The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty Talks on Kabir

All these scriptures are pornographic. This is real spiritual pornography: women with bodies of gold, studded with diamonds, no perspiration, natural perfume, and always young, and all beautiful.

And he reached and he saw his master -- and, really, he was rewarded. He was sitting under a tree, a beautiful tree, a golden tree; leaves of emerald and flowers of diamonds -- and Marilyn Monroe, utterly naked! hugging him. The disciple fell at the feet of the master and said, "My great master, I was waiting for this. This was due! You have been rewarded well."

And the master said, "You stupid fool! Keep your big mouth shut -- you have not grown at all. You don't understand anything. She is not my reward -- I am her punishment!"
But these greedy people....

Deva Alla, if you know from your own experience that all is frustrating ultimately, everything only brings joy for the moment, then why not be happy with the moment? Why ask that it should be there for ever?

I teach you the joy of the moment. Live in the moment, and whatsoever the moment makes available, enjoy it, celebrate it. While it lasts, dance! And when it has gone, be grateful that it had come. Why ask that... NOTHING IS ULTIMATELY SATISFYING -- ALL IS NOT ENOUGH? Nothing can be done about it! This is so. This is how the reality is, and the reality is not going to change its ultimate law for you. Nobody can be all exception.

But if this experience has not yet become your own, then you will have to suffer a little more. You will have to hope a little more. When understanding arises, hope disappears. That does not mean that one becomes hopeless: that simply means that one accepts the life as it is, and whatsoever it gives one accepts with gratitude and has no complaint.

"I take-a the red flag and wave-a them to e-stop," Angelo answered.

"But you don't have a red flag," pointed out the man.

"Then I am-a take-a the switch iron and change-a the tracks." "You don't have a switch iron either."

"Well, in that case," decided the Italian, "I'm gonna call up-a my wife, Maria."

"What has your wife got to do with two trains coming at each other at a hundred miles an hour?" exclaimed the man in charge of hiring.

"I tell-a her to come down 'cos she has-a gone see the biggest-a mess-a in the whole world!"
YOU can do whatsoever you can do, and when nothing can be done it is better to call the wife and see -- and enjoy it! Learn to enjoy not only the pleasures of life but the pains too, not only the ecstasies but the agonies too. And the person who can enjoy the agonies is liberated.
The fifth question
Question 5

OSHO, DURING THE TWO MONTHS THAT I HAVE BEEN HERE, I OFTEN FEEL THE THREAT OF A NEW KIND OF TOTALITARIANISM. IT IS CONTINUALLY PRESENTED AS THE SOLUTION: BE TOTAL IN THIS AND THAT EVEN IN NOT BEING TOTAL. BEING TOTAL, WITHOUT FRAGMENTATION ANY MORE, IS NOT THAT A FINAL STATE, THE LAST STAGE ON THE WAY? SO IS NOT THIS ADAGE CREATING A NEW IDEAL WITH ALL ITS FRUSTRATIONS AND NEUROSIS TO FOLLOW? ANYWAY, FOR ME, NOT BEING A SUPERMAN, IT IS VERY RARE THAT I AM ABLE TO DO, TO EXIST, TO FEEL MYSELF TOTAL IN ANYTHING, AND I HAVE NO REASON TO HOPE THAT IT WILL EVER HAPPEN AS A CONTINUOUS STATE. SINCE IT SEEMS TO BE THE CONDITION FOR THE THINGS THAT ARE PROMISED HERE IS THERE STILL ANY HOPE FOR ME?

TOTALITY IS NOT A GOAL. Totality is not perfectionism. Totality is simply a vision of seeing the life in a different light. For example, you are angry. You can be half-heartedly angry, then the remaining part that has not been expressed will remain in you as a poison.

And if again and again this has been done, you go on accumulating poison in yourself. Then a moment comes when you may not be angry in particular, but you are still in anger for no reason at all. That's how people are -- they are just angry, illogically angry, because right now there is no reason to be angry, but all the anger that they have repressed in the past has accumulated, has gone deep into their bloodstream, has poisoned them, has become toxic. It has created a certain musculature, a wrong kind of musculature in their bodies. And that is going to destroy many many beautiful things in their lives.

If such a man is going to see a sunset, he will not see any beauty in it. He is in such a rage! If such a man goes to listen to music, he will not be able to listen to it, because to be able to listen to great music you need a relaxed state. He cannot relax. He is carrying so many tensions, the whole life's accumulated tensions....

When I say be total I simply mean... I am not giving you a superhuman ideal. I am simply giving you a very human vision that when you are angry, then BE angry! Then don't repress it. If it is too risky to be angry with somebody, then go into your room and be angry alone, but express it. Beat the pillow, shout at the walls, make a picture of your wife and beat it! But do something -- do what you really wanted to do with the wife.

