Sufism, Vol. 2 The Perfect Master Chapter 7: The Lion's Roar

AT THE TIME OF KING MAHMUD, THE CONQUEROR OF GHAZNA, THERE LIVED A YOUNG MAN BY THE NAME OF HAIDAR ALI JAN. HIS FATHER, ISKANDAR KHAN, DECIDED TO OBTAIN FOR HIM THE PATRONAGE OF THE EMPEROR, AND HE SENT HIM TO STUDY SPIRITUAL MATTERS UNDER THE GREATEST SAGES OF THE TIME.

HAIDAR ALI, WHEN HE HAD MASTERED THE REPETITIONS AND THE EXERCISES, WHEN HE KNEW THE RECITALS AND THE BODILY POSTURES OF THE SUFI SCHOOLS, WAS TAKEN BY HIS FATHER INTO THE PRESENCE OF THE EMPEROR.

"MIGHTY MAHMUD," SAID ISKANDAR, "I HAVE HAD THIS YOUTH, MY ELDEST AND MOST INTELLIGENT SON, SPECIALLY TRAINED IN THE WAYS OF THE SUFIS, SO THAT HE MIGHT OBTAIN A WORTHY POSITION AT YOUR MAJESTY'S COURT, KNOWING THAT YOU ARE THE PATRON OF LEARNING OF OUR EPOCH."

MAHMUD DID NOT LOOK UP, BUT HE MERELY SAID, "BRING HIM BACK IN A YEAR."

SLIGHTLY DISAPPOINTED, BUT NURSING HIGH HOPES, ISKANDAR SENT ALI TO STUDY THE WORKS OF THE GREAT SUFIS OF THE PAST, AND TO VISIT THE SHRINES OF THE ANCIENT MASTERS IN BAGHDAD, SO THAT THE INTERVENING TIME WOULD NOT BE WASTED.

WHEN HE BROUGHT THE YOUTH BACK TO THE COURT, HE SAID, "PEACOCK OF THE AGE! MY SON HAS CARRIED OUT LONG AND DIFFICULT JOURNEYS, AND AT THE SAME TIME TO HIS KNOWLEDGE OF EXERCISES HE HAS ADDED A COMPLETE FAMILIARITY WITH THE CLASSICS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE PATH. PRAY HAVE HIM EXAMINED, SO THAT IT MAY BE SHOWN THAT HE COULD BE AN ADORNMENT OF YOUR MAJESTY'S COURT."

"LET HIM," SAID MAHMUD IMMEDIATELY, "RETURN AFTER ANOTHER YEAR."

DURING THE NEXT TWELVE MONTHS, HAIDAR ALI CROSSED THE OXUS AND VISITED BOKHARA AND SAMARKAND, QASR-I-ARIFIN AND TASHQAND, DUSHAMBE AND THE TURBATS OF THE SUFI SAINTS OF TURKESTAN.

WHEN HE RETURNED TO THE COURT, MAHMUD OF GHAZNA TOOK ONE LOOK AT HIM AND SAID, "HE MAY CARE TO COME BACK AFTER A FURTHER YEAR."

HAIDAR ALI MADE THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA IN THAT YEAR.

HE TRAVELLED TO INDIA; AND IN PERSIA HE CONSULTED RARE BOOKS AND NEVER MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY OF SEEKING OUT AND PAYING HIS RESPECTS TO THY TREAT DERVISHES OF THE TIME.

WHEN HE RETURNED TO GHAZNA, MAHMUD SAID TO HIM, "NOW SELECT A TEACHER, IF HE WILL HAVE YOU, AND COME BACK IN A YEAR."

WHEN THAT YEAR WAS OVER AND ISKANDAR KHAN PREPARED TO TAKE HIS SON TO THE COURT, HAIDAR ALI SHOWED NO INTEREST AT ALL IN GOING THERE. HE SIMPLY SAT AT THE FEET OF HIS TEACHER IN HERAT, AND NOTHING THAT HIS FATHER COULD SAY WOULD MOVE HIM.

"I HAVE WASTED MY TIME, AND MY MONEY, AND THIS YOUNG MAN HAS FAILED THE TESTS IMPOSED BY MAHMUD THE KING," HE LAMENTED, AND HE ABANDONED THE WHOLE AFFAIR.

MEANWHILE, THE DAY WHEN THE YOUTH WAS DUE TO PRESENT HIMSELF CAME AND WENT, AND THEN MAHMUD SAID TO HIS COURTIERS, "PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR A VISIT TO HERAT; THERE IS SOMEONE THERE WHOM I HAVE TO SEE."

AS THE EMPEROR'S CAVALCADE WAS ENTERING HERAT TO THE FLOURISH OF TRUMPETS, HAIDAR ALI'S TEACHER TOOK HIM BY THE HAND, LED HIM TO THE GATE OF THE TEKKIA, AND THERE THEY WAITED.

SHORTLY AFTERWARDS, MAHMUD AND HIS FOUR TIER AYAZ, TAKING OFF THEIR SHOES, PRESENTED THEMSELVES AT THE SANCTUARY.

"HERE, MAHMUD," SAID THE SUFI SHEIK, "IS THE MAN WHO WAS NOTHING WHILE HE WAS A VISITOR OF KINGS, BUT WHO IS NOW ONE WHO IS VISITED BY KINGS. TAKE HIM AS YOUR SUFI COUNSELLOR FOR HE IS READY."

THIS IS THE STORY OF THE STUDIES OF HIRAVI, HAIDAR ALI JAN, THE SAGE OF HERAT.

RELIGION IS A RISK, A REBELLION, AND A REBIRTH, RELIGION is not a consolation, it is not conformity, it is not convention. Religion is not part of the world -- it is something of the beyond.

Religion cannot be learnt: it can only be imbibed. There is no study which is going to help you to become religious. All studies lead astray.

Religion is not a kind of learning. On the contrary, it is unlearning. Not that you have to know more, but that you have to come to a point where all knowing disappears, and you become innocent, and you are a child again. And again the wonder is fresh and the mystery of life is revealed to you.

