The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty Talks on Kabir

When he was being hit by stones and his whole body was oozing blood, he was laughing, he was in a state of celebration, because he was being sacrificed in the name of God. It was a moment to celebrate! But when he was hit by the roseflower, he wept -- the story says Mansoor wept.

Somebody standing nearby asked him, "What is the matter with you? Stones are being thrown at you; all over the body you have been wounded, blood is flowing from everywhere, and you kept laughing and smiling. And a roseflower hit you, and you wept?"

Mansoor said, "Yes, because the man who has thrown the roseflower knows that I am innocent. Still he is not courageous enough to say so. The others who are throwing stones at me are ignorant -- I am praying for them, I am praying to God, 'Forgive them because they know not what they are doing.' But I cannot pray for this man who has thrown the rose, that's why I am crying and weeping. What should I do now? I cannot say to God, 'Forgive this man because he knows not what he is doing' -- he knows perfectly well what he is doing, and he knows perfectly well that I am absolutely innocent."

When he said these words, Junaid disappeared into the crowd, became very much afraid: people might catch hold of him.

Now, Sufis go on claiming that Mansoor was one of the greatest enlightened people of the world, now they worship him.

The ways of man are very strange. This world is really very flat as far as spirituality is concerned. And the so-called spirituality is very boring too. And the so-called spirituality is more or less rubbish -- rubbish that has gathered down the ages: theories, thoughts, systems, but not a single iota of experience.

Hence Kabir says:
I KNOW OF A COUNTRY THAT SPIRITUAL FLATNESS DOES NOT CONTROL... Come with me! I can take you to a space where all these fools are no more pretending to be spiritual, where all these dull, stupid fellows are no more thought to be saints.
A priest dies. At the Pearly Gates he is given a warm welcome by Saint Peter, who presents him the keys of a small, old, rotten car and a small one-bedroom apartment. When he gets there, there is another pleasant surprise for him, for his next door neighbour turns out to be a parson who had been a good friend of his Down Below.

They decide to stroll down to the Pearly Gates to check out the action, and they are horrified when they spot a certain rabbi strolling through the Pearly Gates as though he own the place. For they knew this particular rabbi only too well, and he had been the scandal of their community. Sodomy, usury -- name any vice, he had committed it. The two reverends were even more horrified when Saint Peter bowed low to the rabbi, told him what an honour it was to have him in Heaven, and presented him with keys to a Rolls Royce, a town house and a country house.

"This is outrageous!" priest and parson storm at Saint Peter. "We lead pious, godfearing lives and all we get are small cars and small apartments. But this schmuck of a rabbi, he does everything vile, yet you give him a Rolls Royce, a town house, and a country house. How come?"

"Well, I am sorry, gentlemen," Saint Peter apologizes, "but he is a relative of the management."

Kabir is talking of an inner space:

DOES NOT CONTROL, NOR CONSTANT DEPRESSION.

In this world you will find two types of people: one who is just boringly religious, flat; another who is just worldly, but depressed. The pseudo religious at least hopes that something great is going to happen after death, but the worldly man does not even have that hope -- he is very depressed. You can see this...

In India you will feel the difference from the West. India is a flat spiritual country, but people are in a way hopeful. Life is short, and soon it will be gone, and then the paradise and all the joys; and the more you suffered in life, the more you will be rewarded. So carry on, be patient.

In the West, people are not flatly spiritual, and they have no hope, no future, no life after death. Then there is great depression, then they are very heavy, as if they are carrying mountains of worries, anxieties.

Both states are wrong.

Kabir says:
... AND THOSE ALIVE ARE NOT AFRAID TO DIE.

I KNOW OF A COUNTRY...

... where people know death is a lie, where people know that life is eternal. I know a space where you will also be able to see and feel and experience that life never begins, never ends -- that death is only a change of garments.
THERE WILD FLOWERS COME UP THROUGH THE LEAFY FLOOR,

AND THE FRAGRANCE OF 'I AM HE' FLOATS ON THE WIND.

THERE THE BEE OF THE HEART STAYS DEEP INSIDE

THE,FLOWER.

