Questions & Answers

Question 1:

MANY THINGS will have to be understood.

One: Lao Tzu, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavir, they are not the total East. They were Teaching acceptance, but no one in the East has followed it. And those who followed, they evolved: Lao Tzu evolved into a perfect human possibility – to the maximum possibility which a human being can reach; Buddha evolved to be a Divine person through acceptance and contentment. But the East has not followed them. Just because they were born in the East doesn’t mean that the East has followed them. So that is one thing.

The second thing: the West has evolved, but evolved to such a crisis, into such a diseased state of mind, that now the West is looking toward the East. The West has followed the principle of discontent, so in a way the West has been more honest than the East. The East has been dishonest.

We go on worshipping Krishna, Buddha and Mahavir, and we think that we are following them. We have not followed them! Only lip service has been paid them. But the West has really followed the principle of discontentment and materialism. The West has followed it, and now it has come to the c1imax. Those in the West who have achieved a c1imax with whatsoever they have done, now they feel that the whole life has become meaningless – because whatsoever they have achieved now proves to be meaningless. There has been an evolution of things, but not of consciousness. They have accumulated much, but man has become more and more empty.

And now, when everything is achieved – now, when the West has succeeded in its ambition – the disparity becomes more clear-cut. Man has remained empty, unevolved. That is why now Western thinkers, the Western avant-garde, are thinking in terms of Lao Tzu, Buddha and Mahavir. Now they have known the futility of discontentment. It leads you to more discontentment, and contentment becomes impossible. From one discontentment you go to another, and from another to another, and contentment is never reached.

This is what the Upanishads have been telling. They say that if you start with contentment then only can you reach contentment, because the beginning is the end, the seed is really the tree. So if it is not in the seed, it is not going to be in the tree. If contentment is your beginning, the base, the ground of your mind, the very roots, only then can you flower into contentment. Those flowers are not coming from nowhere. They will grow from you; they will be your growth. So if you have contentment in the beginning, you will find it in the end.

If you start with discontent, discontent will grow, and it can never transform itself into contentment. The more you follow it, the more it will be there. And if discontentment grows, then ultimately madness results. A madman means a totally discontented man with no hope, with absolute frustration.

Now the West has come to a fulfillment – a fulfillment of its ambition. The West has been authentically honest. It has followed a particular path, and when you follow only then can you know whether it leads to any goal or not.

The East has remained confused. Its leaders have been talking of contentment and the masses have been deceiving themselves. They go on talking about contentment and they continue being discontent. The East is ostensibly with Buddha – only ostensibly! Basically, it is not with Buddha. When I say ”East”, I mean the Eastern masses. They are just as materialistic as Western masses – but with a false face, with a mask.

The East is as irreligious as the West, but dishonestly. We go on thinking that we are religious, and we are not. So we have been in a ditch, in a deep confusion. We have not moved anywhere, not because of the Upanishads – we have never followed them!we have not moved because we have been on two boats. We have been travelling in two diametrically opposite directions. Our minds go on talking of spirituality and our hearts go on following materialism.

This is the reason why the East has remained multi-dimensionally poor – not only physically, economically, but spiritually also, because for any spiritual growth honesty is foundational. It is better to be irreligious than to be falsely religious, because from an honest irreligiousness religion can grow. But with a dishonest religious man there is no possibility of any growth.

So remember this, that the East is not really the East. There have been only a few persons who we can say are Eastern. So, really, East and West are not geographical. The division is more subtle. There have been persons in the West who belong to the East. Jesus belongs to the East, Eckhart belongs to the East, Francis belongs to the East, Boehme belongs to the East: they are NOT Western. And you all belong to the West: you are not Eastern. So East and West are not geographical. ”East” means a certain approach toward life, and ”West” also means a certain approach.

You are materialists unconsciously, so you cannot grow in materialism because growth needs a conscious effort. You cannot grow in materialism because you are not consciously materialistic, and you cannot grow toward higher states of consciousness because you are false, pseudo. So the first thing is that this is the confusion.

