I Mean Business Here!_

Question 3:

Kavita, this place is a market-place. Can you find any other place which is more like the market?

I could have made the ashram somewhere in the Himalayas. I love the Himalayas. For me it is a great sacrifice not to be in the Himalayas. But for a certain purpose I have not made my ashram in the Himalayas.

I want to remain part of the market-place. And this ashram is run almost as part of the market-place.

That's why Indians are very annoyed - they cannot understand. They have known ashrams for centuries, but this ashram is beyond their comprehension. They cannot think that you have to pay to listen to a religious discourse. They have always listened free of charge - not only free of charge, but after the discourse the ashram distributes PRASAD too. Many go to listen to the discourses not because of the discourse but for the PRASAD.

Here you have to pay. What am I doing? I want it to be absolutely a part of the market-place because I want my sannyasins not to move into the monasteries. They have to remain in the world. Their meditation should grow in the world, their meditation should not become escapist. So whatsoever peace you are finding here, you will be able to retain anywhere you go. There will be no problem, not at all. I have been managing things in such a way that all that can disturb you anywhere else is present here. So you need not be afraid.

Meditators have always been afraid of a few things. For example, they have been afraid of women. Can you find more beautiful women anywhere in India than here? more alive? Living here, being here, you will become completely oblivious of the fact of who is a man and who is a woman. How long can you go on persisting in making the distinction? The future belongs neither to man nor to woman. The future will be a kind of androgyny. The distinction between man and woman is going to disappear more and more.

In the past the distinction was very much created, culture-oriented. A girl had to be brought up in a different way than a boy - in an utterly different way. I am not saying that there is no difference, there is a difference between man and woman, but that difference is only biological. But the society creates a psychological difference: 'These things are allowed for boys only, because "boys are boys" and these things are not allowed for girls.' A psychological difference is created from the very beginning. The difference that you see between men and women in the world is ninety-nine percent created, nurtured; it is not natural. There is a one percent difference that is biological; that doesn't matter. Living here you live in such a togetherness that you will become oblivious of the fact of who is a man and who is a woman.

In the old days, with the old-style sannyas, people had to go away from women to the caves, to the monasteries. There are Christian monasteries where no woman has ever entered, has ever been allowed to enter. On Mount Athos there is a monastery - for twelve hundred years not a single woman has been allowed to enter. And what to say of a woman? - not even a girl of the age of six months, not even a six-month-old girl has been allowed. Just see the fear. And what kind of people must be living there if they cannot even allow a six-month-old girl? - maniacs called monks or monkeys, but not men. Must be mad. And it is in the monasteries that all kinds of monstrosities have arisen.

Homosexuality was first born in the monasteries; it is a religious phenomenon. It was bound to be so. If you force men to live together in a place where no woman is ever allowed, sooner or later homosexuality will come. self-gratification is a monastic practice, it came out of monasteries. All kinds of perversions are bound to be there.

There are monasteries for women too - only women are allowed, no men ever. And their whole fantasy world consists of men. They cannot get magazineS like PLAYBOY, but who needs them when you have enough time to fantasize? Their fantasy is so p 0 r n o g r a p h i c that magazines like PLAYBOY are nothing. Their fantasies are more psychedelic.

These people who have lived in such a monastery, if they are allowed to come back to the world, naturally their meditation, their prayer, their religion - all will be disturbed.

Monks have been very afraid of money. Naturally, if they come into the world, money has to be tackled. You cannot live in the world without money. And monks have been so afraid that they will not even touch money. See the fear, the obsession.

Acharya Vinoba Bhave, the chief disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, does not touch money. But what kind of obsession is this? Touching a ten-rupee note - how can it harm you? And if it can harm you, what kind of spirituality is this? Such an impotent spirituality. Not only that he cannot touch it, but if you bring money in front of him, he closes his eyes. He cannot even look. His guru, Mahatma Gandhi, used to keep three monkeys - somebody had given him a present. Knowing him, the present was

exactly the right present. One monkey is sitting with both his hands over his eyes, not looking: 'Don't look at many things in life because it is dangerous.' Another monkey is sitting with his hands over his ears: 'Don't listen to many things because it is dangerous.' And the third monkey is sitting with his hands over his mouth: 'Don't say many things because it is dangerous.'

And the monk has to do all three things together. That's why I say a monk is a monkey three times over.

