Book of Secrets-Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Path of Yoga and the Path of Tantra

Many questions are there.

The first:

Question 1

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL YOGA AND TANTRA?

ARE THEY THE SAME?

Tantra and yoga are basically different. They reach to the same goal; however, their paths

are not only different, but contrary also. So this has to be understood very clearly.

The yoga process is also methodology; yoga is also technique. Yoga is not philosophy,

just like tantra -- yoga depends on action, method, technique. Doing leads to being in

yoga also, but the process is different. In yoga one has to fight; it is the path of the

warrior. On the path of tantra one does not have to fight at all. Rather, on the contrary,

one has to indulge -- but with awareness.

Yoga is suppression with awareness; tantra is indulgence with awareness. Tantra says

that whatsoever you are, the ultimate is not opposite to it. It is a growth; you can grow to

be the ultimate. There is no opposition between you and the reality. You are part of it, so

no struggle, no conflict, no opposition to nature is needed. You have to use nature; you

have to use whatsoever you are to go beyond.

In yoga you have to fight with yourself to go beyond. In yoga, the world and MOKSHA,

liberation -- you as you are and you as you can be -- are two opposite things. Suppress,

fight, dissolve that which you are so that you can attain that which you can be.

Going beyond is a death in yoga. You must die for your real being to be born.

In the eyes of tantra, yoga is a deep suicide. You must kill your natural self -- your body,

your instincts, your desires, everything. Tantra says accept yourself as you are. It is a

deep acceptance. Do not create a gap between you and the real, between the world and

NIRVANA. Do not create any gap. There is no gap for tantra; no death is needed. For

your rebirth, no death is needed -- rather, a transcendence. For this transcendence, use

yourself.

For example, sex is there, the basic energy -- the basic energy you are born through, born

with. The basic cells of your being and of your body are sexual, so the human mind

revolves around sex. For yoga you must fight with this energy. Through fight you create

a different center in yourself. The more you fight, the more you become integrated in a

different center. Then sex is not your center. Fighting with sex -- of course, consciously

-- will create in you a new center of being, a new emphasis, a new crystallization. Then

sex will not be your energy. You will create your energy fighting with sex. A different

energy will come into being and a different center of existence.

For tantra you have to use the energy of sex. Do not fight with it, transform it. Do not

think in terms of enmity, be friendly to it. It is your energy. It is not evil, it is not bad.

Every energy is just natural. It can be used for you, it can be used against you. You can

make a block of it, a barrier, or you can make it a step. It can be used. Rightly used, it

becomes friendly; wrongly used, it becomes your enemy. But it is neither. Energy is just

natural. As ordinary man is using sex, it becomes an enemy, it destroys him; he simply

dissipates in it.

Yoga takes the opposite view -- opposite to the ordinary mind. The ordinary mind is

being destroyed by its own desires, so yoga says stop desiring, be desireless. Fight desire

and create an integration in you which is desireless.

Tantra says be aware of the desire; do not create any fight. Move in desire with full

consciousness, and when you move into desire with full consciousness you transcend it.

You are into it and still you are not in it. You pass through it, but you remain an outsider.

Yoga appeals much because yoga is just the opposite of the ordinary mind, so the

ordinary mind can understand the language of yoga. You know how sex is destroying you

-- how it has destroyed you, how you go on revolving around it like a slave, like a

puppet. You know this by your experience. So when yoga says fight it, you immediately

understand the language. That is the appeal, the easy appeal of yoga.

Tantra can not be so easily appealing. It seems difficult: how to move into desire without

being overwhelmed by it? How to be in the sex act consciously, with full awareness? The

ordinary mind becomes afraid.

It seems dangerous. Not that it is dangerous; whatsoever you know about sex creates this

danger for you. You know yourself, you know how you can deceive yourself. You know

very well that your mind is cunning. You can move in desire, in sex, in everything, and

you can deceive yourself that you are moving with full awareness. That is why you feel

the danger.

The danger is not in tantra; it is in you. And the appeal of yoga is because of you,

because of your ordinary mind, your sex-suppressed, sex-starved, sex-indulging mind.

Because the ordinary mind is not healthy about sex, yoga has an appeal. With a better

humanity, with a healthy sex -- natural, normal -- the case would be different. We are not

normal and natural. We are absolutely abnormal, unhealthy, really insane. But because

everyone is like us, we never feel it.

Madness is so normal that not to be mad may look abnormal. A Buddha is abnormal, a

Jesus is abnormal amidst us. They do not belong to us. This "normalcy" is a disease. This

"normal" mind has created the appeal of yoga. If you take sex naturally -- with no

philosophy around it, with no philosophy for or against -- if you take sex as you take your

hands, your eyes; if it is totally accepted as a natural thing, then tantra will have an

appeal. And only then can tantra be useful for many.

But the days of tantra are coming. Sooner or later tantra will explode for the first time in

the masses, because for the first time the time is ripe -- ripe to take sex naturally.

It is possible that the explosion may come from the West, because Freud, Jung, Reich,

they have prepared the background. They did not know anything about tantra, but they

have made the basic ground for tantra to evolve. Western psychology has come to a

conclusion that the basic human disease is somewhere around sex, the basic insanity of

man is sex-oriented.

So unless this sex orientation is dissolved, man cannot be natural, normal. Man has gone

wrong only because of his attitudes about sex. No attitude is needed. Only then are you

natural. What attitude have you about your eyes? Are they evil or are they divine? Are

you for your eyes or against them? There is no attitude! That is why your eyes are

normal.

Take some attitude -- think that eyes are evil. Then seeing will become difficult. Then

seeing will take the same problematic shape that sex has taken. Then you will want to

see, you will desire and you will hanker to see. But when you see you will feel guilty.

Whenever you see you will feel guilty that you have done something wrong, that you

have sinned. You would like to kill your very instrument of seeing; you would like to

destroy your eyes. And the more you want to destroy them, the more you will become

eye centered. Then you will start a very absurd activity. You will want to see more and

more, and simultaneously you will feel more and more guilty. The same has happened

with the sex center.

Tantra says, accept whatsoever you are. This is the basic note -- total acceptance. And

only through total acceptance can you grow. Then use every energy you have. How can

you use them? Accept them, then find out what these energies are -- what is sex, what is

this phenomenon. We are not acquainted with it. We know many things about sex, taught

by others. We may have passed through the sex act, but with a guilty mind, with a

suppressive attitude, in haste, in a hurry. Something has to be done in order to become

unburdened. The sex act is not a loving act. You are not happy in it, but you cannot leave

it. The more you try to leave it, the more attractive it becomes. The more you want to

negate it, the more you feel invited.

You cannot negate it, but this attitude to negate, to destroy, destroys the very mind, the

very awareness, the very sensitivity which can understand it. So sex goes on with no

sensitivity into it. Then you cannot understand it. Only a deep sensitivity can understand

anything; only a deep feeling, a deep moving into it, can understand anything. You can

understand sex only if you move in it as a poet moves amidst flowers -- only then! If you

feel guilty about flowers, you may pass through the garden, but you will pass with closed

eyes. And you will be in a hurry, in a deep, mad haste. Somehow you have to go out of

the garden. Then how can you be aware?

So tantra says, accept whatsoever you are.

You are a great mystery of many multidimensional energies. Accept it, and move with

every energy with deep sensitivity, with awareness, with love, with understanding. Move

with it! Then every desire becomes a vehicle to go beyond it. Then every energy becomes

a help. And then this very world is nirvana, this very body is a temple -- a holy temple, a

holy place.

Yoga is negation; tantra is affirmation. Yoga thinks in terms of duality -- that is the

reason for the word `yoga'. It means to put two things together, to `yoke' two things

together. But two things are there; the duality is there. Tantra says there is no duality. If

there is duality, then you cannot put them together. And howsoever you try they will

remain two. Howsoever put together they will remain two, and the fight will continue, the

dualism will remain.

If the world and the divine are two, then they cannot be put together. If really they are not

two, if they are only appearing as two, only then can they be one. If your body and your

soul are two, then they cannot be put together. If you and God are two, then there is no

possibility of putting them together. They will remain two.

Tantra says there is no duality; it is only an appearance. So why help appearance to grow

stronger? Tantra asks, why help this appearance of duality to grow stronger? Dissolve it

this very moment! Be one! Through acceptance you become one, not through fight.

Accept the world, accept the body, accept everything that is inherent in it. Do not create a

different center in yourself, because for tantra that different center is nothing but the ego.

Do not create an ego. Just be aware of what you are. If you fight, then the ego will be

there.

So it is difficult to find a yogi who is not an egoist. And yogis may go on talking about

egolessness, but they cannot be egoless. The very process they go through creates the

ego. The fight is the process. If you fight, you are bound to create an ego. And the more

you fight, the more strengthened the ego will be. And if you win your fight, then you will

achieve the supreme ego.

Tantra says, no fight! Then there is no possibility of the ego. If we understand tantra there

will be many problems, because for us, if there is no fight there is only indulgence. No

fight means indulgence for us. Then we become afraid. We have indulged for lives

together and we have reached nowhere. But for tantra indulgence is not "our" indulgence.

Tantra says indulge, but be aware.

You are angry... tantra will not say do not be angry. Tantra will say be angry

wholeheartedly, but be aware. Tantra is not against anger, tantra is only against spiritual

sleepiness, spiritual unconsciousness. Be aware AND be angry. And this is the secret of

the method -- that if you are aware anger is transformed: it becomes compassion.