The second thing: when we say ”acceptance”, what do we mean? When the Upanishads say acceptance is happiness, Nirvana, what do they mean? Does it mean a death, a stagnation? No! It means only that whatsoever happens, whatsoever is and whatsoever is going to be, we are not against it, we will not fight it – we will flow with it.

For example, a seed is there: the seed accepts itself. That doesn’t mean that now the seed cannot grow. A seed only means a potentiality for growth – nothing else. To be a seed means to be a potentiality for growth. A seed accepts itself: it means the growth is accepted; it is a natural thing. The seed is not going to make any effort to be a tree, because effort is needed only when you are going to become something which you are not. Remember this: effort is needed only when you are going to be something which you are not. But that which you are not you cannot be, no matter how much effort there is.

We grow only to be ourselves, so effort in its deeper sense is useless; you are wasting energy. Struggle is useless; you are wasting energy. Acceptance doesn’t mean no growth. It means a natural flow of growth with no struggle toward it. Struggle creates a feverish mind. And why struggle? Against whom are you struggling? That which is possible for you, you can simply grow into. Accept yourself totally and then flow with the Existence. There will be growth, but this growth will be natural, spontaneous. It will not be a strained thing. A Buddha grows to be a Buddha. Really, there is no effort – it is a flow.

If you want to be a Buddha, then there will be a struggle. So many have tried, thousands have tried, to be a Buddha. Then it is a struggle, because that Buddhahood is not in their seed. They can be something else, their destiny is different, but they are trying to imitate someone.

So, thousands have followed Buddha, but they have not created a single Buddha. They have created imitation Buddhas. They have created copies – carbon copies false, dead, with no life in them. Whenever you follow someone else, you will have to struggle. Whenever you are ready to accept your own destiny, there is no need of any struggle: you will grow into it. And every individual is unique, and every individual has his own destiny.

Acceptance means be whatsoever the Whole wills to be through you. Do not fight. If you are a rose-flower, then be a rose-flower. Do not try to be a lotus. There is no struggle. A rosebud becomes a rose-flower. But teach it, give it ideals, and a rosebud can begin to imagine and think itself to be something else. Then there will be struggle, strain, worry. And not only is the whole effort going to be wasted, not only is there not going to be any positive result – but there will be negative consequences also. If a rose-flower tries to be a lotus, that is impossible. So the possibility is cancelled – but in the effort, in the struggle to be a lotus, it is possible that now this flower may not even be a rose-flower because the energy is dissipated.

The principle of total acceptance is simply this: accept yourself and flow with nature wheresoever it leads you. That is your destiny. Do not come in between; do not try to pull yourself to be something else. That is struggle.

This is what is meant by Tao, this is what is meant by dharma, this is what is meant by the inner swabhava – the inner nature. Follow it! And when I say follow it, I do not mean make some effort. Really, I mean allow it to be: allow your destiny to be. Do not come in between: allow your destiny to grow. Then a different evolution takes place – an evolution of consciousness, not of things. So you may not gain a bigger house through acceptance, but you will gain a greater soul. You may not become richer economically, but you will certainly become richer spiritually.

Jesus says that even if you gain the whole world and lose yourself, what is the meaning of it? You are a beggar: you remain a beggar. And if you gain yourself and lose the whole world, you have lost nothing. This is the basic Eastern approach toward life – because the East says happiness exists not in things but in your consciousness. It is not related with things. It is related with you: you have to grow!

Things can grow; things can become more and more; you can have more and more things – but having is not being. You can have the whole world without any soul within, and you can be just a beggar on the street with the being of a sovereign. That growth of being is the end. And when acceptance is taught, it is taught for the growth of being. Those who have followed this teaching, they have grown, and they are incomparable.

