Desirelessness: An_Opening To_The Unknown

But when the Upanishad says, "Cessation of the cause..." does it mean to say, "Do not desire"? It is very natural for our minds to translate things like that. If the Upanishad says, "Cessation of the cause of all actions... " it means a state of desirelessness.

Remember it: a state of desirelessness! But our minds will translate it as: "Do not desire!" You have missed the point if you translate it as "Do not desire!" because even if you do not desire, you will desire. Your "Do not desire" will imply desire. You may desire to invoke the Divine, you may desire to be purified, to be pure, to be innocent, childlike, to reach that realm of play. So your mind can say to you, "If you want to enter the Kingdom of God, do not desire!" This is a desire. This is how desire works: "If you want to get into the Kingdom of God, if you want Enlightenment, if you want a meeting with the Divine - do not desire!" So this is the logic of desire, of a desiring mind.

"Do not do this if you want that; do this if you want that." So when I say "a state of desirelessness", I don't mean a commandment which says, "Do not desire!" Then what do I mean? It becomes difficult, complex to understand. Then what do I mean when I say "a state of desirelessness"? It means: understand desire, understand the fallaciousness of desire, understand the absurdity of desire, the futility of it, the nonsense of it. Just understand what desire has done, what desire can do, what desire is doing. Just understand desire! And if you understand it totally, you will be desireless. That desirelessness will be just an outcome of your understanding.

It cannot be anything out of your action. That "do not" is again an action.

This translation of things creates many unnecessary problems. So I have seen people who say, "Do not be greedy if you want to achieve the Divine," but they never feel that this is greed - but it is just a greater greed. This is a most extraordinary greed, rare. One wants to achieve the Divine, so one must not be greedy. What does greed mean? Not to be greedy means not to desire, not to want. But you are wanting the Divine, moksha, so: "Don't be greedy. If you want to possess the Divine, then don't possess anything else. Be non-possessive! Renounce if you want to get!" This renouncing becomes just a step to get something, so it is just a methodology that one uses for getting something.

Really, unless you cease this craving to get, you will never be mature. So look at it in this way: a child is born and the first state of mind is one of getting. The child is getting everything - the milk, the food, the love. He is not giving anything: he is just getting. This is the most immature state of mind - just getting. And when an old man is also trying to get, he has remained just an immature person. It is okay for a child to be in a state of constant getting; he is getting everything. The child cannot even conceive of what giving means. So when you say to a child, "Give your toy to this boy," he cannot even conceive of what you mean. The language is unknown, the language of giving is unknown. He can only get.

You have to train the child according to his language. So you say, "Give this toy to this boy, then I will give you more love." Now you have to translate even giving into getting. "If you don't give, then we will not give you love." So a child begins to learn that if you want to get you will have to give. This giving becomes just a stepping-stone to get more. This is the state of our minds always; then we remain just immature. We are in a state of getting. If sometimes we have to give, it is only to get something else.

This purity of heart means quite the opposite of getting - just giving. That is the most mature mind. A child - the immature mind - is always concerned with getting. A Buddha, a Jesus, is always giving.

That is the other extreme - giving not to get something, but giving because giving is a play, a bliss in itself. When I say understand desire, I mean understand getting, understand giving. Understand that your state is just of getting, getting and getting, and you will never be fulfilled, mmm? - because there is no end to it.

Understand this: what have you got through this constant, eternal getting? What have you got?

You are as poor as ever, as much a beggar as ever - rather, more. The more you get. the more you become a greater beggar, the more is the desire to get. So you only learn by getting, more getting. Where have you reached? What have you found? What is there which you can say is the achievement of this constant, mad getting? Nothing!

If you can understand this, the very understanding becomes a transformation: the getting drops. And the moment getting drops, a new dimension opens: you begin to give. And this is the paradox: you have not got anything through getting - but when you give, you get. But that "get" is not concerned with your getting at all. The giving itself is a deep achievement, a deep fulfillment.

But when I am saying this, I am afraid you may again translate it. You may say, "Okay! So to achieve that fulfillment, we must leave this constant desire to get." Understand this; don't translate it. Your mind can distort anything. It has distorted everything. It distorts a Buddha, it distorts a Krishna, it distorts a Jesus, it distorts a Zarathustra - it goes on distorting. They say something, you translate it, and then it is something else altogether different - diametrically opposite even.