AND CARES FOR NO OTHER THING.

He is talking about the inner space, the inner silence, the contentless consciousness, samadhi.

Wild because they are spontaneous, wild because no gardener has tended to them, wild because they are SO full of life -- they are not civilized, cultured, pale -- so full of blood and so full of juice. Wild because you have not seen them yet, not even in your imagination do they cast any shadows.

AND THE FRAGRANCE OF 'I AM HE' FLOATS ON THE WIND.

NOW THIS IS SOMETHING UNTRANSLATABLE. The Sanskrit word that Kabir uses is SOHAM. Literally it means 'I am he' -- 'I am that.' But that is not the point. SOHAM is not a word but a sound. If you become utterly silent, you will hear this sound arising from the deepest core of your being: SOHAM. It is not a word; it is a sound, pure sound. It is a kind of inner music which is heard when all the noise of the mind has left you. Because it is heard only when the mind has left you, when there are no longer any thoughts to disturb, no interference, the whole world forgotten, and you are in absolute aloneness, and everything has stopped, time has stopped, space has disappeared, when there is only pure consciousness vibrating -- that's what Zen people call the sound of one hand CLAPPING: SOHAM -- because this sound is heard only when you have reached the very center of your being, and because with this sound, once heard, you become absolutely certain, not convinced, not that you start believing, you become absolutely certain through knowing that 'I am he' -- hence the sound has gathered a meaning around it, but basically it is a sound.

And the mystics say that the whole existence is full of this sound, SOHAM. Whenever you are silent, you will hear it. This is the voice of God, and this voice reveals to you who you are.

THERE THE BEE OF THE HEART STAYS DEEP INSIDE THE FLOWER...

Then who wants to go out? The sound of SOHAM showers on you as nectar. Then who wants to go out? for what? All that you have been desiring is suddenly fulfilled; all that you have asked is given. The door is open.
THERE THE BEE OF THE HEART STAYS DEEP INSIDE THE FLOWER, AND CARES FOR NO OTHER THING.
DON'T GO OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE TO SEE FLOWERS.

MY FRIEND, DON'T BOTHER WITH THAT EXCURSION.

INSIDE YOUR BODY THERE ARE FLOWERS.
HE IS INDICATING TOWARDS THE SEVEN CENTERS -- the seven chakras. Those seven chakras are called seven flowers. We become aware only of the first, and that too in a very dim and dismal way -- a sound heard from far away, or just an echo. We become aware of the first center only, the sex center, and that too only once in a while.

All your sexual experiences don't bring you to the awareness of the flower. Only when you have a deep orgasm, only when you have a total orgasm, when your whole body pulsates with joy, when each fiber of your body dances with joy, when each cell of your body goes mad, wild with joy -- then only do you become aware of the first flower.

Even that is very rare; not more than one percent of people become aware of it. Ninety-nine percent know sex only as a relief; they don't know its orgasmic quality. Even if they think they are having an orgasm, it is not orgasm -- it is just genital relief.

Orgasm has nothing to do with genitals as such. Genitals are involved in it, but orgasm is total -- from the head to the toes, it is all over you. Nothing is being held behind. A total involvement in the moment, a total merger -- then you become aware of the first flower.

And there are six higher flowers, and as you move higher, deeper orgasmic experiences are waiting for you. The seventh, the last, is called SAHASRAR -- the one-thousand-petalled lotus. And when the seventh, that is in the head, opens up, you have transcended humanity, you are no more a human being. You may be in the human body, but you are a God.

The Western mind finds it very difficult; they cannot understand why we call Buddha a God, why we call Mahavira a God, why we call Krishna a God. They don't even call Jesus a God; they only call him 'the son of God'. Their idea of God is: one who created the world.

But in the East we have gone far deeper than that. Nobody has ever created the world; in the Christian sense there is no God at all. God is not a creator but the creativity, the energy that has become manifest in existence. God is in the tree, in the rock, in the river, in you, in me. But then why do we call Buddha a God if God is everywhere? Buddha has awakened to his godliness, others are fast asleep.

