JESUS
I Say Unto You Vol 2 07
Seventh Discourse from the series of 9 discourses - I Say Unto You Vol 2 by Osho.
You can listen, download or read all of these discourses on oshoworld.com.
Matthew 24
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Verily I say unto you,
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the son of man cometh.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming.
And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken.
The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.
And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Man’s evolution passes through three stages: reform, revolution and rebellion. Reform is the most superficial. It only touches the surface, it never goes more than skin-deep. It changes nothing but the outer dressing of man; it changes man’s formalities. It gives man etiquette, manners – a kind of civilization – without changing anything essential in his being. It paints man, it polishes him and yet deep down he remains the same. It is delusional. It is fictitious. It gives respectability and makes everybody a hypocrite. It gives good manners, but it is against the inner core of man. The inner core has not yet been understood.
But for society it creates smoothness. Reform functions like a lubricant. It keeps the status quo going, it helps things remain the same – which will look paradoxical because the reformist claims that he is changing society. In fact all that he is doing is painting the old society in new colors. It is easier for the old society to exist in new colors than it could ever have done in the old ones. The old ones were becoming rotten. Reform is a kind of renovation: the house is falling down, the supports are giving way, the foundations are shaking and you go on giving it new props. By doing this you can keep the house from falling down a little longer. Reform is in the service of the status quo – it serves the past not the future.
The second thing is revolution: it goes a little deeper. Reform only changes ideas, it does not change policies. Revolution touches the structure, but only the outer not the inner. Man has two structures; he lives on two planes. One is the physical, the other is the spiritual. Revolution only goes to the physical structure – to the economic, to the political and they all belong to the physical. It goes deeper than reform. It destroys many old things, it creates many new things, but the being, the innermost being of man still remains unchanged. It creates morality, it creates character.
Reform creates manners, etiquette, civilization. The formal behavior of man is changed. Revolution changes man’s outer structure – really changes; it brings a new structure. But the inner blueprint remains the same, the inner consciousness is not touched. It creates a split.
The first, reform, creates hypocrisy. The second, revolution, creates schizophrenia. It makes man unbridgeable. Man starts falling into two beings. The bridge is broken. That’s why revolutionaries go on denying the soul. Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao all denied the soul. They had to deny it, they couldn’t accept it because if they had accepted it their whole revolution would have seemed to be very superficial. Their revolution was not total.
The reformist does not deny the soul, remember; he accepts it because it creates no problems for him – he never reaches that point. That point is not a problem. Gandhi accepted the soul, Manu accepted the soul – they were reformists. They never said no to anything, they were people who went on saying yes; they were polite people. They didn’t deny anything, unless it became absolutely necessary, then they would accept it. But revolutionaries deny the soul. They have to deny it, otherwise their revolution looks partial.
The third thing is rebellion. Rebellion is from the very essential core. It changes consciousness – it is radical; it transmutes – it is alchemical. It gives you a new being, not only a new body, not only a new dress, but a new being. A new man is born. In the history of consciousness there have been three types of thinkers: the reformer, the revolutionary and the rebel. Manu, Moses, Gandhi – they were reformers, the most superficial. John the Baptist, Marx, Freud – they were the revolutionaries. Jesus, Buddha, Krishnamurti – they are the rebels.
To understand rebellion is to understand the heart of religion. Religion is rebellion. Religion is utter change. Religion is discontinuity with the past, the beginning of the new, the total dropping of the old. Nothing has to be continued because if something continues it will keep the old alive.
Reform paints. Revolution destroys the old outer structure but the inner structure remains the same. In Soviet Russia or in China the inner man is the same, there is no difference, not a bit. The same mind – the same greedy, ambitious, egoistic mind. The same mind that is found in America or in any capitalist country; there is no difference in the mind. But the outer structure of the society has been changed. The outer structure of laws, state, economics, politics have been changed. Once the police force and the governmental power have been taken away, man will fall back to his old patterns again.
Russian society can only be managed by force. It cannot become democratic because to allow people to be independent will be allowing them to bring their inner being into their lives again. It is there inside them, but they have been prevented and they have been obstructed; they cannot live it. They have to live by the rules of the government, they cannot live according to their own being. So communism is basically dictatorial. It remains dictatorial: the fear is that if man is given freedom and because his consciousness is there – his greed is there, his ambition is there and it has always been there – it will start working again. People will become rich, poor, powerful, powerless. People will start exploiting each other; people will start fighting for their ambitions.
Those who are powerful in Russia now are still doing the same thing. Khrushchev had many cars and used to brag about them. Nobody else in Russia can have them, but everybody wants them. It is just enforcement, not real revolution. Real revolution is spontaneous. That revolution is called rebellion.
A few more distinctions between these three words, then you will be able to understand Jesus’ approach. Reform does not require much from you. It says: “Just make your front door beautiful and let the rest of your house be dirty. Live in dirt, but don’t allow your neighbors to see it. Just the front porch and the door should be beautiful because your neighbors are not interested in your inner being, in your inner house.” They pass the outside and see only the front door. “Do whatsoever you want, but do it from the back door.” So the front door becomes a facade, a window, a showcase for the neighbors to see.
You really live from the back door, you don’t live from the front door. The front door is just there, artificial. You never enter through it, you never go out from it – it is there just to be seen by others. Watch your front doors! Everybody has them. They are called faces, masks, personalities because they are a persona: lipstick, powder and cosmetics – they give you a persona. You are not that. It is make-up.
Revolution goes a little deeper, but only a little deeper. It changes your drawing room so you can invite people to sit there. In India it happens often… In India the drawing room is beautiful, but don’t go beyond it. People’s kitchens are so dirty and ugly, their bathrooms are almost impossible. But in India nobody takes care of the bathroom or the kitchen. Only the drawing room is taken care of; it is there where you meet your guests. This is false, it does not touch your real being, but it keeps your prestige. That’s what morality is: it is a beautiful drawing room. If you can afford it, you can also have a painting by Picasso in your drawing room. It depends on how much you can afford.
Just the other day I was reading a small story:
Charlie was taking his out-of-town pal, George, for a stroll through the city. They were admiring the scenery when George said, “Say, will you look at that good looking girl over there. She’s smiling at us. Know her?”
“Yes, Betty – twenty dollars.”
“And who is that brunette with her? Man, she’s really stacked!”
“Dolores – forty dollars.”
“Ah, but look what’s coming! That’s what I call really first-class.”
“Gloria – eighty dollars.”
“My God!” cried George. “Aren’t there any nice respectable girls in this town?”
“Of course,” Charlie answered. “But you couldn’t afford their rates.”
Morality goes only so far, beyond that it stumbles and disappears. Everyone has his price. The moral man has a price. Watch yourself: if you are walking on the street and you find one thousand rupees, maybe you won’t take them, but if you find ten thousand… You hesitate – to take or not to take? But if you find one hundred thousand rupees, there is no question, you take them. It shows how deep your morality is – one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand; everybody has a price. One can only afford that much, beyond that, it is too much. Morality is not worth it. You would like to choose the immoral. The moral man is not totally moral. Only a few layers of him are moral, beyond that the immorality awaits. So you can drive any moral man into immorality very easily. The only question is that you have to find his price.
I have heard that Mulla Nasruddin was traveling with a woman in a first-class compartment. They were alone. He introduced himself and said, “Would you like to sleep with me tonight?”
The woman, who was really angry, replied, “What do you think I am? Are you mad? What do you think of me? I’m not a prostitute!”
Mulla said, “I will give you ten thousand rupees.”
The woman started smiling, she came close and held Mulla’s hand.
Mulla said, “What about ten rupees?”
The woman replied, “What do you think of me!”
Mulla said, “I know who you are. Now we are haggling over the price.”
It is always a question of “the price.” Ten rupees – and the woman is angry. Ten thousand rupees – the woman is willing. And don’t laugh at her, this is everybody’s situation. Morality does not transform you. It goes deeper than reform, it has a bigger price, but still, at the very core of your being, you remain the same.
Reform is partial revolution. Revolution is outer revolution. Rebellion is inner revolution. Only when the inner has happened, is it dependable; otherwise it is not. Reform makes you hypocritical, revolution makes you schizophrenic. Only rebellion gives you your fullness of being, spontaneity, health, wholeness. Reform makes you respectable. If you are after respect, reform is enough. It gives you a plastic personality. From the outside you start looking beautiful. From the inside you are rotten and stinking, but nobody can smell your stinking being – the plastic protects you. Inside you go on becoming dirtier and dirtier, but on the outside you keep a good face.
Revolution creates a split in you. It makes you a saint, but the sinner is repressed. The sinner has not been absorbed into the saint, the sinner has been cut off. Revolution makes you two people; it creates two worlds in you. The natural is repressed and the moral is on top of it. The top dog, the moral, tries to control the lower dog, the natural. Of course, the natural is very powerful because it is natural, so it takes revenge. It goes on sneaking into your life from the weaker points. It disrupts your morality, it creates guilt and you are in constant conflict because nobody is victorious.
Your support, your intellectual support, is for the moral, but your whole being’s support is for the natural. The moral is in the conscious and the natural is in the unconscious. The conscious is very small and the unconscious is nine times stronger, nine times bigger than the conscious. But you only know the conscious, so in the conscious the morality goes on singing its song, and in the unconscious, which is nine times more powerful, all kinds of immoralities go on creating deeper roots in you. It makes you a saint and a sinner – the sinner is repressed and the sinner waits for his time, for the right time to erupt, for the right time to take revenge.
That’s why people look so sad and so dissipated because all their energy is going down the drain in the conflict. There is continuous tension. The saint is very tense. He is always in anguish and always afraid – afraid of his own being that he has denied. And the denial is there. Sooner or later it throws the moralist, the egoist, the conscious pretender. It throws them – it throws the pretender. Hence, the saint is always on the verge of a kind of insanity. And you know… If you try to be a saint, you know that you are always on the verge. A small thing can change your whole balance, you can lose your sanity. Neurosis breeds and grows, if you are split.
Rebellion is inner revolution.
Rebellion starts from the “in”; reform starts from the “out.” Never start from the outside. Start from the innermost core. Start from your very being. Reform will tell you what to do. Revolution will tell you how to be – more saintly, of better character, of good qualities. Revolution will create a hard crust around you, an armor which protects you from the outside and from the inside too. A hard, steel armor – that’s what called “character.” A real man has no character. Jesus has no character. That was the problem, otherwise the Jews would not have been so against him. He was liquid; he had no character, he had no armor. He was open, vulnerable, defenseless because he was not a moralist. He was not a saint, he was a sage.
Reform makes you a gentleman. Revolution makes you a saint. Rebellion makes you a sage. He was a sage. Whatsoever he did was not done because of a certain morality, but because of a certain understanding. Not because of rules given from the past, but because of a spontaneous awareness.
