Baul Mystics, Vol. 2 The Beloved Chapter 9: Be The Formless In You

MY HEART

DRESS YOURSELF IN THE SPIRIT

OF ALL WOMEN

AND REVERSE YOUR NATURE AND HABITS.

MILLIONS OF SUNS

WILL BURST OPEN WITH BRILLIANCE

AND THE FORMLESS IN VISUAL FORMS.

YOU WILL SEE

WHAT CANNOT BE SEEN

ONLY IF YOU CAN BE

THE FORMLESS IN YOU.

The song for today:

MY HEART

DRESS YOURSELF IN THE SPIRIT

OF ALL WOMEN

AND REVERSE YOUR NATURE AND HABITS.

MILLIONS OF SUNS

WILL BURST OPEN WITH BRILLIANCE

AND THE FORMLESS IN VISUAL FORMS.

YOU WILL SEE

WHAT CANNOT BE SEEN

ONLY IF YOU CAN BE

THE FORMLESS IN YOU.

THE SONG IS TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT, IS VERY BASIC TO THE BAUL ATTITUDE. There are two approaches towards God: one is of the male mind -- aggressive, active; the other is of the feminine mind -- passive, receptive. Bauls belong to the second approach. Just as Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu belong to the second approach, Mahavir and Patanjali belong to the first approach.

The male mind seeks and searches God as if God is somewhere else and has to be discovered. The feminine mind simply prays and waits. The feminine mind trusts that "When I am ready, God will come to me." It is God who comes, not the seeker who goes to God. And in fact, how can you seek God? You don't know Him, you don't know His address, you don't know the direction, you don't know the definition. And even if you come across Him, how are you going to recognize Him? because recognition is possible only if you have known Him before.

All search in a way is futile. And because of the male mind, atheism has become very predominant in the world. It is the failure of the male mind that atheism has become so prevalent. In the West atheism has become really the greatest religion -- because the West is male-oriented. The very orientation is of conquering -- as if there is a fight between man and God, as if there is a tussle, a wrestling. In the West the result of this effort has been only that God has completely disappeared. Nietzsche declared, "God is dead." Nietzsche is the very essence of the male mind: will to power, will to dominate, will to possess.

If you search for Him too much, your very search will become a barrier.

There have been a few people who have attained through that approach also -- a Mahavir, a Patanjali -- but those cases are rare, and the struggle is very long and unnecessary. God comes to you. God is always coming to you. The Bauls say, "It is not you who seek Him, it is He who is seeking you. It is not that you pray to Him, He is praying to you. Listen! Be passive, accept. He is knocking on the door, and inside the room you are so occupied in searching and seeking that you cannot listen to the knock." Man cannot seek God; only God can seek man. This is a profound truth to be understood, because how can you seek God? How can you relate? You are so dark, so dull, so asleep, so unconscious, so ignorant -- how are you going to seek? And whatsoever you seek will never be bigger than you, cannot be. Your God will be your God.

If horses seek God, they will make an image of God, but the image will be of a horse, not of a man -- because man has never done anything good to horses. In fact, if they had some mythology about the devil, man's image would be the image of the devil. If trees are seeking God, they will seek in the form of trees -- because we cannot go beyond our form. Our form will be the limitation. So if you seek, the God is going to be yours, and your God is almost no God.

Let Him seek you. Allow Him. His hand has been reaching for you continuously; just be in a let-go. Don't escape from Him, that's all. There is no need to seek Him positively, just don't escape from Him. Let Him be, listen, be receptive, welcome. In that listening, in that receptivity, He will penetrate you. Become feminine, become a woman.

A Buddha is a woman.

He was seeking for six years; he tried the male-oriented approach. He was a warrior, the son of a great king, trained in the ways of war and fight and struggle. It was natural for him to seek God. He tried, he tried hard. He went from one Master to another, and he was so sincere that no Master could say to him, "You are not doing right, that's why you are not reaching." He was so sincere in his effort that all the teachers told him, "This is all we can say to you. And if it is not happening, then find some other Master. We are incapable. We cannot do more than this."

One day he had renounced the whole world, then came the ultimate renunciation -- one day he renounced the searching and seeking also...seeing the futility of it, just groping in the dark. That night when he dropped search also, he became a woman. That night he relaxed under the Bodhi tree; there was nothing to do now.

Man is a doer. Woman is a lover, not a doer. Man is the mind, woman is the heart. Man can create things, but cannot give birth to life. For that, receptivity is needed, receptivity of the earth. The seed falls into it, disappears underground, and one day a new life arises. That's how a child is born.

A womb is needed to give birth to God, OR, to give birth to yourself. You have to become a womb.

BUDDHA became a womb that night, renounced all. Now there was nothing to do. Just meditate over it: nothing to do. The world was finished, there was nothing to find. Now even the spiritual search was gone. Everything became absolutely calm and quiet. When there is nothing to seek there is no desire; when there is no desire there is no thought; and when there is no desire, no thought, no search, the ego cannot exist. It exists as the doer. In that moment, future disappeared. When you are not going to do something, what is the point of having a future? The future is needed as a space to project your desires. To project, future is needed.

