He is the real master, who can reveal the form of the formless to the vision of these eyes:
who teaches the simple way of attaining him, that is other than rites or ceremonies:
who does not make you close the doors and hold the breath, and renounce the world:
who makes you perceive the supreme spirit wherever the mind attaches itself:
who teaches you to be still in the midst of all your activities.
Ever immersed in bliss, having no fear in his mind, he keeps the spirit of union in the midst of all enjoyments.
The infinite dwelling of the infinite being is everywhere: in earth, water, sky, and air:
firm as the thunderbolt, the seat of the seeker is established above the void.
He who is within is without: I see him and none else….

O brother: when I was forgetful, my true guru showed me the way.
Then I left all rites and ceremonies, I bathed no more in the holy water:
then I learned that it was I alone who was mad, and the whole world beside me was sane; and I had disturbed these wise people.
From that time forth I knew no more how to roll in the dust of obeisance:
I did not ring the bell in the temple:
I did not set the idol on its throne:
I did not worship the image with flowers.
It is not the austerities that mortify the flesh which are pleasing to the lord.
When you leave off your clothes and kill your senses, you do not please the lord.
The man who is kind and who practices righteousness, who remains passive amidst the affairs of the world, who considers all creatures on earth as his own self,
he attains the immortal being, the true god is ever with him.
Kabir says: “He attains the true name whose words are pure,
and who is free from pride and conceit.”
What is religion? Religion is falling in tune with the whole, falling in love with the whole, falling in a togetherness with the whole.
A religious person is one who is not against the whole, and the irreligious is one who is fighting the whole, is in conflict with the whole. The religious person is life-affirmative. The irreligious person is life-negative. To the religious person all is good, his affirmation is absolute and total. Nothing is wrong. Even if it appears at times that it is wrong, it cannot be wrong. It must be a misunderstanding, a misinterpretation. It must be based somewhere in our ignorance because we don’t know the whole story.
So maybe some part looks as if it does not fit with the whole. We have not heard the whole song, so some note appears to fall out of line. But everything has to be good if there is God. God is the guarantee of goodness. Evil, as such, cannot exist. If it appears, it must be a nightmare of our own minds, we must have created it.
The religious mind denies not. His affirmation is absolute, unconditional. He says yes to existence. And his yes has no conditions, remember. When he says yes he means it. If you find a person who says no to existence, to life, to this and that, then remember he is just an egoist, not religious at all. He is fighting the whole, trying to prove himself a conqueror, trying to prove that he is something special. He is doomed to fail. He is going to be frustrated sooner or later; it cannot be avoided for long, it is predestined. It is predestined by his own attitude of conflict. Religion is cooperation, cooperation with all that is.
Try to understand it as deeply as possible, because only then will you be able to understand this mystic singer Kabir. He is a lover of life. He does not deny, he does not negate, he does not condemn; he never sees anything bad anywhere. Once you have had a vision of the whole, all becomes sublime. Then there is nothing secular, everything is sacred, and the whole of existence is the temple of God, and the whole of life is a prayer. Walking, you walk in God. Dancing, you dance in God. Sleeping, you sleep in God, because nothing else exists than him.
God is the guarantee of goodness. God means the good. The good is the substratum of existence, so evil is not possible. Evil is impossible. We must have misrepresented. We must have brought our own ideas, concepts, doctrines. We must have created our own stupid private notions of how things should be. Things simply are. There is no should in existence. The idea of should is brought by man, and once you bring the idea of should, existence is divided into two: good and bad. Once you say, “Things should be like this,” you have moved away from reality, you have moved away from that which is. And only that which is, is; nothing else. Reality is here as it is, don’t bring in the should, otherwise the condemnation comes.
In the West, Albert Schweitzer has created a very false notion about the East. He was a great thinker, but unfortunately not acquainted with the Eastern mind at all. And he was too Western. He has created a notion that the East and Eastern religions are life-denying, life-negative. It is utter nonsense.