Rebellion depends on awareness, revolution on character, reform on formalities. Start by being more aware, start from the innermost. Let the light spread from there, so your whole being can be full of light. There is no way to go from the outside. The only way is to come from the inside – just like a seed grows from the inside, sprouts from the inside and becomes a big tree. Let that be your inner work too – like a seed, grow.
Reform is patchwork, a kind of whitewash – a little bit here, a little bit there, but the basic structure is not even touched. Reform can be for revolution or against revolution; it depends on you. There are two types of reformists: those who are preparing the ground for revolution or those who are trying to prevent the revolution. Reform gives you the feeling that things are getting better, so what is the need of creating a revolution? Why go to so much trouble? Reform gives hope and people stop. So it depends on you.
A man of right understanding can also use reform, but a man who is not conscious will not be able to use reform as a process for revolution. On the contrary, reform will become a hindrance for revolution. So is the case with revolution.
Revolution can be a door to rebellion, but only with awareness; otherwise it becomes a hindrance. One thinks, “Now that the revolution has happened, what is the need to go any deeper? It is already too much.” So reform can either be a hindrance or a help. So is the case with revolution. It all depends on your awareness, it all depends on your understanding – how much you understand life.
So let this become one of the most fundamental rules of life and work: that everything ultimately depends on understanding – how you understand. Even something which is going to become a great help can become a hindrance, if understanding is missing. Sometimes even that which was poisonous can be changed into something medicinal with understanding. All medicines are made of poisons. They don’t kill, they help people to remain healthy. In the right hands even poison becomes medicine; in the wrong hands even medicine may prove to be a poison. Revolution is a change of the structure – bodily, social, outer, economic, political – and man is not disturbed at all. It can be against rebellion or for rebellion. Out of one hundred, ninety-nine cases are against rebellion. That’s why communism is so very much against religion, it is not accidental.
Communism feels that religion is the real enemy. Why? – because religion goes far deeper than communism can ever go. That is the jealousy and that is the problem. If there is no religion, communism seems to be the ultimate revolution. Then there is nothing higher. But if there is religion, communism seems to be just so-so, lukewarm – it is not much to brag about. Communism wants to kill religion utterly, destroy all religions from the earth. They have done it in Russia, they are doing it in China. They are even doing it in Tibet, which was one of the most religious countries. It had one of the longest living religions – the most alive, the purest – the spring had not yet become dirty and polluted. Now they are destroying that too. Communism is very much afraid of religion because communism can see the point: religion goes deeper and it changes man from his very inner core. Only when the new man is born, is a new society really born.
We have tried all sorts of things. We have created ladies and gentlemen and they didn’t prove to be much. We have changed societies, we have tried utopias – they have all failed. Reform has failed, revolution has failed. Rebellion has never been tried on a large scale. Whenever it has been tried on a small scale, it has always succeeded. With Buddha it succeeded and thousands of people went through a rebellion and became new. With Jesus it succeeded, with Lao Tzu it succeeded, with Krishna it succeeded. There has always been success with rebellion, but very few people… It has never been on a large scale. It has never gripped the soul of humanity. And that is where work is needed now.
The greater part of humanity has to be given the vision of awareness, rebellion. Only then can man really become human. Man is only human for the name’s sake. He is not yet human because those humane qualities which make a man human are missing, are lacking. They are not there. There is no compassion, there is no love, there is no meditation. There is no prayer, no gratitude and no celebration. In short, God is not present. Man is an empty temple: God is missing. God will continue to be missing unless your seed dissolves and you start sprouting into God. God is your growth.
Remember, God cannot be found somewhere outside – not in the Himalayas, not in Jerusalem, not in a monastery. God has to be evolved in you, God has to be your growth. It is not an object outside that you are going to meet some day. Unless you become it, you will never meet it. Only by becoming it, will you meet it. That is Jesus’ whole message.
Reform brings new ideas, revolution brings a new structure to support those new ideas. Rebellion brings a new consciousness, a new man, a new being to support those structures. Start from the very foundation. Let rebellion be the foundation and then make the structure of revolution. On top of that, let there be a dome of reform – not otherwise or the whole process will be topsy-turvy.
The basic thing is to understand the whole situation – how has man been doing up to now? What has gone wrong? Why is there so much suffering? Why do we always start from the wrong end and never reach the real core of the problem? Understanding is missing, awareness is missing. You are living in a kind of unconsciousness – Jesus calls it sleep. Bring more awareness to yourself.
It will be difficult because everyone else around you is fast asleep. If you start awakening, you will find difficulties arising because those people who are asleep will not like it. It is a disturbance for them. They are having sweet dreams and you suddenly become awake. You create a kind of disturbance. Not only that – once you are awake, you start shaking people to wake them up because you feel: “These poor people are missing the real joy of life. The sun is rising and the flowers are dancing in the breeze and the birds are singing.” You start waking up and shaking people around you – particularly people you love, you feel for, you care for.
You would like them to share this joy, this morning that is all around. They are deep in sleep, in a slumber, snoring, not aware of what is happening all around them. But they are having their dreams. Maybe someone is earning great amounts of money, or someone is almost reaching to the highest position – one promotion more. Or someone is fighting for the presidential election and you wake them up? They will feel angry. Naturally, because they don’t know any other reality than their dreams. Their dreams are their reality and things were going well and here you come and disturb everything. Nobody will like you.
Nobody likes a man who is alert and aware. That’s why Jesus was crucified. He would have been crucified anywhere. Don’t blame the Jews. He was such a rebellious man that he himself is responsible for being crucified, not the Jews. He would have been crucified by someone else. Wherever he was he would have been crucified.
Nobody is ready to accept that much awareness. That much awareness is disturbing. That much awareness hurts. The man of awareness stands there and makes you feel guilty because in comparison to him you are just a dark night. You hate him because without him everything was good and there was no comparison. You were thinking that you were full of life – now here he comes… In his presence you are reduced to being just a dark night and nothing else. In his presence you are a beggar. Here comes the emperor, the Son of God. In his presence you feel ugly.
The natural logic is that it is him who is making you ugly. When he wasn’t there, you had never thought about your ugliness. Now he haunts you. Now he creates trouble for you. Now you have to search for this beauty. You will have to go into many things. “Now, this is unnecessary.” It looks unnecessary. “Better destroy this man, better destroy this criterion.” Once the criterion is no longer there, nobody can prove that you are empty, impotent, a beggar; nobody can prove that you are ugly; nobody can prove that you have anything missing. Destroy Jesus and relapse back into your sleep. That’s what the Jews did. But I would like to tell you again: that’s what would have happened anywhere. Jesus was too much. Yes, I say that even in India Jesus would have been crucified.
A question may arise in you: Buddha was not crucified, Mahavira was not crucified, so why Jesus? Yes, I say that still Jesus would have been crucified. Jesus brings a new message. Buddha is silent: his message is only for those who come to him, those who come to seek and search. He does not go to the masses, he is not active. His rebellion is a presence. Jesus goes to the masses, Jesus is very active.
Buddha’s rebellion is inactive, passive. Jesus’ rebellion is very active and that is the problem. Mahavira’s rebellion is also very passive, so is Lao Tzu’s. These are people who are utterly at ease, silent in themselves, happy with themselves. If somebody comes and partakes of their being, good and if nobody comes, they are not going to invite them. Jesus drags you into awareness, he hits you hard. He comes searching for you whether you are ready or not. He says to his disciples: “Go and stand on the tops of the houses and shout because people are deaf. You will have to shout. Give the good message, the good news, that I have come. Shout it from the housetops!”
Buddha cannot say that. Lao Tzu – not at all. It was even difficult to find where Lao Tzu was, people had to search for him for months at a time. Once he came to know that somebody was searching for him, he would escape, he would remove himself from one village and go to another. He would create all kinds of problems. He would allow only those who were really seekers, who were ready to sacrifice their all.
With Jesus it is just the opposite – he haunts you, he goes searching for you. He says that he is like a shepherd who comes home in the night, counts his sheep, finds that one is missing, leaves the ninety-nine there in the dark night and in danger. And goes with a lamp to search for the one which is lost in the jungle, in the dark night – shouting, calling, searching. Yes, Jesus is like that. He is a revolutionary rebel.
Buddha is rebellion, pure rebellion. His message is silent. Those who understand, they will understand. Those who don’t understand, they need not worry, they can ignore him. He allows people to ignore him. Jesus does not allow people to ignore him. He shouts. He pokes his fingers into people’s eyes. His compassion is great. He is a surgeon. With Buddha you may have a little bit of medicine. Jesus is a surgeon, he operates and of course the operation hurts.
The Jews are not responsible, they should be forgiven. Anybody – Hindus, Chinese, Tibetans – would have killed this man. This man was asking for it. He brings a new breeze into religion: active, action. Rebellion also becomes revolution.
I was reading a parable, a beautiful parable. Meditate over it; it’s a parable of G. William Jones: The Innovator.
It had been a long, long time since such a crime had been committed and, as punishment, the Innovator would receive a sentence which had not been heard of for a long, long time – not since the days of the great-great-greats. It was a sentence at once so terrible and horrifying in its aspect that the High Court and the C.D.’s felt that it justly fit the nauseous and perverse crime of innovation. The punishment was to be expulsion from the Dome!
The citizens lined both sides of the street, their expression a mixture of hatred and awe as their eyes followed the progress of the Innovator, escorted by a cordon of C.D.’s toward the Lox. Gamblers in the crowd were busily making book on how long it would take the Innovator to die once he was outside the Dome, and on whether it would be death from Fallout, Poison gas, or perhaps even from a Wild beast. There was no doubt that he would soon die (for imbedded deep in the mind of each citizen was the truism that no human life could possibly exist outside the protection of the Dome – that beloved plastic canopy erected by their great-great-great-grandfathers, which stretched over the city from limit to limit, cuddling it in a benevolent, airtight grip). The only question was how long would death take to come and in what form.
Some of the sadists in the crowd had scraped through the thick crust of dirt on the Dome wall near the Lox so that they could see the Outside, and were selling places at these peepholes for a nice sum.
The C.D.’s and their prisoner had arrived at the Lox. The crowd retreated now in a minor panic for fear that some poisonous fume might enter the Dome when the Lox was opened. The mechanism was still good, although it had been unused for all these generations. At the press of a button from the Chief, the thick transparent door of the Lox swung jerkily open. The Innovator, with a last mournful look over his shoulder, was pushed rather roughly into the small compartment. The door was then shut, and the citizens held their collective breath as the Chief touched the next button. The outer door swung open with a great hissing into that unhealthy green Outside.
At his first breath of the Outside’s air, the Innovator fell headlong, coughing, doubled up with a giant convulsion. The C.D.’s nodded their heads, pleased, and there was a clamor almost like a cheer that arose from those at the peepholes as they watched him and their wristwatches to determine the exact second of his last gasp.