The knower lives in his mind. And the mind goes on pretending that is knows. And because the mind pretends that it knows, it demystifies existence. Knowledge is the most irreligious phenomenon there is in the world -- because without the experience of the mysterious there is no possibility of being in contact with God. The mystery is the door.

Knowledge has to be dropped so that you can open your eyes again like a child -- fresh, young, full of wonder, knowing nothing, or, only knowing that you know nothing.

These few things have to be understood before we can enter into this beautiful story.

Why do I call religion a risk? and not only a risk but the greatest? Why? Because you have to lose yourself. There are other risks in life, but they are small risks. You have to lose your money, or you have to lose your prestige, or you have to lose your wife... or this or that. But in religion, nothing less than your totality is required -- you have to lose yourself. Naturally, one shrinks back one is frightened. It is a jump out of the ego and into the ego less abyss. It is a discontinuity with the past, with all that you have thought you are. It is a breakthrough.

You lose your identity -- it is a great crisis in identity. You have known yourself as this or that -- a name, a form, a society, a nation -- religion requires that you lose all your identity. A religious person is neither an Indian nor a Chinese, neither a Hindu nor a Mohammedan. A religious person is neither black nor white. All these things are stupidities.

Then WHO IS a religious person? He is not a person at all, but only a presence. He drops his personality. He cannot say who he is. He cannot define himself. But in that indefinable state of consciousness, he knows who he is. This is a paradox: those who know who they are don't know; and those who are ready to risk their whole identity and come to a point where they don't know who they are, only they are the people who become capable of knowing. It is a gamble.... Very few people have that much courage.

Religion is not for the cowards. For the cowards is politics. Religion is not for the inferior. For the inferior is politics. The WHOLE political world depends on the inferiority complex. When a man feels himself to be nothing, nobody, he starts projecting himself in the world of ambition -- politically he wants to become somebody, a president, a prime minister. Or, money wise he becomes a millionaire, famous. Or he wants to become a Nobel Laureate, or something....

These are the ways of ambition. And why does ambition arise in the first place at all? It arises out of the inferiority complex. You feel inferior within yourself, you feel nobody. It hurts. It is like an open wound. You want to hide it. You become occupied in ambition. You rush away from yourself as far as you can. You want to forget yourself! You want to get occupied in the world of money, power, prestige.

Religion is for those who are ready to go into this nothingness of their being, who DON'T think that they have to be somebody. ALL that they want is to know who they are. They don't want to be somebody. They don't project. They simply want to enter into the innermost shrine of their being and to see what is there. If it is nothingness, then it is nothingness. Then nothingness is beautiful. Then THIS is our nature. Then there is no problem, it is not a wound. One need not search for any medicine for it; it needs no healing.

The ambitious person runs out, afraid to encounter nothingness. The religious person rushes in to know "What is this nothingness that I am?"

Risk is there. Death is there. But out of this death is resurrection, is rebirth. But if you go to the temples and the churches and the mosques, you will find a totally different kind of person praying there -- he is cowardly. His God is out of fear. He is as ambitious as anybody else. He is seeking support of the God so that he can succeed in his ambition. He is not interested in God himself. He wants to exploit God too, in some way or other. He has a motivation. He is cowardly, and out of his cowardliness he has created a great religion, ritual -- the priest, the church.

Religion is in the hands of irreligious people. A Mahavir, a Buddha, a Mohammed, a Mansoor, a Rumi, a Kabir, a Nanak -- -these are not people who are afraid. These are NOT people who are praying out of fear! They are praying out of love, not out of fear. They are praying out of sheer joy. They are praying out of thankfulness. They are not asking for anything from God -- because God has already given all that is needed.

The real religious person needs to be immensely courageous to enter into his nothingness . and inside there is a GREAT nothingness... as vast as the sky, as infinite as the sky.

There is an outer sky and there is an inner sky. The worldly person moves out, the religious person moves in. To move out is very easy, because millions are moving there. You can become part of the crowd; you need not have any individual courage of your own. You can simply ride on the mob psychology. All the people are doing something -- you can become part of it. Man is an imitator. If anything proves that man comes from the monkeys it is his tremendous capacity to imitate.

But to go in, you are alone. Absolutely alone. Nobody can be there with you, not even a friend. Great courage is needed for this internal journey -- the courage to be alone. But only those who are ready to be alone will be able to know what God is -- because God is found in your innermost aloneness. God is the innermost center of your aloneness.

God is not found as an object: God is found not as the sought but as the seeker. God is NEVER found there: God is always found HERE. Never then: always now. God is not a goal, distant from you: God is your very consciousness, your very being, your very existence.

But for that, this courage is needed -- courage to be alone, courage to drop the attachment to the crowd, courage to drop ambitions, projections, courage to be a non-entity. That's why the other day I said: I am a very ordinary person, extraordinarily ordinary. And I would like you also to become extraordinarily ordinary -- because in that VERY ordinariness, God is found. To try to be somebody, to try to be special, is the way of ambition and the way of the ego. And the ego never meets God.

That's why the other day I told you that I am not perfect -- or, I am perfectly imperfect. And that's what I would like you to be too. Imperfect -- perfectly imperfect. Then you can relax. Then there is no way to go anywhere, and no need. Then there is no ideal to be fulfilled. Then you are not constantly trying to improve upon yourself -- you simply relax. You are in a let-go. And when you are in a let-go, a prayer arises from the very ground of your being -- which is not DONE by you. It arises as fragrance arises out of flowers, as light falls from the stars. It naturally arises! And when prayer is natural, it has tremendous beauty, tremendous power. It liberates.

Be courageous. And let me repeat: the greatest courage is to be non-ambitious.

Religion is not a formality; it is not a kind of behavior; it is not a certain etiquette. You can learn the behavior of the religious people. You can go through the whole act of being religious. You can bow down in the temple, you can pray, you can even manage tears to flow down your cheeks. And deep down you know you are not in it. It is just a put-on act. Maybe you have become very skillful in it. You have done it so long that it looks almost natural, but it is not. Your heart is not in it.

