Indian, Gorakh, Death is Divine Chapter 2: The call of the unknown, Question 2

The second question:

Question 2

WHY ARE PEOPLE AFRAID OF SUCH NAMES AS TANTRA, VANMARG, AGHORPANTH, AND NATHPANTH? IS THERE NO POSSIBILITY THAT THROUGH CORRECT ANALYSIS AND RIGHT PRACTICE OF THESE PATHS, PEOPLE COULD UNDERSTAND THEM IN A NEW PERSPECTIVE AND NOT CONDEMN THEM AND REMAIN OPPOSED TO THEM?

Taru has asked. And not just one, she has asked fourteen questions! I had to count them. She has never done this before. There is some connection with Gorakh... some sleeping memory has awakened, a waterfall has gushed forth.

No one is new here, everyone is ancient. Who knows how many paths you have travelled on. Who knows which masters you have been with. Your coming to me is not accidental. You have been travelling, you have been searching. This search has brought you here. Contact between me and those who have never travelled, those who have never sought, happens only with great difficulty. Even if they come, they stray off. Their coming is accidental. There is no foundation stone beneath their coming. Those who stick with me after they arrive, who stay around me -- and Taru has come and stayed -- it means that a deep thirst of their being is satisfied here. They have started getting a glimpse of what they had sought through many many doors and could not get. They are getting close to the destination.

You must have had some contact with Gorakh, Taru. You must have some connection. Questions have burst forth from her gushing out like an ancient sleeping song -- and all of them are meaningful questions. None of the questions are intellectual, they have not been asked for the sake of asking: they arose. They have not been thought up because one should ask: she could not refrain from asking! Then she must have become afraid, because of asking fourteen questions. In the end she has asked forgiveness, that I should not get angry with her. So many questions... as if she were helpless, she had to ask, she couldn't manage not to ask.

This is one question of the fourteen: WHY ARE PEOPLE AFRAID OF SUCH NAMES AS TANTRA, VANMARG, AGHORPANTH, AND NATHPANTH?

The first thing, all these names are names for Tantra. One name for Tantra is Vanmarg. Vanmarg means the path, the marg, of the left hand. You have two hands, one right, one left. These two hands are not just two hands, there are great mysteries behind them. Your right hand is connected with the left part of your brain -- crosswise. Your left hand is connected with the right part of your brain. The brain is divided in two halves. Now science has also made many investigations into this and these investigations have revealed great secrets.

Your right brain, which is connected with the left hand, is the source of poetry, of experiencing, of feeling, of art, of wisdom, bliss, ecstasy, dance, music, celebration, imagination. Whatever is sweet, whatever is feminine, whatever is beautiful, the birth of all of this is in your right brain. The left hand indicates the right brain.

Your right hand is connected with the left brain. In the left brain arise logic, mathematics, activity, efficiency, cunning, politics, diplomacy, the world, prose, science, accounting, utility, the market -- all these are connected with the left brain.

The world has always put emphasis on the right hand, because in the right hand is utility, expediency, mathematics, logic, the market, the shop, practicality. The left hand has appeared dangerous, has always appeared dangerous. How can one trust a poet? A mathematician can be trusted. How can one trust a dancer? A scientist can be trusted. But science is useful, what is the use of dance? Dance is self enjoyment.

The left hand is the symbol of your inner enjoyment. It has no goal. It has no direction. It is not going anywhere. It is just the art of living this very moment in a blissful, charmed, ecstatic way.

What is the value of poetry? It can neither feed your stomach, nor cover your body, nor make a roof over your head. So we give poets only a little respect, in a certain proportion, like they are a decoration but not necessary. We can tolerate one man becoming a poet in society, but we will not tolerate a group of them, because a poet does not seem to be of any use. What is his utility?

Somebody asked Picasso, "What is the utility of your paintings?"

Picasso hit his forehead. He said, "You don't ask flowers what their utility is. And the cuckoo sings and you don't ask her what her utility is. And when the sky is filled with stars you don't ask them what their utility is. Why ask only me?"