That night, future disappeared; in fact, time disappeared. When you are not a doer what is the use of time? Buddha relaxed. This relaxation was absolute, total, whole. He relaxed into himself -- nowhere to go, one has to relax into oneself; no desire, no thought, everything has proved futile. In fact, what proved futile was the male-oriented mind, the mind of the doer. In the morning when the last star was disappearing, he opened his eyes. The whole night had been a night of dreamless sleep, because dreams are by-products of desires. Have you watched? When you want to do something, it is very difficult to sleep in the night; the morning is too exciting. The tomorrow is too exciting, you have to do something. Even if you are going for a holiday to the Himalayas, you cannot sleep in the night; planning continues. You have to do this and that, and rehearsal continues. Sleep becomes difficult... dreams.

Buddha slept for the first time. That sleep was SAMADHI: no thought, no dream, no desire. He relaxed into his center, and when he opened his eyes he was like a small babe -- fresh, young. He looked at the last disappearing star, and as the star disappeared, he also disappeared. He became enlightened. But enlightenment happened in a deeply feminine state of mind.

Hence, Jains and Buddhists are always in conflict -- because Mahavir is a male-oriented mind, a warrior, a conqueror. That is the meaning of the word 'mahavir'. That is not his real name; his real name was Vardhman. But he conquered truth. And he was so brave and the adventure was so great that he is remembered as Mahavir: the great courageous one. There is a very subtle conflict between Jains and Buddhists. Down through the centuries they have been arguing against each other. That can be understood. The reason is male-mind, female-mind, yin and yang, active and passive, day and night. The day is the symbol of the man; the night is the symbol of the woman. The day is full of activity, the night is simply rest. The day is bright, light -- the sun is there. You can see things clear-cut. You can define things: you can know what is what and who is who. In the night darkness surrounds. The whole existence is enveloped in darkness. You cannot distinguish what is what; you cannot see where you are, who you are. It is a tremendous relaxation of all definitions, of all limitations, Woman is always known as the dark one, the night, the earth.

Buddha became a woman that night; he became enlightened.

Bauls say,

MY HEART,

DRESS YOURSELF IN THE SPIRIT

OF ALL WOMEN...

Become a woman. They mean of course, psychologically, spiritually. It has nothing to do with your body, but your attitude. Woman is patient. Just think of a man having a child in his belly for nine months. You cannot conceive that a man will be able to tolerate it -- impossible. A woman is very patient, accepting. The woman's resistance is much stronger than man's. Man in fact is the weaker sex. He may be stronger as far as muscles are concerned, but muscles are no criterion of strength. One hundred fifteen boys are born to a hundred girls. By the time they reach the age of marriage, fifteen boys have died. Nature has to give birth to more males because a few of them are going to die. Women live longer than men, almost five years more; that's why you see so many widows in the world. And women are more resistant to illness, disease. Women are more tolerant, more accepting. From where comes this strength? -- it comes from their receptivity.

When you are a doer you exhaust yourself.

A woman and a man making love...man exhausts himself; woman is enriched, nourished, because she is a receptive end. Making love, a man loses energy, a woman gains it. That's why women have been suppressed all over the world. If they were not suppressed the man would be killed: it would become impossible for any man to satisfy any woman. Now, modern researchers say that woman have multiple orgasms. A woman can make love to one dozen people in one night and still feel fresh, full of energy. A man can make love only once, and then he is exhausted. Man throws energy out, woman takes energy in.

The same has to happen with God. The Bauls say, "Become feminine, become passive." But remember, when they say become passive they don't mean to become lazy. To be lazy is also the same as-to be active. Lazy is not passive. He may not be doing anything, but in his mind he goes on doing. He may not be actually doing anything, but he goes on doing many things in the mind -- even more so, because the whole energy is available and he has nothing do. He goes on thinking and doing things in the mind; that activity remains. Passivity does not mean inactivity, it means a very expectant patience, a very active patience, alive patience. The lazy man is dull; the lazy man is simply dead. Passivity is not deadness. It is fully alive: the reservoir is full of energy, but not going anywhere, not going. in any search, just waiting for the Beloved to come.

That's why women never take any initiative in love affairs -- they cannot. And if a woman takes initiative in the love affair, then she must be a part of the 'lib movement'. Then she is losing her womanhood somehow. They wait: the initiative has to come from the man. The woman waits -- not that she doesn't love, she loves tremendously; no man can love that deeply -- but she waits. She trusts that things will happen in their right time, and hurrying is not good. A woman is non-tense but full of energy, hence the feminine beauty. The roundness of the feminine body is not only a physical thing -- the same is so in her psychology also. She has a round shape, smooth, warm, ready to dissolve, but not aggressive. Passivity means non-aggressiveness, non-violence. It is not laziness.

I have heard....

The Swiss people, especially those from their capital, Berne, are said to be as slow as snails. So one day two Berner friends went out for a walk. After one hour one said, "Christmas is beautiful."