The understanding of desire becomes desirelessness; the knowing of desire is the cessation of desire. So know deeply, understand deeply. Don't take any hurried step, and then a purity is discovered which is always there, which has always been there. The heart is pure already, but only covered with desires, with smoke, and you cannot look deep.

This is invocation: if you are pure you have invoked. So be pure and the Divine will be invoked.

Nothing else is needed; not even a belief in the Divine is needed. You need not believe that there is Divine energy. You need not believe that there is anything - no need. Just be pure, and you will come to know. The Divine is not a belief - it is a knowledge, a knowing.

But when I say "purity" you may again misunderstand me, because for "purity" we have very moralistic connotations. We say a man is pure because he is moral, a man is pure because he is not a thief, a man is pure because he is not dishonest, a man is pure because he lives under the rules and regulations of his society. But if the society itself is impure, then by living according to its rules and regulations how can you be pure? And if the society itself is dishonest, then by following it how can you be honest? If the whole foundation and structure is just immoral, then to adjust to it is the most immoral act possible.

So, really, it happens that the more moral a person is, the more he goes against the society - because he cannot adjust! A Jesus has to be crucified: he becomes "immoral" - because the whole society is immoral. A Socrates has to be poisoned. Why? Because a truly moral man cannot exist in an immoral society.

And whenever an immoral society pays respect to someone and says that he is moral, it means only that he is adjusted and nothing else - adjusted to the society. Whatsoever the society has said, he follows. Really, he may be just dead. He may have no conscience of his own. He cannot assert anything. He is not - he just follows. He becomes very moral. So for "purity" we have a very moral connotation.

No. Purity means innocence, and all those persons we call moral are very cunning. They are not innocent at all - because if you think that to be a thief is bad, or to be a thief is not respectable, or to be a thief you will have to suffer in hell, or by not being a thief you are going tb gain heaven, then you are very cunning and calculating. You are not a thief because of your calculations and cunningness. And it may be that the person who is a thief and suffering imprisonment is less cunning and less calculating. That's why he is suffering - he has become a thief. You are more cunning, more calculating, so you are moral and honest - but not pure.

'Purity' means innocence; innocence means a non-calculating mind. I don't mean that he will be a thief. How can an innocent person be a thief? If he cannot calculate, how can he be a thief, mmm? To be a thief one needs calculation; not to be a thief, one again needs calculation. An innocent person is neither moral nor immoral. He is just innocent. That innocence is purity.

Jesus has been condemned for many things which his society thought immoral - because a prostitute invites him to come to her home and he goes. Then the whole village begins to be filled with rumours: "Jesus has gone to a prostitute's house! Why should he go? A moral man can never go to a prostitute's house!" And this is what most people today would have thought also: "Why should Jesus go there? What is the need? And not only has he gone: he has remained the whole night!" He has slept there, and in the morning, of course, whatever can happen in a "moral" village happens.

Everyone is against him. Even his friends are not with him now; even his followers have escaped.

And the village encounters him and asks him, "Why did you go to a prostitute s house?" And Jesus says, "Who is not a prostitute, tell me? How do you decide and how do you judge? What are the criteria?" This is a non-calculating person. He says he cannot judge who is a prostitute and who is not. He cannot judge! How can he judge and who is he to judge? Here is an innocent man, a pure man. But he is to be crucified because you cannot think that he is innocent, you cannot think that he is pure.

How can he be pure when he has slept in a prostitute's house? Our minds are really so immoral and so impure that we cannot conceive of a different dimension of purity. And this same prostitute is the only person who remains when Jesus is crucified. Everyone has escaped; no one is there. Only this prostitute, Mary Magdalene, is standing there - the only person! No apostle is there; no follower is there. They have all escaped because it is dangerous to be there. Even they can be crucified. Only this prostitute is standing there, and this prostitute helped to take Jesus' dead body down from the cross. So it seems pertinent to ask "Who is not a prostitute?" And was it good for Jesus to stay with this prostitute or not? - because only this poor woman remained with him in the end.

