The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty Talks on Kabir
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The Eastern mystics use the metaphor of the swan for man. Kabir says:
Swan, it would be good if we remember the primordial days, the days when you had not left the home yet. It would be good if we remember the home.
Tell me your whole story! But if somebody asks you what story you have to tell, birth seems to be the beginning -- which it is not -- and death seems to be the end -- which it is not. Birth and death, both are episodes in your long life, and they have happened millions of times. The true story can begin only when you remember your real home, from where you come. And the real story can never end, because the real story is not only your story -- it is the story of consciousness, of evolving consciousness, of evolution. It is not only your story -- it is God's story. There is no beginning and there is no end. Once you become full of this nostalgia for the origins, then you will be surprised that you have become aware of the goal too -- because the origin is the goal, the source is the goal. We have to go to the same space from where we come, then the circle is perfect. And in that perfection is beauty, in that perfection is blessing, that perfection is benediction. SWAN, I'D LIKE YOU TO TELL ME YOUR WHOLE STORY! ONLY A BUDDHA CAN TELL HIS WHOLE STORY, only one who has become totally awakened. You can talk about your dreams, but that is not your story. You are dreaming, desiring, thinking, but you know nothing. And the less you know, the more you believe in your dreams -- because one has to keep oneself occupied. The less you know, the more you desire -- just to avoid your inner ignorance and emptiness. You rush in all directions; you go on rushing, you don't give yourself a little rest, because the lest seems to be explosive, dangerous. And rest is meditation. Finding at least one or two hours out of the hustle and bustle of life, sitting silently doing nothing, you may start moving inwards, you may start remembering something, the origins -- because deep down the memory of where you come from is still there. You may have forgotten it but it is there, maybe covered with rubbish, all kinds of rubbish, but that rubbish can be removed. That's what meditation is all about: removing the rubbish -- of thoughts, memories, dreams, desires, imaginations. And if you can remove all this rubbish that your head has gathered, your heart will start remembering. And once the source is remembered, the goal is known -- because, let me repeat, the source is the goal. We have to reach the same place from where we come.
The original has some beauty in it: HANSA KARO PURATAN BAT -- Let us talk of the old days, swan. Let us remember the old days, the ancient days. Let us remember the beginnings. Let us talk again about the source.
YOU ARE GOING TOWARD... "From where do you come, and to where are you going? Let us be very particular about it." That is the work of a Master: to remind the disciple from where he comes and to where he is going. Otherwise, people go on moving with the crowd... wherever others are going. People remain imitators; people remain just followers, followers of the blind -- the blind following the blind. Your parents were following their parents, you are follow-ing your parents, your children will follow you -- and nobody knows from where you come and where you are going. And everybody is trying... not at all aware of what really your need is, what is going to fulfill you. More money? More houses? More power? Are these things going to help? Have they helped others? Just be a little more observant. There is an ancient story:
The Master said, "You will have to go to the King, and go early in the morning; be the first visitor to the King. Because the King has a habit: whosoever comes to him first, whatsoever he asks, the King gives. But the country is so rich that it is very rare that anybody goes. Years pass and nobody goes to ask for anything. But don't take any chances -- be there very early. The King comes in the morning into his garden, as the sun rises the King enters the garden -- be there. And he will ask you, 'What do you want?' And whatsoever you want, ask him." The disciple could not understand what kind of initiation this last one was. But the order had to be followed. He went. He didn't take any chance: three o'clock early in the morning he was waiting for the King. As the sun was rising, the King entered. The young man bowed down to the King; the King said, "Have you come to ask for something? You can ask for anything! Whatsoever you ask, I will give it to you." A great desire possessed the young man. He was a poor man, had come from a very poor family, "And the King says whatsoever...?" To be certain, he asked again, "What do you mean by 'whatsoever'?" The King said, "Exactly that I mean -- whatsoever. Even if you demand my kingdom I will give it to you. You can ask for as much money as you want..." The poor young man could not think much. He thought, "Maybe ten thousand rupees will do." But a desire came that "Why ten thousand? You may never get such a chance again -- why not one hundred thousand?" And then another desire, and desires upon desires... because mind constantly asks for more. So whatsoever he decided, the mind was still asking for more. The King said, "It seems you are not yet ready to ask. I will go for my morning walk, meanwhile you decide. And when I return, whatsoever you ask will be given to you." That half an hour was a torture. He went on and on, "I can ask for this and that, and a golden chariot, and so many millions of rupees, and so much land -- I will create a small kingdom of my own." Desires and dreams... and the King came; that half hour had passed so fast. The King was standing there and he said, "Young man, have you not decided yet?" And then suddenly the young man