Transcription
All of life's problems are hidden in this one thing: when you can solve it, you don't solve it. When it was easy to stop the matter, you kept escalating it, and when the matter went beyond limits, you became aware. When nothing could be done, you woke up. When something could have been done, you remained resting in laziness. Then a thousand problems keep accumulating. Crushed by those problems, you become fragmented and scattered. Then the connection of your life's thread, the connection with your inner soul, which is your link, loses its beginning and end. Then you become incapable of solving even a small problem because your mind becomes confused. There is such a heap of problems there. Crushed by those problems, you lose all your strength. Your self-confidence also gets lost. The belief that someone who couldn't solve anything will be able to solve something also breaks. You start thinking that it is not going to be solved by yourself, and once such helplessness comes, once the ground beneath your feet is gone, then you won't even be able to solve what children can solve. The belief and faith in solving are destroyed. Therefore, understand the principle of Lao Tzu very carefully. This is exactly what you have been doing the opposite of. The first time, when I didn't even know about Lao Tzu, I got the understanding of this principle from a strange man. When I was a student in the university, there was a man in the village whom people called "Bannu the madman." I was attracted to him because he didn't seem mad to me. He was different. He wasn't mad at all. He was the opposite of people. He wasn't mad at all. How could I call people mad? It was difficult to call that man mad because he had such happiness. I never saw him crying or sad. His gait, his playfulness, everything indicated that somewhere deep inside, that man had taken root. Gradually, he didn't speak to anyone ordinarily. Later, when my closeness with him increased, and he also started talking to me, and when he also started waiting for me, and when we both started going for walks every morning, then I asked him why he didn't talk to people. He told me, "There is convenience in not speaking. Speaking creates trouble." One evening, while walking, he suddenly stopped and stood still and slapped his cheek. So I asked him, "What did you do? What happened?" He said, "When a matter can be stopped, it is right to stop it. I was getting angry at someone. Now I have fixed it for Banke Bihari Lal ji." He always referred to himself with respect, "Banke Bihari Lal ji." People called him "Bannu the madman." He smiled and said, "Say, Banke Bihari Lal ji has come to the path." A tiny line of anger had risen within him, which he had settled by slapping himself. He said, "Instead of someone else slapping, it is better to slap oneself." And before the matter progresses further, it is appropriate to stop it. He told me that fire, when it just starts smoldering, is extinguished by a little water, and the rule of wind is that it extinguishes a small lamp but increases big flames. That madman told me that if you extinguish it in the beginning, it gets extinguished. Later, even extinguishing increases the flame. Lao Tzu also said this in his principle. You must have seen it too, when a gust of wind comes, a small lamp is extinguished, and if a fire has started in the house, and then the wind blows, then it's over. Then it becomes difficult to extinguish. The wind also increases the flames. Whatever has grown gets the opportunity to grow from all sides. If you extinguish it when it is small, even the wind extinguishes it. This madman was not mad; he was becoming mad with understanding. He had created a veil of madness around himself. This was a defense. Thinking him mad, people didn't pay attention to him, nor did they worry about him. Living in society, he had become completely distant from society. He had created a small cave of madness around himself. That madness was a defense. How mad should society be, where one has to become mad even for defense? Many ascetics in the world have adopted madness so that people forget them, so that people don't pay attention to them, so that they can do what they want, so that people leave them alone, so that they can do what they want, and no one worries about them. When people accept once that someone is mad, they forgive everything. This principle of Lao Tzu and your exact opposite behavior, try to understand them together. When a problem arises, what do you do? First, you don't pay attention to it at all. You adopt an attitude that it will go away on its own. It's not a big deal, like a common cold, it will disappear. Why ask a doctor? Why treat it? You see it as small. You first neglect it, postpone it. You first make every effort for it to be solved on its own. Has anything in the world ever been solved on its own? You are complicating it further, and it will be solved on its own? How will this happen? You are creating the problem; it won't be solved on its own. But this is man's first attitude. He thinks perhaps some miracle will happen, some event will change, circumstances will change, things will happen on their own. Why get into trouble? Man wants to avoid it. He looks elsewhere. This is the first process: you divert your mind elsewhere so that the problem doesn't appear. And this is where the trouble begins because the problem you stopped seeing starts falling into your subconscious. It starts falling into your dark well. It descends beneath your ground. It goes underground. And it doesn't just