And you will see, when we enter Kabir you will see: more life-affirmation is not possible, more love for life is not possible. Even Jesus is not as life-affirmative as Kabir. Where else can you find a temple like Khajuraho, more life-affirmative? Where can you find an occult science like Tantra, more life-affirming? Where can you find such absolute yes? Life is God – and there is no other god. And worship of life is worship – and there is no other worship.
But Schweitzer got his ideas because the Christian missionaries have been interpreting the Eastern religion in such a way that it looks life-negative. Of course there have been a few thinkers in the East who are life-negative, but they are very few, and the main current of Eastern religiousness does not consist only of them. In fact they are by the side of the road, they are not the main flow of Eastern consciousness. But Christian missionaries emphasized those life-negative thinkers, and emphasized their life-negativities more and more, to create an atmosphere in the West as if Christianity is life-affirmative. The truth is just the reverse. Christianity is not life-affirmative. It has not loved man, it has not loved this world, it has not danced, it has not laughed.
Go to a Christian church and you feel as if you have entered a cemetery: dead, very serious, corpse-like. You enter a church and you start feeling that you are also becoming serious. The very vibe is not of laughter, no. Christians say Jesus never laughed. I don’t believe it, I cannot believe it because I know Jesus better.
But Christians say Jesus never laughed. If I write the gospels, I would write that Jesus laughed his whole life. In fact, when he was crucified he had a belly laughter. He laughed tremendously, uproariously, because this was just ridiculous. To try to kill that which cannot be killed, to try to kill Jesus, the very idea is ridiculous, he must have laughed. I can still hear his laughter. But Christians have not heard his laughter, they have based their religion more on the cross than on Christ.
Christianity would have been benefited tremendously if the cross had been forgotten because with the cross, death comes in. I call Christianity “crossianity.” It is a religion of death, of the cross, serious, sad. If Christianity had paid more attention to Jesus, then a totally different worldview would have arisen. More emphasis should have been given to the resurrected Christ, not to the crucified. Then Christianity would have been more life-affirmative, even death could not kill, even the cross could not destroy. Jesus is resurrected. Then Christianity could have danced, then there would have been singing and celebration, and churches would have been more human, but that didn’t happen. The whole of Christianity became too attached to the cross.
In fact, we are all too attached to death. Death leaves a greater impression in us. If somebody is alive we don’t bother to be happy with him, but if he dies we cry. We had never thought about it before, that that man was alive just a day before, and we could have danced together and we could have celebrated a few moments, and we could have allowed benediction to enter. We never thought about it. Now he is dead, now we cry. We don’t seem to be so interested in life, we seem to be too interested in death.
I have heard…

A great enemy of Voltaire died. They were lifelong enemies, criticizing each other. Somebody rushed to Voltaire to release the news and said, “Your great enemy is dead.”
Shocked, Voltaire said, “I will miss him tremendously.” He started crying and he said, “He was a great man and it will be difficult to find a greater man than him. His intelligence was tremendously sharp and his whole life was beautiful.”
The man who had come to release the news could not believe these words, that Voltaire would say these words. He was waiting for him to be happy. Seeing him shocked, Voltaire said, “All these things are true, provided he is really dead. Provided he is really dead – if he is still alive, then forget all this.”

When a person is dead he becomes good. We declare people good only when they are dead. Alive they are not good, alive they are not worth friendship, alive we fight. Dead, we praise them to high pinnacles.
I have heard…

A miserly man died. The widow went to the priest and asked him, “How much will it cost? You have to deliver a speech.”
He said, “There are speeches and speeches. The best will cost two hundred dollars.”
“Two hundred dollars?” the woman said. “My husband would not have allowed that much of a luxury. Isn’t there a cheaper speech?”
The man said, “There are some for one hundred dollars, but then I will not be able to praise him much.”
The woman said, “Come a little lower.”
And the priest said, “Okay, fifty dollars, but then I will just stick to the facts.”
The woman said, “Fifty dollars is still too much.”
Then he said, “Okay, ten dollars, but remember then I will have to tell the truth.”