thought, "Whatsoever I ask will be less than the King has, so why not ask for all? Be finished with the figures!" So he said, "Sir, if you are so willing to give, I ask for every-thing! -- all that you have. Your whole kingdom, all your riches, your palaces -- everything. You simply get out of the palace! And you cannot go back in. You may take something. You simply get out -- forget all about it. I can allow you only these clothes that you are wearing." Even that he did reluctantly; even that much he would have less. The King fell on his knees, started praying to God, tears rolling down from his eyes -- of great joy, ecstasy! And he was thanking God saying "I have been waiting for such a man. How long I waited! But finally you heard my prayer, and now he has come and I am free of all this nonsense. Thank you! You heard my prayer, although it has been so long and I had to wait so long, but still you heard it. I am grateful." When he was saying these things to God, the young man was standing there and he started thinking, "What is the matter? If this man is feeling so happy renouncing the kingdom, what am I getting into? If this man has been praying for thirty years, as he is saying, 'Send a man who can take my whole kingdom, who can ask for my whole kingdom!' -- if for thirty years he has been praying, then it is not worthwhile at all. I am getting into unnecessary trouble." He also fell on his knees, touched the King's feet and said, "Sir, I am a young man -- I am a young fool. Please excuse me. I don't want anything. Your prayer to God, your thankfulness to God has finished my whole mind. I am going back to the forest to my Master." The King tried to persuade him, "Don't go. Just have a look. Come into the palace! I will not only give you my palace, my kingdom, my riches, but my beautiful daughter also. Come and just have a look!" But the young man said, "I cannot stay here, not even a single moment -- because the mind can betray me. An insight has happened, and I am thankful to you just as you are thankful to God. I am finished!" And when the young man reached back to his Master and told the whole story, the Master said, "Your last initiation is over. Now nothing will ever make a slave of you. Now you are alert, conscious, free. You have passed -- I am happy. I was watching from here, and when you had asked for the whole kingdom, my heart was crying. I was thinking, 'So, fifteen years' work on this fool, and all finished.' You can't imagine my happiness," said the Master, "that you are back, that you could see the point, that you were observant." Be observant, just watch.... People HAVE money, people have great palaces, people have all that you can desire -- just watch, just see: are they happy? are they contented? They may be more happy than you are and more discontented than you are -- then don't follow them. They are blind! They have followed other blind people. Don't follow them, don't imitate the crowd. The really religious person is one who gets out of the entanglement of the mass psychology, of the mass hypnosis. The mass conditions you: rebel against it; go out of this mass conditioning, become an individual. Then only can you re-member from where you come, because only then will you know who you are. Right now you know you are a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Christian. You are not all these things: you are neither white nor black, you are neither man nor woman -- you are just a pure consciousness with no adjectives attached to it. There is no frame to this consciousness; this consciousness is infinite. If you drop the mass conditionings you will be coming closer home.
Let us talk of those ancient times when we were at the source.
WHERE YOU FIRST APPEARED, AND WHAT DARK SAND YOU ARE GOING TOWARD... YOU ARE COMING FROM LIGHT, SO wherever you are going you must be going towards darkness. And that's what happens. A child has more light in his being; as he grows he becomes darker and darker and darker. By the time he is old he is just a dark night of the soul and nothing else. A child is more luminous, is more intelligent, more alert. And as time passes and dust gathers on him, layers and layers of dust, and all his intelligence disappears, he becomes mediocre. He starts behaving in stupid ways, because he falls a victim to the stupid crowd that surrounds him. He is helpless -- he has to listen to the parents, to the teachers, to the politicians. They are the great leaders, they are the great priests -- they know, and they all say, "We love you. Listen to us otherwise you will go astray. Obey us, otherwise you will go astray." Obedience has been one of the greatest calamities that has befallen humanity. One should be capable of disobeying. I am not saying to make disobeying your religion; I am simply saying one should be capable of disobeying. In fact, the person who is capable of disobeying is also capable of obeying. The person who is only capable of obeying, his obedience carries no value. The person who cannot say no, his yes is always impotent. Only the person who can say no, his yes has power, meaning, significance. He says yes only when he means it. And one should be alert enough to say no to all that takes you deeper and deeper into the mire of darkness, of blindness, of superstitiousness. And one should be capable of saying yes to anything that takes you towards the light, towards love, towards life. And it is up to you! If you say yes to darkness you will be saying no to light. If you move towards darkness you will have to keep your back towards the light. And it is only a question of a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn -- a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn and you are in front of the light that you have been searching and seeking. But your ways, your methods, your habits, your patterns of thinking, were all taking you towards darker and darker realms of life.