descend; it takes root like a seed. It is easy to solve a problem that is in the conscious mind because there you are the master. Once it descends into the subconscious, it is difficult to solve because then you are no longer the master. Your mastery is only on the surface of the mind. If we divide the mind into 10 parts, your mastery is a little bit in the first part. In the remaining nine parts, you have no connection with your mastery. Once a problem goes into the subconscious, it goes into the unconscious, like a seed in the ground. It is very easy to sweep and clean above the ground. It is very difficult below the ground, and there is fear in digging because if you dig, a thousand will come out. Therefore, no one digs the subconscious, no one touches it. There is fear because it is not just one seed buried there; you have been buried there for lifetimes. The subconscious is your junk room where you have filled all the garbage. There is fear in going there, thinking what will happen if everything suddenly collapses. Therefore, once something descends into the subconscious, you will fall into complexity. But the mind first deflects. When the mind deflects, you should wake up. It is not appropriate to lose that moment. Leaving a thousand tasks, you should deal with this first. Leaving big tasks, you should deal with this small one because what is small today will become big tomorrow. It can be solved now; it will be difficult to solve tomorrow because problems don't come alone; they bring a thousand problems with them. You must have heard the saying, "Illness doesn't come alone." One illness brings a thousand illnesses with it. Everything has companions; problems also have companions. If one problem has taken root, then a thousand similar problems will also start knocking at your door, asking for space. And when you have given space to one, a hole has formed within you. Through that hole, a thousand problems will enter. If you have given space to anger, how long can you stay away from violence? If you have given space to anger, how long can you stay away from lust? Because they are all connected, they are all the fabric of the same event. Therefore, knowledge has said, if a person solves even one problem, all his problems are solved. Because in solving one problem, you will find all problems are encompassed. If you become free from lust, you will not be able to get angry. Because lust itself becomes anger when someone obstructs your lust. You wanted to get something, and someone created an obstacle. You wanted to go somewhere, and someone came in between. You wanted to go, and someone erected a wall of stone. Whatever creates an obstacle in your path, you get angry at it. But if you didn't want to go anywhere, if you had no desire, if you didn't want to get anything, then who would create an obstacle in your path? How would you get angry? One who has no lust, how can he have greed? Greed is a consequence of lust. Because one who is lustful will surely be greedy. Greed means I am making arrangements today for tomorrow's desire, making arrangements today for the day after tomorrow's desire, filling my granary for old age. I have to prepare today for the future. Greed means I am accumulating so that I can enjoy tomorrow. One who has no lust, how can he have greed? For him, there is no tomorrow. His future has ended. His time has stopped. His clock has stopped. He is here, and today is enough. There is no demand for more than today. What you are getting is enough. If you don't bring tomorrow into the picture, then what you have is enough. You are prosperous. If you bring tomorrow into the picture, then even the greatest emperor is a beggar because no one can fill tomorrow. Tomorrow is a dream. Change one desire, and you will find that other desires also start changing. Solve one problem, and all problems are solved. First, the mind says, "Postpone it. We'll see tomorrow, the day after tomorrow." You keep postponing it like this, but the more you postpone it, the more time the seed gets to sprout and germinate. Then there is the second tendency of the mind: when postponing becomes difficult, and the problem stands right in front of you, then you start fighting with the problem. First, you postpone it, which is also wrong. Then you fight. If there is a wall, you bang your head against it, which is also wrong. Because no problem can be solved by fighting. If you fight, solving the problem will become impossible because to solve it, a calm mind is needed. The fighting tendency is easy. So, first, you let anger grow. Then, when anger puts you in trouble, entangles your life from all sides, sows thorns everywhere, leaving no room to walk anywhere, wherever you look, you see enmity. The whole world seems to be in opposition, as if a conspiracy is going on against you, all people are standing in enmity towards you. Then you wake up. Then you make another mistake: you try to fight. Suppress anger, eliminate anger. But has anyone ever won by fighting a problem? Understand that you were trying to untangle threads, and the threads got tangled. Fight with them. By fighting, will the threads untangle? By fighting, they will get more tangled, they will break. Once the threads are tangled, then a great peace is needed. Then a great sense of friendship is needed. Then, with great simplicity and patience, you have to pull out each thread one by one. Only then can they be pulled out. If you pull even a little forcefully, it will get more tangled. There is absolutely no patience. First, you postpone it. Don't mistake