What is moral and what is immoral? As far as religion is concerned, innocence is moral and cunningness is immoral. To be innocent is enough. That childlike innocence is the purity. That purity become AAWAHANAM - invocation.

We have distorted everything - every word. Every word has become just ugly. When you say that someone is pure, what do you mean? Just find out the meaning and you will find very ugly things. By "someone is pure", what do you mean? Innocence? Never - because innocence can be dangerous!

Innocence may not fit into your pattern! Really, it will not fit. How can it fit? You cannot persuade it, you cannot force it, you cannot bribe it. And the society depends on force, on bribery, on persuasion, on punishment, on appraisal, on fear, on greed. So we say that if you do this, you will get this.

Many, many have asked Buddha, "If we follow you, what will we get?" And Buddha says, "Nothing." So how can you follow this man? He says, "Nothing." We are always out to get something. Even from a Buddha we want to get something - promises: "If you promise us this, then we can do this." Then it becomes logical to us, relevant. Buddha says, "Be pure, and you get nothing." Then why be pure? Then it is better to be impure. At least then we are getting something. Buddha says that you have not got anything. You are only in the illusion of getting and you will never get.

So I say just be pure and forget getting, because unless you forget getting you cannot be pure. If you have to get something, you have to be cunning and calculating. You have to be violent, you have to be greedy, and you have to be always in the future - never here. Then you can never remain at home. You are always abroad, somewhere else, always on a journey.

To be desireless, pure, is to have a deep understanding of the futility of all that we have been doing, of all that we are. The moment this purity is there, invocation happens. Then you have called, then you have asked and invited. Then in the very deepest core of Existence, your invitation has penetrated. Now, suddenly, you feel that you have been taken over: someone has come into you.

Now you are possessed by something else which is more than you. Something infinite, something more vital, has come. You have been taken over; you are flooded. For this flooding is the invocation.

Of course, you have to be open, otherwise this flooding will not happen. And an innocent mind is always open; a cunning mind is always closed. A cunning mind is always in defense. A cunning mind always thinks in terms of enmity, competition, because if you are to get something then you have to be a competitor. Everyone is. Everyone is out to get, and you have to get also. Then you have to be a competitor, and this is a very tough competition. So you have to be violent, cunning, closed, defensive. Then you cannot be flooded by the Divine. You are so narrow, so closed, that the flood cannot come to you.

A pure heart, a desireless heart, is not competitive, not concerned for the future, not against anybody, not for anybody, with no calculations, with no desire to get, with no achieving mind. A pure heart is here and now, open, with no defense. When I say with no defense, I mean that even if death comes, he is open. If you are not open for death, you will never be open for the Divine. If you are afraid of death, you will be afraid of the Divine.

But this is strange, because whenever we are afraid of death we always go to the Divine to pray.

So all those who are praying in mosques, in temples, in churches, are really not praying: they are just afraid of death. They are making arrangements with the Divine in order that they should not be afraid. Their prayer is based on fear and their gods are just created out of fear.

If the mind is innocent, you can be like a child playing with a snake. Now he is open for both: death can come and he is open; he can play with death. The Divine can come and he is open; he can play with the Divine. Death and the Divine are, in a subtle way, one. If you are not open to death you will never be open for the Divine, and a person who is concerned with desires is always afraid of death.

You must see the relationship: a person who is concerned with desires - is desirous, is out to get something - is always afraid of death. Why? Because desire is in the future and death is also in the future, and it may be that death comes first and desire is not fulfilled. Remember this: desire is never in the present; death is also never in the present. No one has died in the present. Can you be fearful of death here and now? No, because either you are alive or dead. If you are alive here and now, there is no death; and if you are already dead, there is no fear. So you can only fear death in the future. Desires have a planning for the future and death may disturb everything, so we are fearful of death.

No animal is afraid of death because no animal has plannings for the future. There is no other reason than this: no plannings for the future. The future is not, so death is not! Why be afraid of death if there is no planning for the future? Nothing is to be disturbed by death. The more you have planned, the greater the plans, then the greater the fear. Death is not really a fear that you will die, but a fear that you will die unfulfilled. It may not be possible to carry desires to their fulfillment, and death may come any time.