You can say to your wife during the day a hundred times, "I love you." But if your heart is not in it, you know that these words are dead, that these words have no wings. And you know that moment also when you really love, and you say, "I love you." And the difference! And the difference is immense. The words are the same; there is no way to detect any difference in the words. No phonetic analysis, no analysis of the sound, is going to find any difference. But you know: when you love, those words are no more ordinary -- they are radiant, they have a luminosity, they are aflame. Your heart beats in them, they are alive.

And when you are just repeating it because it has to be repeated -- because there are books in the world like Dale Carnegie's books and Napoleon Hill's books, which go on saying that even if you don't love, go on repeating -- it helps. It lubricates relationship. Maybe they are right, it lubricates, but it is not the true thing. You may live a smooth life, but just to live a smooth life is worthless. One has to live a life of passion and prayer and love -- not just a smooth life. One has to live a life of adventure, of exploration. NOT just a smooth life! One has to live totally. One's life torch has to burn from both ends -- even though it is only for one single moment, but then that single moment is eternity. When you live at the optimum, then you know what life is. And then you know the celebration of it and the benediction of it.

Religion is not a formality. Avoid formalities. If you really want to be religious some day, avoid formalities. The greatest danger with formality is that if you become accustomed to formality you will never become aware that you are missing the real thing. The man who carries false coins and thinks they are real coins will not search for the real. That is going to be his misfortune.

Never be formal about religion. Never be a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan -- these are all formalities. Be prayerful, but not in a formal way. Let prayer arise. Wait for it. Long for it! Search for it!

Imitation is borrowed. Formality is borrowed. OTHERS teach you what to do. And religion requires a mature person, not just a person who is like a parrot.

It is not a formality because it is not part of culture, civilization, society. In fact, religion is basically asocial -- not anti-social but asocial. It takes you beyond society. You are caught up by the society, you are conditioned by the society. The society is your prison It does not allow you to move out of its boundaries. It gives you enough rope so that you can have a certain feeling of freedom, but you are not free. No society allows freedom. No society exists for freedom. The name of freedom is being ex-ploited, but no society is free.

To have a free society will mean to have no society at all -- then there will be pure individuals. And all that we know as society will be just a formal arrangement: like the post office and the railway department -- a formal arrangement. No imposition of any inner structure. No imposition of any obedience, but a help, a nourishing help, so that everybody can become himself. Not that he has to conform to a certain mould.

No society yet exists which is religious, not even the Indian society. Indians like the idea very much, and their so-called gums go on roaming around the world and declaring to the world that India IS religious -- it is all nonsense. Formally they are right, but religion has nothing to do with formality.

Religion is rebellion; it is the spirit of rebellion. Rebellion of the individual. Rebellion of the soul. Search for freedom, and ultimate freedom. Great courage is, of course, needed. Guts are needed. That's why so many people think they are religious, but very few are. Only once in a while do you find a religious person.

AND REMEMBER THAT RELIGION IS NOT SCHOLARSHIP. You to can learn the Vedas and the Bible and the Koran, and you can become REALLY efficient, yet you will not be religious. The same work can be done by a computer in a far better way. Only one thing the computer cannot do, and that is: it cannot feel. The computer can think. Now we have machines which can think, but no machine can feel.

Religion has something to do with the feeling part of your being, not with the thinking part of your being. You can study, you can become very knowledgeable, you can be burdened with great knowledge, but all this burdening slowly slowly will dry the juices of your heart. This knowledge will be like rocks, and your heart will flow no more. Your heart will be too much surrounded by rocks. It needs a little freedom to flow. It is a small stream of love. Arid only that small stream of love knows how to go to God. No rock can go to the ocean -- only that small stream of love knows how to reach the ocean. And it needs no maps, no guidebooks. It simply knows. The knowing is intuitive.

Every man simply knows how to love -- there is no need to teach him. What is needed then? All that is needed is a loving atmosphere where the spirit can be imbibed. That's what happens when you go to a Master, when you enter a Sufi TEKKIA -- a Sufi school, or a Buddhafield, or when you enter into the energy world of a Master: you are going into a magnetic field where love is flowing, where many hearts are dancing, where minds have been put aside, where feeling has become supreme. Just all that you need is a climate.

The Master is a climate, an atmosphere, in which you suddenly become aware of your own potential. Not that the Master gives you something -- there is no need! All that is needed has always been given to you by God. But in the presence of the Master, some chord in your heart starts responding, as if somebody is playing music and the very hearing of it and a dance arises in you. Your whole body wants to dance. You are in the grip of the music; it has touched and moved your heart. You are connected, bridged.

A Master is a musician. He sings a song. He lives a song. He vibrates, pulsates a certain melody. And those who are intimate with him, those who allow themselves to be close to him, those who can be in a kind of let-go with him, those who relax with him... this is what sat sang is: relaxing with a Master, dropping your tensions. There is a pool of energy; if you drop your tensions, suddenly you will become aware of your own pool too.

A very famous ancient story:

It happened, a small group of sheep was passing through a valley. A lioness jumped from one side to the other side, from one hillock to another hillock. And just while she was jumping, she gave birth to a child. The child fell into that small group of sheep.

The child was brought up by the sheep. Naturally, the child knew from the very beginning that he was a sheep. He never became aware of his being a lion -- although he was a lion! Just by forgetting, your nature does not change. He became very big, but the growth came so slowly, so slowly, that the sheep also accepted him -- he was a freak child, it appeared. Something strange, eccentric, a little bit off the track, outlandish, but in every other way he was a sheep. Absolutely vegetarian he was, and walked like sheep, and lived with sheep, and talked like sheep.

One day this miracle was seen by another lion. An old lion passing by looked at this miracle -- he could not believe his eyes. It was impossible! The young lion was walking with the sheep and the sheep were not afraid. They were going so together in such great friendship -- he could not believe his eyes! He had never heard of such a thing.

He rushed to catch hold of the lion. "What has gone... has he gone mad or something?" And the sheep escaped, and the sheep lion also escaped, naturally -- so much afraid, trembling. But the old lion became very curious, and somehow he got hold of him, took him to the river. And he was NOT willing to go. He was shrinking back and holding back, and he was saying, "Just leave me, please. Leave me alone! Let me go with my people."

