each one has to look into himself for his own leanings.

There are people for whom love is so natural that meditation will be very difficult. They will be going upstream, against their nature. There is no need! For lovers it is enough to be in love with existence, to be in a prayerful state with existence, to be in deep thankfulness, gratitude, and leave everything to God -- to be in a let-go and allow him to do. And it happens: if the part allows, the whole immediately takes over. But it happens the other way too: if the part tries totally, then too it happens.

But remember, that does not mean that God's help does not come to the meditator, no. The help comes unasked for. The help ALWAYS comes. And it comes to the lover, but it comes through asking. That's why Jesus says: "Ask and it shall be given unto you. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you." It comes through asking, the lover invites, the lover calls, prays, weeps, cries. The lover is like a small child crying for the mother. It comes to the meditator also, but unasked it comes.

BUT NO: 'TIS FOR THE HUMANS OF A RACE DIVINE TO DISCERN ERROR, AND TO SEE THE TRUTH.

"No need," Pythagoras says, "for you to come in. We will do it on our own. You have given us enough energy for it. You have given us the dignity to attain it. You have given us enough power to discover ourselves. To ask your help is not right -- you have already given it; we have only to discover it. You have already arranged it in such a way that if we make a little effort we will know. So no more can we ask. That is not right, that is not fair." Although:

NATURE SERVES THEM....

He says, "We are not asking, although nature goes on serving those who are making efforts on their own without asking for any help. God helps those who help themselves."

It is not a question of asking or not asking. Let me tell you: Buddha was helped by God as much as Jesus was, not a bit less. Mahavira was helped by God as much as Meera was, not a bit less. Meera asked for it, Mahavira never asked for it. The way of Mahavira is that of the masculine mind, the way of Meera is that of the feminine mind. Meera asks and is receptive. Mahavira never asks, that is against his dignity, that is against his type of mind. He will try on his own.

But the help comes all the same. It comes to those who ask, it comes to those who never ask. In fact, when you work one hundred percent on yourself, that is a way of asking without asking. When the whole sees you working so hard, so arduously, so totally, you are rewarded.

NATURE SERVES THEM....

... THOU WHO FATHOMED IT.

IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW, whether through love or through meditation.... Pythagoras says:

... THOU WHO FATHOMED IT. O WISE AND HAPPY MAN, REST IN ITS HAVEN. BUT OBSERVE MY LAWS, ABSTAINING FROM THE THINGS WHICH THY SOUL MUST FEAR, DISTINGUISHING THEM WELL, LETTING INTELLIGENCE O'ER THY BODY REIGN.

He says, "Whatsoever has been your way..." The last two sutras are for those who are coming very close... close to themselves. This sutra:

... THOU WHO FATHOMED IT.

You have perceived it, you have recognized it. It has become transparent to you.

O WISE AND HAPPY MAN...

Wisdom and happiness come together. The stupid cannot be happy. And remember by 'stupid' I don't mean only the unintellectual. The intellectual is also involved, implied. The intellectual and the non-intellectual, both go on avoiding their intelligence.

Intelligence happens only either through love or through meditation. Through love intelligence happens in the heart, and through meditation it happens in the head -- but it is the same intelligence. Its location is certainly different. That's why lovers, people of prayer, will always say that God is felt in the heart. And they are true, because that is where they first felt the arising of intelligence. It is a loving intelligence, it has the colour of love in it, because it has been reached through love.

But Patanjali says that the SAHASRAR, the ultimate, opens up in the head, the one-thousand-petalled lotus opens in the head. This creates great confusion in people: "Where does it really happen? -- in the heart or in the head?" If you listen to Patanjali it happens in the head, at the top of your head. If you listen to Bahauddin, to Jalaluddin Rumi, to A, Hillaj Mansoor, to Meera, to Chaitanya, to Saint Francis, to Teresa, then it happens in the heart -- the lotus opens there.