It is really a good idea to have an effigy of your wife, or if you are a wife then an effigy of your husband, so whenever the need arises you can go and be as nasty as you feel like being -- and with no danger of retaliation. And you will be surprised: after beating your wife, in her absence, after shouting nasty things, using four-letter words, then when you see your wife you will be surprised -- you will feel compassion for her. You may even feel ready to apologize. You may be able to see her in a different way, because you are no longer carrying that subtle layer of anger -- it has been released. You may be able to see her face again after years.

When I say be total I simply mean don't repress things, because the repressed things are bound to rebound on you, those repressed things are going to take revenge, they are going to explode with vengeance one day. Those repressed feelings are creating all kinds of neurotic, psychotic people in the world. To be total is not a goal! To be total is only a way of life.
And you say: BEING TOTAL WITHOUT 'FRAGMENTATION ANY MORE, IS NOT THAT A FINAL STATE...?

Yes, it is a final state too -- but the first step is the last step, and the beginning is the end. It is a means and an end too. You have to begin. I know you cannot be total right now. Slowly slowly, you will be able to become total, because the society has not allowed you to be total in anything; it has allowed you only so far. It has made you very lukewarm; it has taken away all passionate energy from your being. Hence, you don't really love madly, you don't really go into anger madly, you don't share totally, you cannot commune -- everything is just so-so. And, hence, so much dust has gathered on your face.

Totality has to be started; it is the beginning and the end too. In the beginning it is going to be difficult because you will be going against the current of the society, but that's what sannyas is: taking courage to be oneself And I don't expect you to become total right now, But the decision will help. If you decide to be total, slowly slowly you will be more and more total, degrees and degrees, by degrees one day you will attain to the hundred-degree point.

And the miracle is: when one can go into one's emotions a hundred percent, all that is wrong starts disappearing. That is the miracle! And all that is right starts growing. A really total person will not be able to be angry. In the beginning when you start you will be more and more angry, but soon the point comes when you are totally angry and you have seen the naked futility of anger, the utter absurdity of anger, the insanity of anger -- When YOU have seen it -- not because Buddha has said so or I have said so -- when you have seen it, it will drop. The seeing is enough. You need not drop it: it drops of its own accord.

A total person will be able to love and will be unable to hate. A total person will be able to be compassionate and will be unable to be angry. But that is the end. I am not telling you to be a Buddha right now. But one has to begin somewhere; one has to start moving in the direction of being a Buddha.

You are right: it is the final state, the last stage on the way. But the w ay is also part of the last stage. The way and the goal are not separate. The goal is just the other end of the way. And the beginning is THIS end and the goal is THAT end, and the way joins both, is the bridge.

Eduard, I am not teaching you any kind of perfectionism, I am not saying you any ideals. Totality is certainly not all ideal -- it sounds as if it is. It is just a different style of life. Right now you are living a life-style which can be called partial -- only parts of your being are allowed to surface, only the tip of the iceberg. You are living in fragments, you are living split. This is a kind of schizophrenic life.

Misery is bound to be the outcome of it -- misery and only misery. Bliss is the consequence of being one, integrated. That's exactly the meaning of the word 'yoga': union, integration, oneness.

That's why it looks contradictory, paradoxical, but I say to you that when sometimes you are not total then be total in it -- then don't be total! Then accept it -- that "This is the moment when I am not total." Then don't hide it, then don't fight it. If it is not possible, it is not possible. Don't feel guilty for it; you are not committing a sin. It is your life: if you want to be total sometimes, good; if sometimes you enjoy not being total, for a change, perfectly good!

OSHO, THE RAJKOT NEWSPAPER, JAI HIND, RECENTLY QUOTED THE PRIME MINISTER, MORARJI DESAI, AS SAYING, WHEN HE WAS ASKED ABOUT WESTERNERS COMING TO THIS ASHRAM, THAT THEY WERE THE RUBBISH OF THE WEST THOSE THROWN OUT FROM THEIR SOCIETIES. AND WHEN HE WAS ASKED ABOUT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RAJNEESH INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HE SAID THAT ALL SUCH UNIVERSITIES WHEREVER THEY EXIST, SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN. HE SAID HE DID NOT WANT ANY SUCH UNIVERSITY TO COME INTO BEING, AND THAT YOU ONLY TALKED OF SEX THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

HE ALSO EXPRESSED HIS GREAT RESENTMENT OF SUCH OBSCENE INSTITUTIONS, AND SAID HE WOULD LIKE THEM CLOSED DOWN ALL OVER THE WORLD AND THAT THEY WERE NOT AT ALL NECESSARY. DO YOU HAVE ANY COMMENT?
Krishna Prem, IT IS JUST BULLSHIT!
The last question
Question 7

OSHO WHY DO YOU USE SUCH DIRECT LANGUAGE AGAINST THE POLITICIANS? CAN'T YOU BE A LITTLE INDIRECT AND DIPLOMATIC?