that for patience. That is not patience; that is called laziness. "We'll do it tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. What's the hurry now?" First, you postpone it. That is not patience. Many people mistake it for patience, thinking, "We are patient. We'll do it anytime. What's the hurry?" That is laziness. That is negligence. That is just deceiving oneself. The test of patience will come on that day when the tangle is present, and you will have to patiently untangle it or fight. You fight. You fight with small things and get into trouble. I heard that it happened in Japan. There was a great warrior, and the warrior is relevant here. His sword-fighting skill was unmatched. He was famous in Japan; people trembled at his name. Great swordsmen were reduced to dust in moments before him. A story from his life. That story is very useful for ascetics because it is very thoughtful and connected to your life. One night, the warrior returned home. He hung his sword on a peg. Just then, he saw a mouse sitting on his bed. He became very angry. The warrior was a man. He angrily drew his sword. In anger, he knew nothing else to do. Not only did the mouse sit there, looking at the sword, but the mouse looked in such a way that the warrior lost his temper. The mouse, with such courage, looked as if to say, "What's the point of drawing your sword? I'm not a human to be afraid." In anger, he swung his sword. The mouse jumped away. The bed was cut. Now there was no limit to his anger. Now he was swinging his sword blindly, wherever he saw the mouse. And the mouse was also amazing. It would jump and evade. The warrior was sweating profusely, and the sword broke into pieces, and the mouse was still sitting there. He was terrified. He understood that this was no ordinary mouse, no spirit, no ghost, because even great warriors had lost to me, and a mouse was not losing. Now, the warrior is one thing, and the mouse is completely another. He came out in a panic and asked his friends, "What should I do?" They said, "You are also mad. Who fights a mouse with a sword? Bring a cat; it will finish it. Everything has its measure. When a job can be done with a needle, why use a sword? You will get into trouble. Bring a cat." But the warrior's trouble and the mouse's cleverness spread throughout the village. Even the cats came to know. The cats were also scared because their self-confidence was shaken. Such a great warrior was defeated by a mouse. Cats were brought, but they were very reluctant to enter. They would drag themselves to the doorstep and then pull back, seeing the mouse inside. One or two cats tried to pounce, but they found that the mouse would pounce on them. This mouse was strange because a mouse never pounces on a cat unless it's been given LSD or some alcohol, unless it's out of its senses. And if a mouse pounces on a cat, the cat loses its self-confidence. So all the cats gathered. They said, "Our honor is also at stake. The warrior is one thing; we lost, it doesn't matter. He wasn't even our friend. The mouse did the right thing. But now our honor is at stake. What should we do? If we lose, and the other mice in the village find out, then all this prestige... Prestige is a matter. If the truth is revealed, it becomes very difficult. If other mice also start attacking, then we are finished. This warrior has ruined us." So, in the king's palace, there was a master cat, a guru. They prayed to her, "Now you do something." She said, "You are also mad. How can I do it? I'll come now." That cat came. She went inside, caught the mouse, and brought it out. The cats asked, "What did you do?" She said, "There was no need to do anything. I am a cat, and it is a mouse. The matter is finished. You thought of doing something, and you got into trouble. Because doing something means fear has entered. Its nature is to be a mouse; my nature is to be a cat. The matter is finished. Our job is to catch; its job is to be caught. This is natural. There is nothing to do in this. We are not winning, and it is not losing. Where is winning or losing here? This is its nature; this is our nature. Both natures match. The mouse is caught. You tried to do something beyond your nature, and has anyone ever won by fighting a mouse? And the day a cat fights, understand that it has lost. The beginning of fighting is the beginning of defeat. Do not fight with problems. Ascetics say, treat problems the way the cat treated the mouse. The nature of consciousness is enough. Awareness is enough. Problems enter the mouth of awareness just as a mouse enters the mouth of a cat. There is no need to do anything in this. But you stand like a warrior with a sword. It's a two-bit problem; you don't even need a needle, and you start fighting with a sword. If you try to cure a fever by killing the patient, the common cold will be left aside, and the patient will die. This is the meaning of the right method: what is present? What is natural? What is the question of fighting? Who are you fighting with? When there is a problem within you, fighting it means you have lost self-confidence. Otherwise, your awareness, your wakefulness, is enough. Your light of awareness will fall, and the problem will dissolve. So, first, you make the mistake of postponing. Then you make the second mistake of fighting blindly. Now you will laugh and say the warrior was mad, but think about yourself. Try to find the story in your own life. Someone comes to me and says, "I can't quit smoking bidis. I've been fighting for 20 years." Now, this is no big deal compared