Question 1

Maneesha has asked a question.

OUR BELOVED MASTER,

IT SEEMS TO ME THAT FORMAL RELIGIONS HAVE USED THE SENSE OF THE MYSTERIOUS NEGATIVELY -- TO DELUDE AND BAFFLE PEOPLE. ON THE OTHER HAND, UNLESS SCIENCE HAS A SENSE OF THE MYSTERIOUS, IT SEEMS THAT IT WILL ALWAYS BE DESTRUCTIVE.

IS THIS SO?

Maneesha, your question is two questions.

The first is perfectly right. All the religions have made the world ugly; they have made the world unlivable; their whole teaching has been to renounce.

A man who renounces the world will certainly not create a painting or a poetry or a sculpture. He will become uncreative. And where is this whole uncreative energy going to go?

Energy is neutral. If you don't move your energy in creative ways, it is going to be a calamity to you and to the world. But because all the religions have condemned the world and worldly relations, they have made the world poor. They have a reason, an investment in the world being poor.

They have cut the world into fragments, and seventy percent of the energy of man goes into war. War seems to be the only god. Man is just a sacrifice, either in the name of nationality or in the name of religion. Whatever the name may be, man has to be slaughtered.

It is true that coming down from a hilltop is easy. Destructiveness is coming down from your humanity, becoming animals again. Hence, it is easy. And you can find any excuse, any excuse will do.

Question 2

But the second part of your question:

ON THE OTHER HAND, UNLESS SCIENCE HAS A SENSE OF THE MYSTERIOUS, IT SEEMS THAT IT WILL ALWAYS BE DESTRUCTIVE.

No, Maneesha. Science is coming every day closer and closer to the mysterious. Science is no more than three hundred years old, but it has evolved in three hundred years and gone far away from the destructive and negative mind of the religions.

As I said to you, energy is neutral. Science creates energy, discovers energy, but it falls into the hands of the politicians, and the politicians use it for negative purposes. Their only goal is war. And science itself has become so complicated that you have to depend on some government or corporation. Because so much money is needed, you cannot be a scientist just by yourself.

Those days are gone when Galileo could be a scientist, just using instruments which were ordinarily, easily available. He did not need trillions of dollars. Now the situation is different.

The Wright brothers could manage to make the first aeroplane with discarded parts of bicycles. Now you cannot create an aeroplane so easily.

But one thing is certain: that if a World Academy of Sciences -- which is not committed to any government, to any ideology -- can be created... in my opinion that must be the whole and sole reason for the existence of organizations like the UN.

Create a world academy. Every nation contributes to it, but the energy is in the hands of a world organization. And the world organization has the power to use it in any way it deems fit.

Science is not destructive in itself. Destruction has come from politics, and because politics has the money....

Albert Einstein's last dying words -- he must have suffered deeply. He was a man of great conscience, and he could see that he had given a dangerous weapon into the hands of the politicians. He discovered atomic energy, and in a hurry....

He was employed by Germany first, but because he was a Jew he had to escape from Germany. But he knew that even without him all the basic facts were in German hands. "It may take a year or two, but Germany will harnas atomic energy. Before Germany does it, somebody else should be able to do it; otherwise the world will fall into the hands of fascists." But he was naive; he wrote a letter to Roosevelt. Roosevelt was very happy and gave him all the facilities to develop atomic energy, which could destroy millions of people within seconds.

Einstein never thought that it would be used. He thought just its presence would be enough for Germany and Japan to surrender. Germany surrendered and Japan was going to surrender within a week at the most. Without Germany, Japan could not stand alone against the whole world. It is a small land, but full of great people. And Roosevelt had gone by that time. Truman was the President and his generals also insisted to him, "Don't use such a destructive force, which will remain for generations affecting people; and not only people -- trees, fish, animals. And there is no time to create any preventive cure. And there is no need in the first place. Germany is collapsing every moment. Our forces have entered Berlin."

You may not believe it.... Adolf Hitler was hiding underneath his building in a bunker, and because he never liked the idea that, "We are being defeated," he was given a radio for which his own people created a small station that would give him the news that, "We are progressing," that, "We are winning." Such a deception has never happened before. The enemy's forces were entering into Berlin and the radio was proclaiming, "We have reached London."