Such a person - who cannot open his eyes, cannot open his ears, cannot open his mouth - if he comes into the world, will be in difficulties, naturally. He will find that all is disturbed, all is destroyed.

And in India the calamity is that these monkeys have become the leaders of this country - perverted people, suffering from abnormalities, not natural, not flowing, not in Tao.

My whole effort here is to create a miniature world where money is absolutely accepted, where women and men live together in joy, in celebration, without fear, where all that goes on in the world also continues and, alongside, the meditation grows. It becomes stronger and stronger because all the challenges are there.

You can go, Kavita, anywhere you like. Nobody can take your peace away. Your silence is yours! It is not because of me. You have earned it, you have gained it.

And a related question:

Question 4:

The question is from Sucheta.

I have not been hard on her yet, hence the question. But from now onwards she will know. I have been really nice to her, and I am rarely nice to people.

This place has more rules than any other place. Those rules are a device to create a certain situation in you - a challenge. The question has arisen in her mind because she wants to work with children, and I have said 'no'. I have told her to work somewhere else.

If I go with your likes and dislikes, your choices, I am 'Bhagwan'. In this question she has not written 'Bhagwan'; otherwise she always writes 'Beloved Bhagwan', 'Beloved Master'. The question directly starts: 'So what!'

I cannot leave you to yourself, otherwise I will not be of any help. Just BECAUSE Sucheta wants to work with children I cannot allow her, because I have to take care of children too. I cannot spoil their life. Sucheta, you are spoiled by your parents, by your family, by your society. I cannot send you to the children; you are not yet capable of that. Just because you choose... Anybody can choose anything, but here things have to go according to me, not according to you. Remember it! If you cannot be patient enough, then this is not the place for you, then you can leave. Guards are at every gate to prevent people from coming in, but I have not put any guards there to prevent people from going out. You can leave immediately.

If you have to be here, you have to be according to me, only then can I be of any help. I know what is needed . It is not always that which you like, which is your need. What you like comes out of your mind. And your mind has to be destroyed. I cannot listen to your likes and dislikes. All these rules are made by me. The moment you become a sannyasin, you give this much authority to me: that I will decide a few things for you. And if you want to become an ashramite, then you have to give one hundred percent authority to me - that is the meaning of becoming an inmate of the ashram.

She wanted to be in the ashram and I have put her outside because she is not yet capable of it. Just listen to the question and you will see. You will have to earn it. And this is not the way to earn it, remember.

It is very easy to lose this opportunity that is available to you. Your ego can become a problem, can create problems for you. Either you have to listen to your ego or you have to listen to me. You will have to change your whole pattern of thinking. You will have to change your very language of life; otherwise you will misunderstand.

These rules are for a certain purpose.

Madhuri was living in Lao Tzu House, and suddenly I sent her to live in Jesus House. She cried, but accepted. And she has come closer to me - closer than she ever was - in that very acceptance.

More love will be showering on her from my side. You can live physically very close to me, that is one thing... She could have resisted, she could have written me an angry letter, but she has not done anything, she has not even uttered a single angry word. She cried, she was sad - and that is natural - but no anger. To live with me in the same house and then to be sent to live in another house is hard, I know. But she survived the shock, and something immensely valuable has happened through it. Only later on will she understand that this was a blessing.

It takes time for you to understand things. But I live in a totally different reality, and I decide from there. And I know you live in a different reality. Misinterpretations are bound to be there from your side, but try to understand me. Even if you cannot understand sometimes, silently, patiently do what I say.

It happened...

The teacher asked the student, 'Do you like Kipling?'

The student said, 'I don't know. I have never kipled.'

Again...

Marriage counsellor to wife, 'Do you usually wake up grumpy in the morning?'

Wife, 'No, he gets up before I do.'

And again...

'How did you get on with your date last night?' one hippie was asked by an elderly neighbour.

'Just great,' was the reply. 'I finally persuaded her to say yes.'

'Oh, congratulations! When is the wedding to be?'

'Wedding? What wedding?'

To a hippie it is a different world. 'Yes' does not mean marriage.

'Vicar, you told me I must have Faith, Hope and Charity.'

'That's right.'

'Well. when I tried, they called the police.'

And the last:

'Are you sure that it was a marriage licence you gave me last month?'

'Yes, sir. What's the matter?'

'I thought there might be some mistake, seeing that I have lived a dog's life ever since.'