to the mouse. The mouse is still bigger. Someone says, "I can't quit smoking cigarettes." What are you talking about? Do you have a soul within you or not? What kind of cat are you, running away from a mouse and thinking about what to do and what not to do? Smoking cigarettes, and it hasn't quit for 20 years, and you've quit many times, then started again. Who are you? You are nothing. It seems you have no energy of awareness. You have no self-confidence. Otherwise, why would you have to fight smoking cigarettes? About 40 years ago, man reached the North Pole for the first time, and the travelers who returned from the North Pole, when they told their stories, they were published in newspapers all over the world with big headlines. Their story was also very sad because their food ran out, and they had to survive by hunting fish or bears somehow. But the most surprising thing was that the leader of the expedition said, "We didn't suffer as much from the food running out. People were willing to stay hungry; people could live by drinking water. But the cigarettes ran out, and we were in great difficulty. People started cutting the ship's ropes and smoking them, and they were explained a million times that if the ropes are cut, how will we reach back? The entire sail depends on these ropes. But no one was willing to listen. They weren't as worried about reaching back; they weren't even worried about dying. But people said, 'When the craving hits, we can't stop.' And it was difficult to guard them because almost 90% of the companions in that group were smokers. Who would guard them? If the ropes were cut at night, the captain was worried that if they did this and people smoked the ropes, there would be no way for us to reach. A scientist was reading this in the newspaper. He was also a chain smoker. He still had a cigarette in his hand when he was reading it. He thought, "This is a very serious matter. If I were also a part of that expedition, would I have also smoked the ropes? Those dirty ropes. I smoked them like smoke."
There was a cigarette in his hand. He looked at the cigarette, then at himself. He put the cigarette back in the ashtray, just as it was, half-smoked. And he said, "Now I will wait for the day when I have to pick it up again. On that day, I will understand that I have no soul. The cigarette is big, the soul is small. The bidi is big, the Brahma is small." Then 30 years passed, and he kept the cigarette always on his ashtray, half-smoked as it was, waiting for that moment when he would have to pick up the cigarette again. That moment never came.
This is all that is needed: a sense of self, a little awareness. The problems you are fighting are your shadows. If you fight them, you will lose, because in fighting, you have shown ignorance. You fought, which means you did not even know you were fighting your shadow. The habit is yours, the problem is yours. You are descending so low that you go to fight it. Problems are resolved by understanding, not by struggle. Not by taking oaths, not by fasting. Fasting is done by the weak. Oaths are taken by the weak, because an oath itself means you are binding yourself because you have no faith in the future. So you say, "I take the vow of celibacy." You have no faith in the future. You take an oath in front of society so that people also keep it in mind. You take an oath in front of others so that due to being committed in front of others, the issue of ego arises. Then your ego itself will stop you. "I took an oath in front of so many people, how can I break it now?" You want to change your habits through ego, and ego is the worst and biggest dangerous habit.
While smoking a cigarette, perhaps you might even attain liberation, because I have never heard that there is any obstacle at the door of liberation for smoking a cigarette, that it is written that smoking is forbidden. But carrying ego, you will never be able to go to liberation. When you pit ego against habit, then you are making a mistake. Then you are making the mistake of a warrior. Ego is an even more dangerous habit. Then the treatment you are doing for the disease is more dangerous than the disease itself. The disease was better than that; it was not so bad. You might escape the disease, but you will not escape the medicine. Awaken the soul, do not raise ego. If you want to solve problems, do not do it by taking oaths, but by awakening understanding. Taking an oath is also a trick of fighting. No one has ever won by fighting. People win by knowledge. And for those who achieve through knowledge itself, why plan for struggle and futile effort?
So the first mistake is procrastination. Then the second mistake is fighting. The result of fighting can only be that if you are very stubborn, you suppress the habit that was upon you into the unconscious. The anger that used to come out, you swallow it inside. If the anger came out, you would be free from it, you would become lighter. By taking it inside, poison accumulates. You are gathering pus. You are not removing the boil; you are applying bandages and putting flowers on it. You will become explosive inside. You will become a volcano that can erupt at any moment, and in every action of yours, the imprint of whatever you have suppressed will start to appear. You will get up with anger, sit with anger, walk with anger, speak with anger. You will start getting angry for no reason. This is madness. To do something that was for no reason, for which there was no need, for which there was no external cause present, to do such a thing is madness.