Another hour passed when his friend answered, "Yes, and love is beautiful too."

After a long while the first answered, "You are right but Christmas is more often."

One can be so lazy that Christmas is more often than love-making.

Laziness is a sort of stagnancy. Laziness is lustlessness; laziness is suicide -- slow, very slow. So remember, passivity is not negation of energy. Passivity is a reservoir of energy -- vibrant, throbbing streaming, ready to receive, but non-aggressive.

It happened: A sufi mystic was sitting under a tree. A passer-by told him, "What are you doing here? Your house is on fire." Just in front of him the house was on fire.

"I know it, stranger," said the so-called mystic.

"Then why are you not doing something about it?" cried the excited stranger.

"I am," said that mystic. "ever since the fire started, I have been praying for rain."

THE Baul is not lazy. He is full of action, but he is not active. This distinction has to be understood.

You can sit, for all practical purposes, not doing anything, and your mind can go on being active, occupied, engaged. You can be engaged in much activity and your mind can remain inactive, passive, aloof, detached. They are not against being active, they are against being continuously occupied inside, because then you don't give space for God to enter into you. You don't allow Him enough door. Your inner world is so full of rotten furniture that He cannot find a place to stay there. A deep inner emptiness is needed; that inner emptiness becomes the womb.

So I'm not saying stop doing, stop action; I'm not saying that. I am saying that whatsoever you are doing, let it be just an outside activity. Inside become feminine, silent, doors opened, empty, waiting.

In the mother's womb the feminine egg simply waits. It does not go anywhere. The male sperm travels, and it travels with fast speed. It is really a tremendous distance for the male sperm to travel to the woman's egg; great competition starts. Men are competitive from the very beginning, even before they are born. While making love to a woman a man releases millions of sperm, and they all rush towards the egg. Great speed is needed because only one will be able to reach the egg, not all. Only one is going to be the Nobel Prize winner. The real Olympics start there! And it is a life and death question, it is not ordinary. And great is the competition -- millions of sperms fighting, rushing -- one will reach. Sometimes it happens that two reach at the same time, hence twins are born. Because once one sperm has entered, then the door is closed. Sometimes two sperms reach exactly at the same time, or three sperms reach exactly at the same time; the door was open, so all the three enter in. Then there are three children born, or two children, or four, or even six. But that rarely happens. Ordinarily one reaches just a split second before the others. The door is open; once one guest has entered, the door closes. But the feminine egg simply waits there...great trust.

That's why women cannot be competitive: they cannot fight, they cannot struggle. And if you find a woman somewhere who struggles and fights, who is competitive, then something of womanhood is missing in her. Physically she may be a woman, psychologically she is a man.

So remember, passivity is not laziness. Passivity has its own kind of activity. It is non-tense, relaxed.

Two turtles were dragging through the desert, very thirsty. After a while they discovered a big bottle of Coca-Cola (must have been Americans). They jumped with joy, but soon realized they had no opener. They tried hard but there was no chance to open the bottle, so they decided one would go back to the village and the other would watch the bottle. A long time passed -- five hours, ten hours, one day, two days, five days, seven days. Then the one turtle again tried to open the bottle. Immediately, the other one came running from the nearby sand dune and shouted, "If you start like this, I will never go."

BAULS are very active people, whirlwinds -- dancing, singing, and yet very inactive people as far as God is concerned. They say, "Whenever YOU think is the right time, come; you will find me waiting. I am helpless, I don't know where you are. I am helpless, I don't know how to find you. My only prayer is that you help me to allow you to find me." They simply dance and wait, they sing and wait. This waiting for God is their prayer.

If you can wait you will pass through a great transformation. Nothing is needed to be done; simple waiting -- but it needs great trust. Otherwise the mind will say, "What are you doing? If you are not going to seek Him, you will never find Him."

Bauls say, just like Lao Tzu, "Seek and you will miss. Seek not and find." He is here; your seeking takes you somewhere else. He has already come. The guest is at the door; He is knocking. But you are so occupied inside the mind -- maybe occupied for Him, thinking about Him, but so occupied -- that you cannot listen to the moment, and you cannot be open to the herenow.

MY HEART,

DRESS YOURSELF IN THE SPIRIT

OF ALL WOMEN

AND REVERSE YOUR NATURE AND HABITS.

Patanjali calls his reversal PRATYAHAR -- go back to the source. Mahavir calls this reversion PRATYA KRAMAN -- come in, don't go without; fall withinwards. Ordinarily your mind is future-oriented, always moving somewhere else, looking for God somewhere in the future. Bauls say He has been here from the very beginning. He is not in the future. He is the very cause, the source of all, so no need to seek Him in the future. Just fall deep down into your own being and you will find Him waiting for you to come home. He is already there, He is already the case.

... AND REVERSE YOUR NATURE AND HABITS.

What do they mean by reversing your habits and your nature? Ordinarily man is upside-down. Non-essential things have become very important to you, and you go on losing the essential. You go on gathering seashells and colored stones, not for a single moment becoming aware that you are losing your life. That is the only precious thing.