Sucheta, if you want to be here, you will have to learn my language, my way of seeing things, and you have to come with me; otherwise this is not the place for you. Then don't waste your time here.

Then it is better to leave this place soon - the sooner the better, because if you don't go with me, one day or other you will have to leave. And then you will feel very miserable because all those days that you stayed here will look like a wastage. If you want to be with me, then be with me totally, as totally as possible, then only something can happen. This happening is difficult because from your side there are so many hindrances.

The Rape of a Sabine Woman

The fifth question:

      Question 5:

Then why have you not signed the question?

First: I did not say that ALL the women who are raped were desiring it, I said 'in the majority of cases'. Remember it; it makes a lot of difference. And it is only an example. There of people who go through a car accident & wanted it, were accident-prone, were hoping somehow that something would happen, were desiring it deep down, were suicidal.

The mind that you know is not all. Below it there is a greater unconscious mind. In that unconscious mind you harbour many things of which you are not aware. There may be a person who is suicidal but not courageous enough to commit suicide. He will seek ways and means to commit suicide in a vicarious way: a car accident - he will not be responsible at all. Nobody will say that he committed suicide. Nobody will say later on that he was a coward, that he could not face life. It is easier to have a car accident than to commit suicide.

And, as far as rape is concerned, just look into your unconscious, look into your dreams. It is very rare to find a woman who has not dreamt of being raped. There is a certain attraction in it. What is the attraction? The attraction is that you are so irresistible that a person is ready to commit rape, you are so irresistible that a person is ready to go to jail for ten years or, if it is a Mohammedan country, is ready to die. If a rape is committed in a Mohammedan country and the person is caught, death is the penalty. And you will be surprised: more rapes are committed in Mohammedan countries than anywhere else.

Maybe the person who commits the rape wants to commit suicide. And this is a beautiful way to commit suicide. Can you find a better way of committing suicide? - a brave way too. And dying for love... so poetic, so romantic. There is some violence involved in sex. Even in ordinary sex when no rape is committed, something of rape is involved. The woman always says no. Why? - because if she says yes too easily, then there is no longer that feeling that 'I am needed, utterly needed'. She goes on saying no, and goes on meaning yes. She goes on saying no: she is provoking the man, she wants the man to be after her, she wants the man to force her. The very effort to force her, the very effort to drag her into love-making makes her feel good: she is 'needed'. This is a poor state of mind, but it is how people are.

So first I said 'in the majority of cases'. There are accidents also. You may not be thinking of rape at all, and a madman comes and rapes you. I am not excluding those cases, that's why I didn't say 'a hundred percent'. In the majority of cases whatsoever happens to you - rape, murder, disease - is somehow, somewhere, desired by you. But I am not saying in ALL cases.

Now psychologists are aware that when people are prone to certain diseases... For example, nearabout the age of forty-two people have heart attacks. Why near the age of forty-two? - because that is the time when people start succeeding or have succeeded. They have the money they always wanted, and now they don't know what to do. SUCCESS is there, and they are shocked by success.

They have always lived in the hope that they will have this much money, this woman, this house, this car - and they have it. Now what? Suddenly the heart stops beating. Now what? All direction seems to be lost. If they don't have the heart attack they will be very miserable. The heart attack relieves them. Now they can say to the world, 'I have to rest. The doctors have suggested rest. I cannot do any hard work.'

They cannot rest without an excuse. The heart attack becomes the excuse. If they simply rest, people will say, 'What are you doing? At the prime of your life, on the last rung of your SUCCESS, what are you doing? You can have more money. This is the time, because when you have money more money comes. When you have SUCCESS, more SUCCESS comes. What are you doing - 'relaxing', 'retiring'? And they will not have any excuse. The heart attack is a beautiful excuse. Nobody will say they have escaped from the world. Nobody will throw the responsibility on them.

What can they do? The whole responsibility goes to the heart attack. People are not conscious of all that goes on deep inside them.

You say:

But why are they so offensive? and only to one person? Nobody else has written, nobody has felt any offense. If you are a lady - and I hope that you are a lady, because if you are a gentleman then things will be more complicated, so I trust that you are a lady - why are you feeling so offended? You must be carrying the desire inside you, hence the offense; otherwise there is no offense.

I am a madman, I go on saying things. Why should you be offended? I am not a scientist, I am not a psychologist, I am nobody. I just like gossipping. Why should you be offended? I am not a consistent man, I go on contradicting myself. You can just wait for a few days and I will contradict myself. I will say, 'It has never happened. Whenever a woman is raped she is not responsible. It is the male ego, male violence.' Just wait. You have to be patient with me, I contradict myself!