What is the difference between awareness and madness? The difference between awareness and madness is that if someone calls you, you respond. If there is a caller, then you are aware. And if there is no caller, and you hear a call, that is madness. Then you start living by your internal reasons, without seeking external reasons. If someone insults you outside, then it is understandable that you get angry. But if no one insults you, and you get angry, as if you were waiting for someone to insult you, then you interpret that surely an insult was given. Even if no insult was given, you understand from the expression that the person wanted to insult you, that he was hiding it, that he was deceiving you, but he wanted to give the insult, it was written on his lips, his eyes were saying that this is the kind of person he is, we know him, there is no need for him to give it, we recognize it without giving it. He came to insult. You will start interpreting. To release the internal anger, you will have to find some means. And the more you suppress, the more you become sick. The sicker you become, the more impossible it will be for you to participate in this great festival of life. And most of your saints are doing this. They are suppressing, and by suppressing, they think they will meet God. And the more diseases one suppresses, the farther one gets from God. Only he is near God whose suppressed things are none, who is completely empty inside, in whose unconscious no diseases are lodged, can participate in this great cosmic festival, can dance. The anklets of only he can jingle, the flute of existence can come to his lips, songs can manifest in his life. You are afraid to keep the flute to your lips because you know poison is filled inside, that is what will come out. You cannot sing. How will a song come out of you? There is no state for a song to come out. How can you love? You can only hate. You can only do what is suppressed inside you. So your saint moves farther away from God. The farther he moves, the more he thinks and suppresses even harder. Then he creates a hell within himself. I know saints. By knowing them closely, this idea came to me that the world needs new monks. The old monasticism has rotted. It [music] The great patient is not joyful. Even if he smiles, his smile is false, because when he met me in solitude, he cried his sorrow. In the assembly, when I saw him, he was sitting and smiling. In solitude, he is sad, and in solitude, he is chaotic, and in solitude, he does not understand what is happening. And in solitude, his pain is a thousand times yours, because you have not suppressed, he has suppressed. He is more afflicted than you. He has more desire for women than you, more greed for wealth than you, more attachment to pleasures than you. But he has suppressed it, he does not let it manifest. You have manifested it. You are a little lighter. You are not so heavy. You might even reach God. Your master, your guru, is difficult. That is why I felt that there is a need for the advent of completely new monks, who transform life not through the path of suppression, but through the path of awareness.
Understand these principles of awareness now, because great awareness is needed. Only then can you resolve life's problems before they arise. It is easy to control what is lying dormant. It is easy to prevent what has not yet manifested. You can only prevent it when you start seeing what is about to happen, what has not yet happened. Otherwise, you will not be able to prevent it. What is about to happen, what has not yet come into existence, try to understand your inner self. If you study your inner self a little, things will become very clear. A little self-study is necessary, because whatever I am saying is not a doctrine; it is information for your self-study. Try to look within, how events happen, how thoughts are formed. Sit idly and see how thoughts are formed, where they come from. Then first you will find that there is no thought, there is only feeling. Just feeling. The feeling is very vague, not clear. Like something is about to sprout, but it's not clear where, from where it's sprouting, what's happening. In the heart, at the level of feeling. After a while, it will rise from the level of feeling and come to the level of thought. Then you will be able to identify more easily what it is, what is happening inside. Then, as soon as it reaches the level of thought, it will insist on going to the level of action. These are three levels: feeling, thought, action. Anger is first in feeling, then it is not clear what it is. Then it becomes thought, then it will gradually become clear what it is. To others, it is not clear at all. Then it becomes action, then others will know what it is. If you catch it before the feeling, you can prevent it. Pre-prevention is very difficult. Your awareness is not even at the level of thought yet. Even thoughts are running unconsciously. If someone suddenly asks you what you are thinking, you cannot answer immediately. People say, "Nothing." What is the reason for that? If someone is sitting and you ask them what they are thinking, their first answer is, "I'm not thinking anything." They are just sitting like this. Only Buddhas sit like this. There cannot be as many Buddhas in the world as there are people who say "nothing." They are thinking. They don't know that thoughts are running, but they don't know anything. It's all happening in darkness. Tell them, "No, close your eyes and say it properly. You must be thinking something." Then perhaps they will try a little and be surprised. "I'm thinking quite a lot. Thoughts, thoughts are running. Random, inconsistent, absurd, without any chain. No reason is visible as to why they are running." Just like flies