By calling Buddha a God we don't mean that he created the world, we don't mean that he controls the world -- we simply mean that he has attained to the seventh orgasm, that he has come to the seventh flowering, that the ultimate has opened in him, that he is no more an individual, that he has become universal.

Your head has an opening.... Just try to understand: your sex center has an opening; that opening joins you with nature, that opening takes you downwards. Exactly like the sex center, on the opposite pole, is SAHASRAR -- that opens upwards. Just as sex takes you downwards, SAHASRAR takes you upwards.

Sex is under the law of gravitation and SAHASRAR IS beyond the law of gravitation. It functions under a totally different law -- you can call it levitation, or you can call it 'grace'. The law that pulls you down is gravitation, and the law that pulls you up is grace.

Science is not yet aware of the other law; that is unfor-tunate. But religion is basically the art of helping you enter into the realm of the second law, the law of grace. And once your SAHASRAR, the one-thousand-petalled lotus, has opened, you disappear as an ego: God appears in you. Your form will remain human, but in the form of the human the superhuman starts descending.

Hindus call this state AVATARA. The word AVATARA means descendence: when a person is open towards the sky, the sky descends in him, he becomes an AVATARA.

DON'T GO OUTSIDE, says Kabir, YOUR HOUSE... has all that you are searching and seeking outside.
DON'T GO OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE TO SEE FLOWERS.

MY FRIEND, DON'T BOTHER WITH THAT EXCURSION.

INSIDE YOUR BODY THERE ARE FLOWERS.

ONE FLOWER HAS A THOUSAND PETALS.

Six are lower. Up to the sixth you remain a human being -- you become a very superior human being, but you remain a human being. Up to the sixth you remain a sage. Entering into the seventh you become a God.
ONE FLOWER HAS A THOUSAND PETALS.

THAT WILL DO FOR A PLACE TO SIT.

And once you have arrived at the seventh, you have come home. Now you can sit at rest, now you can relax. Now there is nowhere to go. Now all is completed, fulfilled.

This was the search... and you ran in all directions. In all the ten directions you were running, hither and thither for thousands of lives, and not even a glimpse was found. But once you have reached the seventh, all is fulfilled. Suddenly now you can rest. Now there is nowhere to go, no goal to attains no object for your dec;ire -- hence desirelessness happens naturally.

And this is what WE call beauty in the East. Unless the seventh flower has opened in you, you know nothing of beauty. You only say that the rose is beautiful, the sky is beautiful, the river is beautiful. You are using the word 'beautiful', but you don't know exactly what beauty is.

If somebody persists, insists, "Define what beauty is," you will be at a loss. You will not be able to define it -- in fact, you have not known, you have simply heard. Others say the rose is beautiful, so you say the rose is beautiful. You are simply repeating others' opinions.

Just fifty years ago, nobody had heard that the cactus is beautiful -- now the cactus is on the throne, the rose is dethroned. Now to talk about the rose and its beauty seems very outdated; now people have not rose plants in their houses but cactuses. The more sophisticated a person is, the more he will appreciate the beauty of the cactus.

The fashion has changed. Fashions change! The rose has lost its face. After a few days, the rose will come back, because people get tired -- cactus and cactus and cactus -- and then one day they decide enough is enough. Again, suddenly, they have to change. Watch people's dresses: each year they go on changing, and after ten, twelve years the old dress comes back, because from where are you going to get new ideas? You can ask Padma -- just the SAME ideas go on moving in a circle.

You don't know what beauty is. You use the word, certainly, but your word is empty. Beauty is known only by one who has known the inner beauty, one who has known the inner flower opening. Then whenever a flower is seen, it reminds you of your inner beauty.

Yes, Kabir seeing a roseflower will start dancing, will start singing, because the rose flower on the outside will simply trigger his inner experience of his own flower. Seeing the starry night, he will start singing or playing on his flute, because suddenly the starry night will remind him of his own inner sky -- which is far more beautiful.
SITTING THERE YOU WILL HAVE A GLIMPSE OF BEAUTY

INSIDE THE BODY AND OUT OF IT,

BEFORE GARDENS AND AFTER GARDENS.