I have heard....

Mulla Nasrudin was stabbed by burglars, but before dying he wrote a note to his wife from the hospital. The last paragraph of it read, "I have been very fortunate because only the day before I had put all my money and negotiable bonds in my safety deposit box at the bank, so that I am losing practically nothing but my life."

But life is all. What else is there? If you lose life and gain the whole world, what are you gaining? And if you gain your life and lose the whole world, nothing is lost.

The Bauls say, "You will have to change your habits, you will almost have to reverse your nature." Right now you are going outward; you will have to go inward. Right now you are seeking God; you will have to allow Him to seek you. Right now you are attached to material things which have no intrinsic value; you will have to attach yourself to spiritual values which are really eternally valuable. Right now you go on fighting with life, struggling. Almost everyone believes in the survival of the fittest, so one goes on fighting and fighting and fighting. The Bauls say; "Love, don't fight. God is never known through fighting. Nothing is achieved through fighting; only love opens the door."

Right now we go on thinking that someday in the future we are going to be happy, joyful, celebrating, Bauls say, "You are fools! If you want to be happy, joyful, celebrating, nothing is lacking. Right now, this moment, dance; this moment, laugh. This moment is all there is; celebrate it. " People come to me and if I say to them, "Celebrate your life," they say, "Yes, that's why we have come here: to learn how to create situations in which we can celebrate." The situation is already there: trees go on celebrating, birds go on singing. What do they have? -- no bank balance, no prestige, no power. They are not presidents or prime ministers. But have you ever seen trees or birds brooding, worried, thinking of the future? No, they simply live. What has happened to man?

BAULS say, "Celebrate this moment."

This is what Christ called conversion: a one hundred and eighty degree turn -- less will not do. That's what I call SANNYAS: a hundred eighty-degree turn -- less will not do. It is not a question of renouncing life, it is just a question of renouncing old habits. It is just a question of becoming more alert and seeing what is essential and what is not. If you go on choosing the essential, sooner or later you will reach to the essential man, what Bauls call ADHAR MANUSH. And the way to reach to the essential man is to be SAHAJA MANUSH, spontaneous man. Spontaneity should be the prayer, but we are so cunning and so clever.

I stayed once with an efficiency expert. When we were going to sleep, he sat in his bed and he said, "Now I will pray." So I watched him to see what prayer he was doing. He looked at the sky and said, "Ditto."

I was surprised: "What type of prayer is this?" So I asked him, "If you are not offended, if you don't mind, please tell me. I have heard many types of prayers, but 'ditto'? This is something absolutely new."

He said, "I say a prayer only once in a year, the first day of the year. And then what is the point of repeating the same prayer every day? I say 'ditto', and God must understand."

Even prayer is calculation. Even in prayer people are so miserly. They cannot say something to God today. In fact, their cleverness is the basis of their stupidity; their cunningness is the cause of their idiocy. They are not intelligent. An intelligent person lives in the moment -- very responsive. He allows his heart to move into prayer. He does not force anything upon the heart, he simply allows it to flow towards God. In fact, you should always remember that prayer is not to change the heart of God, prayer changes YOU. But people pray in such a way, as if they are giving advice to God: "Don't do this, do this!" All prayers, if reduced to the bare minimum, will mean that people are saying to God, "Please God, don't let two plus two be four. Have compassion on me. This time at least make two plus two be five." Prayers are complaints, grumblings. Then the prayer does not exist.

Prayer is not to change God; He needs no change. Prayer is to change yourself. But how can saying 'ditto' change you? If you say 'ditto', you remain ditto; there is no possibility. Let it be remembered always that prayer never changes God. There is no need to change Him. He is as He should be, and His existence is as it should be -- perfect. The only change needed is within your own heart. Your prayer changes you. When you cry, tears come, or you sing and you dance, it changes YOU.

Of course, when you are in a different mood, a feminine mood, God can come closer to you; you attract Him, you allow Him, you become an opening towards Him. Prayer is an opening towards God. It is putting your heart before Him so His presence can transform you. And this should be the way of the whole of your life. It is not a question of praying once a day or once a year or once in a lifetime. Prayer should become like breathing; it should be there each moment.

The Baul never goes to the temple or to the mosque or to the gurudwara. Wherever he is, he is in prayer.

People who live unspontaneous lives become too crowded by thoughts -- of course, borrowed. All thoughts are borrowed. Knowledge as such is borrowed. KNOWING is pure and yours, but knowledge is not. People who are not spontaneous become mechanical. They don't see what is the case, they go on seeing what their expertise allows them to see; they see through blinkers.

I have heard....

Mulla Nasrudin's wife was carried to the hospital in an unconscious condition after a terrible fall. The surgeon made a brief examination, but shook his head significantly and turned sympathetically to the anxious husband. "Mulla," he said, "I'm sorry to tell you that your wife is dead."

"No, I ain't," said the supposed corpse, opening one eye.

"Hush up you!" said Nasrudin. "Doesn't the doctor know better than you?"