Poets and painters, sculptors and musicians, they have always been saying they have no utility. And life does not end with utility. Remember the words of Jesus: "Man cannot live by bread alone." He needs something more, he needs something more than bread. Bread is necessary but not sufficient. There can be no poetry without bread, it is true, but if there is just bread without poetry then living and not living are almost identical. Every day stuffing your stomach, living and finally dying. If no poetry has awakened, if no song arises, if no veena is played, if no music ever flowers on the flute, what meaning is there?

"Svanthah sukhaya ragunatha gatha -- the song of the supreme is of self enjoyment." One who is filled with self contentment is the one who becomes filled with love for that ultimate beloved.

This is why the left hand has always been a sign of danger. So we call those who we are afraid of Vanmargi -- 'leftist'.

You will find thousands who call me a Vanmargi. They are right. I am a Vanmargi, a 'leftist', because I am teaching you the art of Svantah sukhaya -- of self enjoyment.

Mathematics is not everything. There is a world beyond mathematics and that world brings fulfillment, there is contentment in that world, there is light in that world.

The necessities should be taken care of, it is true. But what else? When basic needs are fulfilled, what else will you do? This problem has arisen today in the West, because needs are fulfilled. The West has taken care of all the outer necessities. Try to understand the difficulty. The right brain, connected with the left hand, was not used in fulfilling the basic needs. The West denied religion, denied poetry, denied music, denied all dimensions of mystery. The West is living only on mathematics, science, matter: things which have solid proof. A continuous application for three hundred years, the application of the right hand, has made the West affluent. There is money, wealth, housing, beautiful roads, delicious and abundant food, everything is more than is needed. An age of affluence has dawned in the West. But it has come through three hundred years of continuous denial of the source of self enjoyment -- of Svantah sukhaya.

So the West has become rich, now what? Because they have lost the art of enjoying happiness, the West is dumbfounded. Where to go now? What to do? Whatever the world of work can accomplish is already complete. There is great uneasiness in the West. Western man is unable to even take Sunday as a holiday. The very habit of taking holidays has been forgotten. Work and work and work... So much emphasis has been placed on work that work is made into a god. Hence the art of play has been forgotten. Sitting gossiping and laughing, or playing on the strings of a veena, or growing grass in the garden, or lying down under the stars in ecstasy, or going out in a boat... No, all these are without meaning. For three hundred years only one thing has been taught and repeated from kindergarten to university: the value of work.

So today if someone is lying down in his boat just floating under the starry sky, he feels as if he is committing a sin: "Work is virtue, so I am committing sin." A feeling of guilt has become associated with moments of happiness. Whenever you become happy, you feel as if you are doing something wrong. What are you doing humming a song? You want to suppress the song in your throat. What will you get from it? Logic comes up, calculations arise -- what's in it for you? what is its benefit? Why are you playing the flute? Do some work.

People come to me and say, "You are teaching people meditation? What will meditation accomplish? Teach work."

Work has utility. And I do not say to drop work. But I want to say to you that the use of work is that you can be blissful in the non-work moments. The use of work is that you can be free of work. The six days that you work hard in the market are so that on the seventh day you can leisurely stretch out your legs, you can lie down in the sun, or sit down in the shade of a tree, or talk with the flowers, or gossip with the moon and stars, or sing an ecstatic song, or tie ankle bells on your feet, and dance! This is the goal of striving for six days. And if five days work is enough, work only five days, dance for two days. If four days work is enough, then three days... go on reducing this way. Work has to go on being reduced. Leisure has to go on being increased. Leisure, is the aim.

Insanity starts creeping into the life of anyone who has no rest, no meditation. The moment work is over they don't know what to do. There is a reason many people are going mad in the West, it has a reason: the days of work are over, that job is accomplished. They thought work was life, now they don't understand life and what more it can be.

The reason many people are committing suicide is the same. What is the point of living now? One has accumulated wealth penny by penny, how long can you go on accumulating? He has forgotten why he was accumulating wealth. He was accumulating wealth so that at some moment he could sit down leisurely, with no worries. He forgot, because only one part of the brain was used in accumulating. That part has been active, and the other half which has not been used, has slowly slowly filled with dust.

Vanmarga means the aim of life is not work but rest. The goal of life is not money but meditation. The goal of life is not mathematics but poetry. The highest peak of life is not attained through science, it is attained through religion.