So tantra says anger is not your enemy; it is compassion in seed form. The same anger,

the same energy, will become compassion.

If you fight with it, then there will be no possibility for compassion. So if you succeed in

fighting, in suppression, you will be a dead man. There will be no anger because you

have suppressed it, but there will be no compassion either because only anger can be

transformed into compassion. If you succeed in your suppression -- which is impossible

-- then there will be no sex, but no love either, because with sex dead there is no energy

to grow into love. So you will be without sex, but you will also be without love. And then

the whole point is missed, because without love there is no divineness, without love there

is no liberation, and without love there is no freedom.

Tantra says that these same energies are to be transformed. It can be said in this way: if

you are against the world, then there is no nirvana -- because this world itself is to be

transformed into nirvana. Then you are against the basic energies which are the source.

So tantric alchemy says, do not fight, be friendly with all the energies that are given to

you. Welcome them. Feel grateful that you have anger, that you have sex, that you have

greed. Feel grateful because these are the hidden sources, and they can be transformed,

they can be opened. And when sex is transformed it becomes love.

The poison is lost, the ugliness is lost.

The seed is ugly, but when it becomes alive it sprouts and flowers. Then there is beauty.

Do not throw away the seed, because then you are also throwing the flowers in it. They

are not there yet, not yet manifest so that you can see them. They are unmanifest, but they

are there. Use this seed so that you can attain to flowers. So first let there be acceptance,

a sensitive understanding and awareness. Then indulgence is allowed.

One thing more which is really very strange, but one of the deepest discoveries of tantra,

and that is: whatsoever you take as your enemies -- greed, anger, hate, sex, whatsoever --

your attitude that they are enemies makes them your enemies. Take them as divine gifts

and approach them with a very grateful heart. For example, tantra has developed many

techniques for the transformation of sexual energy. Approach the sex act as if you are

approaching the temple of the divine. Approach the sex act as if it is prayer, as if it is

meditation. Feel the holiness of it.

That is why in Khajuraho, in Puri, in Konark, every temple has MAITHUN, intercourse

sculptures. The sex act on the walls of temples seems illogical, particularly for

Christianity, for Islam, for Jainism. It seems inconceivable, contradictory. How is the

temple connected with maithun pictures? On the outer walls of the Khajuraho temples,

every conceivable type of sex act is pictured in stone.

Why? In a temple it doesn't have any place, in our minds at least. Christianity cannot

conceive of a church wall with Khajuraho pictures. Impossible!

Modern Hindus also feel guilty because the minds of modern Hindus are created by

Christianity. They are "Hindu-Christians" -- and they are worse, because to be a Christian

is good, but to be a Hindu-Christian is just weird. They feel guilty. One Hindu leader,

Purshottamdas Tandon, even proposed that these temples should be destroyed, that they

do not belong to us. Really, it looks like they do not belong to us because tantra has not

been in our hearts for a long time, for centuries. It has not been the main current. Yoga

has been the main current, and for yoga Khajuraho is inconceivable -- it must be

destroyed.

Tantra says, approach the sex act as if you are entering a holy temple. That is why they

have pictured the sex act on their holy temples. They have said, approach sex as if you

are entering a holy temple. Thus, when you enter a holy temple sex must be there in order

that the two become conjoined in your mind, associated. Then you can feel that the world

and the divine are not two fighting elements, but one. They are not contradictory, they are

just polar opposites helping each other. And they can exist only because of this polarity.

If this polarity is lost, the whole world is lost. So see the deep oneness running through

everything.

Do not see only the polar opposites, see the inner running current which makes them one.

For tantra everything is holy. Remember this, for tantra EVERYTHING is holy; nothing

is unholy. Look at it this way: for an irreligious person, everything is unholy; for socalled

religious persons something is holy, something is unholy.

For tantra, everything is holy.

One Christian missionary was with me a few days ago and he said, "God created the

world." So I asked him, "Who created sin?" He said, "The devil."

Then I asked him, "Who created the devil?" Then he was at a loss. He said, "Of course,

God created the devil."

The devil creates sin and God creates the devil. Then who is the real sinner -- the devil or

God? But the dualist conception always leads to such absurdities. For tantra God and the

devil are not two. Really, for tantra there is nothing that can be called "devil", everything

is divine, everything is holy. And this seems to be the right standpoint, the deepest. If

anything is unholy in this world, from where does it come and how can it be?

So only two alternatives are there. First, the alternative of the atheist who says everything

is unholy. This attitude is okay. He is also a non-dualist; he sees no holiness in the world.

Then there is the tantric's alternative -- he says everything is holy. He is also a nondualist.

But between these two are the so-called religious persons, who are not really

religious.

They are neither religious nor irreligious because they are always in a conflict. Their

whole theology is just to make ends meet, and those ends cannot meet.

If a single cell, a single atom in this world is unholy, then the whole world becomes

unholy, because how can that single atom exist in a holy world? How can it be? It is

supported by everything; to be, it has to be supported by everything. And if the unholy

element is supported by all the holy elements, then what is the difference between them?

So either the world is holy totally, unconditionally, or it is unholy; there is no middle

path.

Tantra says everything is holy, that is why we cannot understand it. It is the deepest nondual

standpoint -- if we can call it a standpoint. It is not, because any standpoint is bound

to be dual. It is not against anything, so it is not any standpoint. It is a felt unity, a lived

unity.

These are two paths, yoga and tantra. Tantra could not be so appealing because of our

crippled minds. But whenever there is someone who is healthy inside, not a chaos, tantra

has a beauty. Only he can understand what tantra is. Yoga has appeal, an easy appeal,

because of our disturbed minds.

Remember, it is ultimately your mind which makes anything attractive or unattractive. It

is you who is the deciding factor.

These approaches are different. I am not saying that one cannot reach through yoga.

One can reach through yoga also, but not through the yoga which is prevalent. The yoga

which is prevalent is not really yoga, but the interpretation of your diseased minds. Yoga

can be authentically an approach toward the ultimate, but that too is only possible when

your mind is healthy, when your mind is not diseased and ill. Then yoga takes a different

shape.

For example, Mahavir was on the path of yoga, but he was not really suppressing sex. He

had known it, he had lived it, he was deeply acquainted with it. But it became useless to

him, so it dropped. Buddha was on the path of yoga, but he had lived through the world,

he was deeply acquainted with it. He was not fighting.

Once you know something you become free from it. It simply drops like dead leaves

dropping from a tree. It is not renunciation; there is no fight involved at all. Look at

Buddha's face -- it doesn't look like the face of a fighter. He has not been fighting. He is

so relaxed; his face is the very symbol of relaxation... no fight.

Look at your yogis. The fight is apparent on their faces. Deep down much turmoil is there

-- right now they are sitting on volcanos. You can look in their eyes, in their faces, and

you will feel it. Deep down somewhere they have suppressed all their diseases; they have

not gone beyond.

In a healthy world, where everyone is living his life authentically, individually, not

imitating others but living his own life in his own way, both are possible.

He may learn the deep sensitivity which transcends desires; he may come to a point

where all desires become futile and drop. Yoga can also lead to this, but to me yoga will

lead to it in the same world where tantra can lead to it -- remember this. We need a

healthy mind, a natural man. In that world where a natural man is, tantra, and yoga also,

will lead to transcendence of desires.

In our so-called ill society, neither yoga nor tantra can do this, because if we choose yoga

we do not choose it because desires have become useless -- no! They are still meaningful;

they are not dropping by themselves. We have to force them. If we choose yoga, we

choose it as a technique of suppression. If we choose tantra, we choose tantra as a

cunningness, as a deep deception -- an excuse to indulge.

So with an unhealthy mind neither yoga nor tantra can work. They will both lead to

deceptions. A healthy mind, particularly a sexually healthy mind, is needed to start with.

Then it is not very difficult to choose your path. You can choose yoga, you can choose

tantra.

There are two types of persons basically, male and female. I do not mean biologically,

but psychologically. For those who are psychologically basically male -- aggressive,

violent, extrovert -- yoga is their path. For those who are basically feminine, receptive,

passive, non-violent, tantra is their path. So you may note it: for tantra, Mother Kali,

Tara, and so many DEVIS, BHAIRAVIS -- female deities -- are very significant.

In yoga you will never hear mentioned any name of a feminine deity. Tantra has feminine

deities; yoga has male gods. Yoga is outgoing energy; tantra is energy moving inwards.

So you can say in modern psychological terms that yoga is extrovert and tantra is

introvert. So it depends on the personality. If you have an introverted personality, then

fight is not for you. If you have an extroverted personality, then fight is for you.

But we are just confused, we are just in a mess; that is why nothing helps. On the

contrary, everything disturbs. Yoga will disturb you, tantra will disturb you. Every

medicine is going to create a new illness for you because the chooser is ill, diseased; so

the result of his choice will be illness. So I do not mean that through yoga you cannot

reach. I emphasize tantra only because we are going to try to understand what tantra is.

Another question:

Question 2

ON THE PATH OF SURRENDER, HOW DOES THE SEEKER COME TO THE

RIGHT TECHNIQUE OUT OF ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE METHODS?

On the path of will there are methods -- these one hundred and twelve methods. On the

path of surrender, surrender itself is the method, there are no other methods -- remember

this. All methods are non-surrendering, because a method means depending on yourself.

You can do something; the technique is there, so you do it. On the path of surrender, you

are no more, so you cannot do anything.

You have done the ultimate, the last: you have surrendered. On the path of surrender,

surrender is the only method.