Thousands, millions, have followed discontent; the whole world, the whole of humanity, follows it – but the followers of discontent have not produced a single Buddha, a single Jesus, a single Lao Tzu. Really, outward growth depends on discontent, inward growth depends on contentment. Now it is your choice! If you want to pile up things more and more, you can go on, but then you are simply a servant who is just piling up things. Then death comes and everything is finished, and whatsoever you have gained, death nullifies it.

There is a different growth, an inner growth, which even death cannot nullify. Buddha says that unless you have achieved something which death cannot destroy, you have not achieved anything. Achieve something which transcends death: only then are you growing. Otherwise, every life is destroyed by death, and you are again a beggar and again you have to start from ABC

Growth means a continuity, a life process, but things cannot go with you. Whatsoever you have is not yours. It belongs to death, it belongs to the world: it doesn’t belong to you. You are simply deceiving yourself. In the meanwhile you can deceive! So your growth comes through contentment, and when I say ”contentment” I do not mean defeatism – remember this.

So this is the third point: a person can be content just to console himself. You are poor: you do not want to be poor; still, you are poor and nothing can be done, so you impose a false contentment. You say, ”It is okay. This is my destiny; I accept it.” But deep down this is not acceptance. This is just consoling yourself. If some opportunity comes and you can become rich, you are not going to lose it. And if someone says, ”Take this money in exchange for your contentment,” you will throw this contentment and you will take the money.

So defeated consolation is not contentment. It is just trying to save your face. You do not want to feel defeated, so you put on a show of contentment. Many follow such contentment, but this is not the teaching of the Upanishads. Contentment for the Upanishads is not a defeated attitude. Really, it is a deep understanding.

Life is such that you are just a part in it, a very minute part. And the Whole is a very big thing – the organic Whole. It is just like my fingers are part of my organic body: they cannot do anything against my body; they cannot hope for anything against my body. They are not anything except my body – just parts. So if my body is healthy, they will be healthy; if my body is ill, they will be ill; if my body is dead, they will be dead. This understanding – that ”I am just a part of this great Whole, I will flow with the Whole, I will not fight it” – is contentment.

This is a deep understanding. Remember, this contentment is so different from whatsoever is understood by the world that it is even difficult to conceive of it. This type of man will be contented when he is poor and he will be contented when he is rich. Remember the second part also. He will not try to be a poor man because, again, that is effort. He will not try to be a poor man because, again, that is an ambition. Again he will be fighting against the Whole; again he will be rejecting something, not accepting.

If it is the will of the Whole that he should be rich, he will be rich. If it is the will of the Whole that he should be poor, he will be poor. He can move from richness to poverty easily; he can move from poverty to richness just as easily. Really, he is just a dead leaf in the wind. Wherever the wind moves, he moves. There is no will, there is no ego, there is no individual ambition. The Whole’s ambition is his ambition. This is acceptance, and when a man lives in such acceptance he reaches the highest peak possible of inner growth.

This has been the innermost core of Eastern religion, but the East has not followed it. Those who have followed, they have grown to the ultimate peak possible. Those who have not followed and who have pretended that they are following are bound to be in an inner contradiction.

Masses in the East are in this inner contradiction: they think they are religious and they are not; they think they are spiritual and they are not. And this thinking that they are spiritual becomes a hindrance – because if someone is ill and he thinks that he is healthy, then no treatment is possible. An ill person must realize that he is ill; this is the first step toward any health or any possibility of health.

This is the most fatal disease – to think oneself healthy when one is not – because then everything is closed. But this happens, and man can deceive himself very easily. So it is possible that the West will become more and more Eastern, and the East will become more and more Western. This is happening already.

The day is not far off when ”the sun will rise in the West”. because the highest consciousness in the West, the highest conscious peaks in the West, the individuals who can look ahead, are turning Eastern. And in the East, quite the contrary: the so-called intellectuals, the intelligentsia, are turning communist. If you are not a communist in the East, no one can think you are an intelligent man. ”Is it possible that you can be intellectual and Still not a communist?” Even those who are not communists cannot dare to say they are not communists. Those who are not communists will at least say that they are socialists: that is their facade. Those who are absolutely anti-communist, they will also talk in terms of communism, socialism, equality.