Vanmarg has always been a word of condemnation. And it was natural in the past, there were other reasons then. The further back you go the more the world was poor, means were not available. It seems only natural that in those days of poverty people made work very significant, gave it great value. And if the people who gave value to leisure in place of work were opposed by the society it is not at all surprising. But this ancient habit has remained with us like a complex in our minds -- even now we are afraid.

The mathematical, the calculating mind is opposed to enjoying taste -- it is always against everything which gives rise to happiness inside you. It goes on fulfilling the vow of no-taste. It is against beauty, it can make ugliness spiritual. It is against health also, because health is bodily happiness.

A famous German thinker, Count Keyserling, wrote in his journal after traveling in India, "Going to India I experienced that sickness is spiritual and health is unspiritual, because health is of the body." This is why a spiritual person will not take joy in good health. He is the enemy of the body. This is why the world has become the enemy of love, because love is great happiness. We have trained ourselves to be against all these things.

Vanmarg, the left hand path, has given the opposite message. Vanmarg says: Love is prayer and love is the ultimate. And Vanmarg says nothing is to be dropped because whatever the ultimate has given can be used. Use it, and make it a step. Transform it into a step of the temple of the ultimate. Don't take it as a stone on the path, don't take it as a hindrance. Make steps and climb up. Make even sex a step, don't oppose it either.

The amazing message of Vanmarg is, that if you are intelligent you can use even poison in such a way that it becomes medicine. If you are an idiot you will make even medicine into poison. This is the fundamental sutra of Vanmarg: the intelligent makes even poison into medicine. This is intelligence. Escapists are cowards, not intelligent. Vanmarg will not run away.

Escapists have been very respected in the world. The reason is, when you look at an escapist you begin to think he is more special than you. You are mad after money and someone has kicked away his money and gone to the jungle, you are immediately impressed. You are impressed because you are so infatuated with money and this man certainly has a quality, he has kicked it away. This is why you are more impressed by Mahavira than by the enlightened King Janak. Janak's name is rarely heard. You are more impressed by Buddha because he renounced the royal palace. If you praise Krishna you do it in a quiet voice, a little frightened, a little nervously.

Even if people praise Krishna they praise the Krishna of the Geeta. Very few people have the courage to accept all of Krishna. Because Krishna seems to be just like you, or rather a little worse than you. You somehow explain to yourself, okay he was God, he must have done it, he must have danced with his girlfriends. But this man Krishna is not given his full splendor. You may want to avoid calling him god. You look for an excuse. Your mind begins to be troubled. You start feeling uneasy.

I was a visitor at someone's house -- at a Hindu family. It was a respectable family, a high caste family. It happened ten or twelve years ago. My book, "From Sex to Samadhi" had been published. The man was very upset. He said, "You should at least have given it another title. When someone reads the book he will find out what is really in it, but this title is very dangerous. You should give it some other name." Also on the first edition there is a picture of the ecstatic Tantra statues from the temples of Khajuraho printed on the cover. He said, "What got into your mind? If this is the title it should have a picture of Buddha in a state of meditation on the cover... but statues of Khajuraho? Later when someone actually reads the book, he will be very upset seeing all this."

I was sitting in their living room, I said as I looked at their wall... They had hung a big picture of Krishna in which he has stolen the clothing of naked women who are bathing in the river. And he is sitting in a tree. I said, "You keep this picture in your living room?" He looked up, he stopped for a moment. Perhaps he had never looked at the picture in this way. He said, "You are right. That picture has been hanging there since my father's time. And sometimes I am a little embarrassed, but no one pays any attention to it. Because this is God, he must be doing right. We have accepted it."

But when I went to his house again, the picture had been removed. I asked him, "What happened?"

He said, "No. Since the day you pointed it out, I have been aware of it. I began to be very upset and thought it better to remove the picture. So I disposed of it."

Even your acceptance of Krishna is incomplete. You want to select and cut many things. You are always ready to make revisions of Krishna. People believe in Krishna according to their own understanding. They believe as much as they can believe, rejecting the rest. What is the problem? The problem is, that it is clear to you that Mahavira appears to be moving opposite from you. You can respect him because you know your greed, your lust, your anger, your ardent desire, and he has renounced all of this. He is special, now there is no need for proof, but Krishna? He is standing right in the same world where you are!