YOU ARE GOING TOWARD, AND WHERE YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT... This is a night in which you are living, and the life that you call life is nothing but a sleep -- full of dreams. Sometimes you even dream that you are awake; that too is a dream. Just the other night I was reading a story:
The fisherman looked at him and laughed, and he said, "Jesus has been dead for two thousand years -- are you mad or something?" The man said, But I am Jesus Christ. Have you not heard that after he was crucified he was resurrected -- and since then I have not died? Have you ever heard when Jesus died after resurrection?" The fisherman thought, "Either he is very drunk or gone nuts." He said, "Then you will have to prove it: Jesus did miracles... And the man was very happy; he said, "Yes, what miracle do you want me to do?" The fisherman said, "Then walk on the lake." And the madman walked... and drowned. The fisherman jumped in, somehow pulled him out; asked him, "What happened?" He said, "That time my shoes did not have any holes. Two thousand years of wandering on the earth, and the shoes are full of holes -- that's what happened." Mad people have their own logic. Blind people have their own logic. People who are fast asleep have their own logic -- logic that supports their sleep. One man suddenly became certain that he was dead. There was no way to prove that he was not, so he was taken to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist tried hard to convince him in every possible way, all kinds of arguments -- but how can you prove to a man...? He said, "But I am dead -- with whom are you talking? I am not, I am no more. This is not a dialogue, this is a monologue -- you are talking with yourself, you have gone mad." Suddenly an idea struck the psychiatrist. He said, "Okay, you come close to the mirror." And then he brought a needle, pushed the needle into the madman's hand -- before pushing the needle in he asked, "Do you think dead men bleed?" He said, "No. How can a dead man bleed?" He pushed the needle in, blood started oozing out. The psychiatrist was very happy and he said, "Now look!" Do you know what the madman said? He said, "What is there to look at? That simply proves that dead men do bleed."
Ask these questions deep down in your own heart: What are you looking for? Where are you? Where are you asleep? In what space are you asleep? Rothstein owed a hundred dollars to Weiner. The debt was past due and Rothstein was broke, so he borrowed the hundred dollars from Spivak and paid Weiner. A week later, Rothstein borrowed back the hundred dollars from Weiner and paid Spivak. Another week went by and Rothstein borrowed back the hundred dollars from Spivak to pay Weiner. He repeated this transaction several times, until finally he called them up and said, "Fellas, this is a lotta bother. Why don't you two exchange the hundred dollars every week and keep me out of it!"
The ego means simply that the self is asleep. The moment the self awakes, the ego disappears, is not found any more. Andrews, a white Georgia farmer, hired Monroe, a black, to chop some wood. Monroe took the axe and began hacking away. But in a little while the farmer noticed Monroe sitting in the shade, watching another negro do the work. "Why you sittin' there doing nothing when I am paying you to cut the wood?" asked Andrews. "How come you got somebody else doing it?" "I hired him to do it for me," said Monroe. "Is that a fact," said the white man. "How much are you paying him?" "I am paying him a dollar and a quarter," answered Monroe. "Why would you want to do that?" snorted the white man. "I am paying you only a dollar!" "I know," said the black, "but it is worth a quarter to be boss for once." The ego is constantly in search of being a boss -- whatsoever the cost, at any cost. You are losing your whole opportunity of life just to fulfill a shadowy, non-substantial notion -- the notion of ego: "I am somebody." Nobody is nobody. We are all one; we are not separate. At the source we are one, at the goal we will be one again. Just in this dark night when we have fallen asleep we are having private dreams. Remember, the real is universal, the unreal is private. You cannot even invite your girlfriend into your dream -- hence it is false. It is so private you cannot share it. Anything that is so private is bound to be false, and there is nothing more private than the ego -- and that is the center of all your dreaming mind, sleeping mind. And people go on wasting their whole lives, not even knowing what they are looking for. Do you know exactly what you are looking for? Do you have some idea? Do you have some sense of direction?
