Transcription
Do the values of life also change with the changing times? Satyanand, the one who is born in time, he is bound to change inevitably. Life's values are also the creation of time, its production. What was right in times of Vedic sages is not right today. What is right today, may not be right tomorrow. Everyday, it is necessary to continue watching with awareness that when the flow of time changes, we too must change.
But we live in the past and existence is always in the present. We are always in the past, in the past which has gone, and existence is today. Our connection breaks. By this, immense pain arises. By this, hell gets created. Because we always keep on missing. If we cannot relate with the present, we cannot relate with godliness also, because the present is godliness. And we live in the past. Our concepts are past oriented. Howsoever dead they may be, but we go on repeating them, we go on beating the drums. We say, "It goes on from the time of our ancestors." They must have had a meaning to it at some point of time, certainly they must have. It was born for the simple reason that it was the need of the hour. But now? It has no value. It is like Vedic sages gave blessings to the newly married couples: "May you have many children!" Today if anyone gives this blessing, it would be wrong. Today's blessing should be: "May you not have children at all!" Today, "May you have many children," this is not a blessing, this will be a curse!
Times have changed, situations have changed. During the times of Vedic sages, the land was more, people were less. Today the land is less and people are more. The earth is getting overburdened by the people, the earth is being destroyed. Therefore, the same values of life cannot be relevant. People ask me: "By practicing the birth control method... the souls that will be stopped, that will not be able to be born, what will happen to them? And whether birth control is not a violence?" Because you have not allowed the soul to be born, you have killed it! Even before the birth, you have killed it. The soul which is not born, will knock at some other door. Do you think yours is the only door? Are you the only one who has taken the responsibility? There are many fools like you. And is this the only earth? Scientists say, similar to this, there are at least fifty thousand earths on which life exists. At least fifty thousand! It could be even more, but at least on fifty thousand it is definite. Then why do you worry? Have you taken all the responsibility for giving birth to all the souls? The one who is running this universe, he will take care of them also. Let him look at his responsibilities, his problems. Are you here to solve the problems of the divine? If you solve your own problems, that is more than enough!
But people go on asking various types of questions for the simple reason that the old concepts should somehow be saved, somehow we remain hooked to the old. And everything has changed. Mulla Nasiruddin was telling me yesterday. He was saying: "Last night all of a sudden one beauty girl stopped me. I thought there was a mistake in recognition! We poets, polite out of shyness looked down and passed by the girl's hair out of rage got unruly. She started shouting very loudly -- 'Young people of this city, come save me from this gentleman! My lock of hair is like dusk for that time, my lips play the dawns of Banaras, my face has the luster of Kashmir, yet this rogue did not tease me. Do I look like his mother?'"
Life goes on changing every day. Old values get washed away in water, new values come in. Old concepts drop, new concepts keep coming. The merchant Kishori Raman is thoughtful because the dacoits had kidnapped his wife. Now he has received a letter to bring one kilogram gold and keep it by the side of the dirty drain, which will be examined by us personally, and if you do not do that, your wife will be returned to you. Those days have gone when the dacoits used to say, "If you do not send money, we will not let go your wife." Gone are the days! Today they say, "Your wife will be sent back home safely."
You are asking, Satyanand: "Whether values of life also change with the times?" Certainly! Everything changes. It must change. Change is the order of life. And it is good to change. Because of the change, life remains new, it remains fresh, remains joyful. In this country, it does not change. This is our problem. In this country, everything has become rotten, everything has become dirty. There is nothing like today in this country, only past and past alone. Rama's rule is over, the golden era has passed, age of truthfulness has passed-- everything has happened! Now, what are we doing here? Nobody is asking this now: "What are you doing here?" Now when everything has happened, then you also get finished! Now why unnecessarily you are taking the trouble? Now nothing is left to happen. Now there are the dark ages only, bad times and bad times only, now there is only misery. Now what is the point in living?
Two hippies on a road in California were passing by. They were great hippies! They kept walking very quietly for about a mile. Both of them were enjoying their own world. At last one of them said to the other, "Now it is beyond control. Have you shitted in your pyjamas? Such a strong foul smell is coming! And I am feeling this for one whole mile. If it was coming from somewhere else, it would have been left behind, but it seems to be walking along with us." The other said, "No-no, not at all." But the first one would not agree easily. He told him, "Remove your pants!" So his friend removed his pants. The moment he removed his pants, the other one shouted, "Look what I was saying! And you are telling no-no. You have shitted! What is this!" The other said, "I thought, brother, you are asking about today. I have not done it today."