All these one hundred and twelve methods require a certain will; they require something

to be done by you. You manipulate your energy, you balance your energy, you create a

center in your chaos. You do something. Your effort is significant, basic, required. On the

path of surrender only one thing is required -- you surrender. We will go deep into these

one hundred and twelve methods, so it is good to say something about surrender because

it has no method.

In these one hundred and twelve methods there will be nothing about surrender. Why has

Shiva not said anything about surrender? Because nothing can be said. Bhairavi herself,

Devi herself, has reached Shiva not through any method. She has simply surrendered. So

this must be noted. She is asking these questions not for herself, these questions are asked

for the whole humanity. She has attained Shiva. She is already in his lap; she is already

embraced by him. She has become one with him, but still she is asking.

So remember one thing, she is not asking for herself; there is no need. She is asking for

the whole humanity. But if she has attained, why is she asking Shiva? Can she herself not

speak to the humanity? She has come through the path of surrender, so she doesn't know

anything about method.

She herself has come through love; love is enough unto itself. Love doesn't need anything

more. She has come through love, so she doesn't know anything about any methods,

techniques. That is why she is asking.

So Shiva relates one hundred and twelve methods. He also will not talk about surrender

because surrender is not a method really. You surrender only when every method has

become futile, when you cannot reach by any method. You have tried your best. You

have knocked on every door and no door opens, and you have passed through all the

routes and no route reaches. You have done whatsoever you can do, and now you feel

helpless. In that total helplessness surrender happens. So on the path of surrender there is

no method.

But what is surrender and how does it work? And if surrender works, then what is the

need of one hundred and twelve methods? Then why go into them unnecessarily? -- the

mind will ask. Then okay! If surrender works, it is better to surrender. Why go on

hankering after methods? And who knows whether a particular method will suit you or

not? And it may take lives to find out. So it is good to surrender, but it is difficult. It is

the most difficult thing in the world.

Methods are not difficult. They are easy; you can train yourself. But for surrender you

cannot train yourself... no training! You cannot ask how to surrender; the very question is

absurd.

How can you ask how to surrender? Can you ask how to love?

Either there is love or there is not, but you cannot ask how to love. And if someone tells

you and teaches you how to love, remember, then you will never be capable of love.

Once a technique is given to you for love, you will cling to the technique. That is why

actors cannot love. They know so many techniques, so many methods -- and we are all

actors. Once you know the trick how to love, then love will not flower because you can

create a facade, a deception. And with the deception you are out of it, not involved. You

are protected.

Love is being totally open, vulnerable. It is dangerous. You become insecure. We cannot

ask how to love, we cannot ask how to surrender. It happens! Love happens, surrender

happens. Love and surrender are deeply one. But what is it? And if we cannot know how

to surrender, at least we can know how we are maintaining ourselves from surrendering,

how we are preventing ourselves from surrendering. That can be known and that is

helpful.

How is it that you have not surrendered yet? What is your technique of non-surrendering?

If you have not fallen in love yet, then the real problem is not how to love. The real

problem is to dig deep to find out how you have lived without love, what is your trick,

what is your technique, what is your structure -- your defense structure, how you have

lived without love.

That can be understood, and that should be understood.

First thing: we live with the ego, in the ego, centered in the ego. I am without knowing

who I am. I go on announcing, "I am." This "I-am-ness" is false, because I do not know

who I am. And unless I know who I am, how can I say "I"? This "I" is a false "I". This

false "I" is the ego. This is the defense. This protects you from surrendering.

You cannot surrender, but you can become aware of this defense measure. If you have

become aware of it, it dissolves. By and by, you are not strengthening it, and one day you

come to feel, "I am not." The moment you come to feel "I am not," surrender happens. So

try to find out whether you are. Really, is there any center in you that you can call your

"I"?. Go deep down within yourself, go on trying to find out where is this "I", where is

the abode of this ego.

Rinzai went to his master and he said, "Give me freedom!" The master said, "Bring

yourself. If you are, I will make you free. But if you are not, then how can I make you

free? You are already free. And freedom," his master said, "is not your freedom. Really,

freedom is freedom from `you'. So go and find out where this `I' is, where you are, then

come to me. This is the meditation. Go and meditate."

So the disciple Rinzai goes and meditates for weeks, months, and then he comes. Then he

says, "I am not the body.

Only this much I have found." So the master says, "This much you have become free. Go

again. Try to find out." Then he tries, meditates, and he finds that "I am not my mind,

because I can observe my thoughts. So the observer is different from the observed -- I am

not my mind." He comes and says, "I am not my mind." So his master says, "Now you

are three-fourths liberated. Now go again and find out who you are."

So he was thinking, "I am not my body. I am not my mind." He had read, studied, he was

well informed, so he was thinking, "I am not my body, not my mind, so I must be my

soul, my ATMA." But he meditated, and then he found that there is no atman, no soul,

because this atma is nothing but your mental information -- just doctrines, words,

philosophies.

So he came running one day and he said, "Now I am no more!" Then his master said,

"Am I now to teach you the methods for freedom?" Rinzai said, "I am free because I am

no more. There is no one to be in bondage. I am just a wide emptiness, a nothingness."

Only nothingness can be free. If you are something, you will be in bondage. If you are,

you will be in bondage. Only a void, a vacant space, can be free. Then you cannot bind it.

Rinzai came running and said, "I am no more. Nowhere am I to be found." This is

freedom. And for the first time he touched his master's feet -- for the first time! Not

actually, because he had touched them many times before also.

But the master said, "For the first time you have touched my feet."

Rinzai asked, "Why do you say for the first time? I have touched your feet many times."

The master said, "But you were there, so how could you touch my feet while you were

already there? While you are there how can you touch my feet?" The "I" can never touch

anybody's feet. Even though it apparently looks like it touches somebody's feet, it is

touching its own feet, just in a round-about way. "You have touched my feet for the first

time," the master said, "because now you are no more. And this is also the last time," the

master said. "The first and the last."

Surrender happens when you are not, so YOU cannot surrender. That is why surrender

cannot be a technique. You cannot surrender -- you are the hindrance. When you are not,

surrender is there. So you and surrender cannot cohabit, there is no coexistence between

you and surrender. Either you are or surrender is. So find out where you are, who you

are. This inquiry creates many, many surprising results.

Raman Maharshi used to say, "Inquire `Who am I ?'" It was misunderstood. Even his

nearest disciples have not understood the meaning of it. They think that this is an inquiry

to find out really "Who am I?" It is not! if you go on inquiring "Who am I?" you are

bound to come to the conclusion that you are not. This is not really an inquiry to find out

"Who am I?" Really, this is an inquiry to dissolve.

I have given many this technique, to inquire within "Who am I?" Then a month or two

months later, they will come to me and say, "I have still not found `Who am I?' The

question is still the same; there is no answer."

So I tell them, "Continue. Someday the answer will come." And they hope that the

answer will come. There is going to be no answer. It is only that the question will

dissolve. There is not going to be an answer, that "You are this." Only the question will

dissolve. There will be no one to ask even "Who am I?" And then you know.

When the "I" is not, the real "I" opens. When the ego is not, you are for the first time

encountering your being. That being is void. Then you can surrender; then you have

surrendered. You are surrender now. So there can be no techniques, or only negative

techniques like this inquiry into "Who am I?"

How does surrender work? If you surrender, what happens? We will come to understand

how methods work. We will go deep into methods, and we will come to know how they

work. They have a scientific basis of working.

When you surrender you become a valley; when you are an ego you are like a peak. Ego

means you are above everyone else, you are somebody. The others may recognize you,

may not recognize you -- that is another thing. You recognize that you are above

everyone. You are like a peak; nothing can enter you.

When one surrenders, one becomes like a valley. One becomes depth, not height. Then

the whole existence begins to pour into him from everywhere. He is just a vacuum, just a

depth, an abyss, bottomless. The whole existence begins to pour from everywhere. You

can say God runs from everywhere to him, enters him from every pore, fills him totally.

This surrender, this becoming a valley, an abyss, can be felt in many ways. There are

minor surrenders; there are major surrenders. Even in minor surrenders you feel it.

Surrendering to a master is a minor surrender, but you begin to feel it because the master

begins to flow into you immediately. If you surrender to a master, suddenly you feel his

energy flowing into you. If you cannot feel energy flowing into you, then know well you

have not surrendered even in a minor way.

There are so many stories which have become meaningless for us because we do not

know how they happened. Mahakashyap came to Buddha, and Buddha just touched his

head with his hand, and the thing happened. And Mahakashyap began to dance. So

Ananda asked Buddha, "What has happened to him? And I have been for forty years with

you! Is he mad? Or is he just fooling others? What has happened to him? And I have

touched your feet thousands and thousands of times."

Of course, to Ananda, this Mahakashyap will either look like he is mad or as if he is just

deceiving.

He was with Buddha for forty years, but there was a problem. He was his elder brother,

Buddha's elder brother; that was the problem. When Ananda came to Buddha forty years

before, the first thing he said to Buddha was this: "I am your elder brother, and when you

will initiate me, I will become your disciple. So allow me three things before I become

your disciple, because then I cannot demand. One, I will always be with you. Give me

this promise, that you will not say to me, `Go somewhere else.' I will follow you.

"Secondly, I will sleep in the same room where you sleep. You cannot say to me, `Go

out.' I will be with you like your shadow. And thirdly, if I bring anyone at any time, even

at midnight, you will have to answer him. You cannot say, `This is not the time.' And

give me these three promises while I am still your elder brother, because once I become

your disciple I will have to follow you. You are still younger than me, so give me these

promises."

