Where Did We Come From and How Did We

 

 

Brahmins have gone neurotic. They suffer from compulsion, obsession, neurosis. To be clean is good, but to clean continuously is mad. And the mind can move to extremes. You can either be dirty, then you don't take a bath.... I used to know an Italian sannyasin. She happened to stay with me in a camp. I was surprised, she never took any bath. Then I inquired and she said, "Once a year," she takes. And she asked, surprised, "Is that not enough?" And then there are brahmins who are not doing anything else -- just taking baths.

I know a person, he is a close relative; he has some obsession. He has remained a bachelor all his life -- a very good man in all the ways except one, and that too is innocent, doesn't harm anybody, but has harmed him completely. He is a poor man because he has never earned much. He has lived on whatsoever had been left by his father, and has to live very, very miserly because he does not have much and it has to last his whole life. And he has no time to earn because of that obsession -- and the obsession is cleanliness.

The whole day he is cleaning his house. There is nothing to clean: a small room, he goes on cleaning it. Then he will take his baths. And this is part of the obsession: that if he sees a woman he will immediately take a bath because he is a bachelor, a perfect bachelor, such that "just the shadow of a woman makes you dirty."

He goes to the public tap to bring water. He goes early in the morning so nobody can come across him, because if a woman crosses the path he has to clean his pot again -- throw the water, clean the pot, bring water again. And it has happened sometimes that thirty, forty, sixty times he will go -- the whole day. And you cannot stop traffic, and people are passing, and there are as many women as men. It is difficult. And he cannot miss -- he is looking for women. Even if he can see a woman far away, immediately... The whole day is wasted. He is so superbly clean, but what to do with this cleanliness? Whole life wasted.

It is always good to remember that balance is always right. Don't be dirty; don't get obsessed with dirt. Now hippies have got obsessed with dirtiness. That's reaction. It is not freedom, because reaction can never be freedom. Christianity insisted on too much cleanliness. They have a proverb that cleanliness is next to godliness. They insisted for cleanliness too much; now the whole generation, the modern generation, has revolted against it. Now hippies are not taking baths, they don't bother about any cleaning of the clothes -- as if dirtiness has become their sadhana: it is their discipline to be dirty. They feel they have got completely free from the old pattern of the society. No, you are not free: reaction, revolt. is not revolution. You may go to the other extreme, but you are caught in the same pattern: they were mad to be clean; you are mad to be dirty.

And if I am asked, "If there is only one way... one has to choose the extreme.!" then I will choose the extreme of cleanliness -- at least it is clean. But I am always for balance.

Nobody can make a discipline for you: you have to feel your body, your balance -- because uncleanliness, dirtiness. becomes a heaviness on your body, your mind. Cleanliness is not for somebody else or for the society, it is for you -- to feel light, to feel happy, to feel pure and clean. A good bath gives you wings. A good bath, and you are a little unearthly, not part of this earth: you can fly a little. A good bath is a must. And nobody else can make the rule for you; you have to understand your own body.

Sometimes you are ill and there is no need, because the bath can be disturbing; then don't be obsessed with it. Sometimes the situation is not such that you can take the bath; then don't be neurotic about it -- don't feel guilty. There is nothing in it to feel guilty: to take the bath is not a virtue; not to take the bath is not a sin. At the most it is good hygiene.

And you should have to look after your body; the body is the temple of the divine. It should be clean; it should be beautiful. Yon have to live in it; you have to be with it. It will affect you in many ways. In a clean body, in a clean temple, the possibility is more for a clean mind to happen and exist. I am not saying that this is equivalent. I am just saying there's the possibility -- in a clean body, there's more possibility. I am not saying that in a dirty body there is no possibility for a clean mind -- the possibility is there, but it will be a little difficult, against the grain.

Meditation is an inner bath of consciousness, and bath is a meditation for the body.

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If you understand me I am always talking on Lao Tzu. If you don't understand me, even while I am talking on Lao Tzu it will be of no use. In fact, I am never just to anybody else -- Patanjali. Jesus. Mahavir, Buddha. No, I am never just; I cannot be. The Lao Tzu goes on coming in. I am continuously talking on Lao Tzu.

When I am talking on Lao Tzu, when I am talking on Patanjali, when I am talking on Buddha or Jesus; if you can understand me, Lao Tzu remains the continuous undercurrent. But if you don't understand me, then the question arises, "Why can you not continue talking on Lao Tzu?"

Lao Tzu to me is not a subject matter; Patanjali is. When I speak on Patanjali I speak on Patanjali. When I speak on Lao Tzu I don t speak on Lao Tzu; I speak Lao Tzu. And the difference is vast, tremendous.

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This is from Madhuri. Erhard is as near as Madhuri. Everybody is as near as Erhard. In fact enlightenment is a jump, not a gradual phenomenon -- in just a single step the journey is complete. It is as if you are sitting with closed eyes and you open the eyes and the sun is there; the whole world is filled with light.

Somebody is sitting with closed eyes: even then the world is filled with light and the sun is there, only he is sitting with closed eyes. And if he is enjoying it, nothing is wrong in it, perfectly okay: but if he is miserable then I say why don't you open the eyes? The difference between ignorance and enlightenment is just that of opening the eyes. It is not much of a difference, if you are ready to open. If you are not ready to open, it is a tremendous difference.

Erhard is as near as anybody else, but intellect seems to be the barrier for him -- as it is a barrier for you, and most of you. He has understood the point -- exactly he has understood it -- but only intellectually. When I talked about his few sentences last time, I okayed them all. They are all perfectly true, but I have not said anything about the person. Whatsoever he has said is perfectly true; but you can study Lao Tzu -- intellectually you can understand and you can say the same things. As far as the words go they are true, but the man seems to be much too intellectually in it, not totally in it. And that's the problem.

It is the greatest problem one can encounter: you understand everything I say, you can even explain it to others. but enlightenment will be as far away as ever. It is not a question of intellectually understanding. it is a question of total understanding -- your total being understands it, not only your mind. Your heart understands it. Not only your heart, but your blood and your bones, your marrow understands it. Nothing is left behind. Your whole being understands it, is bathed in that understanding. Then the fragrance comes, then the dance happens, then you flower. There is only one step and the journey is complete. Between you and me the distance is only of one step -- not more than that. Not even two steps are needed.

But forget about Erhard. Just think about yourself. Erhard is a problem to himself; it is none of your business to be bothered about. Just think about yourself. Have you not many times felt that you understand me perfectly, and again and again you miss? Why? If you understand me, why do you miss? You understand me intellectually, verbally, theoretically, but your being does not participate in it. So while you are near me you understand; when you have moved away, the understanding simply disappears: you are again back to your old standpoint, to your old world and the pattern. While with me, you forget yourself and everything is clear, crystal clear. Away from me you are again into your hole, and everything is confused and nothing is clear.

Only one step exists. And the step has to be taken with the total being. You are just sitting and imagining that you have taken the step. You can go on sitting and you can go on imagining a great journey. If you do it for long, the journey becomes so real, appears so real, that you can start talking like an enlightened man -- but that won't help.

You have to be enlightened. It is not imagination; it is not thinking. It is being.

Enough for today.