If I am to die unfulfilled, of course, there is fear: "I am as yet unfulfilled. I have not known a moment of fulfillment, and death may come, so I have lived in vain. I have been a futility, just a uselessness. I have lived without any fulfillment, without any peak, without any moment of truth, beauty, peace, silence. I have just lived in futility, meaninglessness, and death may come any moment." Then death becomes a fear.

If I am fulfilled, if I have known that which life can allow one to know, if I have felt what living really is, if I have known a single moment of beauty and love and fulfillment, where is the fear of death?

Where is the fear! Death can come. It cannot disturb anything, it cannot destroy anything. Death can only destroy the future. For me the future is now nothing. I am content this very moment. Then death cannot do anything. I can accept it; it may even prove to be a bliss.

So one who is open to death can be open to the divine. Openness means fearlessness. Innocence gives you openness, fearlessness, a vulnerability with no defense arrangements. That is invocation.

And if you are just in that moment when even death can come to you - and you receive it, embrace it, welcome it - then you have invoked the Divine. Now death will never come: only the Divine will come. Even in death, death will not be there now - only the Divine.

Marpa, a Tibetan mystic, is dying. Everyone is weeping and Marpa shouts, "Stop! On such a moment of celebration, why are you weeping? I am going to meet the Divine - He is just here and now." And he laughs and he smiles and he sings the last song, and everyone goes on weeping because no one can see the Divine there - everyone is seeing death.

Marpa says, "The Divine is here and now. Why are you weeping? Such a moment of celebration! Such a moment of festivity! Sing and dance and enjoy! because Marpa is going to meet the Friend. The Divine is here just now. I have waited long and now the moment has come. Why are you weeping?"

Marpa cannot understand why they are weeping; they cannot understand why Marpa is singing. Has he gone mad? Of course, for us he has gone mad. Death is there and it seems that he has gone mad. Marpa is seeing something else. Marpa was really one of the most open flowerings of humankind.

When Marpa comes to his teacher, the teacher says, "Faith is the key." So Marpa says, "Then give me something to try my faith. If faith is the key, then give me something to try my faith." They are sitting on a hill and the teacher says, "Jump!" and Marpa jumps. Even the teacher thinks he will die. Many, many followers are there, and they think that he is just mad - that they will not even find a piece of his bones.

They rush down, and Marpa is sitting there singing and dancing. The teacher asks, "What has happened?" It seems like a coincidence. The teacher thinks silently in his mind that it is just a coincidence: "Why? This is impossible! How did this happen? It is a coincidence, so I must try him in some other ways." Then many ways are tried.

The teacher tells Marpa to go into a burning house. He goes, and he comes out without even being touched by the flames. He is ordered to jump into the ocean, and he jumps. There are many, many trials and the teacher cannot say now that this is just a coincidence, so he asks Marpa, "What is your secret?"

"My secret?" says Marpa. "You told me faith is the key, so I took your word for it!"

The teacher says, "Now stop because I am afraid. Anything may happen."

Marpa says, "Now anything can happen because I just took your word. Now if you are yourself wavering, I cannot take it. I thought faith was the key, but now it will not work. So please don't order me again. Next time I will die, so don't order me again!" This is purity - childlike purity. In Tibet, Marpa is known as 'Marpa the Faithful' - just childlike faith.

So the story is told that Marpa became the teacher of his own teacher, and his teacher bowed down and said, "Now give me the key of faith because I don't have any. I was just talking! I have only heard that faith is the key, so I was just talking. Now you give it to me." So Marpa became the teacher of his own teacher.

Marpa's mind is pure, innocent, non-calculating. There is not a single moment of calculation and cunningness. He does not even see how deep is the abyss. He does not ask the teacher, "Am I to take what you say literally, verbally, or is it just a metaphor, or are you just saying something in mystical language? Am I to jump, really, or do you mean some inner jump?" With no calculation, no cunningness, he jumps. The teacher says, "Jump," and he jumps; there is no gap between the two.

A single moment's gap, and there is calculation. A single moment's gap, and one has calculated. This purity opens you; you become an opening. That is the invocation.