Once you have seen the inner beauty, then you will be able to see the outer also as beautiful. Once you have seen God within, you will be able to see him without too. The original is very beautiful:

TERI KAYA MEN GULJAR.

Don't go to the gardens!

The garden is within you.

Don't go, don't go, don't go to the gardens.

BAGO NA JA RE NA JA,

TERI KAYA MEN GULJAR.

Within your own body is the garden of gardens.

SAHAS-KANVAL PAR BAITH KE

TU DEKHE RUP APAR.

Find out where this one-thousand-petalled lotus is within you,

and then sit upon it,

and then see the beauty of the formless,

then see the beauty of the invisible,

then see the beauty of the intangible,

then see the beauty of the unknowable.

God gives you a great gift of potential. The only way to return the gift in gratitude and thankfulness is to make the potential actual. Be what your seed is carrying within you. Become it! Be it!

This small body is not small: it contains a universe. And this body is not just a body: it is the temple of God. Love it, respect it, explore it. And don't get stuck at the first center. You have to move from sex to samadhi. Unless your sexual energies are transformed into samadhi you are not fulfilling your destiny, you are not fulfilling your nature. You are missing the great opportunity that life is.
The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty

Chapter #8

Chapter title: Time to be Getting Home

18 April 1979 am in Buddha Hall

ShortTitle: FISH08

Audio: Yes

Video: No

Length: 110 mins

The first question

OSHO, YOU SAY THAT IT IS ENOUGH FOR US TO JUST BE, THAT WE DON'T NEED TO DO ANYTHING TO BE IN GOD. I HAVE THIS GUT-FEELING THAT I NEED TO DO TO BE WORTHY, TO CONTRIBUTE, TO GIVE SOMETHING. AND YOU SAY THAT GOD IS WITHIN ME. I REALIZE I AM LOOKING INSIDE FOR SOME CONCEPT I GOT FROM THE OUTSIDE. IT IS LIKE LOOKING DOWN INTO A WELL IN THE NIGHT. I SEE REFLECTIONS AND I THINK IT IS THE BOTTOM, BUT IT IS ONLY THE SURFACE. EVEN WHEN I KNOW NEED ONLY LET AND WAIT RATHER THAN LOOK FOR ANYTHING, I AM STILL WAITING FOR MY OWN CONCEPTS OF WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN. PLEASE COMMENT.

THE FIRST THING -- THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL -- TO BE understood is that you are already in God. It is not a question of being in God: you are already there. Just as the fish is in the ocean, you are in God. God simply means the existence, that which exists.

In the ancient Hebrew, the word 'God' stands for that which is. 'G' stands for that, 'O' for which, and 'D' for is -- that which is. The word 'God' is tremendously significant. It does not indicate a person; it simply indicates a presence. And the presence is everywhere! Life is synonymous with God, universe is synonymous with God. To be is to be in God -- there is no other way. To breathe is to breathe in God -- there is no other way. To sleep is to sleep in God and to wake up is to wake up in God -- there is no other way. You can choose to sleep, still you are in God. You can choose to forget God, still you are in God. You can choose to deny God, still you are in God. Not to be in God is the only impossible thing -- the only impossible thing I say.

So it is not a question of becoming worthy. But I am not saying don't become worthy. I am not saying be lazy, lousy. I am not saying become an escapist. I am not saying don't contribute to existence. But your contribution to existence should not be a means to reach God -- that's what I am saying. Your contribution to existence should be in gratefulness that you are in God. It should not be a means to reach -- because you are already there. It should be an overflowing of joy because you are already there. Be very clear about the distinction.

Share your joy, your love, your ecstasy. Make life as beautiful as possible. Just out of thankfulness that God has chosen you to be, that you are allowed to be, that you are given life. What else can you do? If you can sing a song, sing it with your totality! If you can paint, paint, and put your whole heart in it. If you can dance, dance to abandon so you disappear completely in the dance and there is no more any dancer but only the dance remains.