EXPERTS are everywhere. It is good as far as worldly thing are concerned, but in the spiritual dimension there are no experts -- because the spiritual dimension does not allow itself to be defined, to be reduced to theorems. It is not geometry and it is not mathematics, it is sheer poetry. It knows no limitations, hence the spontaneous songs of the Bauls. They are not philosophers, not metaphysicians; they are simple singers, poets. And their poetry is not according to the rules, and their poetry is not what people know of as poetry. They don't know any metro, they are not worried about language; they are simple people. Their poetry is their overflowing heart.

... AND REVERSE YOUR NATURE AND HABITS.

The key to this sutra is: become conscious, because all your habits are unconsciously dominated. You do things like a sleepwalker. Become conscious and your habits will change, and the conversion will happen. Do whatsoever you are doing but become more conscious while doing it. Don't become a robot, be a man.

Bauls say that once consciousness enters into your being, a new climate arises. In that new climate, new flowers open; in that new climate, new birds come and nestle around you; in that new climate, God is the closest reality. He is within and He is without. But God is not a theory to be discussed; it is something to be lived. It is an experience.

They sing,

He talks to me

but He would not let me see Him.

Listen to each single word very attentively...

He talks to me

but He would not let me see Him.

He moves close to my hands,

but away from my reach.

I explore the sky and the earth

searching Him,

circling round my error

of not knowing me:

who am I, and who is He?

"He talks to me but he would not let me see him...." These are symbols. I am talking to you; then you are passive because you have only to listen. When I am talking to you you become feminine, you become the receiving end. But if you want to see me you become male, because then you have to do something.

THE Bauls say: God talks to me but He would not let me see Him. He allows me to be passive but he won't allow me to be active. He moves close to my hands, I can almost touch Him, but the moment I try to touch He is far away. He moves close to my hands but away from my reach, because reaching for Him is again active. He comes close to you when you are simply waiting. Don't try to grab Him, He is very elusive. The moment you become male, He is gone; the moment you become female, He is there.

Attested by your own heart,

oh my Master,

lead me the right way.

As you play the melody

on the lute,

the lute could never sing on its own

without you to play it.

"... Attested by your own heart, oh my Master, lead me the right way" The Baul says, "I don't know which is the right way; you lead me. And I have nothing to say about the goal. Let your heart decide it. Whatsoever you decide is my destiny. Lead me the right way as you play the melody on the lute. The lute could never sing on its own without you to play it." The Baul becomes a hollow bamboo, a flute. This is what passivity is. If God is ready to sing, the Baul is ready to take His song as far as he can -- but he himself cannot sing. All song is His, all energy is His. At the most we can be hollow bamboos, not obstructing the way. If this is achieved, everything is achieved. If you are not obstructing the way of His song, enough. Humanity cannot do more than that.

How could he stand

in a normal upright way?

The man without a heart in him,

the roots of his tree

are planted in the sky

and the branches lie on the earth.

Flowers are in blossom

on the tree,

but it never bears fruit.

For him

the river is dying of thirst

and the fire perishes, freezing,

and birds nestle in the water.

He is meeting his Master

in the cremation ground.

ORDINARY life is a chaos. Things are not where they should be. Everything is misplaced. Roots are in the sky and branches are coming to the earth. The tree has flowered, but it never comes to fruit. The river is there and one is dying of thirst. God is there but you are standing on your head, so you cannot see Him. Or, even if you see Him, you see Him very distorted.

Mind is a mechanism to distort. Hence, whether you are on the, path of love or on the path of meditation, one thing is needed on both the paths as a basic requirement: that the mind should be put aside. Mind goes on distorting.

MILLIONS OF SUNS

WILL BURST OPEN WITH BRILLIANCE

AND THE FORMLESS IN VISUAL FORMS.

God is a tremendous experience of light, of beauty, of splendor. God is not a word, it is a dimension. It is a vast ocean in which you disappear like a small drop.

MILLIONS OF SUNS

WILL BURST OPEN WITH BRILLIANCE

AND THE FORMLESS IN VISUAL FORMS.

And once you have tasted Him, then every form becomes His form. Then the formless is bursting all around. But first, one has to have the taste. If I tell you that in these green trees it is He who is green, words will reach you but meaning will not. You will understand what I am saying, and yet you will not understand. Words you will understand: the container you will carry, but the content will be lost unless you have tasted Him. Then, everything is His form. In a rock, He is a rock; in a tree, He is the tree; in a flower, He is a flower; understand: the container you will not understand. Words you will in the star, He is a star. Then all forms are His. In tremendous forms, in millions of forms, He is expressing Himself. God is expression, manifestation, revelation. If you watch your own being you will be able to understand it.