But then the terrible thing happened. The Innovator slowly raised his head from the dust and, with the beginnings of a smile of great joy upon his face, filled his lungs deeply. His eyes grew wide. He sat up, and they could see his chest bulging with gulp after gulp of that alien air. The people were so startled that they cried aloud when he suddenly jumped from a sitting position straight up, coming down in the first steps of a wild dance.
“It must have hit his brain first,” said one spectator, his nose flattened against the Dome wall.
The Innovator stopped his dance abruptly as he turned to see the faces peering out at him. He smiled at them – a broad, toothy smile with no malice in it at all. He even opened his arms wide to them, making a beckoning gesture!
At this point, many of those watching him could take no more, and turned away to go back to their homes, shuddering with a nausea of fear.
After making many gestures of well-being to those amazed and still uncomprehending faces, the Innovator snapped his fingers and stooped to pick up a stick. With it, he wrote in large letters upon the ground: “Come on out – the air is fine!”
One after another shocked faces left the peepholes, not to return.
Again he wrote in the dirt, this time with more urgency: “It is fresh air – not poison.”
Still more left.
This time, almost frantic to make himself understood, he wrote: “You don’t need the Dome anymore. You can live Outside! It is better out here!”
With this, every face disappeared from the clear places in the grimy walls, and the Innovator was left alone in the Outside with his brilliant sun, its fresh and moving air, its trees and plants three times the size of those inside the Dome, and its birds and animals.
The newspapers the next morning carried grisly stories of the Innovator’s immediate death outside the Lox. The city fathers decided in an emergency session that the interior of the Dome should be painted opaquely to a height of twenty feet all around. And those watchers who could not be scared into abject secrecy were interned in the asylum, where talk of living outside the Dome could be taken for what it was – the raving of a lunatic.
A beautiful parable. This is the situation of humanity. Down the ages this has been so: man has lived in a man-created dome of beliefs, ideas, dogmas. Your churches, your temples, your scriptures are just plastic domes. They are protecting you from nature. They are not helping you to go to God, they are preventing you from going. When a man like Jesus comes, he is The Innovator. He starts talking about strange things which exist outside the domes. He talks about fresh air and green trees, the birds and their songs and the sun and the clouds – he talks about a thousand and one things. You have lived in a plastic dome and you have never been out of it. You have never been out of a church, out of a temple. You have never been out of the trap of the priests and the politicians. He comes and starts saying things which are wild – things which appeal and have a great appeal. Things which are magnetic, things which provoke and challenge. But they are things that you have not heard for ages. You become angry. You become angry because this man thinks you are all fools.
That’s why people go on asking Jesus again and again, “Do you think you are far wiser than our father Abraham? Do you think you are more knowing than our old prophets? Do you think that you have brought truth for the first time?” People believe they have always had truth and that it is in their possession. They have nothing in their possession. So whenever a man of truth comes, a rebellion comes into the world, innovation comes into the world. And the people crush such a man.
We have to create a world where innovators can be more easily accepted, where innovators are not only accepted but welcomed – because it is these innovators who help you to go higher and higher in your consciousness. They are the steps toward godliness.
Now the sutras:
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple…
He was visiting the Great Temple of the Jews. Whenever he went to the temple he was always sad and angry because things were always wrong there. The temple had become a trading place. The temple was no longer a temple, it was dominated by businessmen. God was sold there and of course God cannot be sold. So only a false god can be sold. The temple was no longer a shrine for prayer, it was no longer a place to meditate. It was no longer a place where one connected with God. It was dominated by the priests and they were dominated by their vested interests. Whenever Jesus went to the temple, he would always leave angry and sad. Once he became so angry that he threw all the money-changers out of the temple. He shouted at them and said, “What have you done to my Father’s house? It has become a den of robbers!”
This story also starts:
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.
But he was not interested in seeing the buildings because the God that at some time used to live there had departed. It was a ruin. The soul had left the body, it was a corpse.
And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things?
“And you still call this a temple? Don’t you see all the things that are happening here?” It is politics, it is no longer religion. It is reformist, it is no longer rebellious. It does not transform people, it consoles them. It does not hit people awake, it goes on singing lullabies so they can fall asleep easier. Remember this: many times you go to a religious person not to be awakened but to be helped, consoled. You go begging for a lullaby, you go begging for a tranquilizer. A tranquilizer cannot help you to awaken. Yes, it may help you to be less uncomfortable in this uncomfortable world; to be less insecure in this insecure world; to be less anxious, less tense. Yes, it can help you relax a little bit, but that is not going to change you or transform you. In fact, the transformation comes only when you become utterly tense, when anxiety comes to its peak – only then, and then only is there a revolution, a radical change.
The priest goes on consoling you and the priests are very cunning, very inventive in creating consoling theories. For centuries in India they have been consoling the poor. “You are poor because you did wrong things in your past lives.” This is a consolation. People are not poor because they have done wrong in their past lives. People are poor because they are being exploited. Now the priests are in the hands of the exploiters – naturally, because they have the power, they are the power-holders.
The priests live on the crusts that are thrown from the rich people’s tables. They have to help the masters. Down the ages they have been teaching poor people: “You are in a bad shape because of your bad karma and people are rich because of their good karma. Rich people are rich because they have been saintly in their past lives; poor people are poor because they have been sinners.” Now this is a very tricky thing – great strategy, great politics in it. If you look at the rich people, they seem to be the sinners. They are! Exploiting, cheating, deceiving.
The poor people, who are innocent in a way, are not doing any harm to anybody. They are “the sinners of the past.” This does not seem logical, because if a man has been a sinner for so many lives, he will be a sinner in this life too. More is the possibility of him being a sinner than being an ordinary, innocent, poor person. If people have been great saints in their past lives, they cannot be black marketeers – that will not be logical. They cannot go on exploiting people; their sainthood will not allow it.
The situation is just the reverse, but the ideology helps console. The poor person no longer feels the wounds. The priest has poured ointment on the wounds. He has said, “There is nothing to be worried about. Nobody else is responsible. You have done something wrong in your past lives.” He gives the explanation and the explanation helps the poor person. He can find an explanation, he can find the cause – and he himself is responsible. Now nothing can be done, one has to go through it silently.
That’s why there has never been a revolution in India. It is because of the priests. How can there be a revolution if you are responsible? The only thing is to go on doing good things – whatsoever you can do. The poor man cannot afford much, but whatsoever he can do he should go on doing. He can go to the Ganges once in his life to take a bath or he can contribute a little something to the temple of the village. Once in his lifetime, he can have some ritual arranged. That’s all that he can do. He can wait for the next life. In the next life he will be happy, he will live in a palace and he will enjoy all kinds of good things. So it is only a question of a little patience. The priest has been teaching patience to people, consolation, giving explanations so that they know why they are poor – and hiding the real facts.
The temple has become the citadel of all that is wrong and Jesus always felt it whenever he went there. He would see the things that were going on there. He could not believe why people were not aware, why they could not see.
See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another…
“This temple has to be destroyed! This so-called religion has to be destroyed. This religion of the priests and the politicians has to be utterly effaced from the earth.”
Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
He is angry. You will not find such anger in Buddha. That’s why Buddha was saved from crucifixion. Even when he talks, he talks in a great philosophical way. When he says things, he does not say them in a raging voice, in anger; he is very polite. Buddha’s message is like classical music – silent, beautiful, but it has no revolution in it. Jesus’ message is a slogan. It is not a coincidence and it is not an accident that all the great revolutionaries come from Jesus’ tradition. They come from the West not the East. Revolutionaries are missing in the East. The East has known great sages, but not revolutionaries. All the great revolutions and all the great revolutionary ideas have come from the West. The foundation of the West is Jesus’ ideology, his approach toward reality.
You will be surprised to know that even communism comes from Christianity, not from Hinduism, not from Jainism, not from Buddhism. Communism is an off-shoot of Christianity. However much they are against it – it doesn’t matter. A son can go against his father, that does not make him no longer a son and does not make him less of a son. He remains the son. Marx, Freud and Kropotkin, Tolstoy, Ruskin and Thoreau all come from the same seed, from the same approach toward life – it is Jesus’ approach. Jesus is an off-shoot of the Jewish approach. That also has to be understood.
In India or China, nothing like the Jewish prophets have ever existed – no, never. You cannot find a man like John the Baptist in India. The great prophets of the Jews were all full of revolution, they were all hot, burning fires. Prophets have never existed in India; saints, yes, sages, yes – but not prophets. When somebody calls Mahavira a prophet, he is not right. When somebody calls Buddha a prophet, it looks simply absurd. Buddha is not a prophet. He has no prophecy for the future, he does not bring revolution. He brings a new consciousness, his own consciousness. He makes it available, but he does not shout. He does not say that the temple should be burned or that the temple should fall, or even that not one single stone shall remain upon another. Jesus has the quality of a Jewish prophet. He was a disciple of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was killed just like Jesus, he was beheaded.
The Judaic tradition has also given birth to other revolutionaries. Marx was a Jew, so was Sigmund Freud. Whether it is sociology, economics, psychology or even physics, the revolution comes from the Jews. Albert Einstein was a Jew. There is some element in the Jewish consciousness that makes them revolutionary. Just think of human history without three Jews – Jesus, Marx and Freud – and there will be no revolution. People will be patient, people will suffer, people will accept everything. People will go on dragging and finding explanations from the priests. This has to be noted, because this is specific to Jesus.
And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Verily I say unto you,
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Because his words are not his words, that’s why they …shall not pass away. His words are God’s words. He is just a vehicle, a medium. He is simply saying what God wants to say. But God has no mouth to speak with – he uses our mouths. God has no eyes to see with – he uses our eyes. God has no legs to walk with – he uses our legs. God uses Jesus as a medium. That’s why Jesus says: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. “This temple is going to be destroyed and is going to be demolished to the very ground because it has gone against the very spirit of being a temple. It is no longer a temple, it is no longer religious.”
This happens again and again. Now the Vatican and the Pope are no longer religious. They are in the same situation as this temple which Jesus left. Again the same thing has happened. It has always happened. The temple sooner or later becomes a robbers’ den because the temple attracts innocent people. There is a logical necessity to why it happens. The temple attracts innocent people. Once the innocent people start coming, the clever and cunning people also start coming. Because wherever the innocent are, there is a possibility to exploit them. Jesus attracts the innocent.
Once the innocent are there, all the cunning people around will see the point. When Jesus was alive they couldn’t come – his presence was the prevention. Once Jesus was gone, the cunning people started infiltrating. They came and started mixing with the sheep – but they are wolves, although they may have been hiding under sheepskins. Sooner or later they will come out on top because they are cunning. Innocent people are not interested in being on top. Only those who are cunning come for that. Once they are on top, they become priests, rabbis, shankaracharyas, popes. Then they start dominating the whole thing and the quality changes.