And poor Adolf Hitler was kept until the last moment.... When bombs started falling on Berlin, he could not believe that, "I can hear, hiding in this bunker, the falling buildings of London?" He called his general and asked, "What is the matter?"

He said, "I am sorry. So as not to make you tense, this was a special arrangement to give you good news, always good news." He had been kept in darkness for almost one year.

And the American generals persuaded Truman not to be in a hurry: "Within seven days with ordinary weapons Japan is going to go down." But Truman was in a hurry, because if Japan goes down and surrenders then there will be no chance to experiment with atomic bombs. He did not listen to his generals and ordered two cities to be killed, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, more than two hundred thousand people. And the radiation is still killing, is still effective and will remain effective one knows not for how long; because there were many people not in the area where everyone was dying, but whom the radiation started to reach with the winds, with the water, with the rivers, in the fruits, in the vegetables. There was no way to say that, "You are eating your own death."

Science can give contribute immense energy for creative purposes, Maneesha, and the great scientists alive today are all coming closer to the mysterious. A day can be hoped for when science and religion will merge into each other. Religion will become the inner science and science will become the outer religion. And their meeting point is when both are facing the miraculous.

Now Sardar Gurudayal Singh's time. Sometimes I think that I should begin with Sardar Gurudayal Singh's time but that will destroy the serious attentiveness. So I keep him for the last. And it is respectful also.

Sally and Joan are chit-chatting over tea. Joan says, "When I married George, I was looking for sex and good humor, and I have found them both with him."

"Oh, really?" Sally asks.

"Yes," says Joan, "every time we have sex, it is a joke!"

The black dude in a full-length mink coat walks into the Rolls-Royce show room. He goes over to the most expensive model and proceeds to kick the tires and fenders. The usually staid salesman runs over and exclaims, "Excuse me, sir, but were you thinking of buying a Rolls-Royce?"

The black dude looks at him with a scowl and replies: "I is not thinking of buying a Rolls-Royce. I is gonna buy a Rolls-Royce. I is thinkin' of pussy!"

Jesus is hanging from the cross. Mary, his mother, sits a short distance away. Suddenly Jesus begins to cry uncontrollably. Seeing this, Mary has a pained look on her face.

"I am sorry to upset you, mum," Jesus sobs. "I just could not help but think -- what a hell of a way to spend Easter!"

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent. Close your eyes. Feel your body to be completely frozen.

Now look inwards with your total consciousness, and with an urgency, as if it is going to be the last moment of your life.

Deeper and deeper, reach to the center of your being.

At this moment you are the buddha, unscratched by thousands of lives. The deeper you can go the more splendor, the more miraculous it becomes. The Buddha Auditorium has changed into a silent lake without any ripples.

A little more... Because buddha is your eternity, and buddha is your infinity, you can go deep, but you can never find the bottom. That's why it gives you ultimate freedom.

To make it more clear-cut,

Nivedano....

(Drumbeat)

Relax. Just witness the body -- you are not it. Witness the mind -- you are not it. You are only the witnessing consciousness.

Thousands of lotuses have blossomed. The evening was beautiful enough on its own, but you have poured your witnessing, your consciousness and made it a majesty, a miracle.

Such blissfulness.

Such benediction.

Such ecstasy.

Collect as many flowers and as many juices from your center, because you have to bring them to the circumference. You have to remember in your day-to-day life, whatever you are doing, you are the buddha. That small remembrance will become ultimately a transformation of being.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back. But come back as a buddha, silent, graceful, at ease.

Just for a few moments sit, remembering where you have been, to what miracle you have reached. And the golden path that you have been traveling every day back and forth will become shorter and shorter... because your buddha has to come from the hidden to your ordinary life.

Meditation is the only way to know yourself and to know the very meaning of life. It cannot be said, but it can be transferred.

When you are in deep meditation here, utterly receptive, it is so easy to enter into your hearts. It is so easy to become a song, so easy to become a subtle music.

You will feel it for a few moments later on also, like a drunkard. You have been drinking from the divine.

Okay, Maneesha?