Transcription
People come to me. They want to drop smoking, and they have tried thousands of times. And again, after a few hours, the urge is so much. Their whole body, their whole nervous system is asking for the nicotine. Then they forget all the religious teachings that you will fall into hell. They are ready because who knows whether hell exists or not. But right now, they cannot live in this hell. They can't think of anything else than cigarettes.
I have told these people, "Don't stop smoking. Smoke consciously, lovingly, gracefully; enjoy it as much as you can while you are destroying your lungs. Why not destroy them as beautifully and gracefully as possible? And these are your lungs, nobody else's business." And I promise you, there is no hell because you have not harmed anybody. You have just harmed yourself, and you have paid for it. You are not stealing cigarettes; you are paying for them. Why should you go to hell? You are suffering already. Somebody is suffering from tuberculosis. Somebody, the doctors are telling that, "You stop, otherwise cancer is absolutely certain to happen to you." You are preparing the ground. What more hell?
And when you have decided to do it, and when you cannot restrain yourself from doing it, then do it aesthetically, consciously, religiously. They will listen to me and will think that this man must be mad. What he is saying religiously? And I will teach them how to take the package from the pockets consciously. Is slowly open the package, take the cigarette consciously, watch, look around. It is such a beautiful thing. You love it so much. You should give it a little time, a little attention. Then light it. Wash the smoke. Be alert as the smoke goes inside you. You are doing a great job. Pure air is available free to pollute it. You are wasting money. Earning highs. Enjoy it to the full. The warmth of the smoke. There's smoke going in. The coughing. Be alert. Make beautiful rings. They all go towards heaven. You cannot go to hell. Even your smoke is going into heaven. How can you go to hell? Just enjoy it.
And I have forced them that, "Do it in front of me so I can be satisfied." They will say, "It looks so awkward. It looks so stupid. What you are saying?" I said, "This is the only way if you want one day to be free from this urge." And they will do it. And they will say to me, "This is strange that for the first time I was only a watcher. I was not smoking. Perhaps the mind, perhaps the body, but I was simply watching it." I said, "You have got the key. Now be watchful and smoke as much as you can; because the more you smoke, the more watchful you will be. Smoke in the day, smoke in the night; in the middle of the night when you wake up, don't miss the chance. Smoke. Don't bother about your doctors, your wives. Don't bother about anybody. Just take care of one thing that remain alert. Make it an art."
And hundreds of people have found the urge disappearing. The cigarette is gone, the cigar is gone, even the desire. Looking backwards, they cannot believe that they were in such a bondage. And the only key to get out of the imprisonment was awareness. You have the awareness. Just you have not applied it. So apply it so it becomes more and more sharp. Without application, it has gathered dust. In any act: walking, eating, drinking, whatever you are doing, make it a point that side by side a current of awareness will always remain running. And your whole life will start having a religious fragrance. And all awareness is right, and all unawareness is wrong.