A temple is a temple only while Jesus was alive. Once Jesus was gone, it was very difficult for the temple to remain a temple. Because Jesus would gather the innocent people, he would gather so many sheep. While he was there he would protect them, once he was gone, the wolves started coming. Wolves only come when they see that there are many sheep and the shepherd is missing. This was their chance – their life’s chance. Now the same thing has happened in the Vatican, the same thing has happened in Puri, the same thing has happened at the Kaaba. The same thing has been happening down the ages. Remember it, because the same thing could happen here. You will have to be very, very mindful.
So I don’t want you just to be innocent. Be innocent, but don’t be foolish. Be innocent, but don’t be childish. Be innocent, but let your innocence be illuminated by awareness. Then this cannot happen. Your awareness will make you aware if something goes wrong, otherwise this will happen. Anyone who is cunning enough will start manipulating you. Keep alert. The temple has been made again and again and has been polluted again and again. But man has changed very much down the ages. Maybe now it is possible. Maybe now the time has come – the time for the idea to become a reality.
Verily I say unto you,
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Jesus says that there is no point in going to the temple – the rituals, the rabbi and the scripture. The only thing that you need to enter is watchfulness. Watch therefore… “This temple is going to fall. Don’t go in, otherwise you will also be crushed. Escape from it, it is already falling. I can see what is going to happen to it. Its soul has already left it. It is no longer glued together. They are just stones upon stones without any glue holding them together. The religion is not there. It is a miracle how this temple is still standing. It is going to fall any moment. A small wind and it may fall; a little rain and it may fall. Any excuse is needed and it may fall. Escape from it and let watchfulness be your temple.”
Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. The watchfulness has to be for twenty-four hours. You cannot afford to be watchful for just a few minutes, once a day – in the morning you meditate and then you forget. That won’t help because nobody knows when God will knock at your door. And if you are not watchful, you will not recognize him and you will miss. Only in immense awareness can God be recognized.
But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
The watchfulness has two purposes. One is: if you are not watchful, you will not recognize God when he comes and knocks on your door; you will miss him. The second purpose is: if you are not watchful, you won’t know when and how the thieves will enter and rob you. To make it clear, Jesus is saying, “Be watchful so that the priest cannot enter inside you – he is the thief. When a christ knocks on your door, you recognize him.”
For one real master in the world there are ninety-nine false ones. If you are not watchful, those ninety-nine are going to rob you. One never knows when the real one is coming. You may encounter him, but if you are not very alert you will miss him because only alertness can become a bridge between you and the real master.
Therefore be ye also ready…
So the purposes are double. First: you should be ready so that no thief can rob you, nobody can exploit you. Second: you should be ready so that when the real one comes you can welcome him and he can become a guest and you can be the host. The moment you become a host to God, you have become the real temple. Jesus is saying, “That is the real temple, not these buildings.”
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
God has given you a purpose, God has given you a certain destiny. He has given you a certain work to do here on earth. If you are not aware, you will be found unworthy. God has given you a purpose. You may not be aware of the purpose at all. He wants something to be fulfilled through you. Maybe he wants you to sing a song that nobody else can sing except you. Maybe he wants you to have a dance that is possible only through you. Only through you can he give that dance to existence. Only through you can God have that dance – there is no other way. Maybe something else… But everybody comes here with a seed. It is just a seed and in the seed, you cannot see what flowers are going to blossom. But the seed is there and the flowers are waiting. Unless you have blossomed, you will not be able to show your face to your God, to your master.
Only fulfilled, blossomed, can you offer yourself to him, can you bow down at his feet. Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Otherwise people are doing other things. God will come and find you doing something else for which you were not sent and not doing that for which you were sent. This is the only sin – not to do that which is intrinsic to you and to go on doing things which others have put upon you.
There are many people who are putting their trips on you – avoid them. Your father wants to put a trip on you. He wants you to become the prime minister of the country. Your mother wants to put her trip on you. She wants you to become a great doctor and this or that. Your teachers are putting their trips on you and your friends and your society. Everybody is interested in you because they are interested in putting a trip on you.
Nobody seems to be interested in you as yourself. If you can find a man who is interested in you as yourself – that is your master. That is the criterion, the definition of a master: one who is not putting any trip on you, who is simply interested in helping you to be whatsoever you can be. He is not driving you in any direction, but simply nurturing you, nourishing you, so that you can go in any direction that comes naturally to you. One who is not pruning you, who is simply putting fertilizers onto your roots, so if you want to grow to the north or to the south, or if you want to go high in the sky, or want to become a thick bush, you can become whatsoever you want to become. A master is just a benevolent presence, a nourishment. He does not guide you to be this or that, he simply helps you to be that which is hidden inside you.
Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
If you have fulfilled God’s desire that he has put in you – you, your being, will be transformed. You will no longer be a servant, you will become a master. You will no longer be a beggar, you will become an emperor. But you have to prove that you are capable of doing things. A target has been given to you, but that target has been put deep in your unconscious. You have to search for it, you have to dig for it, you have to discover it. It is not available there, it is invisible. It is beautiful that it is invisible. It makes you a seeker and a searcher, a discoverer. It gives you the challenge to explore, otherwise life would be very dull. Hence, God has put the purpose deep in your unconscious.
You will have to dig like one digs a well. Layers and layers of mud… And for days and days you don’t see any sign of water. Many times you become tired, exhausted, desperate. Many times you are so frustrated you stop digging and you say, “It seems useless, futile. It seems there is no water here!” Many times in your spiritual journey this will come, but if you go on digging, one day you will see the first signs of water. The mud is no longer dry, it is wet – that wetness is called love.
When you go on digging in your inner being and the mud becomes wet, you are receiving love. Love starts flowing. It is muddy in the beginning, it is full of many other things. But one goes on digging… The mud becomes less and less and more water will start flowing. One goes on digging… The mud disappears and fresh water will start flowing. One goes on digging, and one comes to the source, to the springs. Now you can take as much water as you want and your well will never be empty. You can go on sharing and the more you share the more you will be receiving.
Jesus says, “Those who have will be given more and those who have not, even that which they have will be taken away from them.” So go on digging so that you can have more. The more you have, the more springs will be pouring water into you. The less you have, even that which you have will be taken away.
Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming.
And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken.
The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.
But if you think there is no hurry… That’s what everybody in the world is thinking, “There’s no hurry, we’ll see about it later. Right now let us have more money, more sex, more houses, more cars. Right now let us indulge in the world. We will think about God tomorrow or the day after and then we will think about meditation and prayer. What is the hurry?”
Sometimes, very old people come to me and say, “Yes, we would like to go into meditation, but the time hasn’t come yet.” Because even old people think that they are not old enough. Nobody ever thinks that he is going to die. That is one of the strange things of the human mind – the strangest because death is absolutely certain. Everybody is going to die; death makes no exceptions. So it is only a question of time – today or tomorrow or the day after – but everybody is going to die. Still people go on thinking that their death is far away, very far away. They have enough time yet to fool around. When they have fooled around and finished with their fooling, then they will meditate. But that day never comes. Even on their death bed, they continue with their old habits.
A Jew was dying, and he opened his eyes and said, “Where is my eldest son?”
The wife was sitting by his side and said, “Don’t be worried, he is just sitting on the left. Be quiet, relax and remember God because the doctors say you won’t survive the night.”
He said, “Forget the doctors! Where is my other son?”
“He is sitting,” the wife said, “near your feet.”
“And where is my third son?”
“He is also sitting on this side.”
And the man started to get up and said, “Then who is looking after the shop?”
Now the man is dying and asks, “Are all my three sons here?” His mind is still in the shop.
About this man I have heard another story too:
He was small and attending school. The teacher asked a question, she said, “One percent interest on one thousand pounds given for five years – how much will the interest be?”
All the others started working, but this Manny Cohen, he was sitting there not doing anything. The teacher asked, “Why, Manny! Why are you not working on the question?”
He said, “I am not interested in one percent.”
Now this is the beginning and that is the end. In between the same thing will be there. People start foolishly – that’s okay, that’s understandable. How can one start wisely? But people end foolishly – that’s not easy to understand. The basic trick of the mind is: …My lord delayeth his coming. “That God is coming is true – but not today, so today we can enjoy ourselves. He’ll come tomorrow and then we’ll see.” The day after tomorrow – one goes on postponing. Postponement is the basic trick of the mind to avoid God, to avoid the essential, to avoid rebellion.
Never postpone. If you want to postpone, postpone that which is wrong. Postpone anger for tomorrow, but not meditation. Postpone hatred for tomorrow, but not love. Postpone money for tomorrow, but not God. People go on doing just the opposite. Becoming angry, they can do right now. If somebody insults you, you don’t say, “Okay, I will think it over and you can come by at the end of the week. I will tell you what I think about the things you have said to me.” You immediately jump on him, you pounce on him – you don’t give him a single minute’s space.
If someone loves you and opens his arms to welcome you, you shrink. You say, “I will think about it. Let me think it over.” You will brood over it, you will find a thousand and one reasons why not to fall into this trap. “What is this person’s motive? Why does he want to hug me? Maybe he is a pickpocket or something? Who loves anyone without a motive? There must be some motive. He must want to use me for something or other.” When love comes, you withdraw; when anger comes, you stick there stubbornly. Change this whole attitude. Don’t delay that which is good because good belongs to God. Delay that which is bad because the bad keeps you away from God. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him…
God always comes when you are unaware and he always comes as a surprise. God always comes suddenly, abruptly. He does not come as a chain of cause and effect, he comes out of the blue. Suddenly he is there and he surrounds you and drowns you completely. So unless you are alert – moment-to-moment alert – you will miss him. It may have been that God has come to you many times and you have missed because you were not aware. In fact, this is how it is. I know that God comes to you many times.
I have seen him surrounding many of you, but you are completely unaware. He is just by your side, ready to accept you, but you are not there, you are absent. He surrounds you like a cloud, but you are not there. There is just emptiness, so no meeting is possible. You are never at home because you are never aware. You are somewhere else. Your body is in one place, your mind is somewhere else. Let your body and mind be together, let your whole being be in the moment. That’s what awareness is all about – the presence of now and here.
The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.
And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But there is misery and there will be more misery. You live in misery and you continue to live in it because God is bliss and there is no other bliss. Unless you live in God, you live in misery. Yes …there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And facing God, your whole being will be that of a hypocrite; you will be false, pseudo. You have become accustomed, so accustomed to your personality that you will carry your personality in front of God too. God can be met only when you are nude – utterly nude, nothing to hide, no secrets to keep – when you are just an openness. God can be met only when in that openness there is nothing but one taste – the taste of awareness and presence. Jesus’ whole message is that of awareness.