When a person dies, we start telling lies, beautiful lies. In India everybody dies and goes to heaven, even politicians. Nobody seems to go to hell. Hell must be absolutely empty. Death seems to be very important to us. We are death obsessed. That’s why Christians made too much fuss about the cross, it became a symbol. A religion that is centered on the concept of the cross and death and crucifixion cannot be a religion of life-affirmation. Schweitzer is wrong. He should have read Kabir, his whole being would have been benefited tremendously.
Kabir is really a religious person. His declaration about life is of tremendous trust. He does not say to you to renounce anything. He says rather, “Bring everything to God and bring God to everything.” You will be surprised by his assertions: these assertions are tremendously revolutionary.
A few more things before we enter the songs.
Religion is not traditional, cannot be by its very nature. Tradition is that which is dead. Tradition is that which has passed away, tradition is just the dust of the past. Tradition is just the memory. Religion is always alive, breathing. Religion can never be traditional. Whenever religion becomes traditional, it serves the Devil more than God. Then it serves death more than life. Then it serves politicians, priests, organizations, churches, but it doesn’t serve the spirit of man. Then it is no longer an opening toward the future. Tradition looks back; we have to go forward. Looking backward is meaningless; not only meaningless, but harmful too, dangerous – because we cannot go backward, we have to go forward, and looking backward and moving forward is bound to create trouble.
The second thing: religion is not in the scriptures, cannot be. Scriptures are dead letters. Yes, there was religion once, throbbing in those words, when they were being uttered by a living master.
When Krishna told the Bhagavadgita Shrimad to Arjuna, it was alive. It was alive because of Krishna, it was illuminated because of Krishna. When Krishna disappeared, the Bhagavadgita became a corpse. Dead words: you can go on analyzing those words, interpreting this way and that. There are one thousand commentaries on the Gita – one thousand famous ones. And there are many more. In fact, whenever anybody reads the Gita he has his own meaning of it. Krishna’s meaning is lost, it disappeared with Krishna himself. The snake has passed and only the track on the sand is left. That track you go on worshipping as a scripture.
When Jesus walked on the earth and talked to his disciples, it was a throbbing truth, throbbing with life – alive, vibrating, pulsating. The word was not dead; the word was God, the word was truth itself. The word had a heart in it. The word was suffused with love, experience, existence, being. When Jesus has gone, life is gone. Then you can collect the words and you can make as many gospels as you want. Those gospels are going to be of no help.
Real religion is never in the scriptures. And a real religious seeker does not go in search of scriptures, he goes in search of a master, a living master. That is one of the basic tenets of Kabir’s understanding: satguru, the living master. Go and search for a living master! If you can come in contact with a living master then dead scriptures will become alive again. They become alive only via the living master; there is no other way because the living master is the only scripture. When the living master touches the Bhagavadgita it will become alive. When he touches the gospel, the gospel will become alive. When he recites the Koran, the Koran will again become alive. He will give his own life to these words, they will start throbbing. But you cannot directly find religion in the scriptures.
So religion is not in the tradition and religion is not in the scriptures and religion is not in the rituals. Rituals are formalities. Unless you are in communion with a living master, rituals are a dead weight. They will burden you, they will dry you, they will kill you, and you will be lost in infinite formalities. With a living master, a new ritual is born. It comes out of the contact, it has a context to it, a living reference to it. It is not learned by dead tradition being transferred from one generation to another. You live it, and through living it, you learn it.
When you come to a living master, deep down something in you wants to bow down. It is not that you are going to do a certain formality; if you are doing it, it is meaningless. But something really deep in your spirit, deep in your center, wants to bow down. Then bowing to a master is no longer ritualistic. It is alive, it is meaningful, it is not an empty gesture. But you can just go on bowing down to anybody because you have been taught to bow down, then it is useless.
Try to see the difference. When something is born in you out of your spontaneity, then it is true. When you have to do something as a duty, it is untrue. Duty is a dirty word. If something is born out of love, good. If something is born out of duty, avoid it, never do it, because that is dangerous. If you learn the ways of duty too much, you will forget the ways of love. Duty is against love. Duty is a false substitute for love.