I know this story, because this is what I go on doing to you every day, and you say, "Leave me alone. Let me be a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Christian -- let me go to my people! Where are you taking me? I am just a sheep, and I am perfectly happy. Don't disturb me!"

But the old lion persisted He forced the young lion to the river, and there they both looked into the river, the silent river, no ripples. It was like a mirror. And the old lion said, "Look, you are not a sheep. Look in the river!"

Just the look... and do you know what happened? A great lion's roar, suddenly! This is what Zen people call 'sudden enlightenment'. It was not a gradual process. Not that he said, "Okay, I will think about it." Not that "First I will have to go to school and study how to be a lion." Not that "Sir, I am very grateful to you -- let me become your disciple. And, slowly slowly, one day, in this life or in some other life, I will attain to this enlightenment. I am grateful that you have showed me the path."

Nothing of this sort.

Just SEEING his face and seeing the old lion's face similar, a roar exploded. In a single moment! In fact, in no time, with no interval of time. Timelessly. Instantly. Immediately... the sheep disappeared and there was a young lion.

This is the meaning of being with a Master.

You are not what you think you are. You have been taught you are this and that. You are not these small identities, these small egos. You are vast. You are infinite. You are eternal. TAT-TVAM-ASI: Thou ART That! Not less than that. You are gods and goddesses. But you have fallen into many traps.

SO IT IS NOT a question of studying. Religion has to be imbibed from someone who has arrived. It is from a Master to a disciple. It is not from the book to the student. It is from the ALIVE Master to the alive disciple. It is a transmission of insight.

The Master is not a person but only a climate, a music, a silence. If you love, you also become silent -- because whatsoever you love, you become like that. Remember it! Be very cautious in loving something, because whatsoever you love, you will become that.

The man who loves money, becomes money. He thinks only in terms of money and nothing else. The man who loves things, possessions, himself becomes a possession and nothing else, becomes a thing. Love something great! If you love a flower, it is better than loving money. If you love the moon, it is better than loving a house. If you love a woman, a man, a child, it is better than loving power and prestige.

But if you can find a Master and fall in his love, then that is the door to the divine -- because on this earth, nothing is closer to God than a Master. And the difference between you and the Master is not of quality: the difference is only of remembrance.

Remember again the old lion and the young lion. What is the difference? There is no existential difference, no difference at all fundamentally. But there IS a difference, a small difference, but that makes all the difference. The young lion has forgotten who he is. His heart has forgotten the language of a lion. He knows no more how to roar, how to shake the mountains with his roar. In the presence of the old lion, he imbibed, he recognized. Looking in the eyes of a Master, you will recognize who you are. Walking with the Master, you will recognize who you are. Just think of sitting with a Buddha... how long can you go on thinking that you are a sheep? Sooner or later the lion's roar....

This story has many beautiful points to be understood:

YOU WILL HAVE TO GO SLOWLY INTO THE STORY, because these stories are not just stories to be read and forgotten. They are reminders. They are devices. They are keys. They have many meanings. And you will have to be very very patient and sympathetic with each single word.

THE FATHER, ISKANDAR KHAN, DECIDED TO OBTAIN FOR HIS SON, HAIDAR ALI, THE PATRONAGE OF THE EMPEROR...

That's what fathers have always been doing. Their own ambitions they go on projecting through their children. Maybe he wanted to become somebody important in the King's court and he could not. Now he is poisoning his son. Now he is trying to make his son carry the load that he has been carrying his whole life. Now he is getting old, frustrated, knows that he has failed.

Nobody's ambitions are ever fulfilled. The ambitious person always fails, has to fail. If the ambitious can succeed, then there will be no need of Buddhas. Then Buddhas will be irrelevant.

Ambition fails. You have heard the proverb: Nothing succeeds like success. I say unto you: Nothing fails like success. When you have succeeded, then you know that you have failed. All the money that you wanted is there, and you are as poor as ever -- in fact, more so. All the power that you always wanted is there, but deep inside you you are the same beggar -- immature, ugly, unenlightened. You have become famous, the whole word knows you, who you are, but you yourself don't know who you are -- so what is the point?!

Jesus says: You can have the whole world as your possession, but if you have lost your soul, then what is the point of it all? The kingdom is there, but the king is dead. And that's what happens in success: you go on selling the king for the kingdom. Finally, the kingdom is there but the king is no more. That's what I call the ultimate failure of success.

And every parent fails in some way or other -- unless he becomes a Buddha. But then it is totally different. I would like to tell you the story...

When Buddha became enlightened, the first thing he did was to come back to his family -- so that they could see what had happened to him. It was natural, human, to remember his wife his child, his old father. Now he has something to share, and he would like to share it with everybody. And it is natural that he should remember all those that he has loved before.

But the wife was very angry -- that too is natural and human. One night suddenly this man had escaped, not even telling her. She was a woman of great caliber, intelligence, and a woman who was very proud. A beautiful woman! one of the most beautiful of those days. And the wound was deep. And you will be surprised that the wound was not that Gautam Siddhartha left her -- that was not the problem. She had loved this man so tremendously that if he wanted to go to the forest for his inner search, she would have allowed. The wound was that he didn't say anything to her, that he didn't trust her -- that was the wound. See the difference! She was no ordinary woman.

This was the thing that was hurting her: "Why could he not believe in me?" If he had asked, if he had said, "I am no more interested in the world and the kingdom and you and the child. Suddenly I have become disillusioned, and I would like to go to the forest to search into my inner world: who am I?" she would have allowed. Of course, with tears in her eyes, but she was a courageous woman -- she would not have prevented. And she had loved the man: love always gives freedom.

So that was not the problem! that Buddha escaped. The problem was that he didn't say a thing. He escaped like a thief.

When Buddha came, naturally, she was angry. She burst into a rage, and this was the central point. She said, "Why didn't you tell me? I would not have prevented you and you know me -- you know me perfectly. We had lived many years together. Had I ever prevented you from anything? I had loved you so deeply and so immensely that even if you wanted to go to the forest alone, I would have allowed you. I would have suffered! but that would have been my problem. But I would not have become a barrier to your search. Why didn't you tell me?!"

That was the constant question she was asking. And then, in her anger, she called her son. When Buddha left, the son was only one month old; now he was twelve years old and he was constantly asking, "Where is my father? Who is my father?"