Enough for today.
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Verily I say unto you,
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the son of man cometh.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming.
And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken.
The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.
And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Man’s evolution passes through three stages: reform, revolution and rebellion. Reform is the most superficial. It only touches the surface, it never goes more than skin-deep. It changes nothing but the outer dressing of man; it changes man’s formalities. It gives man etiquette, manners – a kind of civilization – without changing anything essential in his being. It paints man, it polishes him and yet deep down he remains the same. It is delusional. It is fictitious. It gives respectability and makes everybody a hypocrite. It gives good manners, but it is against the inner core of man. The inner core has not yet been understood.
But for society it creates smoothness. Reform functions like a lubricant. It keeps the status quo going, it helps things remain the same – which will look paradoxical because the reformist claims that he is changing society. In fact all that he is doing is painting the old society in new colors. It is easier for the old society to exist in new colors than it could ever have done in the old ones. The old ones were becoming rotten. Reform is a kind of renovation: the house is falling down, the supports are giving way, the foundations are shaking and you go on giving it new props. By doing this you can keep the house from falling down a little longer. Reform is in the service of the status quo – it serves the past not the future.
The second thing is revolution: it goes a little deeper. Reform only changes ideas, it does not change policies. Revolution touches the structure, but only the outer not the inner. Man has two structures; he lives on two planes. One is the physical, the other is the spiritual. Revolution only goes to the physical structure – to the economic, to the political and they all belong to the physical. It goes deeper than reform. It destroys many old things, it creates many new things, but the being, the innermost being of man still remains unchanged. It creates morality, it creates character.
Reform creates manners, etiquette, civilization. The formal behavior of man is changed. Revolution changes man’s outer structure – really changes; it brings a new structure. But the inner blueprint remains the same, the inner consciousness is not touched. It creates a split.
The first, reform, creates hypocrisy. The second, revolution, creates schizophrenia. It makes man unbridgeable. Man starts falling into two beings. The bridge is broken. That’s why revolutionaries go on denying the soul. Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao all denied the soul. They had to deny it, they couldn’t accept it because if they had accepted it their whole revolution would have seemed to be very superficial. Their revolution was not total.
The reformist does not deny the soul, remember; he accepts it because it creates no problems for him – he never reaches that point. That point is not a problem. Gandhi accepted the soul, Manu accepted the soul – they were reformists. They never said no to anything, they were people who went on saying yes; they were polite people. They didn’t deny anything, unless it became absolutely necessary, then they would accept it. But revolutionaries deny the soul. They have to deny it, otherwise their revolution looks partial.
The third thing is rebellion. Rebellion is from the very essential core. It changes consciousness – it is radical; it transmutes – it is alchemical. It gives you a new being, not only a new body, not only a new dress, but a new being. A new man is born. In the history of consciousness there have been three types of thinkers: the reformer, the revolutionary and the rebel. Manu, Moses, Gandhi – they were reformers, the most superficial. John the Baptist, Marx, Freud – they were the revolutionaries. Jesus, Buddha, Krishnamurti – they are the rebels.
To understand rebellion is to understand the heart of religion. Religion is rebellion. Religion is utter change. Religion is discontinuity with the past, the beginning of the new, the total dropping of the old. Nothing has to be continued because if something continues it will keep the old alive.
Reform paints. Revolution destroys the old outer structure but the inner structure remains the same. In Soviet Russia or in China the inner man is the same, there is no difference, not a bit. The same mind – the same greedy, ambitious, egoistic mind. The same mind that is found in America or in any capitalist country; there is no difference in the mind. But the outer structure of the society has been changed. The outer structure of laws, state, economics, politics have been changed. Once the police force and the governmental power have been taken away, man will fall back to his old patterns again.
Russian society can only be managed by force. It cannot become democratic because to allow people to be independent will be allowing them to bring their inner being into their lives again. It is there inside them, but they have been prevented and they have been obstructed; they cannot live it. They have to live by the rules of the government, they cannot live according to their own being. So communism is basically dictatorial. It remains dictatorial: the fear is that if man is given freedom and because his consciousness is there – his greed is there, his ambition is there and it has always been there – it will start working again. People will become rich, poor, powerful, powerless. People will start exploiting each other; people will start fighting for their ambitions.
Those who are powerful in Russia now are still doing the same thing. Khrushchev had many cars and used to brag about them. Nobody else in Russia can have them, but everybody wants them. It is just enforcement, not real revolution. Real revolution is spontaneous. That revolution is called rebellion.
A few more distinctions between these three words, then you will be able to understand Jesus’ approach. Reform does not require much from you. It says: “Just make your front door beautiful and let the rest of your house be dirty. Live in dirt, but don’t allow your neighbors to see it. Just the front porch and the door should be beautiful because your neighbors are not interested in your inner being, in your inner house.” They pass the outside and see only the front door. “Do whatsoever you want, but do it from the back door.” So the front door becomes a facade, a window, a showcase for the neighbors to see.
You really live from the back door, you don’t live from the front door. The front door is just there, artificial. You never enter through it, you never go out from it – it is there just to be seen by others. Watch your front doors! Everybody has them. They are called faces, masks, personalities because they are a persona: lipstick, powder and cosmetics – they give you a persona. You are not that. It is make-up.
Revolution goes a little deeper, but only a little deeper. It changes your drawing room so you can invite people to sit there. In India it happens often… In India the drawing room is beautiful, but don’t go beyond it. People’s kitchens are so dirty and ugly, their bathrooms are almost impossible. But in India nobody takes care of the bathroom or the kitchen. Only the drawing room is taken care of; it is there where you meet your guests. This is false, it does not touch your real being, but it keeps your prestige. That’s what morality is: it is a beautiful drawing room. If you can afford it, you can also have a painting by Picasso in your drawing room. It depends on how much you can afford.
Just the other day I was reading a small story:
Charlie was taking his out-of-town pal, George, for a stroll through the city. They were admiring the scenery when George said, “Say, will you look at that good looking girl over there. She’s smiling at us. Know her?”
“Yes, Betty – twenty dollars.”
“And who is that brunette with her? Man, she’s really stacked!”
“Dolores – forty dollars.”
“Ah, but look what’s coming! That’s what I call really first-class.”
“Gloria – eighty dollars.”
“My God!” cried George. “Aren’t there any nice respectable girls in this town?”
“Of course,” Charlie answered. “But you couldn’t afford their rates.”
Morality goes only so far, beyond that it stumbles and disappears. Everyone has his price. The moral man has a price. Watch yourself: if you are walking on the street and you find one thousand rupees, maybe you won’t take them, but if you find ten thousand… You hesitate – to take or not to take? But if you find one hundred thousand rupees, there is no question, you take them. It shows how deep your morality is – one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand; everybody has a price. One can only afford that much, beyond that, it is too much. Morality is not worth it. You would like to choose the immoral. The moral man is not totally moral. Only a few layers of him are moral, beyond that the immorality awaits. So you can drive any moral man into immorality very easily. The only question is that you have to find his price.
I have heard that Mulla Nasruddin was traveling with a woman in a first-class compartment. They were alone. He introduced himself and said, “Would you like to sleep with me tonight?”
The woman, who was really angry, replied, “What do you think I am? Are you mad? What do you think of me? I’m not a prostitute!”
Mulla said, “I will give you ten thousand rupees.”
The woman started smiling, she came close and held Mulla’s hand.
Mulla said, “What about ten rupees?”
The woman replied, “What do you think of me!”
Mulla said, “I know who you are. Now we are haggling over the price.”
It is always a question of “the price.” Ten rupees – and the woman is angry. Ten thousand rupees – the woman is willing. And don’t laugh at her, this is everybody’s situation. Morality does not transform you. It goes deeper than reform, it has a bigger price, but still, at the very core of your being, you remain the same.
Reform is partial revolution. Revolution is outer revolution. Rebellion is inner revolution. Only when the inner has happened, is it dependable; otherwise it is not. Reform makes you hypocritical, revolution makes you schizophrenic. Only rebellion gives you your fullness of being, spontaneity, health, wholeness. Reform makes you respectable. If you are after respect, reform is enough. It gives you a plastic personality. From the outside you start looking beautiful. From the inside you are rotten and stinking, but nobody can smell your stinking being – the plastic protects you. Inside you go on becoming dirtier and dirtier, but on the outside you keep a good face.
Revolution creates a split in you. It makes you a saint, but the sinner is repressed. The sinner has not been absorbed into the saint, the sinner has been cut off. Revolution makes you two people; it creates two worlds in you. The natural is repressed and the moral is on top of it. The top dog, the moral, tries to control the lower dog, the natural. Of course, the natural is very powerful because it is natural, so it takes revenge. It goes on sneaking into your life from the weaker points. It disrupts your morality, it creates guilt and you are in constant conflict because nobody is victorious.
Your support, your intellectual support, is for the moral, but your whole being’s support is for the natural. The moral is in the conscious and the natural is in the unconscious. The conscious is very small and the unconscious is nine times stronger, nine times bigger than the conscious. But you only know the conscious, so in the conscious the morality goes on singing its song, and in the unconscious, which is nine times more powerful, all kinds of immoralities go on creating deeper roots in you. It makes you a saint and a sinner – the sinner is repressed and the sinner waits for his time, for the right time to erupt, for the right time to take revenge.
That’s why people look so sad and so dissipated because all their energy is going down the drain in the conflict. There is continuous tension. The saint is very tense. He is always in anguish and always afraid – afraid of his own being that he has denied. And the denial is there. Sooner or later it throws the moralist, the egoist, the conscious pretender. It throws them – it throws the pretender. Hence, the saint is always on the verge of a kind of insanity. And you know… If you try to be a saint, you know that you are always on the verge. A small thing can change your whole balance, you can lose your sanity. Neurosis breeds and grows, if you are split.
Rebellion is inner revolution.
Rebellion starts from the “in”; reform starts from the “out.” Never start from the outside. Start from the innermost core. Start from your very being. Reform will tell you what to do. Revolution will tell you how to be – more saintly, of better character, of good qualities. Revolution will create a hard crust around you, an armor which protects you from the outside and from the inside too. A hard, steel armor – that’s what called “character.” A real man has no character. Jesus has no character. That was the problem, otherwise the Jews would not have been so against him. He was liquid; he had no character, he had no armor. He was open, vulnerable, defenseless because he was not a moralist. He was not a saint, he was a sage.
Reform makes you a gentleman. Revolution makes you a saint. Rebellion makes you a sage. He was a sage. Whatsoever he did was not done because of a certain morality, but because of a certain understanding. Not because of rules given from the past, but because of a spontaneous awareness.