So Buddha promised, and this became the problem. For forty years Ananda was with

Buddha, but he could never surrender, because this is not the spirit of surrender. Ananda

asked many, many times, "When am I going to attain?" Buddha said, "Unless I die, you

will not attain." And Ananda could attain only when Buddha died.

What happened to this Mahakashyap suddenly? Is Buddha partial -- partial to

Mahakashyap? He is not! He is flowing, constantly flowing.

But you have to be a valley, a womb, to receive him. If you are above him, how can you

receive? That flowing energy cannot come to you, it will miss you. So bow down. Even

in a minor surrender with a master, energy begins to flow. Suddenly, immediately, you

become a vehicle of a great force.

There are thousands and thousands of stories... just by a touch, just by a look, someone

became enlightened. They do not appear rational to us. How is this possible? This is

possible! Even a look from the master into your eyes will change your total being, but it

can change only if your eyes are just vacant, valley-like. If you can absorb the look of the

master, immediately you will be different.

So these are minor surrenders that happen before you surrender totally. And these minor

surrenders prepare you for the total surrender. Once you have known that through

surrender you receive something unknown, unbelievable, unexpected, never even

dreamed of, then you are ready for a major surrender. And that is the work of the master

-- to help you in minor surrenders so that you can gather courage for a major surrender,

for a total surrender.

One last question:

Question 3

WHAT ARE THE EXACT INDICATIONS TO KNOW THAT THE PARTICULAR

TECHNIQUE ONE IS PRACTISING WILL LEAD TO THE ULTIMATE?

There are indications. One, you begin to feel a different identity within you.

You are no more the same. If the technique fits you, immediately you are a different

person. If you are a husband, you are no more the same husband. If you are a shopkeeper,

you are never again the same shopkeeper. Whatsoever you are, if the technique fits you,

you are a different person; that is the first indication. So if you begin to feel strange about

yourself, know that something is happening to you. If you remain the same and do not

feel any strangeness, nothing is happening. This is the first indication of whether a

technique fits you. If it fits, immediately you are transported, transformed into a different

person. Suddenly this happens: you look at the world in a different way. The eyes are the

same, but the looker behind them is different.

Secondly, all that creates tensions, conflicts, starts dropping. It is not that when you have

practiced the method for years, then your conflicts, anxieties, tensions will drop -- no! If

the method fits you, immediately they start dropping. You can feel an aliveness coming

to you; you are being unburdened. You will begin to feel, if the technique fits you, that

gravity has become reversed. Now the earth is not pulling you down. Rather, the sky is

pulling you up. How do you feel when an airplane takes off? Everything is disturbed.

Suddenly there is a jerk, and gravity becomes meaningless. Now the earth is not pulling

you, you are going away from gravity.

The same jerk happens if a meditative technique fits you. Suddenly you take off.

Suddenly you feel the earth has become meaningless; there is no gravity. It is not pulling

you down, you are being pulled up. In religious terminology, this is called "grace". There

are two forces -- gravity and grace. Grace means you are being pulled upwards; gravity

means you are being pulled downwards.

That is why in meditation many people suddenly feel they have no weight. That is why

many people feel an inner levitation. So many have reported this to me when the

technique fits them: "This is strange! We close our eyes and we feel that we are a little bit

above the earth -- one foot, two feet, even four feet above the earth. When we open our

eyes we are just on the ground; when we close our eyes we have levitated. So what is

this? When we open our eyes we are just on the ground! We never levitated."

The body remains on the ground, but you levitate. This levitation is really a pull from the

above. If the technique fits you have been pulled, because the working of the technique is

to make available for you the upward pull. This is what the technique means: to make

you available for the force which can pull you up. So if it fits, you know -- you have

become weightless.

Thirdly, whatsoever you will now do, whatsoever, howsoever trivial, will be different.

You will walk in a different way, you will sit in a different way, you will eat in a

different way.

Everything will be different. This difference you will feel everywhere. Sometimes this

strange experience of being different creates fear. One wants again to go back and be the

same, because one was so attuned with the old. It was a routine world, even boring, but

you were efficient in it.

Now everywhere you will feel a gap. You will feel that your efficiency is lost. You will

feel that your utility is reduced. You will feel that everywhere you are an outsider. One

has to pass through this period. You will become attuned again. You have changed, not

the world, so you will not fit. So remember the third thing: When the technique fits you,

you will not fit into the world. You will become unfit. Everywhere something is loose,

some bolt is missing. Everywhere you will feel that there has been an earthquake. And

everything has remained the same; only you, you, have become different. But you will be

attuned again on a different plane, on a higher plane.

The disturbance is felt just like when a child grows and becomes sexually mature. At the

age of fourteen or fifteen every boy feels that he has become strange. A new force has

entered -- sex. It was not there before, or it was, but it was hidden. Now for the first time

he has become available for a new kind of force. That is why boys are very awkward;

girls, boys, when they become sexually mature, they are very awkward.

They are nowhere. They are no longer children and they are not yet men, so they are in

between, fitting nowhere. If they play with small children they feel awkward -- they have

become men. If they start making friendships with men they feel awkward -- they are still

children. They fit with no one.

The same phenomenon happens when a technique fits you. A new energy source

becomes available that is greater than sex. You are again in a transitory period. Now you

cannot fit in this world of worldly men. You are not a child, and you cannot yet fit in the

world of saints; and in between one feels awkward.

If a technique fits you these three things will come up. You may not have expected that I

would say these things. You may have expected that I would say you will become more

silent, more quiet, and I am saying quite the contrary: you will become more disturbed.

When the technique fits you will become more disturbed, not more silent. Silence will

come later on. And if silence comes and not disturbance, know well that this is not a

technique; this is just getting adjusted to the old pattern.

That is why more people go for a prayer than for meditation because prayer gives you a

consolation. It fits you, adjusts to you, to your world. Prayer was doing virtually the same

thing that psychoanalysts are now doing. If you are disturbed they will make you less

disturbed, adjusted to the pattern, to the society, to the family.

So by going to a psychoanalyst for one, two or three years you will not get better, but you

will be more adjusted. Prayer does the same thing, and priests do the same thing -- they

make you more adjusted.

Your child has died and you are disturbed, and you go to a priest. He says, "Do not be

disturbed. Only those children die early whom God loves more. He calls them up." You

feel satisfied. Your child has been "called up." God loves him more. Or the priest says

something else: "Do not be worried, the soul never dies. Your child is in heaven."

One woman was here just a few days before. Her husband had died just during the past

month. She was disturbed. She came to me and she said, "Only assure me that he is

reborn in a good place and then everything will be okay. Just give me a certainty that he

has not gone to hell or he has not become an animal, that he is in heaven or he has

become a god or some such thing. If you can just assure me of this, then everything is

okay. Then I can bear it; otherwise I am miserable."

The priest would say, "Okay! Your husband is born as a god in the seventh heaven, and

he is very happy. And he is waiting for you."

These prayers, they make you adjusted to the pattern... you feel better. Meditation is a

science. It is not going to help you in adjustment, it is going to help you in

transformation. That is why I say these three signs will be there as indications.

Silence will come, but not as an adjustment. Silence will come as an inner flowering.

Then silence will not be an adjustment with the society, with the family, the world, the

business -- no! Then silence will be a real harmony with the universe.

Then a deep harmony flowers between you and the totality, then there is silence -- but

that will come later. First you will get disturbed, first you will become mad.

If a technique fits, it will make you aware of everything that you are. Your anarchy, your

mind, your madness, everything will come to light. You are just a dark mess. When a

technique fits, it is as if suddenly there is light and the whole mess becomes apparent. For

the first time you will encounter yourself as you are. You would like to put the light off

and go to sleep again -- it is fearful. This is the point where the master becomes helpful.

He says, "Do not be afraid. This is just the beginning. And do not escape from it."

At first this light shows you what you are, and if you can go on and on, it transforms you

toward what you can be.

Enough for today.

THE END.

The Book of Secrets-Part2

Hey

you must read this..... this is so scientific... I was amazed reading this writing from Osho...

I realy fascinated by his way of writing, he has gone very deep into everything and explains each and every concepts and points in so clear language and so neatly where one can understand without any problem

he makes clear, that one shouldn't see any thing with prejudice, and live for that moment and think of what is happening rather than what happened and what is going to happen.

here you go.... 2nd part of his writing, which I am giving here.... have fun reading this material

One thing more.... Now modern psychology, depth psychology particularly, says that

man is both man and woman. No one is just male and no one is just female; everyone is

bi-sexual. Both sexes are there. This is a very recent research in the West, but for tantra

this has been one of the most basic concepts for thousands of years. You must have seen

some pictures of Shiva as ARDHANARISHWAR -- half man, half woman. There is no

other concept like it in the whole history of man. Shiva is depicted as half man, half

woman.

So Devi is not just a consort, she is Shiva's other half. And unless a disciple becomes the

other half of the master it is impossible to convey the higher teachings, the esoteric

methods. When you become one then there is no doubt. When you are one with the

master -- so totally one, so deeply one -- there is no argument, no logic, no reason. One

simply absorbs; one becomes a womb. And then the teaching begins to grow in you and

change you.

That is why tantra is written in love language. Something must also be understood about

love language. There are two types of language: logical language and love language.

There are basic differences between the two.

Logical language is aggressive, argumentative, violent. If I use logical language I become

aggressive upon your mind. I try to convince you, to convert you, to make a puppet of

you.