But why are you offended? I must have touched a sore spot in you; something like a wound must be there. Deep down somewhere in the unconscious you want to be raped. That's why there is so much anger, so much offense. And you are afraid too - naturally. That's why you have not signed the question.

Always remember to sign it. And if you are very much afraid, you can write somebody else's name - but sign it! Then you can enjoy, and the other will be beaten! No need to be worried about it!

And you say:

Do you know that nothing is ever proven ABSOLUTELY? Nothing! Man has not proved anything absolutely. There is no possibility of proving anything absolutely. New discoveries, new facts, new data... and changes have to be made. Even scientific discoveries are not absolute, so how can psychological discoveries be absolute? Psychology is not yet a science, it is still fictitious. At most you can call it... if you like the word 'scientific', you can call it science fiction. But it has nothing to do with science yet. It is struggling to be scientific, but I don't think that it ever will be, because man's mind is like mercury - you cannot make a science out of it.

And man's mind is not a single phenomenon. There are as many minds as there are people. All that psychology can hope for is to think about the average mind. But you never come across 'the average', you always come across the unique. No scientific explanation is possible about the unique mind.

Psychology is not yet a science, and even science cannot claim absoluteness. What Newton did is no longer right. It looked so absolute in those days - it is no longer right. Do you think what Einstein has done will remain right for long? It cannot; it is not in the very nature of things. Life is such a mystery that the more you know about it, the more you will have to create new hypotheses to include the new facts. Have you known man and woman totally? Have you fathomed the feminine mind so totally that you know absolutely that it is incorrect? Nothing is absolutely correct, nothing is absolutely incorrect. All are guesses. ALL are guesses - one may be a little more close to the truth, another may not be so close.

But what I said has not to be taken as a general statement. It has to be taken as an object for meditation. You just meditate over it. I am not concerned about general truths. I am talking to disciples! You have to look into yourself. If you are a woman disciple just look into yourself. Is there not somewhere a lurking desire to be raped? And if it is there, it is better to know about it.

It is better to bring it to the conscious completely, because once something becomes conscious, it disappears. It can exist only in the unconscious. In the unconscious it is dangerous. If you bring it to the conscious, it evaporates. It is like pulling a tree out of the earth, bringing its roots to the light, then the tree dies. And that's exactly what happens: anything that goes on lurking in the unconscious, in the dark chamber of your soul - which is nine times bigger than your conscious mind - bring it into the conscious mind, bring it into sunlight and, if it comes there, it withers away.

What I am saying here is meant for you to meditate on. If you felt offended, then this is very good for you to meditate over. Go into it. Search into yourself, and don't conclude from the very beginning, don't say, 'This is wrong and has been proved absolutely wrong.' First meditate, and don't try to prove it wrong or right. Just go with an open mind into your own being and search for it. And you will be surprised that the desire is lurking there. It has a kind of charm in it.

One woman went to the priest to confess. She confessed that she had been raped. And she confessed that she had come to the priest because she enjoyed it. That's why she was feeling guilty: if she had not enjoyed it, there would be no question of coming to confess.

Then she came next time and again confessed. And then she came again.

And when she came for the fourth time, the priest said, 'But this is too much! Are you being raped every week?'

She said, 'No, this is the same rape.'

'But then why do you go on coming?'

She said, 'I enjoy telling it. It feels so good.'

Just go into yourself, and you will find all kinds of desires lurking in you. You will find something of the sadist: that you want to torture others. You will find something of the masochist: that you want to torture yourself. You will find all kinds of things in you because man is vast. And the unconscious is not an ordered place, it is a chaos, it is a madhouse. But we go on repressing all that. We are so afraid to see. That's why you felt so offended. I must have touched the right spot in you, hence the offense. It is not a question of whether it is proved right or wrong.

And I am not interested in that at all. My interest is in making you more and more meditative, more and more aware of your intrinsic, innermost desires, longings, perversions, obsessions. If they can be brought to light, they will disappear. And if the unconscious can be emptied completely, you will become a Buddha.

So don't simply go on arguing with me, because that is a waste of time and energy. Go in. If you cannot find any desire like that in you, very good. If you find it, that too is very good - you can bring it into the light and it will disappear.

 

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