Rebellion depends on awareness, revolution on character, reform on formalities. Start by being more aware, start from the innermost. Let the light spread from there, so your whole being can be full of light. There is no way to go from the outside. The only way is to come from the inside – just like a seed grows from the inside, sprouts from the inside and becomes a big tree. Let that be your inner work too – like a seed, grow.
Reform is patchwork, a kind of whitewash – a little bit here, a little bit there, but the basic structure is not even touched. Reform can be for revolution or against revolution; it depends on you. There are two types of reformists: those who are preparing the ground for revolution or those who are trying to prevent the revolution. Reform gives you the feeling that things are getting better, so what is the need of creating a revolution? Why go to so much trouble? Reform gives hope and people stop. So it depends on you.
A man of right understanding can also use reform, but a man who is not conscious will not be able to use reform as a process for revolution. On the contrary, reform will become a hindrance for revolution. So is the case with revolution.
Revolution can be a door to rebellion, but only with awareness; otherwise it becomes a hindrance. One thinks, “Now that the revolution has happened, what is the need to go any deeper? It is already too much.” So reform can either be a hindrance or a help. So is the case with revolution. It all depends on your awareness, it all depends on your understanding – how much you understand life.
So let this become one of the most fundamental rules of life and work: that everything ultimately depends on understanding – how you understand. Even something which is going to become a great help can become a hindrance, if understanding is missing. Sometimes even that which was poisonous can be changed into something medicinal with understanding. All medicines are made of poisons. They don’t kill, they help people to remain healthy. In the right hands even poison becomes medicine; in the wrong hands even medicine may prove to be a poison. Revolution is a change of the structure – bodily, social, outer, economic, political – and man is not disturbed at all. It can be against rebellion or for rebellion. Out of one hundred, ninety-nine cases are against rebellion. That’s why communism is so very much against religion, it is not accidental.
Communism feels that religion is the real enemy. Why? – because religion goes far deeper than communism can ever go. That is the jealousy and that is the problem. If there is no religion, communism seems to be the ultimate revolution. Then there is nothing higher. But if there is religion, communism seems to be just so-so, lukewarm – it is not much to brag about. Communism wants to kill religion utterly, destroy all religions from the earth. They have done it in Russia, they are doing it in China. They are even doing it in Tibet, which was one of the most religious countries. It had one of the longest living religions – the most alive, the purest – the spring had not yet become dirty and polluted. Now they are destroying that too. Communism is very much afraid of religion because communism can see the point: religion goes deeper and it changes man from his very inner core. Only when the new man is born, is a new society really born.
We have tried all sorts of things. We have created ladies and gentlemen and they didn’t prove to be much. We have changed societies, we have tried utopias – they have all failed. Reform has failed, revolution has failed. Rebellion has never been tried on a large scale. Whenever it has been tried on a small scale, it has always succeeded. With Buddha it succeeded and thousands of people went through a rebellion and became new. With Jesus it succeeded, with Lao Tzu it succeeded, with Krishna it succeeded. There has always been success with rebellion, but very few people… It has never been on a large scale. It has never gripped the soul of humanity. And that is where work is needed now.
The greater part of humanity has to be given the vision of awareness, rebellion. Only then can man really become human. Man is only human for the name’s sake. He is not yet human because those humane qualities which make a man human are missing, are lacking. They are not there. There is no compassion, there is no love, there is no meditation. There is no prayer, no gratitude and no celebration. In short, God is not present. Man is an empty temple: God is missing. God will continue to be missing unless your seed dissolves and you start sprouting into God. God is your growth.
Remember, God cannot be found somewhere outside – not in the Himalayas, not in Jerusalem, not in a monastery. God has to be evolved in you, God has to be your growth. It is not an object outside that you are going to meet some day. Unless you become it, you will never meet it. Only by becoming it, will you meet it. That is Jesus’ whole message.
Reform brings new ideas, revolution brings a new structure to support those new ideas. Rebellion brings a new consciousness, a new man, a new being to support those structures. Start from the very foundation. Let rebellion be the foundation and then make the structure of revolution. On top of that, let there be a dome of reform – not otherwise or the whole process will be topsy-turvy.
The basic thing is to understand the whole situation – how has man been doing up to now? What has gone wrong? Why is there so much suffering? Why do we always start from the wrong end and never reach the real core of the problem? Understanding is missing, awareness is missing. You are living in a kind of unconsciousness – Jesus calls it sleep. Bring more awareness to yourself.
It will be difficult because everyone else around you is fast asleep. If you start awakening, you will find difficulties arising because those people who are asleep will not like it. It is a disturbance for them. They are having sweet dreams and you suddenly become awake. You create a kind of disturbance. Not only that – once you are awake, you start shaking people to wake them up because you feel: “These poor people are missing the real joy of life. The sun is rising and the flowers are dancing in the breeze and the birds are singing.” You start waking up and shaking people around you – particularly people you love, you feel for, you care for.
You would like them to share this joy, this morning that is all around. They are deep in sleep, in a slumber, snoring, not aware of what is happening all around them. But they are having their dreams. Maybe someone is earning great amounts of money, or someone is almost reaching to the highest position – one promotion more. Or someone is fighting for the presidential election and you wake them up? They will feel angry. Naturally, because they don’t know any other reality than their dreams. Their dreams are their reality and things were going well and here you come and disturb everything. Nobody will like you.
Nobody likes a man who is alert and aware. That’s why Jesus was crucified. He would have been crucified anywhere. Don’t blame the Jews. He was such a rebellious man that he himself is responsible for being crucified, not the Jews. He would have been crucified by someone else. Wherever he was he would have been crucified.
Nobody is ready to accept that much awareness. That much awareness is disturbing. That much awareness hurts. The man of awareness stands there and makes you feel guilty because in comparison to him you are just a dark night. You hate him because without him everything was good and there was no comparison. You were thinking that you were full of life – now here he comes… In his presence you are reduced to being just a dark night and nothing else. In his presence you are a beggar. Here comes the emperor, the Son of God. In his presence you feel ugly.
The natural logic is that it is him who is making you ugly. When he wasn’t there, you had never thought about your ugliness. Now he haunts you. Now he creates trouble for you. Now you have to search for this beauty. You will have to go into many things. “Now, this is unnecessary.” It looks unnecessary. “Better destroy this man, better destroy this criterion.” Once the criterion is no longer there, nobody can prove that you are empty, impotent, a beggar; nobody can prove that you are ugly; nobody can prove that you have anything missing. Destroy Jesus and relapse back into your sleep. That’s what the Jews did. But I would like to tell you again: that’s what would have happened anywhere. Jesus was too much. Yes, I say that even in India Jesus would have been crucified.
A question may arise in you: Buddha was not crucified, Mahavira was not crucified, so why Jesus? Yes, I say that still Jesus would have been crucified. Jesus brings a new message. Buddha is silent: his message is only for those who come to him, those who come to seek and search. He does not go to the masses, he is not active. His rebellion is a presence. Jesus goes to the masses, Jesus is very active.
Buddha’s rebellion is inactive, passive. Jesus’ rebellion is very active and that is the problem. Mahavira’s rebellion is also very passive, so is Lao Tzu’s. These are people who are utterly at ease, silent in themselves, happy with themselves. If somebody comes and partakes of their being, good and if nobody comes, they are not going to invite them. Jesus drags you into awareness, he hits you hard. He comes searching for you whether you are ready or not. He says to his disciples: “Go and stand on the tops of the houses and shout because people are deaf. You will have to shout. Give the good message, the good news, that I have come. Shout it from the housetops!”
Buddha cannot say that. Lao Tzu – not at all. It was even difficult to find where Lao Tzu was, people had to search for him for months at a time. Once he came to know that somebody was searching for him, he would escape, he would remove himself from one village and go to another. He would create all kinds of problems. He would allow only those who were really seekers, who were ready to sacrifice their all.
With Jesus it is just the opposite – he haunts you, he goes searching for you. He says that he is like a shepherd who comes home in the night, counts his sheep, finds that one is missing, leaves the ninety-nine there in the dark night and in danger. And goes with a lamp to search for the one which is lost in the jungle, in the dark night – shouting, calling, searching. Yes, Jesus is like that. He is a revolutionary rebel.
Buddha is rebellion, pure rebellion. His message is silent. Those who understand, they will understand. Those who don’t understand, they need not worry, they can ignore him. He allows people to ignore him. Jesus does not allow people to ignore him. He shouts. He pokes his fingers into people’s eyes. His compassion is great. He is a surgeon. With Buddha you may have a little bit of medicine. Jesus is a surgeon, he operates and of course the operation hurts.
The Jews are not responsible, they should be forgiven. Anybody – Hindus, Chinese, Tibetans – would have killed this man. This man was asking for it. He brings a new breeze into religion: active, action. Rebellion also becomes revolution.
I was reading a parable, a beautiful parable. Meditate over it; it’s a parable of G. William Jones: The Innovator.
It had been a long, long time since such a crime had been committed and, as punishment, the Innovator would receive a sentence which had not been heard of for a long, long time – not since the days of the great-great-greats. It was a sentence at once so terrible and horrifying in its aspect that the High Court and the C.D.’s felt that it justly fit the nauseous and perverse crime of innovation. The punishment was to be expulsion from the Dome!
The citizens lined both sides of the street, their expression a mixture of hatred and awe as their eyes followed the progress of the Innovator, escorted by a cordon of C.D.’s toward the Lox. Gamblers in the crowd were busily making book on how long it would take the Innovator to die once he was outside the Dome, and on whether it would be death from Fallout, Poison gas, or perhaps even from a Wild beast. There was no doubt that he would soon die (for imbedded deep in the mind of each citizen was the truism that no human life could possibly exist outside the protection of the Dome – that beloved plastic canopy erected by their great-great-great-grandfathers, which stretched over the city from limit to limit, cuddling it in a benevolent, airtight grip). The only question was how long would death take to come and in what form.
Some of the sadists in the crowd had scraped through the thick crust of dirt on the Dome wall near the Lox so that they could see the Outside, and were selling places at these peepholes for a nice sum.
The C.D.’s and their prisoner had arrived at the Lox. The crowd retreated now in a minor panic for fear that some poisonous fume might enter the Dome when the Lox was opened. The mechanism was still good, although it had been unused for all these generations. At the press of a button from the Chief, the thick transparent door of the Lox swung jerkily open. The Innovator, with a last mournful look over his shoulder, was pushed rather roughly into the small compartment. The door was then shut, and the citizens held their collective breath as the Chief touched the next button. The outer door swung open with a great hissing into that unhealthy green Outside.
At his first breath of the Outside’s air, the Innovator fell headlong, coughing, doubled up with a giant convulsion. The C.D.’s nodded their heads, pleased, and there was a clamor almost like a cheer that arose from those at the peepholes as they watched him and their wristwatches to determine the exact second of his last gasp.