Religion is not in the rituals. Of course whenever there is religion there is ritual, but that is a totally different matter. How can you avoid when Buddha walks amongst you, how can you avoid touching his feet? Impossible. You can do only two things and both are rituals: either you have to touch his feet, or you have to throw stones at him. Both are rituals, one is that of the enemy and one is that of the friend, but both are rituals. You cannot neglect Buddha, you cannot be indifferent, that’s all. The phenomenon is such that you cannot just pass by. Either you have to become a friend or you have to become an enemy, you have to choose. You have to have an attitude and that attitude is ritual. But then it is born in your heart, not learned from somebody else. It simply arises in your being.
Religion, wherever it is, always brings rituals but when the religion disappears, the rituals become dead. Don’t carry the corpse. Yes, you loved your mother very much and now she is dead, what are you going to do? Are you going to carry her corpse your whole life? You have to burn it or bury it. You have to get rid of it, you cannot go on carrying it. But this same thing happens as far as religion is concerned. You loved Buddha so much and great passion arose in your soul. And great worship and great songs were born in his presence. Now he is gone, you continue the song. By and by it is a far, far away echo of the truth, and by and by there is no truth at all. It is an echo of the echo of the echo…goes on fading.
When the pope speaks in the Vatican, it is not Jesus’ voice at all, cannot be. When Jesus speaks, he speaks on his own authority. When the pope speaks, he speaks on the authority of Jesus. A real master speaks on his own authority, he is his sole authority.
Religion is not in the tradition, not in the rituals, and not in the so-called religions, Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan. Religion has no adjective to it. Religion is simply religion, as love is love. Do you call love Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan? If love is neither Christian nor Hindu nor Mohammedan, then why should God be Christian, Hindu, and Mohammedan? Has not Jesus said, “God is Love”? Religion is not in the religions, religion is pure of all adjectives, pure of all definitions, and each one has to seek it.
Nobody can be born into a religion, religion has to be born into you. You have to open your soul and receive religion. It is showering all around, but you are carrying toys, substitutes, false coins, in your hands and thinking you have religion. In the church it is not, in the mosque it is not, in the temple it is not. Go somewhere where a living master is: it is there. And that too exists only for a few moments. The master is gone and the religion disappears.
Hence Kabir’s insistence for a satguru – for a true master.
Religion is individual, one has to seek it on one’s own. It is not a social phenomenon, it has nothing to do with the crowd and the collective. It is a private thing, as intimate as love. You come to it alone in deep intimacy, privacy. You open your heart. Religion is spontaneous in the sense that you cannot learn it. You can be it, but you cannot learn it. It is as spontaneous as love. Have you ever learned what love is? And that day will be a doomsday, when man will have to learn how to love. That day seems to be coming closer every day, in the West particularly, and more particularly in America. Books are being written: How to Love, How to Be Friendly, foolish books, because if man has forgotten how to love, no book can teach it. To teach humanity how to love is as if somebody goes to a fish and teaches the fish to swim, that will be foolish. And so is the case with religion. Religion cannot be taught, it can only be caught, it is a sort of infection. You can go wherever a holy person exists and you can catch it, you can imbibe it.
Religion is a rebellion. It is a rebellion against death, it is rebellion against all that is dead. It is rebellion against the outside, it is rebellion against politics, greed, society, culture, civilization. Religion is a rebellion, it says we have to listen to the innermost core of our being and follow it wherever it leads. Wherever, unafraid of the consequences, we will listen to the small still voice within and follow it. Religion is a risk. Those people who are too much after security can never become religious; it is a dangerous thing. If you pass through it you will be passing through a crucifixion, but only after the crucifixion is resurrection.
Now listen to these sutras of Kabir:
He is the real master, who can reveal the form of the formless to the vision of these eyes…
Now if the real master is the basic thing to search and seek for, then of course a definition is needed: Who is the real master? Whom to call the real master? How to know?