To recognize Krishna one needs eyes of great depth. To recognize Mahavira is within the powers of even a blind man, there is no problem. A blind man too can recognize, yes, Mahavira has renounced everything. But until the inner eye has opened it is difficult to recognize Krishna, because he is standing right here, there is no difference. There is no difference from the outside, there is a difference from the inside. So as long as you have no ability to see within, you will not be able to understand Krishna.

Krishna is a Vanmargi, a 'leftist'. This is why the Jainas have thrown Krishna into hell. In their scriptures they threw him into hell. He is a Vanmargi. What could be more Vanmarg? A natural acceptance of life, an eager acceptance, a welcome acceptance... The ability to live life in its total creativity, courage... There is nothing bad in life. If there are thorns, they are there ready to protect the flower. Whatever exists in life is beautiful. And if there is anything we cannot see the beauty of then somehow it is our mistake. How can the ultimate make something ugly? The ultimate is manifest in all forms. In lust too the ultimate is hidden -- in kama too Rama is hidden. Very few people can muster such courage. They don't have this broad a vision.

Taru this is why people are afraid of names like Tantra, Vanmarg, Aghorpanth, Nathpanth. It is because they will shatter your established conventions. These beautiful names have become swear words. If people call someone a Vanmargi then the matter is finished. Such and such man is a Vanmargi -- means you have totally repudiated him, now there is no need for refutation. Now there is no need to go further into his arguments: what he says, why he says it. You have labelled him Vanmargi, now the man is finished.

Aghorpanth. A beautiful word like aghor has become an abuse! If you call someone an Aghorpanthi he will be ready to fight. People call someone an Aghori when they want to insult him.

Do you know the real meaning of the word aghor? Aghor means easy, simple, direct. If you call someone ghori it could be an insult. Ghor means complicated, terrible, dense. When there is a really terrible war then people say ghor-ghamaasaan -- terribly fierce. Ghor means complicated, messed up... Aghor means simple childlike innocence. But people say it when they want to insult. People say Morarji Desai is an Aghori because he drinks his own urine -- innocent? It means they are are insulting him.

Aghor can be used only for a few Buddhas. Gautam Buddha is an Aghori, Krishna is an Aghori, Christ is an Aghori, Lao Tzu is an Aghori. It can only be used for such people. Gorakh is an Aghori. Simple, innocent, straightforward... So simple that there is no opportunism in his life. The very mode of manipulating is gone.

Those who you call religious are also calculative. They look to see if they have done enough fasting to go to heaven, or are they fulfilling enough vows to go to heaven, or have they given enough charity to go to heaven? This is all calculation. This charity is part of the market. This charity is business, a trade. Sin is hidden in this virtue. The meaning of Aghor is: simple, direct -- one whose opportunism is finished, who lives like children live. Aghor is the highest state, the state of a paramahansa. But unfortunately these have become swear words.

Nathpanth: because of Gorakhnath and Gorakh's master Macchindranath this branch of Tantra began to be called Nathpanth. It's feeling is very lovely. The meaning of Nath is master, lord. What the Sufis call, "Ya Malik." Everything is his, the master's, the lord's. We too are the master's, the world too is his, everything is his. We live according to his wish. We live as he would have us live. We will not project our own will. We will not live by effort. We will flow as one flows in the current of a river, we will not swim. This is the feeling. As long as he is the master why should we bring our will in between? If our will comes, then our ego comes, if our ego comes then we are lost. So we will live without ego, as he wills...

As dry leaves fly in the wind, whether they go east or west, north or south, wherever the wind carries them there is no worry. No fight, no resistance, they do not struggle to go west, saying they will not go to the east, why are you taking us east? No, what will do leaves have? A Nathpanthi is one in whom this has happened. Gorakh was like this. He lived in this spontaneous acceptance. He lived in this simplicity. But people live by the ego. The language of life of most people in the world is the language of ego. Naturally, such simple people cannot be tolerated. Others will feel a great danger with such people. If they start living so simply others feel what will happen to morality? Immorality will spread -- as if there were morality now.