In fact, only the third-rate minds become interested in politics. Anyone who has some kind of intelligence will do something else. He may become a scientist, he may become a poet, a dancer, a musician. He may become a mystic. Why in the world would he like to become a politician? That is only for those who have no other possibility of expressing themselves, who have no other intelligence.

The politician needs no other qualification, no talent. In fact, the more unintelligent he is, the greater is the possibility of his being successful.
A tourist was visiting New Delhi. Walking on a side street late one evening, the visitor was held up by a bandit. "Give me your money!" he threatened, "or I will blow out your brains."

"Blow away..." said the tourist.

And the politicians cannot understand what I am doing here, and I don't expect them to understand. It will be great if they simply ignore us. That's enough. If they forget all about us. that is more than can be expected.

"What makes you think the Jews are so smart?" asked the dictator.

"Come, and I will show you. '

He took the Nazi leader to Gutman's Gift Shop and said, "Ask him for a lefthanded teapot."

The Fuhrer did. Gutman went to the back of the store, picked up a teapot, turned it around, and returned. "You are in luck," said Gutman, handing the teapot to Hitler, "I just happen to have one left."

Back out on the street the philosopher said, "You see, that's what I mean about the Jews being so smart."

"What is so smart about that?" exclaimed Hitler. "He just happened to have one left."
You can't expect politicians to understand much. They are bound to misunderstand even my direct statements. And if I start making indirect statements they will create more complexities. Then there will be more chances of misunderstandinng.
Levi closed his shop Friday night and headed for temple services not realizing his fly was unzipped. At the entrance he met Mrs. Weiss, the president of the Ladies' Auxiliary. "I don't like to say nothing," she said shyly, "but your business is open."

"You are mistaken lady, ' said Levi.

"Believe me," said Mrs. Weiss, blushing, "your business is open."

"You are crazy!" shouted Levi rushing inside. "I close the store every Friday to come here."

Later at home, Levi saw that his fly was open and realized that Mrs. Weiss had only been trying to tell him so in a delicate way. He telephoned her immediately. "I want to apologize." he said, also trying to be tactful, "but tell me somethin' -- when my business was open, was my salesman in or out?"
The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty

Chapter #10

Chapter title: Music That No Fingers Enter Into

20 April 1979 am in Buddha Hall

ShortTitle: FISH10

Audio: Yes

Video: No

Length: 107 mins

HAVE YOU HEARD THE MUSIC THAT NO FINGERS

ENTER INTO?

FAR INSIDE THE HOUSE

ENTANGLED MUSIC --

WHAT IS THE SENSE OF LEAVING YOUR HOUSE?

UNTIL IT SHINES,

BUT INSIDE THERE IS NO MUSIC,

THEN WHAT?

AND POINTS OUT THIS

AND THAT,

BUT IF HIS CHEST IS NOT SOAKED DARK WITH LOVE,

THEN WHAT?
THE YOGI COMES ALONG IN HIS FAMOUS ORANGE.

BUT IF INSIDE HE IS COLOURLESS, THEN WHAT?

IF I STAND IN THE TEMPLE, OR ON A BALCONY,

IN THE HOT FIELDS, OR IN A WALLED GARDEN,

MY OWN LORD IS MAKING LOVE WITH ME.

If the first step is wrong then all else goes wrong. The first step has to be absolutely right, because the first step is half the journey already. In fact, as fact, as you are concerned, the first step is the whole of the journey -- because the other step is to be taken towards you by God.

You take one step, he takes the other step... and the meeting. And the distance between you and God is only two steps. The initiative has to be from your side.

God is not a person, but that's what you have been told down the ages. God is a presence. God is not substance but significance. Once God is understood as significance, your life starts changing. Then you don't argue about God, whether he exists or not; then you are no more interested in theology. The whole of theology becomes rubbish. Then you start moving in a totally different way, in an altogether different dimension.

If God is significance, then you have to create a certain meaning in your life, because only meaning can meet the meaning. You have to create significance in your life, because only significance can meet the significance. You have to become more aware, more loving, more aesthetic, more sensitive.

If God were a person it would have been a totally different approach. God is not a person but only a fragrance. You will need great sensitivity to comprehend that significance, that fragrance, that music.