But then the terrible thing happened. The Innovator slowly raised his head from the dust and, with the beginnings of a smile of great joy upon his face, filled his lungs deeply. His eyes grew wide. He sat up, and they could see his chest bulging with gulp after gulp of that alien air. The people were so startled that they cried aloud when he suddenly jumped from a sitting position straight up, coming down in the first steps of a wild dance.
“It must have hit his brain first,” said one spectator, his nose flattened against the Dome wall.
The Innovator stopped his dance abruptly as he turned to see the faces peering out at him. He smiled at them – a broad, toothy smile with no malice in it at all. He even opened his arms wide to them, making a beckoning gesture!
At this point, many of those watching him could take no more, and turned away to go back to their homes, shuddering with a nausea of fear.
After making many gestures of well-being to those amazed and still uncomprehending faces, the Innovator snapped his fingers and stooped to pick up a stick. With it, he wrote in large letters upon the ground: “Come on out – the air is fine!”
One after another shocked faces left the peepholes, not to return.
Again he wrote in the dirt, this time with more urgency: “It is fresh air – not poison.”
Still more left.
This time, almost frantic to make himself understood, he wrote: “You don’t need the Dome anymore. You can live Outside! It is better out here!”
With this, every face disappeared from the clear places in the grimy walls, and the Innovator was left alone in the Outside with his brilliant sun, its fresh and moving air, its trees and plants three times the size of those inside the Dome, and its birds and animals.
The newspapers the next morning carried grisly stories of the Innovator’s immediate death outside the Lox. The city fathers decided in an emergency session that the interior of the Dome should be painted opaquely to a height of twenty feet all around. And those watchers who could not be scared into abject secrecy were interned in the asylum, where talk of living outside the Dome could be taken for what it was – the raving of a lunatic.
A beautiful parable. This is the situation of humanity. Down the ages this has been so: man has lived in a man-created dome of beliefs, ideas, dogmas. Your churches, your temples, your scriptures are just plastic domes. They are protecting you from nature. They are not helping you to go to God, they are preventing you from going. When a man like Jesus comes, he is The Innovator. He starts talking about strange things which exist outside the domes. He talks about fresh air and green trees, the birds and their songs and the sun and the clouds – he talks about a thousand and one things. You have lived in a plastic dome and you have never been out of it. You have never been out of a church, out of a temple. You have never been out of the trap of the priests and the politicians. He comes and starts saying things which are wild – things which appeal and have a great appeal. Things which are magnetic, things which provoke and challenge. But they are things that you have not heard for ages. You become angry. You become angry because this man thinks you are all fools.
That’s why people go on asking Jesus again and again, “Do you think you are far wiser than our father Abraham? Do you think you are more knowing than our old prophets? Do you think that you have brought truth for the first time?” People believe they have always had truth and that it is in their possession. They have nothing in their possession. So whenever a man of truth comes, a rebellion comes into the world, innovation comes into the world. And the people crush such a man.
We have to create a world where innovators can be more easily accepted, where innovators are not only accepted but welcomed – because it is these innovators who help you to go higher and higher in your consciousness. They are the steps toward godliness.
Now the sutras:
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple…
He was visiting the Great Temple of the Jews. Whenever he went to the temple he was always sad and angry because things were always wrong there. The temple had become a trading place. The temple was no longer a temple, it was dominated by businessmen. God was sold there and of course God cannot be sold. So only a false god can be sold. The temple was no longer a shrine for prayer, it was no longer a place to meditate. It was no longer a place where one connected with God. It was dominated by the priests and they were dominated by their vested interests. Whenever Jesus went to the temple, he would always leave angry and sad. Once he became so angry that he threw all the money-changers out of the temple. He shouted at them and said, “What have you done to my Father’s house? It has become a den of robbers!”
This story also starts:
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.
But he was not interested in seeing the buildings because the God that at some time used to live there had departed. It was a ruin. The soul had left the body, it was a corpse.
And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things?
“And you still call this a temple? Don’t you see all the things that are happening here?” It is politics, it is no longer religion. It is reformist, it is no longer rebellious. It does not transform people, it consoles them. It does not hit people awake, it goes on singing lullabies so they can fall asleep easier. Remember this: many times you go to a religious person not to be awakened but to be helped, consoled. You go begging for a lullaby, you go begging for a tranquilizer. A tranquilizer cannot help you to awaken. Yes, it may help you to be less uncomfortable in this uncomfortable world; to be less insecure in this insecure world; to be less anxious, less tense. Yes, it can help you relax a little bit, but that is not going to change you or transform you. In fact, the transformation comes only when you become utterly tense, when anxiety comes to its peak – only then, and then only is there a revolution, a radical change.
The priest goes on consoling you and the priests are very cunning, very inventive in creating consoling theories. For centuries in India they have been consoling the poor. “You are poor because you did wrong things in your past lives.” This is a consolation. People are not poor because they have done wrong in their past lives. People are poor because they are being exploited. Now the priests are in the hands of the exploiters – naturally, because they have the power, they are the power-holders.
The priests live on the crusts that are thrown from the rich people’s tables. They have to help the masters. Down the ages they have been teaching poor people: “You are in a bad shape because of your bad karma and people are rich because of their good karma. Rich people are rich because they have been saintly in their past lives; poor people are poor because they have been sinners.” Now this is a very tricky thing – great strategy, great politics in it. If you look at the rich people, they seem to be the sinners. They are! Exploiting, cheating, deceiving.
The poor people, who are innocent in a way, are not doing any harm to anybody. They are “the sinners of the past.” This does not seem logical, because if a man has been a sinner for so many lives, he will be a sinner in this life too. More is the possibility of him being a sinner than being an ordinary, innocent, poor person. If people have been great saints in their past lives, they cannot be black marketeers – that will not be logical. They cannot go on exploiting people; their sainthood will not allow it.
The situation is just the reverse, but the ideology helps console. The poor person no longer feels the wounds. The priest has poured ointment on the wounds. He has said, “There is nothing to be worried about. Nobody else is responsible. You have done something wrong in your past lives.” He gives the explanation and the explanation helps the poor person. He can find an explanation, he can find the cause – and he himself is responsible. Now nothing can be done, one has to go through it silently.
That’s why there has never been a revolution in India. It is because of the priests. How can there be a revolution if you are responsible? The only thing is to go on doing good things – whatsoever you can do. The poor man cannot afford much, but whatsoever he can do he should go on doing. He can go to the Ganges once in his life to take a bath or he can contribute a little something to the temple of the village. Once in his lifetime, he can have some ritual arranged. That’s all that he can do. He can wait for the next life. In the next life he will be happy, he will live in a palace and he will enjoy all kinds of good things. So it is only a question of a little patience. The priest has been teaching patience to people, consolation, giving explanations so that they know why they are poor – and hiding the real facts.
The temple has become the citadel of all that is wrong and Jesus always felt it whenever he went there. He would see the things that were going on there. He could not believe why people were not aware, why they could not see.
See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another…
“This temple has to be destroyed! This so-called religion has to be destroyed. This religion of the priests and the politicians has to be utterly effaced from the earth.”
Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
He is angry. You will not find such anger in Buddha. That’s why Buddha was saved from crucifixion. Even when he talks, he talks in a great philosophical way. When he says things, he does not say them in a raging voice, in anger; he is very polite. Buddha’s message is like classical music – silent, beautiful, but it has no revolution in it. Jesus’ message is a slogan. It is not a coincidence and it is not an accident that all the great revolutionaries come from Jesus’ tradition. They come from the West not the East. Revolutionaries are missing in the East. The East has known great sages, but not revolutionaries. All the great revolutions and all the great revolutionary ideas have come from the West. The foundation of the West is Jesus’ ideology, his approach toward reality.
You will be surprised to know that even communism comes from Christianity, not from Hinduism, not from Jainism, not from Buddhism. Communism is an off-shoot of Christianity. However much they are against it – it doesn’t matter. A son can go against his father, that does not make him no longer a son and does not make him less of a son. He remains the son. Marx, Freud and Kropotkin, Tolstoy, Ruskin and Thoreau all come from the same seed, from the same approach toward life – it is Jesus’ approach. Jesus is an off-shoot of the Jewish approach. That also has to be understood.
In India or China, nothing like the Jewish prophets have ever existed – no, never. You cannot find a man like John the Baptist in India. The great prophets of the Jews were all full of revolution, they were all hot, burning fires. Prophets have never existed in India; saints, yes, sages, yes – but not prophets. When somebody calls Mahavira a prophet, he is not right. When somebody calls Buddha a prophet, it looks simply absurd. Buddha is not a prophet. He has no prophecy for the future, he does not bring revolution. He brings a new consciousness, his own consciousness. He makes it available, but he does not shout. He does not say that the temple should be burned or that the temple should fall, or even that not one single stone shall remain upon another. Jesus has the quality of a Jewish prophet. He was a disciple of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was killed just like Jesus, he was beheaded.
The Judaic tradition has also given birth to other revolutionaries. Marx was a Jew, so was Sigmund Freud. Whether it is sociology, economics, psychology or even physics, the revolution comes from the Jews. Albert Einstein was a Jew. There is some element in the Jewish consciousness that makes them revolutionary. Just think of human history without three Jews – Jesus, Marx and Freud – and there will be no revolution. People will be patient, people will suffer, people will accept everything. People will go on dragging and finding explanations from the priests. This has to be noted, because this is specific to Jesus.
And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Verily I say unto you,
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Because his words are not his words, that’s why they …shall not pass away. His words are God’s words. He is just a vehicle, a medium. He is simply saying what God wants to say. But God has no mouth to speak with – he uses our mouths. God has no eyes to see with – he uses our eyes. God has no legs to walk with – he uses our legs. God uses Jesus as a medium. That’s why Jesus says: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. “This temple is going to be destroyed and is going to be demolished to the very ground because it has gone against the very spirit of being a temple. It is no longer a temple, it is no longer religious.”
This happens again and again. Now the Vatican and the Pope are no longer religious. They are in the same situation as this temple which Jesus left. Again the same thing has happened. It has always happened. The temple sooner or later becomes a robbers’ den because the temple attracts innocent people. There is a logical necessity to why it happens. The temple attracts innocent people. Once the innocent people start coming, the clever and cunning people also start coming. Because wherever the innocent are, there is a possibility to exploit them. Jesus attracts the innocent.
Once the innocent are there, all the cunning people around will see the point. When Jesus was alive they couldn’t come – his presence was the prevention. Once Jesus was gone, the cunning people started infiltrating. They came and started mixing with the sheep – but they are wolves, although they may have been hiding under sheepskins. Sooner or later they will come out on top because they are cunning. Innocent people are not interested in being on top. Only those who are cunning come for that. Once they are on top, they become priests, rabbis, shankaracharyas, popes. Then they start dominating the whole thing and the quality changes.