In the East now, it is rare to find an Eastern mind – very rare. In the West, communism is out of date. Even in Soviet Russia communism is going out of date. Even the Soviet intelligentsia, the Soviet intellectuals, are probing into the inner world. Now Soviet Russia is the only country in the world today which is spending so much money on psychic research that even America is behind. In many Russian universities, psychic research has become an integral part of all research programmes.

Man is not simply matter: man is mind also. And unless we know something about mind, nothing seems possible. Man cannot be changed; no revolution is possible. But in the East, the so-called East, the geographical East, to talk about spirituality, religion, is superstitious. If someone is talking about religion in the East, so-called intellectuals think that he is a reactionary.

Why is this happening? The West has followed materialism, but very honestly, very sincerely. And sincerity pays always, honesty pays always. Now they can feel that whatsoever they have been doing is wrong, has been somewhere basically wrong. And they are honest, so they can confess it. We are dishonest, we cannot confess anything. We go on changing, but on the surface we go on maintaining the old face. We cannot confess that we have been wrong. It is a very healthy sign to confess that one has been wrong because it shows that now that which has been done can be undone. Now you can change your path, you can move in another direction.

The East has lived a double-bind life, always looking at heaven and always living just on the earth. That creates trouble because you cannot look at the earth, and as you live on the earth you go astray. You go on looking at heaven and there is no way to walk there. So our minds are divided, split, schizophrenic. Two lives are being lived continuously. Whatsoever you say, you know it is not right, it cannot be done, but still you go on saying it.

One old man was here. He has been a great professor – one of the foremost educationalists in India – and he suffers very much because of the conditions in the universities. He was telling me that the future of his children is just dark, and he was telling me, ”Even my own children are not ready to listen to me. No morality, no religion, no honesty! What is happening?”

So I asked him, ”Whatsoever you are teaching to your children, have you yourself followed it? Because you have been a very successful man in life – very successful. You have reached to the very top.” He has been a Vice Chancellor and on many posts. I said, ”So, really tell me honestly, have you followed whatsoever you are teaching to your children?”

He became uneasy, but he is honest, so he said, ”It is very difficult to be honest and to be successful.”

So I asked him whether he would like his children to be successful or honest. I told him, ”Really, your children are more honest than you because they see the hypocrisy. They say, ’Since we are going to be successful, why talk about honesty? Then talk about dishonesty and being successful. And if we are going to be honest, then we should leave all ambitions for success; then be unsuccessful and be honest.’ Why confuse these students?”

But he thinks that he is a moral man and his children are immoral. The children are simply saying that your whole way of thinking and living is hypocritical. If honesty is the thing to be followed, then do not expect success. If it happens, then it is a miracle; if otherwise, then there is no need to hope. Then there is no frustration because you have chosen to be honest, then you have chosen to be unsuccessful. But the father’s mind, every fathers mind, would like you to be honest and successful. Then a double mind is created. So talk about honesty and be dishonest! Succeed and then teach your children to be honest and successful! Continue the whole race – the rat race!

If you want inner growth, then acceptance is the law. I am not saying that inner growth will be followed up by outer evolution also. There is no intrinsic necessity. It may happen, it may not happen. You may remain poor, but with inner richness outer poverty is not a suffering. It is a suffering only when you are inwardly poor and outwardly also. With outer richness and inner poverty, it is a great suffering. And it happens rarely that you are both outwardly rich and inwardly rich also.

So the choice is between these two. What is your emphasis? If you are for inner growth and inner richness, then follow it. Then acceptance is the law. But if you are not for it, then be discontent. Then do not accept anything. Then go on fighting. You may grow rich outwardly, but ultimately you will come to know you have wasted your whole life.

 

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