Kabir says: He is the real master, who can reveal the form of the formless to the vision of these eyes… …in whose presence the formless descends and becomes a presence, through whom you can have a look at the farthest star. Through whom you can have a feeling of God himself. Through whose words silence speaks, and through whose eyes the infinite peeks at you, looks at you. And if you hold his hand, you will suddenly see: the hand is his, but not only his. God is holding your hand through him. He is a vehicle, a bamboo flute on the lips of the infinite. He gives form to the formless, he is the embodiment of the formless.
You have to be very open and vulnerable, only then will you be able to feel a master. Don’t go to a master with a negative attitude, otherwise you will never reach him. The very negative attitude will not allow his vibe to reach you. The negative attitude will not allow you to move into the same wavelength in which he lives. Hence trust is needed. Hence love is needed. Otherwise you will go empty and you will come away empty – and when you will come away empty you will see, you will say, “This is not a real master. I went empty and I have come away empty.” If you are not open, you will come away empty. Only if you are open is there a possibility to feel.
Don’t be afraid of openness. If you are open and the master is not real, nothing will happen and you will know it. And you will know certainly that this is not for you, that this is not the man you are seeking. But be open because if you are open, only then can you know whether he is true or not. If you are closed, already closed, then there is no possibility. In fact if you are closed, sooner or later, you will become a victim of somebody who is a pseudo-master because pseudo-masters try to convince you argumentatively.
The real masters are very paradoxical, very contradictory. They are as contradictory as life itself because they embody life. They are as inconsistent as God himself because they embody God. They are not logical, they are very illogical because they are super-logical, because they are bringing something which cannot be grasped through logic.
In the closeness of a real master you will feel you are close to an abyss, but if you are open – only then. If you are not open, you will become a victim to some pseudo-person who can convince you, who can talk you in, who can seduce you. For example, if you are greedy he will talk about greed. He will tell you how much you are going to gain out of the meditation, the prayer. He will persuade your greed, how much you are going to have in heaven if you follow him. He will promise you much.
A true master never promises anything. In fact he shatters you completely, your greed, your desire, your idea of becoming somebody, being somebody, he shatters all in all. A real master is a rock against which your boat is completely shattered, your whole mind is shattered. He drives you crazy, he does not argue. His argument is more of his being than of his words.
But we are greedy. We live through greed, we are afraid, full of fear – somebody gives us consolation, we become victims. A real master is not a consolation, he is not a solace. He is in fact death to you. He kills you, he destroys you, he is very destructive, but creativity is possible only when the old is destroyed. When the old ceases to be, the new can enter.
I have heard a beautiful anecdote. Meditate over it…

The letter from Sean to his old, old mother was heartening. “Dear mother,” he wrote, “I am sending you some pills that a witch doctor gave me and if you take one, it will take years off your life.”
He came home a few weeks later, and there was a beautiful young woman outside his house rocking a pram in which a baby lay sucking a bottle.
“Where’s me mother?” he asked.
“Arrah, don’t be silly,” she said. “I’m your mother and them pills were marvelous.”
“Imagine!” said Sean. “One pill and you’re as beautiful as anyone could be, and what’s more, you were able to have a baby. Lord but they were powerful!”
“You madman!” she cried. “That’s not a baby, that’s your father. He took two.”

Avoid greed, otherwise you will take two pills. And there are many people who are selling things like that. Witch doctors…
A master is not here to fulfill your greed, he is here to destroy your greed. Because once greed is destroyed, you become available to yourself. If you are greedy you are never available to yourself. Greed becomes desire, desire becomes a projection in the future. And you are always wandering somewhere in the future, you are never herenow. Greed takes you away from yourself, greed has to be destroyed.
A master never promises you anything, but only in the presence of a master something becomes possible. He will not tell you, “I will take death away from you” or “You will become immortal.” He is not giving you nectar, elixir, ambrosia. Of course, being with a master one becomes immortal, but not that he makes you immortal. He simply takes you deep into the experience of death.
Just look at it: he takes you deep into the experience of death. That is what deep meditation is all about, a death experience. And when you have known your death, watched it, suddenly you realize you are separate from it. Death happens, but it never happens to you. It happens on the periphery, it never reaches the center. It happens to the body, it never happens to you. And the body is nothing but your abode. You have changed many bodies and you will change many more, but you are immortal.