are buzzing around, thoughts are buzzing around you. Their buzzing is so much that you have gradually become accustomed to it, just like a person sitting in a market becomes accustomed to the market's buzzing. They don't realize that something is happening all around. They only realize when the entire market suddenly becomes silent for a second, then they feel a sudden alertness, "What happened?" If you drive a car, you don't notice the engine sound until something changes. If the sound suddenly stops, you notice it, or if a new sound is added, you notice it. Otherwise, you don't notice anything. You become accustomed to thoughts. You are accustomed, so if someone suddenly asks, you say "nothing." The answer is not correct. Start looking inside a little. First, become a witness to thoughts. Start recognizing that whatever is happening should be in your awareness. You will miss many times, because it is difficult to maintain awareness for more than a second. Awareness is a very precious thing; it is not obtained so easily. Open eyes are not awareness. What is happening inside, if it is visible, then it is awareness. What is visible outside is not awareness. Close your eyes and start watching your thoughts. The play of thoughts is very wonderful, and if you can see it, it is very entertaining. You are running a big drama inside, and no one else can see it. Great images arise, great stories are played out, great dramas unfold. Practice just watching, and don't fight, otherwise you won't be able to see. Just watch as you watch sitting in a cinema hall. Just watch, enjoy. One thing: let nothing pass by unseen, unobserved, missed. Just like when you go to watch a very sensational film, you sit absolutely straight, not even leaning back, lest you miss something. Then you lean forward completely, so that everything is captured, not a single word is missed. Or when you hear something very interesting, you listen so attentively that if even a single word is missed, it becomes difficult to grasp the chain. The thread will slip from your hand. Watch the inner thoughts with such attentiveness, and this is very beneficial. There is no event in the world more beneficial than this. By watching anything else, you will not get something as precious as you will get by watching thoughts. Because by watching, your awareness will deepen, your witnessing will intensify, your attention will become steady. You will become a flame of wisdom within, in which everything will be visible. The light will gradually increase, and each thought will become transparent. When thoughts start becoming transparent, and you start seeing every thought, then you will gradually begin to glimpse the feelings hidden beneath the thoughts. Beneath every thought, a feeling is hidden, just as a root is hidden beneath every tree, beneath the earth. When you correctly identify the thought, you will know the feeling that is hidden behind it. And when the feeling becomes visible, you have entered a very deep realm. Then your wisdom will surely become steady, unwavering, and will begin to grow. The day you can see the thought, and after seeing the thought, you can also see the feeling, the meaning of feeling is just a state of feeling, no thought has formed yet, just an uneasiness is happening, which is not manifested, which is prompting you to do something, but it is not clear where to go. The thought of work has not yet arisen, but lust is flowing in the body, pushing the body to form a thought. It wants to come to the level of thought. Just like a bubble rises in water, see, the bubble rises from below. It was hidden beneath the water, in the soil. From there it rises, gradually, gradually. As it comes up, it starts to grow, because the water pressure decreases. The pressure decreases, the bubble grows, then it comes right to the surface. When it comes right to the surface, you see it. And when the bubble settles right on the surface, you see it clearly. This coming right to the surface is action. In the middle is thought. Hidden beneath the water, in the soil, is feeling. And the day you see the feeling, a unique event happens. You become a seer of your future in relation to yourself. Because before the feeling comes, a seed comes within you. That seed always comes from outside. Because the bubble was hidden beneath the water, air must have come into the ground before that, otherwise where would the bubble be hidden? So, after the feeling awakens, you can again see which feeling is about to come. That is the subtlest state of the mind, the most subtle, where you become a seer of the future, where you can predict about yourself. "This is going to happen." "Will I get angry in the evening?" "The feeling of anger will thicken by noon." A seed has fallen. And the day you become so subtle that you can see the future, what will happen tomorrow, on that day the principle of prevention will be useful to you. Prevention is possible before the feeling forms, because feeling is the root. And what is before the feeling, for which we have no word, because no one observes so subtly, or those who do, are so alone that there is no way to tell anyone, and the other person does not understand them. The pre-feeling state, the state before feeling, is the seed. And that seed always comes from outside. Thoughts come from outside. Feelings come from outside. The seed comes from outside. Everything comes from outside. And you become afflicted by this external arrival. The day you see all this, and your vision becomes complete, on that day prevention will be possible. On that day, you will close the door before it arrives. On that day, there will be no disturbance in your life. What is lying dormant is easy to control. What has not yet manifested is easy to prevent.
