Chapter-6

THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI

The Purity Of Yoga

Third Question

Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Yoga Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The third question:

Question 3

BUDDHA FINALLY CONVEYED TO MAHAKASHYAP WHAT HE COULD NOT CONVEY TO ANYBODY ELSE THROUGH WORDS. IN WHAT CATEGORY OF KNOWLEDGE -- DIRECT, INFERENTIAL AND WORDS OF THE AWAKENED ONE -- DOES IT COME? WHAT WAS THE MESSAGE?

First you ask, "What was the message?" If Buddha could not convey it through words, I cannot also convey it through words. It is not possible.

I will tell you one anecdote. One disciple came to Mulla Nasruddin. And he asked the Mulla that, "I have heard that you have the secret, the ultimate secret, the key which can open all the doors of mystery." Nasruddin said, "Yes, I have got it. But what about it? Why you are asking about it?" The man fell down in his feet and he said, "I was in search of you, Master. If you have the key and the secret, tell it to me."

Nasruddin said, "If it is such a secret, you must understand it cannot be told so easily. You will have to wait." The disciple asked, "How much?" Nasruddin said, "That too is not certain. It depends on your patience -- three years or thirty years." The disciple waited. After three years he asked again. Nasruddin said, "If you ask again, then it will take thirty years. Just wait. It is not an ordinary thing. It is the ultimate secret."

Thirty years passed and the disciple said, "Master, now my whole life is wasted. I have not got anything. Now, give me the secret." Nasruddin said, "There is a condition: you will have to promise me that you will keep it a secret, you will not say to anybody." The man said, "I promise you that it will remain a secret until I die. I will not mention it to anyone."

Nasruddin said, "Thank you. This is what my Master... This is my promise to my Master. And if you can keep it a secret until death, what do you think? Cannot I keep it a secret?"

If Buddha was silent, I also can be silent about it. There is something which cannot be said. It is not a message because messages can always be said. And if they cannot be said, they cannot be messages. A message is something said, something to be said, can be said. Message is always verbal.

Buddha has not a message; that's why he couldn't say it. There were ten thousand disciples. Only Mahakashyap got it because he could understand Buddha's silence. That is the secret of the secret. he could understand the silence.

Buddha remained silent under his tree one morning. And he was really going to give a sermon and everybody was waiting. He remained silent, remained silent The disciples became uneasy. It has never happened before. He will come and he will speak, and he will go. But half an hour has passed. The sun has risen, everybody is feeling hot. There is silence superficially, but everybody is inside uncomfortable, chattering, inside asking "Why Buddha is silent today?"

And he sits there under his tree with a flower in his hand and goes on looking at the flower as if he is not even aware of those ten thousand disciples who have gathered to listen. They have come from very, very far away villages. From all over the country they have gathered.

Then somebody says, somebody gathers courage and says, "Why you are not speaking? We are waiting." Buddha is reported to have said that, "I am saying. This half an hour I have been speaking."

It was too paradoxical. It was patently absurd -- he has remained silent, he has not said anything. But to say to Buddha that, "You are talking absurdities," was not possible. The disciples again remained silent -- more troubled now.

And suddenly one disciple, Mahakashyap, started laughing. Buddha called him near, gave him the flower, and said, "Whatsoever can be said, I have said to others, and that which cannot be said I have given to you." He only gave the flower, but this flower is just a symbol. With flower he has given some significance also. This flower is just a sign, but something else he has conveyed which cannot be conveyed by words.

You also know certain feelings which cannot be conveyed. When you are deep in love, what you do? You will feel meaningless simply to go on saying, "I love you. I love you." And if you say it too much, the other will get bored. And if you go on repeating, the other will think you are just a parrot. And if you continue, the other will think that you don't know what love is.

When you feel love, it is meaningless to say that you love. You have to do something -- something significant. It may be a kiss, it may be a hug, it may be just taking the other's hand into your hand, not doing anything -- but it is a significance. You are conveying something which cannot be conveyed by words.

Buddha conveyed something which cannot be conveyed by words. He gave the flower. It was a gift. That gift is visible; something invisible is passing with that gift.

When you take the hand of your friend in your hand, it is visible. Just taking the hand of your friend in your hand doesn't make much sense, but something else is passing. It is an exchange. Some energy, some feeling something so deep that words cannot express it, is passing. This is a sign; hand is just a sign. Significance is invisible; it is passing. It is not a message, it is a gift. It is grace.

Buddha has given himself; he has not given any message. He has poured himself into Mahakashyap. And for two reasons Mahakashyap became capable of receiving this. One was -- he remained totally silent while Buddha was silent. Others were also silent apparently, but they were not. They were continuously thinking, "Why Buddha is silent?" They were looking at each other, making gestures -- 'What has happened to Buddha? Has he gone mad? He has never been so silent."

Nobody was silent. Only Mahakashyap, in that great assembly of ten thousand monks, was silent. He was not troubled; he was not thinking. Buddha was looking at the flower and Mahakashyap was looking at Buddha. And you cannot find a greater flower than Buddha. That was the highest flowering of human consciousness. So Buddha went on looking at the flower and Mahakashyap went on looking at Buddha. Only two persons were not thinking. Buddha was not thinking, he was looking. And Mahakashyap was not thinking, he was also looking. This was the one thing that made him capable of receiving.

And the second thing was that he laughed. If silence cannot become celebration, if silence cannot become a laughter, if silence cannot become a dance, if silence cannot become an ecstasy, then it is pathological. Then it will become sadness. Then it will turn into a disease. Then silence will not be alive, it will be dead.

You can become silent just by becoming dead, but then you will not receive Buddha's grace. Then the divine cannot descend in you. The divine needs two things: silence and a dancing silence, silence alive. And he was both in that moment. He was silent, and when everybody was serious he laughed. Buddha poured himself; that is not a message.

Attain these two things; then I can pour myself into you. Be silent, and don't make that silence a sad thing. Allow it to be laughing and dancing. The silence must be childlike, full of energy, vibrant, ecstatic. It should not be dead. Then, then only, what Buddha did to Mahahashyap can be done to you.

My whole effort is that someday, somebody will become Mahakashyap. But it is not a message.