But a real master does not promise it. He delivers it one day, but there is no promise of it. If you are seeking a state where fear will dissolve, a state where your greed will be fulfilled, a state where you will be titillated constantly with pleasure, paradise, then you are bound to become a victim of some pseudo-person.
Satguru means the real master. Asatguru means the pseudo-master.
He is the real master, who can reveal the form of the formless to the vision of these eyes:
who teaches the simple way of attaining him…
…the simple way – not complex methods, not yoga postures, not very complicated rituals. He teaches simple ways, very simple, that anybody who wants to do can do right now. His ways are so simple and spontaneous that you will be surprised why you did not discover them yourself. They are so simple! Once the master has taught you, once you have known the beauty of them, once you have tasted a little, you will be simply surprised why you could not have discovered them. They are so simple.
The real master is not technical, he is simple, because there is no technique to achieve God. God is not somewhere at the end of a technique, no. God is already available to you. You are in God. You just have to shake yourself a little so that you can become a little more alert. Just a little more alertness, that’s all.
Sometimes you do become alert, but you become alert also in a very unconscious way. You are driving a car and suddenly you see that a bus is coming, and the driver seems to be drunk or mad and you see no possibility of avoiding an accident. The accident is going to be, it becomes almost a certainty. In that moment you become alert, very, very alert, but that alertness is unconscious. You are alert, but you are not alert that you are alert.
In a dangerous situation you become alert, but that alertness is unconscious. A master simply teaches you how to be alert with full consciousness. He teaches you conscious awareness. Now you may be a little puzzled because…conscious awareness? You think consciousness means awareness, awareness means consciousness. No. There are moments when you are aware but not conscious. If somebody comes suddenly with a pistol in his hand and forces the pistol to your chest, you will be aware but not conscious. Thinking will stop. The shock is so sudden, so unexpectedly sudden, and you cannot figure out what is going to happen, and death is so close. In that shock, your mind stops. Your constantly spinning mind spins no more. Your constantly chattering mind is simply shocked into silence, you become aware. But this awareness is unconscious.
The master teaches only one thing: how to be consciously aware. And that’s a very simple thing. You can start doing it any moment. You can apply awareness, consciousness, to any activity that you go on doing. If you are walking on the road, just walk consciously. Take each step in deep alertness. Listening to me, right now, listen attentively. You are listening attentively but that attention may be unconscious. Become conscious of the attentiveness and suddenly you will see a tremendous blessing descends in you. Out of nowhere, suddenly it is there. Just a moment of conscious alertness and your doors open and God enters, as if he was just waiting there at the door, knocking and knocking and knocking. But you are so preoccupied…
Kabir says: …who teaches the simple way of attaining him… People who teach complex ways simply show that they have not known God because God needs no expertise. And people who teach complex ways have a reason to teach complex ways, so that they always can say to you “If you are not doing the thing rightly, how can you hope to attain?”
Have you heard a beautiful story of Khalil Gibran?

A man used to move from town to town. He was a great teacher and he used to say to people, “Come and follow me and I will show you the way to God.”
But people were engaged. They had so many thousands of things to do and they would say, “We worship you, we respect you, and one day we will follow you, but right now it is difficult.”
Nobody is ready right now, that’s why so many pseudo-masters can exist. Saint Augustine in his confessions says, “I used to pray to God when I was young, ‘God save me, but not right now. Save me but not right now,’ because I was indulging in so many things,” he says, “and I wanted to enjoy all that is available. So this was not to be heard immediately. I was saying the prayer because it has to be said formally, but I would always say, ‘Save me Lord, but not right now.’”
So this preacher went from town to town and people would say, “Not right now. We will come one day.” And he was very happy because nobody ever followed him and there was no trouble.
A madman one day said, “Okay, I am coming.”
The teacher became a little afraid, but he said – he was a very clever and cunning man – he said, “Come.” And he would give him such complex procedures which were almost impossible to do. But the man was really mad. He would do them and even this teacher could not find any fault. And the man continued. The teacher was thinking he would get fed up sooner or later.