My argument is "right" and you are "wrong." Logical language is egocentric: "I am right

and you are wrong, so I must prove that I am right and you are wrong." I am not

concerned with you, I am concerned with my ego. My ego is always "right."

Love language is totally different. I am not concerned with my ego; I am concerned with

you. I am not concerned to prove something, to strengthen my ego. I am concerned to

help you. It is a compassion to help you to grow, to help you to transform, to help you to

be reborn.

Secondly, logic will always be intellectual. Concepts and principles will be significant,

arguments will be significant. With love language what is said is not so significant;

rather, it is the way it is said. The container, the word is not important; the content, the

message is more important. It is a heart-to-heart talk, not a mind-to-mind discussion. It is

not a debate, it is a communion.

So this is rare: Devi is sitting in the lap of Shiva and asking, and Shiva answers. It is a

love dialogue -- no conflict, as if Shiva is speaking to himself. Why this emphasis on love

-- love language? Because if you are in love with your master, then the whole gestalt

changes; it becomes different. Then you are not hearing his words. Then you are drinking

him. Then words are irrelevant. Really, the silence between the words becomes more

significant. What he is saying may be meaningful or it may not be meaningful.

.. but it is his eyes, his gestures, his compassion, his love.

That is why tantra has a fixed device, a structure. Every treatise starts with Devi asking

and Shiva answering. No argument is going to be there, no wastage of words. There are

very simple statements of fact, telegraphic messages with no view to convince, but just to

relate.

If you encounter Shiva with a question with a closed mind, he will not answer you in this

way. First your closedness has to be broken. Then he will have to be aggressive. Then

your prejudices, then your preconceptions have to be destroyed. Unless you are cleared

completely of your past, nothing can be given to you. But this is not so with his consort

Devi; with Devi there is no past.

Remember, when you are deeply in love your mind ceases to be. There is no past; only

the present moment becomes everything. When you are in love the present is the only

time, the now is all -- no past, no future. So Devi is just open. There is no defense --

nothing to be cleared, nothing to be destroyed. The ground is ready, only a seed has to be

dropped. The ground is not only ready, but welcoming, receptive, asking to be

impregnated.

So all these sayings that we are going to discuss will be telegraphic. They are just sutras,

but each sutra, each telegraphic message given by Shiva is worth a Veda, worth a Bible,

worth a Koran. Each single sentence can become the base of a great scripture.

Scriptures are logical -- you have to propose, defend, argue. Here there is no argument,

just simple statements of love.

Thirdly, the very words VIGYANA BHAIRAVA TANTRA mean the technique of going

beyond consciousness. VIGYANA means consciousness, BHAIRAVA means the state

which is beyond consciousness, and TANTRA means the method: the method of going

beyond consciousness. This is the supreme doctrine -- without any doctrine.

We are unconscious, so all the religious teachings are concerned with how to go beyond

unconsciousness, how to be conscious. For example, Krishnamurti, Zen, they are all

concerned with how to create more consciousness, because we are unconscious. So how

to be more aware, alert? From unconsciousness, how to move toward consciousness?

But tantra says that this is a duality -- unconscious and conscious. If you move from

unconsciousness to consciousness, you are moving from one duality to another. Move

beyond both! Unless you move beyond both you can never reach the ultimate, so be

neither the unconscious nor the conscious; just go beyond, just be. Be neither the

conscious nor the unconscious -- just BE! This is going beyond yoga, going beyond Zen,

going beyond all teachings.

'Vigyana' means consciousness, and 'bhairava' is a specific term, a tantra term for one

who has gone beyond. That is why Shiva is known as Bhairava and Devi is known as

Bhairavi -- those who have gone beyond the dualities.

In our experience only love can give a glimpse. That is why love becomes the very basic

device to impart tantric wisdom. In our experience we can say that only love is something

which goes beyond duality. When two persons are in love, the deeper they move into it,

the less and less they are two, the more and more they become one. And a point comes

and a peak is reached when only apparently they are two. Inwardly they are one; the

duality is transcended.

Only in this sense does Jesus' saying that "God is love" become meaningful; otherwise

not. In our experience love is nearest to God. It is not that God is loving, as Christians go

on interpreting -- that God has a fatherly love for you. Nonsense! "God is love" is a

tantric statement. It means love is the only reality in our experience which reaches

nearest to God, to the divine. Why? Because in love oneness is felt. Bodies remain two,

but something beyond the bodies merges and becomes one.

That is why there is so much hankering after sex. The real hankering is after oneness, but

that oneness is not sexual. In sex two bodies have only a deceptive feeling of becoming

one, but they are not one, they are only joined together. But for a single moment two

bodies forget themselves in each other, and a certain physical oneness is felt. This

hankering is not bad, but to stop at it is dangerous. This hankering shows a deeper urge to

feel oneness.

In love, on a higher plane, the inner one moves, merges into the other, and there is a

feeling of oneness. Duality dissolves. Only in this non-dual love can we have a glimpse

of what is the state of a Bhairava. We may say that the state of a Bhairava is absolute

love with no coming back, from the peak of love there is no falling back. It is remaining

on the peak.

We have made Shiva's abode on Kailash. That is simply symbolic: it is the highest peak,

the holiest peak. We have made it Shiva's abode. We can go there but we will have to

come down, it cannot be our abode. We can go on a pilgrimage. It is a TEERTHYATRA

-- a pilgrimage, a journey. We can touch for a single moment the highest peak; then we

will have to come back.

In love this holy pilgrimage happens, but not for all because almost no one moves beyond

sex. So we go on living in the valley, the dark valley. Sometimes someone moves to the

peak of love, but then he falls back because it is so dizzying. It is so high and you are so

low,. and it is so difficult to live there. Those who have loved, they know how difficult it

is to be constantly in love. One has to come back again and again. It is Shiva's abode. He

lives there; it is his home.

A Bhairava lives in love; that is his abode. When I say that is his abode, I mean now he is

not even aware of love -- because if you live on Kailash you will not be aware that this is

Kailash, this is a peak.

The peak becomes a plain. Shiva is not aware of love. We are aware of love because we

live in non-love. And because of the contrast we feel love. Shiva IS love. The state of

Bhairava means that one has become love, not loving; one has become LOVE, one lives

on the peak. The peak has become his abode.

How to make this highest peak possible: beyond duality, beyond unconsciousness,

beyond consciousness, beyond the body and beyond the soul, beyond the world and

beyond the so-called MOKSHA -- liberation? How to reach this peak? The technique is

tantra. But tantra is pure technique, so it is going to be difficult to understand. First let us

understand the questions, what Devi is asking.

OH SHIVA, WHAT IS YOUR REALITY? Why this question? You can also ask this

question, but it will not carry the same meaning. So try to understand why Devi asks,

WHAT IS YOUR REALITY? Devi is in deep love. When you are in deep love, for the

first time you encounter the inner reality. Then Shiva is not the form, then Shiva is not

the body. When you are in love, the body of the beloved falls away, disappears. The form

is no more and the formless is revealed. You are facing an abyss. That is why we are so

afraid of love. We can face a body, we can face a face, we can face a form, but we are

afraid of facing an abyss.

If you love someone, if you really love, his body is bound to disappear.

In some moments of climax, of peak, the form will dissolve, and through the beloved you

will enter the formless. That is why we are afraid -- it is falling into a bottomless abyss.

So this question is not just a simple curiosity: OH SHIVA, WHAT IS YOUR REALITY?

Devi must have fallen in love with the form. Things start that way. She must have loved

this man as a man, and now when the love has come of age, when the love has flowered,

this man has disappeared. He has become formless. Now he is to be found nowhere. OH

SHIVA, WHAT IS YOUR REALITY? It is a question asked in a very intense love

moment. And when questions are raised, they become different according to the mind in

which they are asked.

So create the situation, the milieu of the question in your mind. Devi must be at a loss --

Shiva has disappeared. When love reaches its peak the lover disappears. Why does this

happen? This happens because really, everyone is formless. You are not a body. You

move as a body, you live as a body, but you are not a body. When we see someone from

the outside, he is a body. Love penetrates within. Then we are not seeing the person from

the outside. Love can see a person as the person can see himself from within. Then the

form disappears.

A Zen monk, Rinzai, attained his enlightenment, and the first thing he asked was, "Where

is my body? Where has my body gone?" And he began to search.

He called his disciples and said, "Go and find out where my body is. I have lost my

body."

He had entered the formless. You are also a formless existence, but you know yourself

not directly, but from others' eyes. You know through the mirror. Sometime, while

looking in the mirror, close your eyes and then think, meditate: if there was no mirror,

how could you have known your face? If there was no mirror, there would have been no

face. You do not have a face; mirrors give you faces. Think of a world where there are no

mirrors. You are alone -- no mirror at all, not even others' eyes working as mirrors. You

are alone on a lonely island; nothing can mirror you. Then will you have any face? Or

will you have any body? You cannot have one. You do not have one at all. We know

ourselves only through others, and the others can only know the outer form. That is why

we become identified with it.

Another Zen mystic, Hui-Hai used to say to his disciples, "When you have lost your head

meditating, come immediately to me. When you lose your head, come immediately to

me. When you begin to feel there is no head, do not be afraid; come immediately to me.

This is the right moment. Now something can be taught to you." With a head, no teaching

is possible. The head always comes in between.

Devi asks Shiva, OH SHIVA, WHAT IS YOUR REALITY? -- who are you? The form

has disappeared; hence the question.