What is not yet manifested is easy to change, it is within reach. Let me tell you something in this regard, a parallel example, so that you understand. In Russia, Kirlian developed a new kind of photography, which is to capture illness in its undeveloped state. If a person will be a cancer patient six months from today, no doctor can catch it yet, because no trace has appeared anywhere in the body yet. Even a psychologist cannot catch it, because no trace has appeared in the mind yet. Kirlian catches it. He has prepared such subtle photographic plates, so sensitive, that it captures what is deeper than the body and mind, which spiritual people have called aura, the body's aura, the body's electric field. For example, if this finger of my hand is going to be sick six months later, then there is an electric field around this finger, which has already become sick. First, illness enters the electric field, then through that field it comes to the mind, then through the mind it reaches the body. Feeling, thought, action, electricity, field, mind, body. Kirlian catches it six months in advance and says, "If treatment is done now, this disease will never come. And now the treatment is very easy. Nothing needs to be done now. Now, this person's electric field needs to be corrected, which is being done through many means." In China, it has been done through acupuncture. Kirlian's photography has given glory to 5000-year-old acupuncture. People thought it was just the imagination of Eastern people. Acupuncture has proven to be very scientific, and it is 5000 years old. And acupuncture was born only when the Taoist ideology was deepening. It is a part of Tao. Just as Ayurveda is a part of Yoga in India, it is part of the Taoist practice method. The principle of "prevention first" from Taoist teachings is its basis. This idea is applied to bodily illness: it is very difficult to fight when the disease has arrived, and very difficult and incurable to remove it when it reaches the body. But if the disease is eliminated in the initial stage, then what does acupuncture do? Acupuncture only changes the body's electric field. Acupuncture has discovered 700 points in the body where changes can be made. And at these points, acupuncture simply inserts needles. A slightly heated needle is inserted. Due to this heated needle, at the place where the hole is being made in the electric field, the electric current changes. Due to this change in current, the disease that was about to occur is cured. Now, this matter will remain hypothetical. It will remain hypothetical because this disease was undeveloped. Even the sick person did not know yet. Even the doctor was not ready to accept that he had any disease. Only those who train in acupuncture have to develop very subtle eyes, who try to see the electricity around the body. Therefore, acupuncture training is very difficult, 10, 20, 25 years, still not certain, because it will depend on your eyes and the speed of your attention, whether you start seeing the electricity around the body. This Kirlian has made the work easy. The camera catches it and tells. The photo of the entire body appears in the camera, the electric lines around the body, and wherever the lines are broken and fragmented, a disease is about to manifest there. If that electric field is corrected, the disease will never manifest. Now, there is a problem in this. If the disease does not manifest, is it certain that it was going to happen or not? If it manifests, then it is clear that the acupuncture people are saying wrong things. If they succeed, then it is clear that it is nonsense, because the disease did not happen, it was going to happen.
Many great things have become clear from Kalyan's photography, but now the plate can be viewed just as a physician views an X-ray plate. Just as an X-ray plate has become essential in every big hospital, in the coming 10 years, Kalyan's instruments will become essential in every hospital. Then it would be appropriate that instead of falling ill, you should go beforehand and get a monthly check-up to see if there is any beginning of a problem, and it can be fixed right there very easily because things are very small at the source. Gangotri falls from Gaumukh as a very small stream, a tiny waterfall. If any change needs to be made there, it is easy. It will be difficult in Haridwar, very difficult in Prayag, impossible in Banaras. In Banaras, the disease has become incurable, and now nothing can be done. There is no remedy left. Why are you waiting for Banaras when treatment is possible in Gangotri itself? What is true for the body is also true for the soul. You should resolve the inner life within you at the very time when things were about to happen but did not, were about to come but did not. You should prevent the future today itself, but for this prevention, it is necessary that you be very deeply, consciously, and aware. What is fragile like ice melts easily; what is extremely small scatters easily. Deal with something before it comes into existence. Stop the disturbance before it matures. The tree whose trunk is full and complete starts from a tiny sprout. A nine-story balcony starts from a handful of soil. A journey of a thousand kos begins with the traveler's foot. After walking a lot, it becomes difficult to change. Think carefully before walking, so that things can be kept right from the very first step. Think properly before building a house, so that the foundation can be laid correctly. The mistake left there will always follow; correcting it later becomes very difficult. Some things cannot be corrected later at all, and this is the calamity of your life that you have walked thousands of journeys. You walked in unconsciousness from the first step. Now you wish