One year passed, two years passed, and he would say, “When?” The disciple was too much! And he would ask again and again, “Now, what else to do?” And he was doing everything! Even the master became afraid. Now he could not think what else to say for him to do, and he was doing everything.
Six years passed, and one day the disciple said, “How long is it still? I am ready to do anything but you are not giving me anything.”
The master said, “Listen, the truth is, in your company I have lost my own way. I used to know where he is, but since you have come… Just have mercy on me and leave me.”

Complex procedures have been invented by cunning people. First, nobody is ready to do them. Good – the pseudo-master can exist because his techniques will never be put to any experimentation. Second, if somebody tries to do it, they are always so complex that it can be said that you are not doing them rightly. They are so complex that you cannot trust yourself and you are always afraid that something may go wrong. But a real master will give you very simple techniques; anybody of average intelligence, of average health, can do them.
…who teaches the simple way of attaining him, that is other than rites or ceremonies…
He never teaches you rituals, rites, and ceremonies. He may teach you celebration, but never ceremonies. Celebration is of the heart and ceremony is just a ritual of the mind.
…who does not make you close the doors and hold the breath, and renounce the world…
The real master is all for the world because this world is a manifestation of God. This world is full of God. Every rock is so crowded with God and every tree and every bird and all that exists is so full, overflowing with God. Where to go? And for what? Whom to renounce? And for what? And how can one renounce? Because wherever you are, you are in God. And wherever you are, you are in this world because there is no other world.
…he does not make you close your doors and hold your breath, and renounce the world:
who makes you perceive the supreme spirit wherever the mind attaches itself…
Just look at the beauty of this sutra. Kabir says: …who makes you perceive the supreme spirit wherever the mind attaches itself… He says: “Don’t be worried.” Whenever your mind feels attachment don’t be afraid of the attachment, go deep into it and try to find God there. And you will find him there. You love a woman; no need to escape from her, look deep into her eyes and you will find God there. God is welling up everywhere. You love your child – don’t renounce the world and don’t throw the child to this hungry, violent, ugly world, don’t abandon the child to the wolves. Look into the eyes of the child. Put your ears to his heart and listen deeply, and you will find God there.
Kabir says: “Unconditionally, whenever the mind attaches itself, perceive the supreme self.”

I have heard about a man who came to Kabir and he wanted to know God. Kabir asked him, “Don’t you love somebody?”
He said, “Sorry, I don’t love anybody.”
Kabir said, “Anybody will do, but love. Because unless you love there is no bridge.”
The man was a little shy but then he confessed, “Yes, I love. I love my cow.” A poor man and he had one cow and nothing else.
Kabir said, “Perfectly good. That will do.”
The man asked, “Then what have I to do now?”
He said, “Now you start thinking that the cow is divine. Now she is no longer a cow; she is a god, a goddess. You serve her, you love her, you pat her, you give her a bath. You do everything, but now she is a goddess. God is hidden there. And come after three months.”
After three months the man was totally different, radiant with new energy. The disciples of Kabir were a little puzzled, “Is he just joking with this man?”
But when the man came, they were surprised. He had almost become a new man, a new being; and he fell at Kabir’s feet and said, “Tremendous it is! I have found my God. And the day I found him in my cow I found him everywhere.”

Wherever your love falls, no need to escape and renounce. Let your love become your prayer.
…who teaches you to be still in the midst of all your activities.
Ever immersed in bliss, having no fear in his mind, he keeps the spirit of union in the midst of all enjoyments.
And Kabir says, “Don’t escape from enjoyments.” Remember, they are his gifts. And don’t escape from the worldly activities, remain quiet and silent amidst the activities, remain passive. Move in the crowd and remain alone. The real thing is to be alone, not to be lonely. And one can be alone in the crowd, and you can be in a crowd when sitting in a Himalayan cave, it all depends on your mind. So the change has to be inner, not outer.
The infinite dwelling of the infinite being is everywhere: in earth, water, sky, air:
firm as the thunderbolt, the seat of the seeker is established above the void.