Now it is very confusing to people, but there is no need to be confused. There are two possibilities in you: if you follow the path of meditation, the first flare of intelligence will happen in the head, and then it spreads all over the body. But the first flame happens in the head. Then it makes you afire. But the first experience is of tremendous value, that's why one remembers it. And on the path of love, the first thing happens in the heart, the first flame. It is the SAME flame! And then the whole body becomes aflame. But the first experience of that tremendous beauty, the first taste of nectar, will always be remembered.

That's why these two centers have been talked about down the centuries. And those who don't practise either, they become confused because they cannot believe: "It must happen in one place. What is the true center? -- the heart or the head?" It is not a question of what the true center is; the question is of what path you have followed. If you have followed meditation, your intelligence will flare up in the head. Or, following love, the first fire will be enkindled in your heart. But then it spreads all over, you become it.

O WISE AND HAPPY MAN...

But whatsoever has been your way....

... THOU WHO FATHOMED IT.

O WISE AND HAPPY MAN, REST IN ITS HAVEN.

You have become wise, you have become happy, the moment to rest has come. But this is not yet the ultimate, because you are still there. Happy and wise -- but you are still there. The LAST, the very last, the subtlest of the subtle ego has remained. Now you are happy. Still you can say, 'I am happy." Now you can say. "I am wise." But 'I' is still there, VERY thin, very transparent like pure glass, nobody can see it, but it is still there.

And even the transparent glass, the MOST transparent glass, is a barrier. You can look through it, you can see the garden, you can see the flowers and the birds, you can see the sun and the clouds, everything is available AS IF there is no barrier. But if you try to reach you will suddenly see that there is still a barrier -- you are still separate. First you were a fool and you were separate. Now you are wise but still separate, because 'I' exists. First you are miserable, now you are happy, but the 'I' exists. Hence, Pythagoras says:

BUT OBSERVE MY LAWS...

Don't drop the laws yet. You have not yet transcended the ego completely.

... ABSTAINING FROM THE THINGS WHICH THY SOUL MUST FEAR, DISTINGUISHING THEM WELL; LETTING INTELLIGENCE O'ER THY BODY REIGN.

Still remember, still remain alert, still go on helping intelligence, because the last step has still to be taken. Be alert, be watchful, because you can still lose the track, you can still fall -- because you ARE! so still you can fall. You will go beyond fall only when you are not. And that is the last sutra.

SO THAT, ASCENDING INTO RADIANT ETHER, MIDST THE IMMORTALS, THOU SHALT BE THYSELF A GOD.

Wise you are, happy you are -- one step more so you become God himself, one step more so you disappear and only God is left in you.

SO THAT, ASCENDING INTO RADIANT ETHER...

This LAST fragment of the ego will still keep you tethered to the earth. It is no more an iron chain, it is a gold chain -- but chains are chains. First you were tethered to the earth by your foolishness, mediocrity, stupidity; first you were tethered to the earth by ugly chains of misery, pain. Now you are tethered to the earth by beautiful chains of happiness -- golden chains, studded with diamonds. They look no more like chains but ornaments, hence you have to be more aware because you can become too much attached to your wisdom, to your happiness. And then it can become even more fatal: the higher you come, the more dangerous becomes the fall, remember! The closer you come to the peak, just a single wrong step and you will go back down into the valley.

You know the game of Ludo -- the snakes and the ladders? In fact, that was invented by Christian mystics. It is symbolic, it is a metaphor: you rise on ladders and then some snake takes hold of you and you fall back. Only at the last stop-page is there no snake -- the last but one and the snake is still there. Unless you reach the ultimate you can still fall. From the point ninety-nine you can come to zero.

The higher you move, the more careful you have to become, because the higher pleasures are more binding, naturally. They have no poison in them; they are so purified that you will not even suspect that there can be any poison in them -- they are so delicious, so nourishing. It is very simple to become attached and remain stuck at some stage of your growth. That's what happens.

People can leave money easily; money is very gross. But if you attain to some psychic powers -- for example: you can read somebody's thoughts -- it will be very difficult to drop. It will make your ego so satisfied, so contented: you are so extraordinary that you can read thoughts.