These are very strange ideas. People talk as if there were justice now, then injustice would spread. Where is justice? What kind of justice? Hypocrisy in the name of morality. People are wearing false masks, people are wearing counterfeit masks. Where is morality?

But people understand that if everyone begins to be simple, begins to live easily, begins to live naturally and say it is the will of the ultimate then morality will be destroyed.

The fact is the opposite. People have become immoral by continually living by will. Who on this earth is more immoral than man? Who on this earth is more violent than man? Who on this earth murders his own kind more than man? Birds and animals at least don't kill their own species. No lion kills and eats lions. No hawk attacks hawks. Man is the only animal on this whole earth who murders his own species. And not just a few -- thousands, millions! Such joy in killing! And strangely this too is dressed up in the attire of law. Muslims call it a jihad: Christians call it a crusade. It is a holy war, so kill. Then there is no harm, the more you kill the better. The more you kill the more certain heaven is.

People fight jihads, fight crusades for centuries. They go on butchering each other in the name of God. Butcher them, in anyone's name. Sometimes butcher in the name of politics, sometimes in the name of religion, sometimes in the name of sects, sometimes in the name of scripture. These are all excuses, the object is killing. Without killing the mind will not be satisfied. What kind of mankind have we given birth to? What kind of sick minded man have we given birth to?

People are burning with sex desire. There is nothing besides sex inside of them. They sit repressing it. This is why whenever anyone says to them, accept sex naturally, it is a divine gift, there is great turmoil inside of them. Because they know that if they naturally accept sex everything will be disturbed. They have repressed so much there is a volcano burning under them. How can they accept it naturally?

Think of it as if someone has fasted his whole life, he goes on dying of hunger and you come and say to him, "Friend, accept your hunger naturally. When you feel hunger, eat." He will completely freak out. He will say, "If I accept it naturally then I will never get out of the kitchen, because I know myself, I know I am thinking of food twenty four hours a day." A fasting man thinks only of food twenty four hours a day. "... so I will not be able to get out of the kitchen. I will be stuck sitting there."

You will be surprised at what he is saying -- people who enjoy food don't sit twenty four hours a day in the kitchen. But understand what this man is saying, this poor man is also right. He thinks of food twenty four hours a day, one who fasts thinks of nothing but food.

This is why when someone like me speaks of living spontaneously people are very nervous, they are very afraid. Sometimes repressed types of people come here, and they are frightened. Because they know that if what I am saying is right, then the disease repressed within them will immediately be revealed, their life long repressed disease will immediately manifest. They will become insane. They will not be able to endure it. To save themselves from this predicament they go against me, they become opposed to me.

There is a reason for opposing me. The truth of what I am saying appears so dangerous to them -- it appears dangerous not because truth is dangerous. It appears dangerous, because until now they have lived in so much untruth that now it seems very difficult to drop untruth. And if it drops then what they have held together their whole life will break...

In their life they do not have self restraint, only a false insistence on self restraint. That man is truly disciplined who has become aware and has wholly transcended his sex desire. To him it doesn't make any difference. He will not find any objection at all to what I say. Those who take objection to what I say are only indicating their diseased minds, but they think they are saying something against me.

There was a great movement opposing Freud all over the world. But Freud was speaking simple straightforward truths of life. Freud is a Vanmargi. Freud suggested to let repressed impulses flow again. He was opposed throughout the word, all the religions opposed him. You opposed him because the ground beneath you was slipping. You will all be wrong if Freud is right. And it is better if you go on proving yourself right. And the crowd is yours. The crowd is with you. Truth is always alone. Untruth is very ancient. The crowd is happy with it. The crowd has given it company for so long. All the vested interests of the crowd have become joined with it. You are completely freaked out, you have become completely frightened. In your fear, in your freak out you start opposing. But truth is not defeated this way, truth returns again and again.

Vanmarg goes on returning again and again. Tantra will be proclaimed again and again, until man becomes spontaneous. The day man becomes spontaneous will be the day Tantra is no longer needed. Tantra is only medicine. Vanmarg, the left handed path, is only a means to bring people to the path who have gone off the other side. One who is come on the path is neither on the right nor on the left. Both left and right are his. He does not belong to either. His state is of transcendence. He has gone beyond both.