But these are not means, let me remind you, to reach God -- these are just our poor thanks, our heartfelt gratitude.

Prayer is true when it comes out of gratitude. Prayer is false when it is just a means to persuade God, to seduce God, to ask for something from him -- even if you are asking God himself, then too your prayer is full of desire. And when prayer is full of desire, it is too heavy, it can't have wings. It can only grope in the darkness of the earth; it cannot soar high in the sunlit sky.

When prayer is without desire it has wings, it can reach the ultimate. And when prayer is without weight, when it is out of thankfulness, not desiring anything but just to show your gratitude for all that God has already done for you....

It is not a gut-feeling: it is just what has been conditioned in you by the society. The society has been telling you continuously, persistently, day in, day out, from your very childhood -- in the school, in the college, in the university, in the church, the priest, the politician, the parent, the professor, they are all joined together in one single conspiracy: to give you the idea that as you are you are unworthy. You have to do something, you have to prove yourself, then only will you be worthy.

This is the strategy of the society to exploit you; this is the society's ugly way to make slaves of you, not creators but slaves. But in beautiful, sophisticated ways you have been conditioned. Beautiful words covering very ugly realities. The ugly reality is that the society wants to use you as a slave, the society wants to manipulate you, the society wants to control you. It manages it in two ways.

On the outside is the state, the policeman, the magistrate; they enforce laws, but laws can never be absolute and man can always find ways to defy laws. Then the society creates another safeguard: it creates a conscience in you; it goes on hypnotizing you, saying again and again that you have to be worthy.

And the helpless child has no other way than to oblige, than to surrender. His whole life is at stake; he cannot survive on his own. He has to depend on the parents. He has to watch continuously what THEY want, what THEY appreciate, what is rewarded by them. If it is rewarded by them, then he is worthy, he feels good; if he is punished by them, he feels unworthy, he feels bad about himself

Slowly slowly the idea settles, sinks deep in your heart, becomes almost your second nature, that just to be is not enough. Trees are enough, animals are enough, birds are enough -- only man has this stupid idea that just to be is not enough. It is a very cunning tactics to destroy the freedom of the individual, to destroy the self-respect of the individual, to create in the individual a deep guilt feeling. It has gone deep, certainly -- so deep, Garima, that you misunderstand it as a gut-feeling. It is not a gut-feeling at all.

But I am not against being creative, remember. I am all for it. I want my sannyasins to be creative -- but for a totally different reason, with a totally different intention, with a totally new motive. I want you all to be creative; I don't want you to escape to the monasteries -- I want you to live in the world and live fully, and live the whole spectrum of life. Bring your total potential to expression! Bloom in as many ways as possible! Because only then will you feel fulfilled.

But this has not to be as a means to attain something. This has to be just an expression of your joy, of your celebration. And then the quality changes. When you use something as a means, you are not really interested in it.

For example, if you are painting just to be appreciated, your focus is on appreciation, not on the painting; your heart is not there. You are already imagining, dreaming, how you will be appreciated. And because your constant worry is how to be appreciated, you will paint something which will not come out of you spontaneously -- you will paint something which others are bound to like. You will paint it according to them. You will become a very poor painter. You will not allow your genius to come out, because the genius is not easily appreciated, remember it. The more talented you are, the more genuine your intelligence is, the less is the possibility of being easily appreciated. The greater possibility is that you will be condemned. Why? Because a genius brings something new into the world, so new that old criterions don't fit with it. And the old criterions are deep-rooted in the human mind; they cannot easily go away.

The genius has to create not only his poetry, his painting, his dance, his music, he also has to create new criterions by which to judge them.

Vincent van Gogh was not appreciated in his time -- one of the greatest painters the world has ever known. He lived in utter poverty; his brother supported him. But his brother was not much in favour of his painting either, because it was not paying -- so what is the point of doing something which does not pay? On the contrary, because of his paintings people used to think that he was mad. He was painting in such a new way -- as it had never been done before. He had his own vision. He was a genius! In his paintings, trees are so high that they reach to the stars; stars are very small and trees are very big. Now who is going to appreciate this painting?