She called the boy and said, "Rahul" -- Rahul was his name -- "this is your father. He escaped like a coward. This man has given birth to you. Now ask for your heritage!"

She was taunting, because Buddha was now a beggar -- what heritage? What had he got? The woman was really angry and she said to the child, "Ask for your heritage! This is your father -- what has he to give to you?"

And Buddha laughed, and do you know what he did? He initiated the child into sannyas. He gave him his begging-bowl and he said, "I had come really for this. I have found, and I would like my son also to find. And, Yasodhara" -- that was the name of his wife -- "be finished with this anger. It is pointless now, because the man you are being angry with is no more. I have died and I am reborn. I can understand your rage, but the man who had left you one night is no more. With whom are you talking? LOOK again at me!"

Although her eyes were full of tears, she looked at Buddha -- and recognized: "Yes, this is not the man. Looks the same, physically the same, but a different spiritual quality -- the dim ate of a Master is there." And all her anger disappeared. And the lion's roar... she fell at Buddha's feet, asked for initiation, became a sannyasin.

The parents can give only that which they have. When parents are disillusioned, they help their children to become disillusioned with the world. When parents remain unfulfilled, ambitious, they give all the poison that they have carried all along. From one generation to another, the poison goes on passing. And it becomes more and more potent the older it becomes. It is like alcohol: the older it becomes, the more potent it becomes.

ISKANDAR KHAN DECIDED TO OBTAIN FOR HIM THE PATRONAGE OF THE EMPEROR, AND HE SENT HIM TO STUDY SPIRITUAL MATTERS...

As if spirituality is something to be studied. The father must have been a very unspiritual person, certainly. Otherwise, why should he want his son to become part of the court of the king? What a stupid thing to think about! Must have been a very ignorant man; otherwise, who would like his son to be ambitious? who would like his son to be a politician? Politics is neurosis -- with a beautiful name. The political person is a mad person, and the world is not going to be at peace unless the importance of politics disappears. It has become all-important; it has become the central core of life. Religion is thrown into the margin. It seems everybody wants to be powerful. Nobody is desirous of peace.

The religious person desires peace, and peace brings power. And the politician desires power, and power only brings conflict, neurosis, anxiety....

If the father had really loved the child he would not have thought this. But ordinarily every parent thinks that he loves the child that's why he is planning. What better course can a father plan?

... AND HE SENT HIM TO STUDY SPIRITUAL MATTERS UNDER THE GREATEST SAGES OF THE TIME.

Spirituality is not a kind of scholarship. It is nothing that you can study: it is something that you have to be. It is not like accumulation; it is transformation, it is not information. It is not that you remain the same and you come back home with more knowledge, with great certificates. You never come back the same. You come back a totally different person, with a new vision of life, with a new understanding, with peace in the heart, with a great silence and harmony in the being. You come in tune with Tao, in tune with the whole. You come no more as an ego, but as a part of the divine plan, of the divine whole.

HAIDAR ALI, WHEN HE HAD MASTERED THE REPETITIONS AND THE EXERCISES, WHEN HE KNEW THE RECITALS AND THE BODILY POSTURES OF THE SUFI SCHOOLS, WAS TAKEN BY HIS FATHER INTO THE PRESENCE OF THE EMPEROR.

Now the boy went, mastered all the repetitions -- whatsoever Sufis say, he learnt it by heart, by rote -- and learnt all the exercises.

You can learn all the Yoga exercises and that is not going to make you a yogi. It will give you a better physique, better health. It is not going to give you a better soul. That is a totally different matter. It has nothing to do with body postures. It has something to do with the inner alchemy. Your consciousness has to grow higher, you have to become MORE aware. And that is the purpose of Sufi exercises. Those are not exercises, but from the outside they look like exercises. And that is the purpose of Yoga exercises too. But that purpose remains hidden. It is revealed only between a Master and a disciple. If you go just to learn the exercise, you can learn. You will become a good gymnast. And Sufi exercises particularly are basically for remembrance: how to remember oneself more.

The Sufi may be dancing, but while he is dancing, at the center he remains absolutely unmoving -- the center of the cyclone. The dance is the cyclone, his whole body is in movement, fluid. flowing, dynamic, but at the center, the witness is there silently watching, undisturbed, undistracted.

From the outside you can learn the exercise. From the outside you will never become aware of what is happening inside. And the inside is the true story.

HE MASTERED THE REPETITIONS AND EXERCISES, AND WHEN HE KNEW THE RECITALS AND THE BODILY POSTURES OF THE SUFI SCHOOLS, WAS TAKEN BY HIS FATHER INTO THE PRESENCE OF THE EMPEROR.

NOW LOOK AT THE ABSURDITY OF IT. A Sufi won t bother to become part of a king's court. He will avoid. In every way he will escape -- even if the king is after him -- because the court is the most mischievous place to be, the ugliest place to be, the most ill place to be. It is hell!

I have heard:

A great political leader died and went to that great eternal resting place. Upon arriving there, he was surprised at how similar the terrain was to home. "My goodness," he said to the nearest person, "I never expected heaven to be so much like New Delhi!"

"Mister," said the man, "I'm sorry to inform you, but this is not heaven.... "

Your capitals are the closest representations of hell. Your parliaments are more mad than any madhouses.

Why would a Sufi bother to be in a court? But this man, the father, said to the King:

"MIGHTY MAHMUD, I HAVE HAD THIS YOUTH, MY ELDEST AND MOST INTELLIGENT SON, SPECIALLY TRAINED IN THE WAYS OF THE SUFIS..."

Now, it is not a training at all! To be a Sufi is not a training. It is a sudden illumination... the lion's roar. It is not a training, it is not a gradual process, it is not learning. A TEKKIA -- a Sufi school -- is not really a school in the ordinary sense, because the learning is not learning but unlearning.

When you go to a Sufi Master, he teaches you how to unlearn. He makes your slate clean. He effaces all that is written there. He makes you blank. Great fear arises!

Just the other night, Radha was there. Just a few days before, great fear arose in her, because she saw some abyss just in front of her... as if she is near a precipice, and the mind is losing its grip on her. Thousands of thoughts buzzing around, but getting distant and distant and farther away.