You have asked: WHY ARE PEOPLE AFRAID OF SUCH NAMES AS TANTRA, VANMARG, AGHORPANTH, AND NATHPANTH?

There is reason to fear. You have such a load of gunpowder inside of you that a tiny spark of truth and you will explode. How can you not be afraid of sparks? When you are ready to drop your gunpowder you will no longer have any fear of sparks. You are afraid of that which makes you uneasy inside. And truth makes you very uneasy. If you have made a continuing connection with untruth, if you have wedded yourself to untruth, truth will upset you very much.

Mulla Nasruddin got married. As is the Muslim custom, on the honeymoon the bride lifted her veil in front of Mulla, opened her 'burqa'. It was the first time Mulla had seen her, he had not seen her previously. He was very disappointed. He had never seen a more ugly faced woman in his life! According to the custom, the bride asked "Before whom can I remove the veil?"

Mulla replied, "You can remove it before anyone, just don't open it in front of me. Remove it in front of the whole world, remove it in front of anyone you want to, just don't remove it in front of me. If this burqa remains down now it is better."

You are afraid of this ugliness. You have veiled yourself, you don't remove it. You become angry with whoever removes your veil, whatever shows your dirtiness. You become angry with whoever shows your rubbish within. And the master has to show you your inner rubbish. If you don't see it how will you become free of it? If you are not liberated from the inner sense of worthlessness that is riding in your chest you will sink into it. You will drown in it. It will cause your drowning. The rocks you have bound to your chest have to be removed. Although you think they are philosopher's stones, they are drowning you.

Whenever there is a new declaration of truth there are waves of unrest in all direction where untruth has spread its nets. Cut the throat of truth, poison the truth, silence the voice of truth -- all these kinds of efforts start being made. And there is no reason to be angry about it. It is completely natural. It is a matter for compassion, a matter for kindness.

Buddha said to his disciples, "The people that you go to teach are the ones who will harm you. Out of kindness you go on giving truth and they will throw stones at you. So don't be angry. They are helpless: what can they do? You have come to destroy the truth they had believed for centuries. You have started shaking their house. They thought this house was their security. You have started knocking down their walls. You have started lifting their veils and showing their ugliness. They will be angry.

One disciple -- Purna -- used to to on pilgrimage, taking the Buddha's message. Buddha asked, "Where are you going?"

There was a part of Bihar called Sukha. He said, "None of your sannyasins have gone to Sukha yet, I will go there."

Buddha said, "It would be good if you don't go there. The people of that area are dangerous, this is why no one has gone. If they insult you what will happen to you?"

Purna replied, "If they insult me then I will consider myself fortunate that they didn't beat me, they only insulted me."

Buddha said, "And if they beat you what will happen to you Purna?"

Purna replied, "I will consider myself fortunate that they didn't kill me, they only beat me."

Buddha said, "One more question, if they kill you what will happen to you as you are dying?"

Purna replied, "What else could happen? These are such good people that they have released me from living in this body in which I might have committed some mistake. Now no mistake is possible. They have released me from living in this body where my foot may have gone on wrong paths, anything could happen, I could stray off. They have liberated me from this body. I will die filled with kindness for them. I will die full of gratitude for them."

Buddha said, "Then you go. Go anywhere. Wherever you go, you will find your friend, because now you cannot see any enemy." It is not that by closing eyes there are no enemies. But one who no longer sees enemies is one who can declare the truth. Enemies will arise, enemies will immediately arise. The truth always gives rise to enemies. Do we have enough understanding that we can stomach the truth? Do we have a big enough heart to allow the truth to permeate us? ... to make it a guest inside us? If we can let ourselves be a host to truth, let truth be a guest... but do we have this capacity? This is why it goes on happening, insults continue, opposition continues, but truth goes on making its declaration again and again.

And I say unto you, that truth comes from the right half of the brain, connected with the left hand. Calculation comes from the left half of the brain, which is connected with the right hand. A calculative person can never accept poetry. A person who thinks money and wealth are valuable cannot understand the value of meditation. And one for whom business is everything cannot be in the temple. And if he goes to the temple, the temple is corrupted by him.

Gorakh

DEATH IS DIVINE

Chapter-2

The call of the unknown