A temple is a temple only while Jesus was alive. Once Jesus was gone, it was very difficult for the temple to remain a temple. Because Jesus would gather the innocent people, he would gather so many sheep. While he was there he would protect them, once he was gone, the wolves started coming. Wolves only come when they see that there are many sheep and the shepherd is missing. This was their chance – their life’s chance. Now the same thing has happened in the Vatican, the same thing has happened in Puri, the same thing has happened at the Kaaba. The same thing has been happening down the ages. Remember it, because the same thing could happen here. You will have to be very, very mindful.
So I don’t want you just to be innocent. Be innocent, but don’t be foolish. Be innocent, but don’t be childish. Be innocent, but let your innocence be illuminated by awareness. Then this cannot happen. Your awareness will make you aware if something goes wrong, otherwise this will happen. Anyone who is cunning enough will start manipulating you. Keep alert. The temple has been made again and again and has been polluted again and again. But man has changed very much down the ages. Maybe now it is possible. Maybe now the time has come – the time for the idea to become a reality.
Verily I say unto you,
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Jesus says that there is no point in going to the temple – the rituals, the rabbi and the scripture. The only thing that you need to enter is watchfulness. Watch therefore… “This temple is going to fall. Don’t go in, otherwise you will also be crushed. Escape from it, it is already falling. I can see what is going to happen to it. Its soul has already left it. It is no longer glued together. They are just stones upon stones without any glue holding them together. The religion is not there. It is a miracle how this temple is still standing. It is going to fall any moment. A small wind and it may fall; a little rain and it may fall. Any excuse is needed and it may fall. Escape from it and let watchfulness be your temple.”
Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. The watchfulness has to be for twenty-four hours. You cannot afford to be watchful for just a few minutes, once a day – in the morning you meditate and then you forget. That won’t help because nobody knows when God will knock at your door. And if you are not watchful, you will not recognize him and you will miss. Only in immense awareness can God be recognized.
But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
The watchfulness has two purposes. One is: if you are not watchful, you will not recognize God when he comes and knocks on your door; you will miss him. The second purpose is: if you are not watchful, you won’t know when and how the thieves will enter and rob you. To make it clear, Jesus is saying, “Be watchful so that the priest cannot enter inside you – he is the thief. When a christ knocks on your door, you recognize him.”
For one real master in the world there are ninety-nine false ones. If you are not watchful, those ninety-nine are going to rob you. One never knows when the real one is coming. You may encounter him, but if you are not very alert you will miss him because only alertness can become a bridge between you and the real master.
Therefore be ye also ready…
So the purposes are double. First: you should be ready so that no thief can rob you, nobody can exploit you. Second: you should be ready so that when the real one comes you can welcome him and he can become a guest and you can be the host. The moment you become a host to God, you have become the real temple. Jesus is saying, “That is the real temple, not these buildings.”
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
God has given you a purpose, God has given you a certain destiny. He has given you a certain work to do here on earth. If you are not aware, you will be found unworthy. God has given you a purpose. You may not be aware of the purpose at all. He wants something to be fulfilled through you. Maybe he wants you to sing a song that nobody else can sing except you. Maybe he wants you to have a dance that is possible only through you. Only through you can he give that dance to existence. Only through you can God have that dance – there is no other way. Maybe something else… But everybody comes here with a seed. It is just a seed and in the seed, you cannot see what flowers are going to blossom. But the seed is there and the flowers are waiting. Unless you have blossomed, you will not be able to show your face to your God, to your master.
Only fulfilled, blossomed, can you offer yourself to him, can you bow down at his feet. Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Otherwise people are doing other things. God will come and find you doing something else for which you were not sent and not doing that for which you were sent. This is the only sin – not to do that which is intrinsic to you and to go on doing things which others have put upon you.
There are many people who are putting their trips on you – avoid them. Your father wants to put a trip on you. He wants you to become the prime minister of the country. Your mother wants to put her trip on you. She wants you to become a great doctor and this or that. Your teachers are putting their trips on you and your friends and your society. Everybody is interested in you because they are interested in putting a trip on you.
Nobody seems to be interested in you as yourself. If you can find a man who is interested in you as yourself – that is your master. That is the criterion, the definition of a master: one who is not putting any trip on you, who is simply interested in helping you to be whatsoever you can be. He is not driving you in any direction, but simply nurturing you, nourishing you, so that you can go in any direction that comes naturally to you. One who is not pruning you, who is simply putting fertilizers onto your roots, so if you want to grow to the north or to the south, or if you want to go high in the sky, or want to become a thick bush, you can become whatsoever you want to become. A master is just a benevolent presence, a nourishment. He does not guide you to be this or that, he simply helps you to be that which is hidden inside you.
Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
If you have fulfilled God’s desire that he has put in you – you, your being, will be transformed. You will no longer be a servant, you will become a master. You will no longer be a beggar, you will become an emperor. But you have to prove that you are capable of doing things. A target has been given to you, but that target has been put deep in your unconscious. You have to search for it, you have to dig for it, you have to discover it. It is not available there, it is invisible. It is beautiful that it is invisible. It makes you a seeker and a searcher, a discoverer. It gives you the challenge to explore, otherwise life would be very dull. Hence, God has put the purpose deep in your unconscious.
You will have to dig like one digs a well. Layers and layers of mud… And for days and days you don’t see any sign of water. Many times you become tired, exhausted, desperate. Many times you are so frustrated you stop digging and you say, “It seems useless, futile. It seems there is no water here!” Many times in your spiritual journey this will come, but if you go on digging, one day you will see the first signs of water. The mud is no longer dry, it is wet – that wetness is called love.
When you go on digging in your inner being and the mud becomes wet, you are receiving love. Love starts flowing. It is muddy in the beginning, it is full of many other things. But one goes on digging… The mud becomes less and less and more water will start flowing. One goes on digging… The mud disappears and fresh water will start flowing. One goes on digging, and one comes to the source, to the springs. Now you can take as much water as you want and your well will never be empty. You can go on sharing and the more you share the more you will be receiving.
Jesus says, “Those who have will be given more and those who have not, even that which they have will be taken away from them.” So go on digging so that you can have more. The more you have, the more springs will be pouring water into you. The less you have, even that which you have will be taken away.
Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming.
And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken.
The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.
But if you think there is no hurry… That’s what everybody in the world is thinking, “There’s no hurry, we’ll see about it later. Right now let us have more money, more sex, more houses, more cars. Right now let us indulge in the world. We will think about God tomorrow or the day after and then we will think about meditation and prayer. What is the hurry?”
Sometimes, very old people come to me and say, “Yes, we would like to go into meditation, but the time hasn’t come yet.” Because even old people think that they are not old enough. Nobody ever thinks that he is going to die. That is one of the strange things of the human mind – the strangest because death is absolutely certain. Everybody is going to die; death makes no exceptions. So it is only a question of time – today or tomorrow or the day after – but everybody is going to die. Still people go on thinking that their death is far away, very far away. They have enough time yet to fool around. When they have fooled around and finished with their fooling, then they will meditate. But that day never comes. Even on their death bed, they continue with their old habits.
A Jew was dying, and he opened his eyes and said, “Where is my eldest son?”
The wife was sitting by his side and said, “Don’t be worried, he is just sitting on the left. Be quiet, relax and remember God because the doctors say you won’t survive the night.”
He said, “Forget the doctors! Where is my other son?”
“He is sitting,” the wife said, “near your feet.”
“And where is my third son?”
“He is also sitting on this side.”
And the man started to get up and said, “Then who is looking after the shop?”
Now the man is dying and asks, “Are all my three sons here?” His mind is still in the shop.
About this man I have heard another story too:
He was small and attending school. The teacher asked a question, she said, “One percent interest on one thousand pounds given for five years – how much will the interest be?”
All the others started working, but this Manny Cohen, he was sitting there not doing anything. The teacher asked, “Why, Manny! Why are you not working on the question?”
He said, “I am not interested in one percent.”
Now this is the beginning and that is the end. In between the same thing will be there. People start foolishly – that’s okay, that’s understandable. How can one start wisely? But people end foolishly – that’s not easy to understand. The basic trick of the mind is: …My lord delayeth his coming. “That God is coming is true – but not today, so today we can enjoy ourselves. He’ll come tomorrow and then we’ll see.” The day after tomorrow – one goes on postponing. Postponement is the basic trick of the mind to avoid God, to avoid the essential, to avoid rebellion.
Never postpone. If you want to postpone, postpone that which is wrong. Postpone anger for tomorrow, but not meditation. Postpone hatred for tomorrow, but not love. Postpone money for tomorrow, but not God. People go on doing just the opposite. Becoming angry, they can do right now. If somebody insults you, you don’t say, “Okay, I will think it over and you can come by at the end of the week. I will tell you what I think about the things you have said to me.” You immediately jump on him, you pounce on him – you don’t give him a single minute’s space.
If someone loves you and opens his arms to welcome you, you shrink. You say, “I will think about it. Let me think it over.” You will brood over it, you will find a thousand and one reasons why not to fall into this trap. “What is this person’s motive? Why does he want to hug me? Maybe he is a pickpocket or something? Who loves anyone without a motive? There must be some motive. He must want to use me for something or other.” When love comes, you withdraw; when anger comes, you stick there stubbornly. Change this whole attitude. Don’t delay that which is good because good belongs to God. Delay that which is bad because the bad keeps you away from God. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him…
God always comes when you are unaware and he always comes as a surprise. God always comes suddenly, abruptly. He does not come as a chain of cause and effect, he comes out of the blue. Suddenly he is there and he surrounds you and drowns you completely. So unless you are alert – moment-to-moment alert – you will miss him. It may have been that God has come to you many times and you have missed because you were not aware. In fact, this is how it is. I know that God comes to you many times.
I have seen him surrounding many of you, but you are completely unaware. He is just by your side, ready to accept you, but you are not there, you are absent. He surrounds you like a cloud, but you are not there. There is just emptiness, so no meeting is possible. You are never at home because you are never aware. You are somewhere else. Your body is in one place, your mind is somewhere else. Let your body and mind be together, let your whole being be in the moment. That’s what awareness is all about – the presence of now and here.
The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.
And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But there is misery and there will be more misery. You live in misery and you continue to live in it because God is bliss and there is no other bliss. Unless you live in God, you live in misery. Yes …there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And facing God, your whole being will be that of a hypocrite; you will be false, pseudo. You have become accustomed, so accustomed to your personality that you will carry your personality in front of God too. God can be met only when you are nude – utterly nude, nothing to hide, no secrets to keep – when you are just an openness. God can be met only when in that openness there is nothing but one taste – the taste of awareness and presence. Jesus’ whole message is that of awareness.
Enough for today.