It happened:

A disciple of a certain Master came to see another Zen Master. The disciple said to the Zen Master, "My Master can do miracles. Can you also perform miracles? My Master can do great things. Once he told me to stand on one side of the bank of a river and he went to the other side. He told me to hold a piece of paper, and I was holding a piece of paper. Far away from the other side, he started writing on it with his pen. The distance was so great, but still the writing appeared. Can you do something like this?"

The Master laughed and he said, "If your Master can only do miracles, and is not yet able NOT to do miracles, then he is not enlightened. Because to be capable of not doing miracles is the ultimate in miracles.

It is very difficult to resist the temptation when you can do something so special that nobody else can do. If you can materialize things, or if you can fly, or if you can read others' thoughts, or if you can heal people just by touching them, it will be impossible for you to resist.

It happens almost every day here: people meditating attain to many things -- for example, healing powers come very easily -- and then they immediately come to me because they become aware. somebody was suffering from a headache, they touched them and the headache disappeared immediately as if it had never been there. And once they become aware, they start coming to me saying, "Osho, great healing energy is arising in me. What should I do? Should I use it? Should I become a healer?"

It is so tempting, but it is dangerous. One has to be aware not to use these things, otherwise you will be stuck there and you will never move upwards. And as you move upwards more and more subtle phenomena will happen, very subtle phenomena, which will make you immensely powerful. You would like to use them, but that will be a sheer wastage of your energy; and you will fall, and you will fall very badly.

That's why Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras makes all the yogis aware of it: beware of all kinds of siddhis, powers, because each power is tempting. And the higher it is, the more tempting it is. And the higher it is, the more ego-satisfying it is. And once the ego starts being satisfied with something, you will never attain the ultimate, you will never become a God.

SO THAT, ASCENDING INTO RADIANT ETHER, MIDST THE IMMORTALS, THOU SHALT BE THYSELF A GOD.

BEWARE, EVEN IF YOU HAVE BECOME WISE. Even wisdom is folly if you look from the ultimate peak; better than folly, but still folly because you are still there, and that is the greatest folly.

A disciple came to a Master and said, "Master, what you have been waiting for for years, now it is fulfilled: I have attained nothingness."

The Master hit him hard. The disciple was hoping this time he would not be hit, because the Master was again and again saying, "Until you bring nothingness, I am going to hit you." And he was true -- he HAD experienced nothingness -- so he was happy, he came running and dancing. For years he had been waiting to see the Master smile, to bless him. But the Master hit him hard, harder than ever.

He said, "But this puzzles me. I tell you that I have experienced nothingness!"

The Master said, "I know! You need not tell me! Now throw this nothingness too, then you will be truly in nothingness. Now this has become an experience -- the experience of nothingness is again something, it is no more nothing. Again you are holding onto some experience. God is not an experience: God is the absence of ALL experiences! God is such a pure state that there is no experience happening, neither of wisdom nor of bliss. All has disappeared. Not only is misery gone, bliss is also gone. Not only is folly gone, wisdom is also gone. You are left utterly alone, no experience clinging to you, no content in the mind -- not even the idea, 'I have attained.' "

It happened:

A great king came to Buddha. When he was coming to see Buddha for his darshan, he was worried. He wanted to take something to offer to Buddha. He asked his wife, because he was going for the first time. He should go with some offering, some present for the Buddha -- but what would be appropriate? He had one of the most beautiful diamonds available in the whole world. So he said, "I will take this diamond. This will be unique. Even Buddha may not have seen something like this because there is nothing to compare with THIS diamond; this is incomparable. Many kings go to him and they must have offered many things to him -- I want to offer him something special so he remembers me."

The wife started laughing because she used to go to Buddha, she WAS a disciple. She said, "You are going for the first time so you don't know about Buddha. Take your diamond, but to a Buddha a diamond is just a pebble. But take it so you feel good; you will feel happy, take it. But take my advice also: Buddha would be more happy if you took a lotus flower, and in our pond there are beautiful lotus flowers. I will bring one."