In love you enter the other as himself. It is not you answering. You become one, and for

the first time you know an abyss -- a formless presence.

That is why for centuries together, centuries and centuries, we were not making any

sculptures, any pictures of Shiva. We were only making SHIVALINGA -- the symbol.

The Shivalinga is just a formless form. When you love someone, when you enter

someone, he becomes just a luminous presence. The Shivalinga is just a luminous

presence, just an aura of light.

That is why Devi asks, WHAT IS YOUR REALITY?

WHAT IS THIS WONDER-FILLED UNIVERSE? We know the universe, but we never

know it as wonder-filled. Children know, lovers know. Sometimes poets and madmen

know. We do not know that the world is wonder-filled. Everything is just repetitive -- no

wonder, no poetry, just flat prose. It doesn't create a song in you; it doesn't create a dance

in you; it doesn't give birth to the poetry inside. The whole universe looks mechanical.

Children look at it with wonder-filled eyes. When the eyes are wonder-filled, the

universe is wonder-filled.

When you are in love, you again become like children. Jesus says, "Only those who are

like children will enter my kingdom of God." Why? Because if the universe is not a

wonder, you cannot be religious. The universe can be explained -- then your approach is

scientific. The universe is either known or unknown, but that which is unknown can be

known any day; it is not unknowable.

The universe becomes unknowable, a mystery, only when your eyes are wonder-filled.

Devi says, WHAT IS THIS WONDER-FILLED UNIVERSE? Suddenly there is the

jump from a personal question to a very impersonal one. She was asking, WHAT IS

YOUR REALITY? and then suddenly, WHAT IS THIS WONDER-FILLED

UNIVERSE?

When form disappears, your beloved becomes the universe, the formless, the infinite.

Suddenly Devi becomes aware that she is not asking a question about Shiva; she is

asking a question about the whole universe. Now Shiva has become the whole universe.

Now all the stars are moving in him, and the whole firmament and the whole space is

surrounded by him. Now he is the great engulfing factor -- "the great encompassing."

Karl Jaspers has defined God as "the great encompassing."

When you enter into love, into a deep, intimate world of love, the person disappears, the

form disappears, and the lover becomes just a door to the universe. Your curiosity can be

a scientific one -- then you have to approach through logic. Then you must not think of

the formless. Then beware of the formless; then remain content with the form. Science is

always concerned with the form. If anything formless is proposed to a scientific mind, he

will cut it into form -- unless it takes a form it is meaningless. First give it a form, a

definite form; only then does the inquiry start.

In love, if there is form then there is no end to it.

Dissolve the form! When things become formless, dizzy, without boundaries, every thing

entering another, the whole universe becoming a oneness, then only is it a wonder-filled

universe.

WHAT CONSTITUTES SEED? Then Devi goes on. From the universe she goes on to

ask, WHAT CONSTITUTES SEED? This formless, wonder-filled universe, from where

does it come? From where does it originate? Or does it NOT originate? What is the seed?

WHO CENTERS THE UNIVERSAL WHEEL? asks Devi. This wheel goes on moving

and moving -- this great change, this constant flux. But who centers this wheel? Where is

the axis, the center, the unmoving center?

She doesn't stop for any answer. She goes on asking as if she is not asking anyone, as if

talking to herself.

WHAT IS THIS LIFE BEYOND FORM PERVADING FORMS?

HOW MAY WE ENTER IT FULLY, ABOVE SPACE AND TIME, NAMES AND

DESCRIPTION?

LET MY DOUBTS BE CLEARED. The emphasis is not on questions but on doubts:

LET MY DOUBTS BE CLEARED! This is very significant. If you are asking an

intellectual question, you are asking for a definite answer so that your problem is solved.

But Devi says, LET MY DOUBTS BE CLEARED. She is not really asking about

answers. She is asking for a transformation of her mind, because a doubting mind will

remain a doubting mind whatsoever answers are given. Note it: a doubting mind will

remain a doubting mind.

Answers are irrelevant. If I give you one answer and you have a doubting mind, you will

doubt it. If I give you another answer, you will doubt that also. You have a doubting

mind. A doubting mind means you will put a question mark to anything.

So answers are useless. You ask me, "Who created the world?" and I tell you "A" created

the world. Then you are bound to ask, "Who created 'A'?" So the real problem is not how

to answer questions. The real problem is how to change the doubting mind, how to create

a mind which is not doubting -- or, which is trustful. So Devi says, LET MY DOUBTS

BE CLEARED.

Two or three things more.... When you ask a question, you may be asking for many

reasons. One may be just this, that you want a confirmation. You already know the

answer, you have the answer, you just want it to be confirmed that your answer is right.

Then your question is false, pseudo; it is not a question. You may be asking a question

not because you are ready to change yourself, but just as a curiosity.

The mind goes on questioning. In the mind questions come as leaves come on a tree. That

is the very nature of the mind -- to question. So it goes on questioning. It matters not

what you are questioning, with anything given to the mind it will create a question. It is a

machine to grind out, to create questions. So give it anything and it will cut it into pieces

and create many questions.

One question answered, and the mind will create many questions from the answer. This

has been the whole history of philosophy.

Bertrand Russell remembers that when he was a child he thought that one day, when he

will be mature enough to understand all philosophy, all questions will be answered. Then

later, when he was eighty, he said, "Now I can say that my own questions are there

standing, as they were standing when I was a child. No other questions have come up

because of these theories of philosophy." So he said, "When I was young I used to say,

philosophy is an inquiry for ultimate answers. Now I cannot say it. It is an inquiry for

endless questions."

So one question creates one answer and many questions. The doubting mind is the

problem. Devi says, "Do not be concerned with my questions. I have asked so many

things: What is your reality? What is this wonder-filled universe? What constitutes seed?

Who centers the universal wheel? What is life beyond form? How can we enter it fully

above time and space? But do not be concerned with my questions. Let my doubts be

cleared. I ask these questions because they are in my mind. I ask them just to show you

my mind, but do not pay much attention to them. Really, answers will not fulfill my need.

My need is... let my doubts be cleared."

But how can the doubts be cleared? Will any answer do? Is there any answer which will

clear your doubts? Mind IS the doubt.

It is not that the mind doubts, mind is the doubt! Unless the mind dissolves, doubts

cannot be cleared.

Shiva will answer. His answers are techniques -- the oldest, most ancient techniques. But

you can call them the latest also because nothing can be added to them. They are

complete -- one hundred and twelve techniques. They have taken in all the possibilities,

all the ways of cleaning the mind, transcending the mind. Not a single method could be

added to Shiva's one hundred and twelve methods. And this book, VIGYANA

BHAIRAVA TANTRA, is five thousand years old. Nothing can be added; there is no

possibility to add anything. It is exhaustive, complete. It is the most ancient and yet the

latest, yet the newest. Old like old hills -- the methods seem eternal -- and they are new

like a dewdrop before the sun, because they are so fresh.

These one hundred and twelve methods of meditation constitute the whole science of

transforming mind. We will enter them one by one. We will try to comprehend first

intellectually. But use your intellect only as an instrument, not as a master. Use it as an

instrument to understand something, but do not go on creating barriers with it. When we

will be talking about these techniques, just put aside your past knowledge, your knowing,

whatsoever information you have collected. Put them aside -- they are just dust gathered

on the road.

Encounter these methods with a fresh mind -- with alertness, of course, but not with

argumentation.

And do not create the fallacy that an argumentative mind is an alert mind. It is not,

because the moment you move into arguments you have lost the awareness, you have lost

the alertness. Then you are not here.

These methods do not belong to any religion. Remember, they are not Hindu, just as the

theory of relativity is not Jewish because Einstein conceived it. And radio and television

are not Christian. No one says, "Why are you using electricity? This is Christian, because

a Christian mind conceived it." Science does not belong to races and religions -- and

tantra is a science. So remember, this is not Hindu at all. These techniques were

conceived by Hindus, but these techniques are not Hindu. That is why these techniques

will not mention any religious ritual. No temple is needed. You are quite enough of a

temple yourself. You are the lab; the whole experiment is to go on within you. No belief

is needed.

This is not religion, this is science. No belief is needed. It is not required to believe in the

Koran or the Vedas or in Buddha or in Mahavira. No, no belief is needed. Only a

daringness to experiment is enough, courage to experiment is enough; that is the beauty.

A Mohammedan can practice and he will reach to the deeper meanings of the Koran. A

Hindu can practice and he will for the first time know what the Vedas are. And a Jain can

practice and a Buddhist can practice; they need not leave their religion.

Tantra will fulfill them, wherever they are. Tantra will be helpful, whatsoever their

chosen path.

So remember this, tantra is pure science. You may be a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a

Parsee or whatsoever -- tantra doesn't touch your religion at all. Tantra says that religion

is a social affair. So belong to any religion; it is irrelevant. But you can transform

yourself, and that transformation needs a scientific methodology. When you are ill, when

you have fallen ill or you have caught tuberculosis or anything, then whether you are a

Hindu or a Mohammedan makes no difference. The tuberculosis remains indifferent to

your Hinduism, to your Mohammedanism, to your beliefs -- political, social or religious.

Tuberculosis has to be treated scientifically. There is no Hindu tuberculosis, no

Mohammedan tuberculosis.

You are ignorant, you are in conflict, you are asleep. This is a disease, a spiritual disease.

This disease has to be treated by the tantra. You are irrelevant, your beliefs are irrelevant.