One becomes very much afraid because one has lived with these thoughts so long. One is perfectly at ease with these thoughts. Without them you will suddenly feel you are no more. They constitute your identity. Radha became very much afraid, so much afraid that she got a high fever. The fever had nothing to do with the body. It was not a fever of the physiology: it was a spiritual fever. Just OUT of fear, a great trembling came.

This moment comes to every disciple. Sooner or later, the Master leads you to the precipice, where your mind simply disappears and you ore left with a state of no-mind. This is not a training: this is really untraining. This it not learning: this is unlearning.

The Sufi Master does not help you to become more knowledgeable -- he helps you to become absolutely innocent, IGNORANT. Yes, ignorant. He takes all the garbage from your head.

But the father said to the Emperor:

"I HAVE HAD MY MOST INTELLIGENT SON TRAINED SPECIALLY IN THE WAYS OF THE SUFIS, SO THAT HE MIGHT OBTAIN A WORTHY POSITION AT YOUR MAJESTY'S COURT..."

Now look for the motivation. Even if people pray, they pray for ugly things. One goes to a Sufi Master to learn something so that he can have a better position in the King's court. People use religion also for irreligious purposes. This is sacrilegious. This is a sin -- it is an unforgivable crime. God cannot be used for any other purposes. All purposes can be used for God, but God for none. God has to remain the supreme purpose, the supreme meaning, the ultimate end.

But it happens. That's how our minds are.

MAHMUD DID NOT LOOK UP...

MUST HAVE BEEN A MEN OF UNDERSTANDING. It is not worth looking up at all, because if the boy has really been with a Sufi Master he would not be ready to come to the court. That would be absolutely certain.

MAHMUD DID NOT LOOK UP... it is not even worth looking at the boy... BUT HE MERELY SAID, "BRING HIM BACK IN A YEAR."

SLIGHTLY DISAPPOINTED...

Naturally. The father was putting much hope in his son. Just the other night a beautiful, intelligent woman was saying to me that she had come here with great expectations, and she is disappointed. Now, what expectations can you have? And whatsoever expectations your mind weaves and spins are GOING TO BE WRONG! because your mind is wrong. And I am not here to fulfill anybody's expectations.

If I fulfill YOUR expectations, how am I going to transform you? I have to DESTROY your expectations. I have to destroy the very mind that creates those expectations.

If you come to me, never come with expectations, otherwise you will be disappointed -- because I have no obligation to fulfill your expectations in any way. In fact, if I see that there are some expectations, I do things DELIBERATELY to destroy those expectations. That is the price you have to pay to be with me.

SLIGHTLY DISAPPOINTED, BUT NURSING HIGH HOPES...

because it is only a question of one year more --

... ISKANDAR SENT ALI TO STUDY THE WORKS OF THE GREAT SUFIS OF THE PAST...

See the point! The man is utterly foolish. Now he sends the son to study the works of the past Masters. Religion is a spark; you can get it only from an alive Master, not from the dead ones. Christ cannot help you. Buddha cannot help you. You will have to find a living Christ, a living Buddha -- because the spark has to jump from one living heart into another living heart. Buddha helped many, but only when he was alive. And Christ helped many, but only when he was alive. A Master can help only when he is alive.

And there are people who were not even helped when Buddha was alive, and they are thinking now that they will be helped when-he is gone. You go on missing living Masters, and then you hope that you will be able to have some contact with the deed Masters? You are very cunning. This is the way to avoid the contact. You can go on pretending that you are such a religious person -- you worship Buddha end you pray to Buddha and you read the Dhammapada and you recite his sayings, and you follow whatsoever he has said, you cultivate your character according to him, you live as he wanted his disciples to live... but all this is bogus, because the living fire is no more there.

Your lion's roar can be provoked by another living lion -- there is no other way.

... TO STUDY THE WORKS OF THE GREAT SUFIS OF THE PAST the son was sent again, AND TO VISIT THE SHRINES OF THE ANCIENT MASTERS IN BAGHDAD... shrines!... SO THAT THE INTERVENING TIME WOULD NOT BE WASTED.

The father must have been a businessman -- ambitious. Business people think time is money, time should not be wasted. And their whole life is just a sheer wastage and nothing else.

Now this is a wastage! sending a young, alive boy to the shrines of dead Masters or to study classics. But there are people whose whole mind remains businesslike: "Use this time. Gather a little more knowledge. Go to the shrines. Be blessed by the old Masters so that you can attain to a high post in the court of the King."

WHEN HE BROUGHT THE YOUTH BACK TO THE COURT, HE SAID, "PEACOCK OF THE AGE! MY SON HAS CARRIED OUT LONG AND DIFFICULT JOURNEYS..."

Yes, long and difficult journeys -- but none of them is a Sufi journey. Because the Sufi journey is an inward journey! You need not go to Baghdad. You need not go anywhere. All that is needed is: you have to STOP going, and you have to fall into your own original source. You have to go in.

Lao Tzu has said: To know God one need not even leave his room... because God is in your innermost shrine.

"MY SON HAS CARRIED OUT LONG AND DIFFICULT JOURNEYS, AND AT THE SAME TIME TO HIS KNOWLEDGE OF EXERCISES HE HAS ADDED A COMPLETE FAMILIARITY WITH THE CLASSICS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE PATH. PRAY HAVE HIM EXAMINED..."

As if a Sufi understanding can be examined by anybody, as if there can be an examination for a Buddha.

"... SO THAT IT MAY BE SHOWN THAT HE COULD BE AN ADORNMENT OF YOUR MAJESTY'S COURT."

Sufism is not something that can be shown, proved, examined, certified, sanctioned. It is so interior. It is so unavailable to the outer senses and outer criterions that only one who is a Sufi will recognize it. Nobody else can recognize it. If you are fast asleep, how can you recognize that somebody is awake? If you have never been awake, what do you know about wakefulness? What criterions are there? What values to use to judge? How to evaluate?

"LET HIM," SAID MAHMUD IMMEDIATELY, "RETURN AFTER ANOTHER YEAR."