In these sutras today, Kabir is talking about something very fundamental. Listen to his words -- don't only hear: listen. And don't only listen: meditate with him, go with him. He is not a philosopher, he is not propounding a system of thought -- he is a poet. He is singing his own experience. He is not concerned with concepts. He is pouring his heart into his songs, he is pouring himself into his words.

You have to be very sensitive to understand this great poetic expression of mysticism, this great poetic expression of religion. And religion can only be expressed through poetry, through music, through dance. Any other way of expressing religion falls short, is inadequate. The mysterious has to be indicated only by something mysterious. God cannot be approached through the mind of calculation, mathematics. It is not possible to approach God through prose. The door opens only when you approach him through poetry.

Poetry is more liquid, more vague, not so solid as prose. Prose says something clearly, poetry only hints. Prose shouts, poetry only whispers. Prose is for the mundane world, poetry is for the sacred.

So whenever it happens that a person becomes a Buddha, his expression, without any effort, becomes that of poetry. He may not compose poetry literally, but whatsoever he says, whatsoever he is, is poetry.

Kabir was absolutely illiterate, never went to any school, was not able to read or write; still, when it happened, he exploded in great poetry.When the experience arose in his being, when the doors opened and mysteries were revealed, he bloomed in thousands of flowers. No other poet can be compared with Kabir. There have been greater poets than Kabir, but they were mere poets -- talented, with great art, but Kabir has a personal experience of the divine which is missing in other poets. They may be talking about God, but it is mere talk. With Kabir it is not just talking: it is his heartfelt experience -- it is existential.
HAVE YOU HEARD THE MUSIC THAT NO FINGERS

ENTER INTO?

The original is:

SUNTA NAHIN DHUN KI KHABAR,

ANAKAD KA BAJA BAJTA?

SUNTA NAHIN DHUN KI KHABAR...

Why are you not listening to the inner music which is constantly arising? You are made of it! It is not something foreign to you. It does not come from the outside. It is the music of your very existence, of your being; it is the music of your inner harmony, it is the music of your inner rhythm.
SUNTA NAHIN DHUN KI KHABAR...

Why don't you listen to the inner rhythm of your being?

Where do you go on rushing to? And you are searching for this inner rhythm -- sometimes in money, sometimes in power, sometimes in prestige, sometimes in so many kinds of relationships. You go on begging. You want to know something of the transcendental, you are thirsty for the transcendental.

And once in a while, even in ordinary life, it happens. You how those few moments when suddenly one day you wake up in the morning and everything seems to fit perfectly. The birds are singing, the air is fragrant, the sun is rising, and suddenly you feel that all is quiet. You are no longer separate for a moment... you feel a great joy arising in you for no reason at all. You suddenly feel vibrant, utterly rejuvenated, at home. Maybe the night's deep sleep and rest, maybe the beautiful morning, the song of the birds, the fresh air, the dewdrops on the grass leaves shining in the early sun -- all this created the context. Not by your effort, but just by accident. you fell in harmony with yourself and with existence. And remember, it happens always together: whenever you fall in harmony with yourself, you fall in harmony with existence too.

Harmony has two sides: the individual and the universal. If the individual is in harmony, then there is no reason why he should not be in harmony with the whole. If inside you all conflict has disappeared, even for a single moment, in that moment you are part of the whole, you are no more an island, you are no more separate. All walls have suddenly disappeared; you are no more imprisoned.

In that moment you know the glory, the splendour, that life is. That splendour is God, that feel is God. That experience of harmony is God. God is not a person but the presence that is felt when you are in harmony and you are also in harmony with existence -- that accord. That accord is called DHUN.

Listen to that accord! which is available every moment of your life. It happens only accidentally, because you have not prepared yourself for it, to receive it consciously. So it happens only once in a while.

He started crying, great tears started rolling down from his eyes. He said, Not more than seven in my life of seventy years, but I am grateful for those seven moments. I am miserable also, because in those moments it was so self-evident that is could be the flavour of my whole life. In those moments I was so certain that this could be my experience day in, day out, year in, year out -- this could spread over my whole life, this could become my flavour. But it didn't happen. Those moments came on their own and they went on their own. But I am still grateful to God that even without any conscious effort on my part, once in a while he has been knocking at my doors."

Watch these sudden accidental moments minutely, because there is the secret key. That's how the fundamentals of religion have been discovered: watching these sudden moments which come and go, and one never knows why they come and why they go, watching the context, the space in which they happen, people started trying to create that context.

If it happens in a relaxed state, when you are very loose, non-tense, then you can create the context! You can relax. If it happens to you while swimming, then you can swim and create the context. If it happens to you while running... and it happens to different people in different ways. Many runners know it, that beyond a certain limit if you go on running, go on running, go on running, suddenly it happens -- because man's energies have three layers.