It is just a coincidence that you are born somewhere and someone else is born somewhere

else. This is just a coincidence. Your religion is a coincidence, so do not cling to it. Use

some scientific methods to transform yourself.

Tantra is not very well known. And even if it is known, it is very much misunderstood.

There are reasons for it. The higher and purer a science, the less is the possibility that the

masses will know of it.

We have only heard the name of the theory of relativity. It used to be said that only

twelve persons understood it when Einstein was alive. All over the world only one dozen

minds could understand it. It was difficult even for Albert Einstein to make it understood

to someone, to make it understandable, because it moves so high, it goes above your

head. But it can be understood. A technical, mathematical knowledge is needed; a

training is needed, and then it can be understood. But tantra is more difficult because no

training will help. Only transformation can help.

That is why tantra could never become understood by the masses. And it always happens

that when you cannot understand a thing, at least you will misunderstand, because then

you can feel, "Okay, I understand." You cannot simply remain in the vacuum.

Secondly, when you cannot understand a thing, you begin to abuse it because it insults

you. You cannot understand it! You? YOU cannot understand it? That is impossible.

Something must be wrong with the thing itself. One begins to abuse, one begins to talk

nonsense, and then he feels, "Now it is okay."

So tantra was not understood; tantra was misunderstood. It was so deep and so high that

this was natural. Secondly, because tantra moves beyond duality, the very standpoint is

amoral. Please understand this word: 'moral', 'immoral', 'amoral'. We understand morality,

we understand immorality, but it becomes difficult if something is amoral -- beyond both.

Tantra is amoral. Look at it in this way.... A medicine is amoral; it is neither moral nor

immoral. If you give it to a thief it will help; if you give it to a saint it will help. It will

make no differentiation between a thief and a saint. The medicine cannot say, "This is a

thief so I am going to kill him, and this is a saint so I am going to help him." A medicine

is a scientific thing. Your being a thief or being a saint is irrelevant.

Tantra is amoral. Tantra says, no morality is needed -- no particular morality is needed.

On the contrary, you are immoral because you have a very disturbed mind. So tantra

cannot make a precondition, that first you become moral and then you can practice tantra.

Tantra says, this is absurd.

Someone is ill, feverish, and the doctor comes and says, "First bring down your fever;

first be quite healthy. Only then can I give you the medicine." This is what is happening.

One thief comes to a saint and he says, "I am a thief. Tell me how to meditate." The saint

says, "First leave your profession. How can you meditate if you remain a thief?"

One alcoholic comes and he says, "I am an alcoholic. How can I meditate?" The saint

says, "The first condition is, leave alcohol, only then can you meditate." The conditions

become suicidal. The man is alcoholic or a thief or immoral because he has a disturbed

mind, an ill mind.

These are the effects, the consequences of the diseased mind, and he is told, "First be

well and then you can meditate." But then who needs meditation? Meditation is

medicinal. It is a medicine.

Tantra is amoral. It doesn't ask you who you are. Your being a man is enough. Wherever

you are, whatsoever you are, you are accepted.

Choose a technique which fits you, put your total energy into it, and you will not be the

same again. Real, authentic techniques always will be like that. If I make preconditions, it

shows I have a pseudo technique -- I say, "First do this and first do not do that, and

then..." And those are impossible conditions because a thief can change his objects, but

be cannot become a non-thief.

A greedy man can change the objects of his greed, but he cannot become non-greedy.

You can force him or he can force upon himself non-greed, but it is also only because of

a certain greed. If heaven is promised he may even try to be non-greedy. But this is greed

par excellence. Heaven, MOKSHA -- liberation; SATCHITANANDA -- existence,

consciousness, bliss, they will be the objects of his greed.

Tantra says, you cannot change man unless you give him authentic techniques with

which to change. Just by preaching nothing is changed. And you can see this all over the

world. Whatsoever tantra says is written all over the world -- so much preaching, so

much moralizing, so many priests, preachers.

The whole world is filled with them, yet everything is so ugly and so immoral.

Why is this happening? The same will be the case if you give your hospitals to preachers.

They will go there and they will start preaching. And they will make every ill man feel,

"You are guilty! You have created this disease; now change this disease." If preachers are

given hospitals, what will be the condition of hospitals? The same as the condition of the

whole world.

Preachers go on preaching. They go on telling people, "Don't be angry," without giving

any technique. And we have heard this teaching for so long that we never even raise the

question: "What are you saying? I am angry and you simply say, `Don't be angry.' How is

this possible? When I am angry it means `I' am anger, and you just tell me, `Don't be

angry.' So I can only suppress myself."

But that will create more anger. That will create guilt -- because if I try to change and

cannot change myself, that creates inferiority. It gives me a feeling of guilt, that I am

incapable, I cannot win over my anger. No one can win! You need certain weapons, you

need certain techniques, because your anger is just an indication of a disturbed mind.

Change the disturbed mind and the indication will change. Anger is just showing what is

within. Change the within and the without will change.

So tantra is not concerned with your so-called morality.

Really, to emphasize morality is mean, degrading; it is inhuman. If someone comes to me

and I say, "Leave anger first, leave sex first, leave this and that," then I am inhuman.

What I am saying is impossible. And that impossibility will make that man feel inwardly

mean. He will begin to feel inferior; he will be degraded inside in his own eyes. If he tries

the impossible, he is going to be a failure. And when he is a failure he will be convinced

that he is a sinner.

The preachers have convinced the whole world that "You are sinners." This is good for

them, because unless you are convinced, their profession cannot continue. You must be

sinners: only then can churches, temples and mosques continue to prosper. Your being in

sin is their success. Your guilt is the base of all the highest churches. The more guilty you

are, the more churches will go on rising higher and higher. They are built on your guilt,

on your sin, on your inferiority complex. Thus, they have created an inferior humanity.

Tantra is not concerned with your so-called morality, your social formalities, etc. That

doesn't mean that tantra says to be immoral -- no! Tantra is so much unconcerned with

your morality that tantra cannot say to be immoral. Tantra gives you scientific techniques

for changing the mind, and once the mind is different your character will be different.

Once the basis of your structure changes, your whole edifice will be different.

Because of this amoral attitude, tantra could not be tolerated by your so-called saints,

they all went against it -- because if tantra succeeds, then all this nonsense which goes on

in the name of religion will have to stop.

See this: Christianity fought very much against scientific progress. Why? Only because if

scientific progress is there in the material world, then the time is not very far off when in

the psychological and in the spiritual world also science will penetrate. So Christianity

started fighting scientific progress, because once you know that you can change matter

through technique, the time is not very far off when you will come to know that you can

change mind through techniques -- because mind is nothing but subtle matter.

This is tantra's proposition, that mind is nothing but subtle matter; it can be changed. And

once you have a different mind you have a different world, because you look through the

mind. The world you are seeing, you are seeing because of a particular mind. Change the

mind, and when you look there is a different world. And if there is no eind... that is the

ultimate for tantra, to bring about a state where there is no mind. Then look at the world

without a mediator. When the mediator is not, you are encountering the real, because now

no one is between you and the real. Then nothing can be distorted.

So tantra says that when there is no mind, that is the state of a Bhairava -- a no-mind

state.

For the farst time you look at the world, at that which is. If you have a mind, you go on

CREATING a world; you go on imposing, projecting. So first change the mind, then

change from mind to no-mind. And these one hundred and twelve methods can help each

and everyone. Any particular method may not be of use to you. That is why Shiva goes

on relating many methods. Choose any one method which suits you. It is not difficult to

know which suits you.

We will try to understand each method and how to choose for yourself one method which

can change you and your mind. This understanding, this intellectual understanding will

be a basic necessity, but this is not the end. Whatsoever I talk about here, try it.

Really, when you try the right method it clicks immediately. So I will go on talking about

methods here every day. You try them. Just play with them -- go home and try. The right

method, whenever you happen upon it, just clicks. Something explodes in you, and you

know that "This is the right method for me." But effort is needed, and you may be

surprised that suddenly one day one method has gripped you.

So while I am talking here, parallel to it go on playing with these methods. I say playing

because you should not be too serious. Just play! Something may fit you. If it fits you,

then be serious, and then go deep into it -- intensely, honestly, with all your energy, with

all your mind.

But before that just play.

I have found that while you are playing your mind is more open. While you are serious

your mind is not so open; it is closed. So just play. Do not be too serious, just play. And

these methods are simple, you can just play with them.

Take one method and play with it for at least three days. If it gives you a certain feeling

of affinity, if it gives you a certain feeling of well-being, if it gives you a certain feeling

that this is for you, then be serious about it. Then forget the others, do not play with other

methods. Stick to it -- at least for three months. Miracles are possible. The only thing is

that the technique must be for you. If the technique is not for you, then nothing happens.

Then you may go on with it for lives together, but nothing will happen. If the method is

for you then even three minutes are enough.

So these one hundred and twelve methods can be a miraculous experience for you, or

they may just be a listening -- it depends on you. I will go on describing each method

from as many angles as possible. If you feel any affinity with it, play with it for three

days. If you feel that it fits, that something clicks in you, continue it for three months.

Life is a miracle. If you have not known its mystery, that only shows that you do not

know the technique for how to approach it.

Shiva proposes one hundred and twelve methods.

These are all the methods possible. If nothing clicks and nothing gives you the feeling

that this is for you, then there is no method left for you -- remember this. Then forget

spirituality and be happy. Then it is not for you.