And why does Mahmud go on giving another year? Because to learn patience is one of the greatest qualities of a Sufi. To be utterly patient, infinitely patient, not in any hurry -- that is the quality of a prayerful person. He does not ask: he waits. And in his waiting he is fulfilled. And those who ask, they go on asking and their asking is never fulfilled.

Jesus says: Ask and it shall be given to you. Sufis have a far profounder saying: Ask and it will not be given to you. Ask not -- wait! and it shall be given to you. Wait in trust. Wait in deep understanding that when it is needed it will be given to you. God is the giver. When the real need arises, it WILL be given, not a single moment will be lost.

DURING THE NEXT TWELVE MONTHS, HAIDAR ALI CROSSED THE OXUS AND VISITED BOKHARA AND SAMARKAND, QASR-I-ARIFIN AND TASHQAND, DUSHAMBE AND THE TURBATS OF THE SUFI SAINTS OF TURKESTAN.

Still moving into the world of the dead, going to the tombs of the ancient sages. Masters can always be found, alive, breathing, aflame with God. You need not go to tombs. The world is not yet so poor; God has not forsaken the world. God goes on sending his messengers. God goes on transforming people so that they can transform others. It is a chain. There is no need to go to Buddha -- but you can find a Buddha.

But this is how our mind functions -- mind is always interested in the past, never in the present. The mind is afraid of the present, because the present will destroy it. The present will take you beyond the mind. The past cannot destroy the mind: the past makes the mind more and more strong.

WHEN HE RETURNED TO THE COURT, MAHMUD OF GHAZNA TOOK ONE LOOK AT HIM...

Why now one look? He has at least been patient. At least one quality of the Sufis is settling.

MAHMUD LOOKED AT HIM AND SAID, "HE MAY CARE TO COME BACK AFTER A FURTHER YEAR."

HAIDAR ALI MADE THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA IN THAT YEAR. HE TRAVEL LED TO INDIA, AND IN PERSIA HE CONSULTED RARE BOOKS AND NEVER MISSED AN OPPORTUNITY OF SEEKING OUT AND PAYING HIS RESPECTS TO THE GREAT DERVISHES OF THE TIME.

Now things are changing. Haidar Ali is moving from the past to the present. The patience is bringing fruits. He is becoming aware of the futility of what he has been doing up to now.

He went to Mecca, he went to India, he went to Persia, consulted... and missed not a single opportunity OF SEEKING OUT AND PAYING HIS RESPECTS TO THE GREAT DERVISHES OF THE TIME. Started moving in the search for those who were still alive -- and there were many. They are always there. They wait for the seekers; they become available only to the disciples.

But still one thing was wrong: he went to many, from one to another. This is not the way to imbibe the spirit of a Master. One has to be with one in deep intimacy. You can go on moving from one to another, and you will never imbibe anybody's spirit. One day you are with Buddha, another day you are with Christ, another day you are with Krishna... you will learn no-thing. How can you learn Krishna's flute in one day? How can you learn Buddha's silence in one day? How can you learn Christ's compassion in one day? These are not seasonal flowers -- they don't grow so fast. These are like ancient cedars of Lebanon -- they are huge trees, they take time, hundreds of years to penetrate deep into the earth, to rise high into the sky. They are not seasonal flowers! To attain to God is the greatest enterprise, the most arduous journey, and the greatest treasure.

You cannot just go on visiting and asking for blessings. There are a few people always like that. Here also they come. They come for one day and they say, "Osho, bless me." And I ask, "How long are you going to stay?" They say, "I am going back tomorrow morning." "Why have you come? For what?" "Just for your blessing."

Blessings help, but only to those who are patient. Blessings help, but only those who are ready to risk, who are not in such a hurry. But people are stupid. They may waste years in the university to attain to a stupid degree, but to be with a Master they think one day is enough, a blessing is enough. It is not. Great surrender is needed.

Something his changed in Haidar Ali. Now he is moving amongst the alive. But still one thing is wrong: he is moving too fast.

WHEN HE RETURNED TO GHAZNA, MAHMUD SAID TO HIM, "NOW SELECT A TEACHER, IF HE WILL HAVE YOU, AND COME BACK IN A YEAR."

THIS MAN, MAHMUD. SEEMS TO BE OP GREAT UNDERSTANDING. Now he says, "NOW select a teacher." He had not said that up to now, because up to now Haidar Ali was moving with the dead. How can you select? and there is no point in selecting: you are dead, your Masters are dead... how is life going to happen? If you want to give birth to a child, you don't get married to a dead woman, or do you? You would like a young alive woman who can become a mother. Life happens only through the alive.

Mahmud could see it. Some shine had come to the young man's eyes, some fragrance. He had moved amongst gardens where flowers were blooming. He said, "Now, select a Master -- this is no way. You have become a rolling stone; you will not gather any moss. Select a Master!"

And one very beautiful thing he says: "IF HE WILL HAVE YOU." Because you alone cannot select a Master. It does not depend only on you; in fact, it does not depend on you at all. You can only say, "I am available, Master. If you choose me, I am ready -- but if you choose me." It is always the Master who chooses. It is not a question on the disciple's part to choose. How can you choose? What do you know? Who is the Master? Who is the right Master? Out of your confusion, whatsoever you do will bring more confusion. Out of your chaos, whatsoever you do will bring more chaos.

The Master chooses.

But the disciple has to make himself available. That's what Mahmud says: "NOW SELECT A MASTER, IF HE WILL HAVE YOU -- if somebody is ready to have you, if somebody is ready to accept you."

Remember always: when a Master accepts you, you have been blessed. But foolish people think otherwise: they think THEY are surrendering. Just the other day somebody was asking: "Why should I surrender to you?" as if you have something to surrender, something very precious. You have nothing.

The Master takes away things that you don't have, and gives you things that you already have. He helps you to get rid of illusions -- and the ego is the greatest illusion. But when a foolish person goes to a Master, he thinks he is putting the Master under some great obligation, he is obliging the Master -- he is surren-dering. "Look! A man of my caliber is surrendering."

Remember always: if you are chosen you are fortunate.