He who is within is without: I see him and none else.
You just become empty of yourself. Empty yourself, become void, and you will become the seat, you will become the abode, you will become the temple.
O brother: when I was forgetful, my true guru showed me the way.
Then I left all rites and ceremonies…
When you have found the guru what is the use of rites and ceremonies? When you have found a living master then what is the use of scriptures and traditions? “When I found my master…”
…I left all rites and ceremonies, I bathed no more in the holy water:
then I learned that it was I alone who was mad, and the whole world beside me was sane; and I had disturbed these wise people.
This must be your experience too, of all sannyasins. People will think you mad.
And Kabir says: “Since I have left foolish things, I don’t go to take a bath in the holy Ganges and I don’t go to the temple and I don’t do any ritual, people think I have gone mad.” Whenever you will come in close contact with a master the world will think you have gone mad. They are all sane, wise people. Their wisdom never leads them anywhere, their sanity never gives them a single glimpse of bliss. Their sanity is nothing but their misery and their wisdom is nothing but stupidity, but still they think they are sane and they are wise. If they are really wise, they should be blissful. If they are really sane, they would show intelligence, creativity, but they don’t show anything.
But people who come in close contact with a master and are illuminated by his being will look mad. Always it has been so and always it will be so. So if people think you are mad, don’t be worried, they were thinking that even about Kabir.
…then I learned that it was I alone who was mad, and the whole world beside me was sane; and I had disturbed these wise people.
From that time forth I knew no more how to roll in the dust of obeisance:
I did not ring the temple bell:
I did not set the idol in its throne:
I did not worship the image with flowers.
It is not the austerities that mortify the flesh which are pleasing to the lord.
And Kabir declares: “If you mortify yourself you are a perverted being and God is not happy with you. If you torture yourself you are a masochist and God is not happy with you.” God is happy only when you are happy, God is happy in your happiness because he is hiding in your deepest core. When you torture yourself you torture God, how can he be happy? When you become a masochist and people start worshipping you like a mahatma, you are a masochist, a perverted being, insane and torturing the God within yourself.
Helpless is he, helpless like a small child. You can torture him easily.
It is not the austerities that mortify the flesh which are pleasing to the lord.
When you leave off your clothes and kill your senses you do not please the lord.
Listen to these rebellious maxims. It is not that when you destroy your senses God is pleased. Rather, he is pleased when your sensitivity goes to a peak. When you can see more beauty in the world, when you can hear more music in the world, when you can love more deeply, when you can be more alive, he is happy.
When you leave off your clothes and kill your senses, you do not please the lord.
The man who is kind and who practices righteousness, who remains passive amidst the affairs of the world, who considers all creatures on earth as his own self,
he attains the immortal being, the true god is ever with him.
Kabir says: “He attains the true name whose words are pure,
and who is free from pride and conceit.”
One who is kind to himself and others, only one who loves himself and others… You have been taught, “Never love yourself.” You have been taught, “Never be kind to yourself.” You have been taught to never forgive yourself. You have been taught much self-torture. You are praised in the same proportion as you torture yourself. If you want to become a mahatma you have to be a masochist, there is no other way. If you are happy, joyous, delighted in your being, nobody is going to worship you. Who worships a happy man? Have you seen any happy man being worshipped? People worship sad, long-faced, dead, dull, stupid people who can torture themselves. Their only art is that they can torture themselves. They are cruel to themselves, they are violent.
Kabir says: “Be kind and let kindness flow through you. Love yourself and only then can you love others too. In deep love, in deep sensitivity, God is pleased.”
The whole point is that you have to become a spiritual hedonist. That’s my whole teaching too: become a spiritual hedonist. There are spiritual people, but they are not hedonists and there are hedonists who are not spiritual. The West is hedonist, but not spiritual – materialist. The East is spiritual, but not hedonist and both have missed. A higher synthesis is needed: hedonism and spiritualism. When they meet the total man is born. And that total man is the enlightened man, that total man is the holy man.
Enough for today.

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