But these one hundred and twelve methods are for the whole humanity -- for all the ages

that have passed and for all the ages that have yet to come. In no time has there ever been

a single man, and there will never be one, who can say, "These one hundred and twelve

methods are all useless for me." Impossible! This is impossible!

Every type of mind has been taken into account. Every possible type of mind has been

given a technique in tantra. There are many techniques for which no man exists yet; they

are for the future. There are many techniques for which no man exists now; they are for

the past. But do not be afraid. There are many methods which are for you.

So we will start this journey from tomorrow.

THE END.

Guruji Hariharananda and Prajnanananda

Hello

see this photos of Gurus Hariharananda Baba and Prajnanananda Baba

one who follows the desciples of Babaji, need not to explain who are these two gurus.

Prajnanananda Baba came to Bangalore next day of Guru Poornima, where we have a opportunity to get a blessings. we celebrated baba's birthday in Nitin baba's house in Jayanagar, Bangalore

Let everyone be blessed for their good things

Book of secrets-Part 1

Dear Friends....

I started studying a book called "The Book of Secrets" written from "Osho-Rajanish"......

one must try this........ excellent with lot of real experience

one who love reading......... spiritual and yet scientific........ will really love this book

In this materialistic world, if some one want to live in peacefull and lonely life... it will really teaches how to do this.

This is originally called Vignana Bhairava Tantra which is there in Sanskrit

I will give some information about this book in this post, I will continue to give chapterwise about this book once I finish reading them.

Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

Chapter 1: The World of Tantra

SUTRA:

DEVI ASKS:

OH SHIVA, WHAT IS YOUR REALITY?

WHAT IS THIS WONDER-FILLED UNIVERSE?

WHAT CONSTITUTES SEED?

WHO CENTERS THE UNIVERSAL WHEEL?

WHAT IS THIS LIFE BEYOND FORM PERVADING FORMS?

HOW MAY WE ENTER IT FULLY, ABOVE SPACE AND TIME, NAMES AND

DESCRIPTIONS?

LET MY DOUBTS BE CLEARED!

Some introductory points. First, the world of VIGYANA BHAIRAVA TANTRA is not

intellectual, it is not philosophical. Doctrine is meaningless to it. It is concerned with

method, with technique -- not with principles at all. The word `tantra' means technique,

the method, the path. So it is not philosophical -- note this. It is not concerned with

intellectual problems and inquiries. It is not concerned with the "why" of things, it is

concerned with "how"; not with what is truth, but how the truth can be attained.

TANTRA means technique. So this treatise is a scientific one. Science is not concerned

with why, science is concerned with how. That is the basic difference between

philosophy and science. Philosophy asks, "Why this existence?" Science asks, "How this

existence?" The moment you ask the question, how?, method, technique, become

important. Theories become meaningless; experience becomes the center.

Tantra is science, tantra is not philosophy. To understand philosophy is easy because

only your intellect is required.

If you can understand language, if you can understand concept, you can understand

philosophy. You need not change; you require no transformation. As you are, you can

understand philosophy -- but not tantra.

You will need a change... rather, a mutation. Unless YOU are different tantra cannot be

understood, because tantra is not an intellectual proposition, it is an experience. Unless

you are receptive, ready, vulnerable to the experience, it is not going to come to you.

Philosophy is concerned with the mind. Your head is enough; your totality is not

required. Tantra needs you in your totality. It is a deeper challenge. You will have to be

in it wholly. It is not fragmentary. A different approach, a different attitude, a different

mind to receive it is required. Because of this, Devi is asking apparently philosophical

questions. Tantra starts with Devi's questions. All the questions can be tackled

philosophically.

Really, any question can be tackled in two ways: philosophically or totally, antellectually

or existentially. For example, if someone asks, "What is love?" you can tackle it

intellectually, you can discuss, you can propose theories, you can argue for a particular

hypothesis. You can create a system, a doctrine -- and you may not have known love at

all.

To create a doctrine, experience is not needed. Really, on the contrary, the less you know

the better because then you can propose a system unhesitatingly.

Only a blind man can easily define what light is. When you do not know you are bold.

Ignorance is always bold; knowledge hesitates. And the more you know, the more you

feel that the ground underneath is dissolving. The more you know, the more you feel how

ignorant you are. And those who are really wise, they become ignorant. They become as

simple as children, or as simple as idiots.

The less you know, the better. To be philosophical, to be dogmatic, to be doctrinaire --

this is easy. To tackle a problem intellectually is very easy. But to tackle a problem

existentially -- not just to think about it, but to live it through, to go through it, to allow

yourself to be transformed through it -- is difficult. That is, to know love one will have to

be in love. That is dangerous because you will not remain the same. The experience is

going to change you. The moment you enter love, you enter a different person. And when

you come out you will not be able to recognize your old face; it will not belong to you. A

discontinuity will have happened. Now there is a gap, the old man is dead and the new

man has come. That is what is known as rebirth -- being twice-born.

Tantra is non-philosophical and existential. So of course Devi asks questions which

appear to be philosophical, but Shiva is not going to answer them that way. So it is better

to understand it in the beginning; otherwise you will be puzzled, because Shiva is not

going to answer a single question.

All the questions that Devi is asking, Shiva is not going to answer at all. And still he

answers! And really, only he has answered them and no one else -- but on a different

plane.

Devi asks, "What is your reality, my lord?" He is not going to answer it. On the contrary,

he will give a technique. And if Devi goes through this technique, she will know. So the

answer is round-about; it is not direct. He is not going to answer "Who am I." He will

give a technique -- do it and you will know.

For tantra, doing is knowing, and there is no other knowing. Unless you do something,

unless you change, unless you have a different perspective to look at, to look with, unless

you move in an altogether different dimension than the intellect, there is no answer.

Answers can be given -- they are all lies. All philosophies are lies. You ask a question

and the philosophy gives you an answer. It satisfies you or doesn't satisfy you. If it

satisfies you, you become a convert to the philosophy, but you remain the same. If it

doesn't satisfy you, you go on searching for some other philosophy to be converted to.

But you remain the same; you are not touched at all, you are not changed.

So whether you are a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a Christian or a Jain, it makes no

difference. The real person behind the facade of a Hindu or a Mohammedan or a

Christian is the same. Only words differ, or clothes.

The man who is going to the church or to the temple or to the mosque is the same man.

Only faces differ, and they are faces which are false; they are masks. Behind the masks

you will find the same man -- the same anger, the same aggression, the same violence,

the same greed, the same lust -- everything the same. Is Mohammedan sexuality different

from Hindu sexuality? Is Christian violence different from Hindu violence? It is the

same! The reality remains the same; only clothes differ.

Tantra is not concerned with your clothes, tantra is concerned with you. If you ask a

question it shows where you are. It shows also that wherever you are you cannot see; that

is why there is the question. A blind man asks, "What is light?" and philosophy will start

answering what is light. Tantra will know only this: if a man is asking "What is light?" it

shows only that he is blind. Tantra will start operating on the man, changing the man, so

that he can see. Tantra will not say what is light. Tantra will tell how to attain insight,

how to attain seeing, how to attain vision. When the vision is there, the answer will be

there. Tantra will not give you the answer; tantra will give you the technique to attain the

answer.

Now, this answer is not going to be intellectual. If you say something about light to a

blind man, this is intellectual. If the blind man himself becomes capable of seeing, this is

existential.

This is what I mean when I say that tantra is existential. So Shiva is not going to answer

Devi's questions, still, he will answer -- the first thing.

The second thing: this is a different type of language. You must know something about it

before we enter into it. All the tantra treatises are dialogues between Shiva and Devi.

Devi questions and Shiva answers. All the tantra treatises start that way. Why? Why this

method? It is very significant. It is not a dialogue between a teacher and a disciple, it is a

dialogue between two lovers. And tantra signifies through it a very meaningful thing: that

the deeper teachings cannot be given unless there is love between the two -- the disciple

and the master. The disciple and master must become deep lovers. Only then can the

higher, the beyond, be expressed.

So it is a language of love; the disciple must be in an attitude of love. But not only this,

because friends can be lovers. Tantra says a disciple moves as receptivity, so the disciple

must be in a feminine receptivity; only then is something possible. You need not be a

woman to be a disciple, but you need to be in a feminine attitude of receptivity. When

Devi asks, it means the feminine attitude asks. Why this emphasis on the feminine

attitude?

Man and woman are not only physically different, they are psychologically different. Sex

is not only a difference in the body; it is a difference in psychologies also.

A feminine mind means receptivity -- total receptivity, surrender, love. A disciple needs a

feminine psychology; otherwise he will not be able to learn. You can ask, but if you are

not open then you cannot be answered. You can ask a question and still remain closed.

Then the answer cannot penetrate you. Your doors are closed; you are dead. You are not

open.

A feminine receptivity means a womb-like receptivity in the inner depth, so that you can

receive. And not only that -- much more is implied. A woman is not only receiving

something, the moment she receives it, it becomes a part of her body. A child is received.

A woman conceives; the moment there is conception, the child has become part of the

feminine body. It is not alien, it is not foreign. It has been absorbed. Now the child will

live not as something added to the mother, but just as a part, just as the mother. And the

child is not only received: the feminine body becomes creative; the child begins to grow.

A disciple needs a womb-like receptivity. Whatsoever is received is not to be gathered as

dead knowledge. It must grow in you; it must become blood and bones in you. It must

become a part, now. It must grow! This growth will change you, will transform you -- the

receiver. That is why tantra uses this device. Every treatise starts with Devi asking a

question and Shiva replying to it. Devi is Shiva's consort, his feminine part.