If you have some talent -- if you can paint, or if you can sing, or if you can compose poetry -- then unless you have done it you will not feel happy, you will not feel fulfilled. Unless your destiny is fulfilled, unless your innermost core has become creative, you will feel something is missing somewhere. You may know it, you may not know it, but you will feel a gap, a big gap in your life. You may have all that life can give to you, but if you have not found the right thing that allows your being to express itself, then you will be like a rosebush on which flowers have never happened. Then the rosebush will be sad, because the rosebush will be just futile. What is the point of being there? Once flowers bloom, the rosebush has attained to meaning, significance; the rosebush has become creative. Her soul is released, she is no more in bondage.

If you ask me what is MOKSHA, liberation, this is MOKSHA for me: to release your soul from bondage. I'm not telling you to go to the monasteries, or to the Himalayas and sit in a cave and just waste your life. I am saying that you move into the creative dimension because that is the dimension of God. Sing if you have a song to sing, and that will be your MOKSHA. Paint if painting is somewhere hidden in you and wants to assert -- that will be your MOKSHA. Dance! If dance is throbbing within your heart, then let it be manifested. Once manifested, your soul will be free.

As I see it, the so-called religious people are less religious than the creative people. A poet is more religious to me, a painter more religious, a dancer more religious than your so-called MAHATMAS -- because they are not creative at all. They are almost stupid people; they are simply withering away. They are rosebushes that have stopped growing rose flowers: now even to call them rosebushes is not right. They are simply vegetating.

IN India a great calamity has happened: these people are respected. Uncreative people are respected, and the reasons to give them respect are simply foolish. Somebody can fast -- now this is uncreative activity; or somebody can stand for hours in the hot sun -- now this is good in a circus, but life is not enriched by it; or somebody can lie on a bed of thorns. What is the point in it? What are you creating? One can become very insensitive and lie down on thorns. And the body has dead spots on it, so if you try to find out you will be able to find out. Just tell your wife or your husband to take a thorn or a needle and push many spots on your back. You will see that a few spots you will feel, and a few you will not feel; those are the spots. There are dead spots on the back. One has just to find where they are, then you can lie down on a bed of thorns. And by and by, the body becomes immune, resistant, hard. But these people lose all sensitivity: they have never produced a song, they have never danced. But in India they are thought to be great souls. It is ugly, it is stupid, it is very dangerous -- because the whole country has been worshipping uncreativity.

Worship dancers, singers; worship poets, painters; worship creative people -- because God's only definition is creativity. He's the creator, so be a creator in your own right. Then your stream runs parallel to His stream. And if you become really creative, totally creative, you fall into His stream. He starts functioning through you. All creativity is His, so whenever you are creative, you are prayerful. Whether you go to the mosque or the temple is irrelevant.

Bauls are very creative people, simple, but very creative. This I call the great calamity that happened in India. Because of this many things disappeared: the genius of this country disappeared. You don't need a genius to fast, you need only a stubborn, muletype mind, that's all; just a cruel, masochistic mind, that's all. So your MAHATMAS are nothing but super-masochists, destructive people. If you starve somebody else you will be caught by the police; if you starve yourself you will be respected as a MAHATMA. But in both cases you are creating pain, misery.

I have been in contact with thousands of monks -- Jain monks, Buddhist monks, Hindu monks. Rarely has it happened -- I was simply surprised -- rarely did I come across somebody who was intelligent. But they are doing certain things which have become respectable, and nobody re-evaluates that if you honor and respect uncreative things, the country will become, by and by, more uncreative.

Bow your head down wherever you find creativity, because God is nothing but creativity. So wherever there is a sign of creativity, God has a signature there. He has already been there. Maybe even the poet does not know, but he has been touched by something from the beyond.

Rabindranath used to close his doors whenever he would be in a poetic mood -- sometimes for one day, two days, three days he would not come out. He would forget about food, he would not go to the bathroom, he would forget about everything. The whole family and his disciples would be worried too: "How long is this going to be?..." And he had told them never to disturb him, because whenever he was in a poetic mood, God is there. So disturbing him would be disturbing God. He would cry and tears would fall from his eyes, and he would be almost transfigured.

Once it happened that a group of people had come to meet him, and they were drinking tea. Suddenly the cup slipped from Rabindranath's hand, and he closed his eyes. People knew... they watched this beautiful phenomenon for a single moment. His face changed -- a new radiance, a new grace, something of the invisible entered. They, without disturbing him, slowly, slowly disappeared. Only one man remained, hiding behind a tree to see what was happening. He had come for the first time. That man himself has told me, "I have never seen such a transfiguration. By and by, Rabindranath was no more human -- something superhuman, a great ecstasy. And I could see the luminousness, and he started swaying, and he started singing. And those words were not coming from him; he was just instrumental. For three days he remained in that state."

Poetry is always born when the poet is just instrumental. Painting is born when the painter is not painting his ideas, but is possessed by God. Remember it: I would like my sannyasins to be creative, because I don't know of any other way to come close to God.

THESE uncreative religions and uncreative religious people have done nothing but harm -- quarrelling, argumentative, killing each other. And with the problem about the transcendental, one thing is very complex: you cannot prove anything. The experience is transcendental. Christians cannot prove they are right. Hindus cannot prove they are right. No, no decision can be decisive, so they go on fighting and quarrelling. The whole energy that should become creative becomes destructive.