The same is the situation of this country. Here there is nothing like today -- absolutely nothing! Everything happened yesterday. Just keep on dragging those dead bodies. They are all rotten, they are stinking. But they are very dearly. It belongs to our own people and they have been worshiped since ages. They have been honored and respected. So beautify it, decorate it. The ancestors also did the same, you also keep on doing the same. We do not want to change anything.
Mahavira had said to his monks to walk barefoot. There was a reason behind it, because in those days the shoes which were made were only of leather. And leather would be a violence, the animals would be killed. It was perfectly alright, for the sake of one's shoes, why to kill animals! There were no other coal-tar and cement roads. It was open muddy ground, roads were muddy. To walk on mud is not unhealthy. To walk on mud is very healthy. We too are made of mud. Mud meets mud, then it gets life. Therefore, if you ever walk barefoot for a while on mud everyday, it is beneficial, it is healthy. There is absolutely no harm in it. But these Jaina monks even now go on walking on coal-tar roads, on cement roads! He never thinks that Mahavira, poor fellow, had no idea that the roads would be like this. They would be made of tar, burning hot roads. In the days of hot summer, you start getting blisters on your feet, but he keeps on walking. And now you get shoes made of cloth, even made of canvas, also made of rubber. Now are we stuck to the leather alone? Now there is nothing like violence in the shoes. If Mahavira returns back, I assure you, whether he wears anything or not, he will surely wear shoes.
One day a man and his wife knocked at Mulla Nassirudin's door. Nassirudin opened the door, peeped outside. A couple was standing. The couple hesitated a lot, because Mulla was completely naked. He wore only shoes and cap! He also wore a tie. Now all of a sudden they could not even go back. Since they had come. And Mulla also could not tell them to go back. They were his old acquaintance. He said, "Please come, have a seat! I am honored!" The husband entered first, wife was hiding behind him. The husband started looking here and there, now what to say and what not to say! He had thought of something, the work for which he came, he suddenly forgot that too. This naked man..... and even if he was completely naked, it was alright, he is wearing a cap, wearing shoes and also wearing a tie! And everything else is missing! The real things are missing! But the wife could not resist. The wife said, "Mulla, can I ask something? Why are you sitting naked?" At this Mulla said, "Lady, at this time no one comes to meet me. This is my leisure time, this is the time for relaxation. Since there is no one at home, so I sit all alone naked. I am resting. Now the whole day with this tightness, with the belt tied, wearing the pants, wearing a jacket, wearing a coat, I feel uncomfortable. So I was taking rest." She said, "I can understand this. But then these shoes and this tie and this hat, why are you wearing them?" So Mulla said, "These are because if by chance anyone just happens to come. Now you have come. This way, sometimes, someone may just come by."
I tell you for sure, if Mahavira is born again, he will definitely wear shoes. I cannot say about the tie and the hat. It would be nice, a hat made of bamboo, it will save from the sunlight. Moreover, there is no violence in bamboo. Japanese style hat made from bamboo, it will be beautiful. But a Jaina monk is dogmatic. How can he wear it! Blisters come on the feet of Jaina monks and Jaina nuns. They cover their feet with a piece of cloth. Once a Jaina nun came to meet me. She had blisters on her feet. Her feet was tied with a piece of cloth on them. She had tied the piece of cloth in such a way that it is almost working like a shoe. I said, "What does this mean? Then what is the problem with the shoes? So many pieces of cloth you have tied that they are almost working like the shoes. Instead of carrying these dirty cloth pieces, what is wrong with the shoes made of cloth?" They said, "We understand what you are saying, but it is not written in our scriptures." Therefore I told them, "Write it in the scriptures. Any scriptures.... Can scriptures stop you? Bring it to me, I will write it. What capacity do the scriptures have to stop anyone? Do the scriptures belong to us or we belong to the scriptures?"
Time will change, then all values will change. And only that species remain alive which change with the time. Only those people remain alive who change with the times. This country is dead, it is a graveyard, it is a crematorium -- a big crematorium, where our saints sit beside the smoke-fire as a penance, as a yogi. Sitting by the side of this smoke-fire as a yogi is the only job, and no other job remains to be done. All the work has already been done. Now sit detached in the crematorium, and sit by the side of smoke-fire, become a yogi, chanting Rama-Rama. As though nothing else is left for us to do. The whole world is engaged in so much significant work. Perhaps such great works have never happened before as the great works which are happening today, because there was not much science, there was not enough technology, we did not have much resources, so much understanding was not there. Today we have all the means, the understanding is there. Today we can make this earth a paradise. But these old values and old concepts have tied us to hell.