"NOW SELECT A MASTER, IF HE WILL HAVE YOU, AND COME BACK IN A YEAR."

WHEN THE YEAR WAS OVER AND ISKANDAR KHAN PREPARED TO TAKE HIS SON TO THE COURT, HAIDAR ALI SHOWED NO INTEREST AT ALL IN GOING THERE. HE SIMPLY SAT AT THE FEET OF HIS TEACHER IN HERAT, AND NOTHING THAT HIS FATHER COULD SAY WOULD MOVE HIM.

This is becoming a Sufi. Now he is aflame. Now he is no more the same old young man. He is a totally new being -- he is reborn.

The Master has taken him in his womb, created him anew.

This is rebirth. Iskandar Khan still thinks he is his son -- he is no more.

When a man meets a Master, all other relationships are dissolved. Then there is no more any father, no more any mother, no more any son, wife, husband. Then all relationships ARE dissolved. Then all other relationships are only drama, games. Then all relationships are dissolved into one relationship... and that is with the Master.

Now what does he care about the court? Haidar Ali showed NO interest at all! When you have known the real treasure, when you have seen the real kingdom, who bothers about stupid things?

HE SIMPLY SAT AT THE FEET OF HIS TEACHER IN HERAT...

Now THIS is his kingdom, and this is his court. The Sufi Master's satsang is called 'his court', because it is his kingdom; he is the emperor there. And he goes on sharing his kingdom, his infinite treasure. Now just to be at his feet is more than anything else. What to say about being a part of the king's court? Even if it were proposed that he should become the king, he wouldn't listen. He HAS become the king -- and of a kingdom that even death cannot take away.

And to be at the feet of the Master is the greatest joy there is. It is heaven. In that love, in that intimacy, in that relatedness, all that has always been missing is no more missing -- one has come home.

HAIDAR ALI SHOWED NO INTEREST AT ALL IN GOING THERE. HE SIMPLY SAT AT THE FEET OF HIS TEACHER IN HERAT, AND NOTHING THAT HIS FATHER COULD SAY WOULD MOVE HIM.

"I HAVE WASTED MY TIME, AND MY MONEY, AND THIS YOUNG MAN HAS FAILED THE TESTS IMPOSED BY MAHMUD THE KING..."

He has passed. But according to his father's understanding, he has failed. To pass in the world of a Sufi is a totally different phenomenon.

Buddha had failed in the eyes of his father -- and anybody would think so, the majority would agree with Buddha's father. He was born a king and now he has become a beggar -- what more failure...? When a beggar becomes a king we call it success. But those who know, they know Buddha has succeeded.

MEANWHILE, THE DAY WHEN THE YOUTH WAS DUE TO PRESENT HIMSELF CAME AND WENT, AND THEN MAHMUD SAID TO HIS COURTIERS, "PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR A VISIT TO HERAT -- THERE IS SOMEONE THERE WHOM I HAVE TO SEE."

The same young man who used to come again and again -- and the first time Mahmud had not even looked at him. Something has happened! The day has come, and the day is gone, and the father went to Herat to bring the boy, and the boy has not come.

The message must have reached him that the father thinks the boy has failed, that the father has abandoned the whole affair.

AS THE EMPEROR'S CAVALCADE WAS ENTERING HERAT TO THE FLOURISH OF TRUMPETS, HAIDAR ALI'S TEACHER TOOK HIM BY THE HAND, LED HIM TO THE GATE OF THE TEKKIA, AND THERE THEY WAITED.

Now, even the Master cannot convince him, that he has to go -- the Master has to take him by the hand. The disciple is drunk, he is no more. He is utterly fulfilled. He won't listen even to what the Master is saying. The Master has to take him physically by the hand.

SHORTLY AFTERWARDS, MAHMUD AND HIS COURTIER AYAZ, TAKING OFF THEIR SHOES, PRESENTED THEMSELVES AT THE SANCTUARY.

"HERE, MAHMUD," SAID THE SUFI SHEIK, "IS THE MAN WHO WAS NOTHING WHILE HE WAS A VISITOR OF KINGS, BUT WHO IS NOW ONE WHO IS VISITED BY KINGS. TAKE HIM AS YOUR SUFI COUNSELOR -- FOR HE IS READY."

Only a Master can recognize whether a disciple is ready or not. Only one who is awakened can see whether others are awakened or not. The Master gives him as a gift to Mahmud, and says:

"HERE, MAHMUD, IS THE MAN WHO WAS NOTHING WHILE HE WAS A VISITOR OF KINGS..."

This is the beauty of this world of God: when you rush after desires you remain a beggar; when you stop rushing, all that you have been rushing for starts coming to you of its own accord. When you ask, it is not given. When you don't ask, it showers on you.

There is a tremendously beautiful saying of Jesus. I am never tired of quoting it again and again. Jesus says: Those who have, more shall be given to them. And those who don't have, even that which they have will be taken away from them.

A strange statement to make -- very strange. Because our ordinary mathematics, arithmetic, socialism, communism, etcetera will say that: Give to those who don't have. But Jesus says: Those who have, more shall be given to them; and those who don't have, even that which they have shall be taken away from them. This is the fundamental law. If you are happy, more happiness comes to you. If you are joyous, you attract more joyousness. Like attracts like. If you are miserable, more misery starts moving towards you.

YOU CREATE your world. Don't make anybody else responsible for it -- it is always you who are responsible.

The Master said:

"THIS IS THE MAN WHO WAS NOTHING WHILE HE WAS A VISITOR OF KINGS, BUT WHO IS NOW ONE WHO IS VISITED BY KINGS. TAKE HIM AS YOUR SUFI COUNSELOR -- FOR HE IS READY."

THIS IS THE STORY OF THE STUDIES OF HIRAVI, HAIDAR ALI JAN, THE SAGE OF HERAT.

And then he became known as the Sage of Herat.

This is a small story, but if you ponder over it it will reveal many secrets to you. It will reveal to you the true meaning of religion. It is a flame that jumps from the heart of the Master to the heart of the disciple. It is a transmission beyond words, beyond scriptures.....

Sufism

VOL. 2, SUFIS: THE PERFECT MASTER

Chapter-7

The Lion's Roar