This also has to be noted down: if you don't use your energy in a creative way, if it doesn't become a dance and a laughter and a delight, then the same energy will become harmful and poisonous. It will be destructive.

It is said that Adolf Hitler wanted to become a painter, but he was refused admission. Just think: the whole world would have been totally different if he had been accepted in the academy. There would have been no Second World War. The whole humanity would have been totally different. But this man could not be creative. He wanted to be creative, he had the energy; certainly he had tremendous energy: he dragged the whole world towards destruction as no other man has ever been able to do. But it was the same energy; it could have become creative, but became uncreative.

I have heard....

The father lectured his son on the evils of fisticuffs as a way of settling disputes. "Don't you know that when you grow up you can't use your fists to settle an argument?" the father began. "You must begin to use peaceful and amicable means of arriving at a decision. Try to reason things out, try to discover by logic and evidence which is right and abide by the right. Remember that might does not make right. Though the strong may win over the weak, that still does not prove that the weak is wrong."

"I know, Dad, "said the boy, kicking at the grass. "But this was different."

"Different? What different? How different? What were you and Johnny arguing about that you had to fight over it?"

"Well, he said he could whip me and I couldn't whip him, and there was only one way to find out which of us was right."

It cannot be decided by amicable means. If this is the question: who can whip whom? then only whipping can decide. Destructive people are always very egoistic because they don't know how to drop their egos. The creative person knows glimpses of no-ego of egolessness. He knows states of no-ego. In moments of creativity, he becomes so possessed that he has a taste of something of the beyond. But a destructive person knows no non-ego states; he becomes a crystallized ego. And then the whole world goes on fighting: Hindus fighting Mohammedans, Mohammedans fighting Hindus, Christians fighting Jews, Jews fighting Christians -- and the whole world is just a conflict. It could have been a great orchestra, but it is simply a war.

Religion has to become creative. To be uncreative should be thought as the original sin, and to be creative should be thought as the only and the super-most virtue.

MILLIONS OF SUNS

WILL BURST OPEN WITH BRILLIANCE

AND THE FORMLESS IN VISUAL FORMS.

If you are moving in the right direction -- receptive, creative, happy, celebrating, loving -- millions of suns will burst open. One day you come to your innermost shrine...

... AND THE FORMLESS IN VISUAL FORMS.

YOU WILL SEE

WHAT CANNOT BE SEEN

ONLY IF YOU CAN BE

THE FORMLESS IN YOU.

Remember it: you can see only if you can be the formless in you. If you want to see the formless you will have to become formless within. Because only when the wavelengths are the same, is there communion. When you are also formless within you, suddenly something clicks and you are one with God. He is formless, you are formless; there cannot be two formlessnesses. There can be millions of forms, but formlessness can only be one.

HOW to attain to this inner formlessness? -- drop the ego. That is giving you a limitation. Drop the very word'1'. Use it, it is utilitarian in the outside world, but never bring it home. Never say'I' inside because that makes a limitation, and because of that barrier you will never be able to move into the Beloved, and you will never be able to allow the Beloved to move into you. If you want to see God, become something like God. Be creative -- one thing; be formless -- another thing.

Have you tallied,

my heart,

the number of ways of finding Him

in the city of love?

The treasure of life,

sans bogus reckonings,

the world is a carnival

where lovers meet

like children of games.

Figure out the nature of your feelings

for the jewel of your life.

He is reached in the way

each seek to reach Him.

He is reached in the way each seek to reach Him....

Through tender passion or servitude,

through loyalty or parental care,

or through the love

of tranquility, peace,

find the feelings

which are born with you

and then worship Him

with your own strength.

Bauls say that there are no fixed laws and rules to reach Him. There is no methodology. There are no super highways to reach to Him, only small footpaths. And each has to seek Him in his own way. Of course, a poet has to seek in his own way, a dancer has to seek in his own way, a lover has to seek in his own way, a meditator has to seek in his own way. So you should never listen to what others are saying; listen to your feelings. Remain true to yourself and you will remain true to God. He has already given you the key -- the key is in your feelings. Never imitate, because there is no one way for all. If you understand me rightly, then the really religious world will be a world of no religions -- no Hindu, no Mohammedan, no Christian, no Jain. A real world which is religious will be of religious people: everybody seeking and searching in his own way. And God is not limited.

JESUS says, "In my God's house there are many mansions." Yes, there are millions of doors. In fact, for each individual there is a separate door, special; nobody else can enter through that door but you. So don't imitate: imitation creates falsity, pseudo-ness, inauthenticity. Just feel your own way and don't bother about what others say. It is nobody else's business. Don't bother about what churches say, organizations say -- listen to your own heart.

Bauls are very individualistic. Religion has to be individualistic because it is a process of individuation. But what other religions have done up to now is to destroy individuality and try to make everybody a part of the crowd. They have created mobs, and they have destroyed individuals. Bauls are rebellious about it.

He who has seen the beauty

of the Beloved friend

can never forget it.