The king asked, "Why a lotus flower?"

And the wife said, "It is very symbolic. It represents the whole evolution of man. Man is mud, but out of mud one day a lotus rises. Man is just mud, but carries in him the seed of being a lotus, so the lotus is a very pregnant metaphor. He will appreciate the lotus more because it represents man from sex to samadhi, it represents man from the lowest to the highest, from the earthly to the divine."

So he took both the things. He was not convinced about the lotus because "It is an ordinary flower; you can find it in all kinds of ponds. And thousands of people must have offered Buddha lotuses, so what is special about it? But if the wife says, then okay." Just to make her happy, he took both.

When he reached, he bowed down to Buddha, offered first the diamond. Obviously, because that was HIS idea. He was thinking, "If he doesn't accept the diamond, then I will offer the lotus." So with one hand he offered the diamond.

Buddha looked at him and said, "Drop it." It was hard for him to drop it. He wanted it to be accepted, received, appreciated. Drop it? But when Buddha is saying, "Drop it," and ten thousand of Buddha's sannyasins are watching, he could not say no. It was hard. He had been hiding and protecting this diamond his whole life. It was so unique, nobody had anything like this. This was his glory. He was known all over the country for his diamond. And now this man says, "Drop it!"

Ten thousand sannyasins silently looking... it was difficult to say no. So he dropped it, unwillingly, with great reluctance, resistance, but still in spite of himself he had to do it. He dropped it. He didn't feel good about it. This is not the way to receive a gift of such quality.

Then he thought, "Maybe my wife was right," and he presented the flower -- not so happy, because that was not HIS idea.

Buddha looked at the flower and again said, "Drop it." Now this was too much. But when you are confronting a Buddha you cannot fight. But it was not so difficult to drop the flower. There was no problem in it, he simply dropped it. In fact, he felt a little good, "So here goes the wife! and all that great metaphor and the poetry of the lotus flower -- so here it goes! Not only my diamond is refused but the lotus also." Then both hands were empty and he was feeling a little silly. Now what to do?

Looking at him, Buddha again said, "Drop it!" Now there was nothing to drop. It was incomprehensible. This man looked mad -- that was the suspicion when he had said drop the diamond -- that idea had arisen then, "This man seems to be mad." Now it was absolutely certain that this man WAS mad. Now there was nothing to drop!

The chief disciple of Buddha, Ananda, started laughing. The king was looking silly. He asked, "What is the matter with you? Why are you laughing? And what am I supposed to do?"

Ananda said, "Buddha never meant that you have to drop the diamond. Buddha never meant that you have to drop the lotus. He was telling you: Drop the idea that you ARE -- that you have come, that you are a great king, that you have bought a great gift, that nobody has such a diamond. Drop that ego -- because that is the only offering we can bring to a Buddha. Nothing else is accepted, nothing else is acceptable, nothing else is worthwhile."

In that moment a great understanding arose in the king. He fell at the feet of Buddha, and, it is said, instantly he became enlightened. In that very falling, the ego disappeared, there was nobody inside. And when there is nobody inside, God is. God has always been there, hiding behind you. When you disappear, he appears.

This is the discovery: this is not an achievement.

SO THAT, ASCENDING INTO RADIANT ETHER, MIDST THE IMMORTALS, THOU SHALT BE THYSELF A GOD.

To be a God is your destiny. But remember, it is not a goal, it is already the case. You are Gods because there is nothing else but God. The whole existence is overflowing with godliness. God is green in the trees and red and gold, God is in the winds and the song that happens when the winds pass through the pine trees. God is in the roaring waves of the ocean, and in the clouds and in the lightning. God is, only God is! God is in you, in the neighbour, in your child.

But first you have to recognize God in you, then you will be able to recognize him everywhere. Once he is known within, he is known without too. And to know God within and without is to know truth, is to know freedom -- is to know all that is worth knowing.

THE END

Pythagoras

VOL. 2, PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS

Chapter-11

Only God Is