The original has something more: AB HI HANSA CHET SABERA -- Now is the morning, swan... NOW has to be remembered. The translation has missed something:
The original says: It is ALWAYS morning -- NOW wake up, because now is the morning. The present is always light, the present is always sunrise. Being in the past or being in the future, you go on missing the light, the door from where light penetrates you. AB HI HANSA CHET SABERA -- This is the door, now is the time -- now or never! IT IS MORNING, SWAN, WAKE UP, CLIMB IN THE AIR, FOLLOW ME! AND ONE CAN WAKE UP ONLY IF ONE STARTS CLIMBING IN THE AIR. This is a metaphor, a mystic metaphor. It means: you start moving into the world of quality, not into the world of quantity. People live in the world of quantity: more money, more power, more prestige, more respectability. These are all quantities. You have so much -- you can double it, treble it, you can have it thousandfold, but it is all quantity. There is a different dimension: the dimension of quality. For example, you can have one sex experience, you can have two, you can have three, you can have four; then it is quantity. But if your sex experience starts becoming more a love experience, and your love experience starts becoming more a prayer experience, then it is quality. Quantity is horizontal, quality is vertical. Once you start changing qualitatively, you start soaring high, you move in the vertical world. Matter is horizontal, spirit is vertical. That is basically the meaning of the symbol of the cross. The cross is not a Christian symbol, remember; the cross is older than Christ; it is a very ancient symbol. The cross simply means that life has two dimensions: one horizontal, one vertical. If you live on the horizontal you will live asleep -- that's why when you have to go to sleep you have to be in a horizontal position; lying down in the bed, you become horizontal. When you wake up, you stand up, you become vertical. Now, even scientists will agree with it, that all that has happened to man, all evolution, has happened because man some day in the past decided not to walk on four but to stand on two feet. Man became vertical -- that was the moment when evolution started. Man was no more animal. Animals are horizontal: man became vertical. Just the physical verticality, and so much has happened to man. Think of spiritual verticality, think of the spiritual verti-cal dimension, and you cannot even imagine what is possible, you cannot even dream about it. You have no idea at all! You need not be beggars then -- the whole kingdom, the whole universe, with all its beauty and joy, is yours. IT IS MORNING, SWAN, WAKE UP, CLIMB IN THE AIR...! I KNOW OF A COUNTRY THAT SPIRITUAL FLATNESS DOES NOT CONTROL, NOR CONSTANT DEPRESSION, AND THOSE ALIVE ARE NOT AFRAID TO DIE. Kabir says: I KNOW OF A COUNTRY... I know of a space -- if you come with me, if you dare to come with me, it needs daring, if you are courageous enough to soar with me, if you are ready to leave the muddy pools where you have made your abodes, to go to the Himalayas, beyond the Himalayas, to the purest lake, Mansarovar.... The word MANSAROVAR IS also beautiful -- it means the lake of consciousness.
Here, in the name of spirituality, something pseudo, something false is being sold. The temples and the mosques and the churches and the gurudwaras, they are selling you something which has nothing to do with spirituality. Nanak had something to give, but Nanak is no more. And Mohammed had something to give, but he is no more. Now there are only dead traditions. You will have to find an alive Master who KNOWS OF A COUNTRY WHERE SPIRITUAL FLATNESS DOES NOT CONTROL. In this world. very spiritually flat people are thought to be saints. In fact, the more spiritually flat you are, the more spiritually stupid you are, the more you will be respected by the masses -- because the more you will oblige the masses by being according to their ideas of what a saint should be. Only mediocre, stupid people can follow the masses, can fulfill their expectations. A man who has any courage, a man who has any guts, is bound to be a rebel. He will not be worshipped as a saint in his life -- he will be worshipped as a saint only when he is gone. People worship dead saints: either you have to be dead while alive -- they will worship you -- or they will wait: when you really die and nothing of you is left, and the whole fragrance has evaporated, then they will worship you. Jesus they crucified, and crucified Jesus they worship. Socrates they killed, poisoned, and now for centuries they have honoured him as one of the greatest human beings who has ever walked on the earth. Mansoor they murdered, butchered, and now Sufis go on claiming that he is one of the greatest Sufis. When he was being killed, even these Sufis were standing in the crowd and watching. And nobody even protested -- not even a very famous Sufi, Junaid, who was present in the crowd and who knew perfectly well that Mansoor was innocent, that Mansoor's declaration "I am God!" was not against God. Mansoor's declaration that "I am God!" was not a sin. In fact, Mansoor was no more there -- God had declared himself through him. Junaid knew it, but still was afraid of the crowd, kept quiet. And when people were throwing stones and mud to humiliate and to insult the dying man, he also threw a roseflower -- for two reasons. Must have been a very diplomatic mind: so people knew that he was also throwing something, that he was not in favour of Mansoor, and Mansoor would know that he had not thrown a stone or mud -- he had thrown a roseflower. But the story is tremendously beautiful... |