The form is for seeing

but not for discourse,

as beauty has no comparison.

He who has seen that form

flashing on the mirror,

the darkness of his heart

is gone.

He lives with his eyes

focused on the form,

careless of the river

between life and death.

His heart

forever devoted to the beauty

dares the gods.

Each one has to come to his own vision, each one has to look through his own eyes. You cannot see through my eyes, and you cannot touch Him through my hands. Even if I hold your hand and put it on Him, it will never reach to Him -- because you are not ready. If you are ready, He is always reaching you. And what is readiness in the eyes of the Bauls? -- become individual.

Remember, God is very original; He never makes the same model again. A Buddha is a Buddha, a Krishna is a Krishna -- never again does He repeat. So don't go on carrying Gitas and Dhammapadas. Read them as beautiful pieces: read them as poetry, but not as religion. Read them as great art, literature, but not as religion. Listen to the Koran recited -- it is tremendously beautiful whether you understand it or not, whether you know the language or not. The very word 'koran' means recite. There is no comparison; no other scripture can be recited so beautifully. It is aesthetic, it has a tremendous beauty of sound; listen to it. Read the Bible -- never has literature ever been able to transcend the simple assertions of Jesus -- but never as religion. Religion you will have to find yourself. Poetry you can find, beautiful assertions you can find. And I'm not saying don't read them, because they are your heritage. They make you rich. A man who has not read about Buddha and who has not read his assertions cannot be contemporary. Something will be missing. If you have not read the Koran and the Bible and Mahavir's statements, then you will lack something very essential. You will be poorer for that. Read, but read as great literature. Enjoy it, delight in it, but don't believe. A poem is not to be believed, it is to be delighted in.

BELIEF is borrowed. You will have to find your own trust, you will have to find your own faith. Hard is the path, arduous are the ways. In the beginning it looks almost impossible to reach, but I say to you, it is only in appearance. If you start moving: if you start praying, if you start dancing, if you start singing in His name, He arrives.

Do you wish to visit

my inner home

and drink nectar,

my heart?

Will you not fail to enter

where lovers march

in a joyous carnival

singing of love?

Then walk the way

with a lamp of beauty,

leaving behind this greed,

that lust,

the ways of the world,

and all qualities.

Blames and violence,

old age and death,

dawn and dusk

do not live there.

Only rays of color

brilliantly shine.

What cannot be seen you will see. The impossible will happen. Religion is the impossible revolution. It happens -- it is almost impossible to believe that it happens. It is so beyond the ordinary mind: it is so beyond logic, it is so beyond intellect, that it is difficult to believe that it happens -- but it happens. Look into my eyes, look into ME, watch and feel; it has happened. It can happen to you.

YOU WILL SEE

WHAT CANNOT BE SEEN

ONLY IF YOU CAN BE

THE FORMLESS IN YOU.

BUT the only art that you have to learn is how to be formless within you. How to drop the ego is the very core of all religions; how to efface yourself utterly, so utterly that your room is just an emptiness, that you are just a room and nothing else, just space, pure space. In that pure space one starts seeing that which cannot be seen, and one starts hearing that which cannot be heard, and one starts touching what cannot be touched, and one arrives to the point where all seeking, searching, desiring disappears. One is fulfilled.

That benediction is your birthright. And if you are missing, nobody else is responsible. Only you, and ONLY you are responsible if you miss. There is no need to miss even for a single moment anymore. Once understood, what is the problem? Why cannot you put yourself aside? Why cannot you be in a state where no'I' exists?

Sometimes it happens accidentally. Listening to great music, sometimes it happens that you forget that you are. You ARE, more so than ever before -- more grounded, more centered -- but still you forget that you are. It disappears in great music. Watching a Himalayan peak, it disappears sometimes. It is so wonderful, so surprising, so pure... the untouched Himalayan snow... that for a moment you touch an altitude of your own being, and the ego is left, deep down.

Sometimes, if in the night you are suddenly awakened, for a single moment you are puzzled about who you are and where you are. Have you not watched it? Otherwise, ask your wife or husband one day to wake you suddenly in the night, to shake you, and see: for a few seconds you are, but there is no feeling of who you are. The name, the form, the identity is not there. You are coming from such deep sleep that it will take a little time to take back the garb of the ego.

IT happens in love. Two lovers sitting are not two -- something between them has fallen, disappeared. Barriers gone, they are overlapping. It happens accidentally also, but if you understand it you can, by and by, allow it to grow in you. That's all that religion is about.

MY HEART,

DRESS YOURSELF IN THE SPIRIT

OF ALL WOMEN

AND REVERSE YOUR NATURE AND HABITS.

MILLIONS OF SUNS

WILL BURST OPEN WITH BRILLIANCE

AND THE FORMLESS IN VISUAL FORMS.

YOU WILL SEE

WHAT CANNOT BE SEEN

ONLY IF YOU CAN BE

THE FORMLESS IN YOU.

Baul Mystics

VOL. 2, THE BELOVED

Chapter-9

Be The Formless In You