A small story🔗

A small story

A man goes to a master with the same question, 'Master, am I qualified for the spiritual progress? I feel there are so many obstructions.'

The master replies, 'The word 'obstruction' is the only obstruction, nothing else.'

The word 'obstruction' is the only obstruction to spiritual life, because each and every being is potentially divine. When a person is already potentially divine, how can you say that he needs some other qualification? All the rules are there merely to instill guilt in the other person, just to keep him on a lower step. Otherwise there is nothing like qualification. If you need to have a qualification, what is the purpose of spirituality?

Somebody came and told me, 'Master, I have never practised ayama and niyama.' In Patanjali's yoga system the first step is ayama. Ayama means brahmacharya, ahimsa, satya, apaikara and astheiya. These great vows – celibacy, non-violence, truth, non-stealing and non-possessiveness are the ones you need to practise, and only then are you qualified for yoga.

Somebody came and asked, 'I am not qualified in all these five things. How can I enter into yoga?'

I said, 'If you are qualified in all these five things, you don't need yoga!'

Both maturity and meditation help each other. Maturity gives you energy and energy gives you maturity. At first, you start wherever you are, that's enough. You will see that the ball rolls.

Q: Dear master, 'I think, therefore I am.' Is that true?

The same question in the opposite way! Like old wine in a new bottle.

Be very clear, you neither think, nor you are. I am giving the same answer in the other way. You neither think nor you are. If you think, you must be. If you think, you must exist, if you exist, you can't think. If you exist, you can't think. If you think, you must exist. Actually it's a very intricate question. The same old question, whether we are in the world or the world is in us: whether we exist and think, or we think and then exist.

See, it's like a boundariless thing. Again you want to stand at some point, again you want to stand. Either you want to take a bath in the left side of Ganga or in the right side of Ganga. You must understand: you are neither in the left nor in the right! You are in the Ganga. Once you understand, thinking and being are not different; you will see that there is no boundary.

Today Raj was asking me in the car whether both matter and energy exist in the world. I told him, 'No, there is no matter, only energy. And when there is only energy, how can you say even the word energy? If there is something called matter, then you can use the words energy and matter. If there is only one thing, how can you call it either matter or energy? Similarly there are no 'two things' - thinking and being. There is only one thing. But you make a boundary, because you are not comfortable without boundaries.

The logic, the very quality of logic is cutting things into pieces. Unless you cut things into pieces, you can't understand. That way of understanding is by labeling things, by making them more intellectual, by making them more logical. So just for utility's sake, you can say the left side of the Ganga or the right side of the Ganga. But in reality, no two Gangas exist. Only in comparative reality, left side and right side exist. In existential reality, there are no two Gangas.

Like that, only in comparative reality, thinking and being exist. In reality, in existential reality, you exist. That's all. Only the word 'exists' exists. There is nothing different called thinking and being. If you make a boundary, then you can think that this is thinking and this is being, but there is no boundary actually. Can you say that up to this boundary you are being, and after this boundary you are thinking? There are no two such things. There is no Shakti and Shiva. There is only one thing - pure Shakti. When it is one, the word Shakti also cannot be uttered.

As long as you worry, whether you think because you are, or you are because you think, you will have confusion. Both are mere words with which we play. For play it is perfectly alright, but not for real life. If you fly in a small airplane, a toy airplane, you know where you will land, do you not? It's the same with words; they are good to play with, but taking them too seriously can never lead you anywhere.

Q: Dear master, why is there so much violence in the name of spirituality?

Fights and violence are not because of spirituality; they are because of religion. Whenever spirituality is alive, there are no fights. Whenever mere rituals are alive, the problem starts. If you give importance to Gita, there is no problem, but when you give importance to Krishna, the problem happens.

But to understand Gita, you need to give a little importance to Krishna. To start with, Krishna is perfectly alright, but if you end with Krishna, surely there is some problem. It's beautiful, good to be born in the church, but not to die there. You can start with religion, but when you go beyond that, there won't be any fights.

Do you know the meaning of the word 'Ayodhya'? Ayodhya is the birth place of Rama and the word comes from Ayodhi - where there is no yuddha, where no war happens. The very word Ayodhi means 'where no war happens'. Because of the concept with which Rama created Ayodhi, the concept with which Rama named Ayodhi, I think he must have visualized a peaceful, joyful heaven. That is the reason he named that place Ayodhi beyond wars, beyond fights, beyond disturbances. We idolise Rama, but drop his vision. There starts the problem. We caught him, but not his vision. When we catch Christ instead of the Bible, then the problem starts.

A devotee of Rama lived on the banks of the sacred river Ganga in the holy town of Benares.

His routine was, every morning he used to sing and chant the Tulsi Ramayana. He had one copy of Tulsi Ramayana. He used to recite the Tulsi Ramayana, to attain Godhood. The whole day he used to recite Rama's name and enjoyed the 'Ram Nam' - the name of Rama.

A small story

He was in a heightened state of bliss all the time. He was very popular in that entire area.

People used to go to him for blessings and he was leading a joyful and ecstatic life.

One day a beggar went to him and asked, 'Sir, I have not taken food for the last three days; please give me something to eat.'