to correct it, but you are afraid. How can you improve yourself? It is not impossible, however difficult it may be. Nothing has gone wrong yet; it is not too late yet. Time is in hand, and if you wake up now, nothing is lost. When you wake up, it is dawn; when you wake up, it is morning. But now you have to step carefully, understanding every single thread. From today, take care of one thing: do not postpone. Try to deal with the problem that arises. Do not say, "I will deal with it tomorrow." If you are angry with your wife, sit down and talk to her right now. It is still Gangotri; things are very simple now. The anger does not have a sting yet; there is no poison yet. Anger is just a state of mind right now. Tell her that I am feeling angry, explain the reason, talk in between. You are not so angry right now that conversation is not possible. In anger, conversation is not possible; then it becomes a quarrel, then a dispute, not a discussion. The first glimpse of anger has come, the first smoke has risen. Sit down now, leave aside a thousand important tasks. Nothing is more important than this. Sit and talk. Do not say, "I will do it in the evening," or "I will do it tomorrow." And who knows, the wind might blow and pass away without doing anything. Nothing comes out without doing; everything remains stuck. If you become skilled at catching things in Gangotri, you will find that things have become so simple, so light, that problems do not arise. If greed arises in your mind, do not let it remain there. Close your eyes and sit down. Look at your greed fully. What arises slowly on its own, pull it out yourself. Bring it from the unmanifest to the manifest. The tree that will grow large in years, you can do magic. You have seen magicians hide a mango seed under a basket, chant spells, lift the basket, and there is a plant. Then they put the basket back, chant spells again, play the drum a little, lift the basket, and the tree is growing. Then they cover it with a basket, chant spells again, play the drum, lift it, and the tree has fruits. Then they put the basket back, lift the magic basket, the fruits are ripe, and they give them to you. This is all sleight of hand, but you can do this completely within yourself. Perform this magic. If greed arises, do not postpone. Sit down, darken the room, close the doors and windows, cover yourself with a basket, chant spells, say "grow big," and there is no problem within. Say "grow big, grow big." Say "anger grow big, greed grow big, I want to see you completely. Tomorrow you will grow on your own; grow now. What do you want? Do you want a palace? An empire? What do you want? Say it all now. Reveal it all now. Why wait for tomorrow? Anger will grow with great pleasure. The tree will grow big, fruits will ripen quickly. You have become Alexander; the kingdom of the whole world is yours. See this, bring it up completely, recognize it fully, and remain aware at all times of the game the mind is playing. The failure that Alexander saw later in life, you will see in a moment. What if you gain the kingdom of the world? What if you get all the wealth? What will you do? Eat the wealth, drink the wealth, and your whole life will be destroyed in acquiring it. Alexander felt as he was dying that his hands were empty. You can focus for a moment, let greed grow fully, reach the fruit, become Alexander, conquer the whole world. No killing would be necessary, no violence, no going anywhere. Just perform a magic trick. What Alexander felt at the last moment of his life, losing it, that his hands were empty, you will realize in this small game that your hands are empty, this race is futile. And if this race becomes futile, you have stopped what was to come, you have changed what was to happen. Whatever it is, do not delay the inner problem. Do not make it a seed. Do not give it time to grow. Let it grow now, see it. This is called self-reflection, and by self-reflection, your dual capacity will increase. On one hand, greed will prove futile; by observing, your consciousness will also prove effective. These will be double benefits. You can make every problem a ladder if you do not delay. Every problem can become a means of bringing maturity into your life. Problems exist precisely so that you can solve them, because by solving them, you will grow, you will become strong. Do not postpone the problem; do not flee. Fight the past problems that you have postponed, that you have fled from. Do not fight them; give them a chance to spread in your mind. Sit by the river and let the stream of your problems flow. Watch them with detached indifference, neither towards this side nor that, neither in favor nor against. Let the stream of lust flow, let it flow. You are sitting on the bank, with nothing to gain or lose. You are neither in favor nor against. You are neither worldly nor a renunciate. This is the meaning of my renunciation: you are neither worldly nor a renunciate, neither a enjoyer nor a renouncer. You are not on either side. Kabir says, "The whole world has forgotten by clinging to the sides of likes and dislikes." In the disturbances of likes and dislikes, the whole world has forgotten. You are neither on one side nor the other. You have sat down, you are watching. Say, "Come, let whatever is happening, happen. Do not be afraid." If the mind starts to enjoy beautiful women, let it enjoy. You just keep in mind that you are sitting on the other side, watching. Do not do anything. The moment you act, a mistake is made. The moment you pick up a sword, or say, "I have taken a vow of celibacy," what is happening? The moment you act, a mistake is made. The foundation of fighting or losing is laid. Do not pick up a sword. Just sit with both hands tied. That is why Buddha and Mahavir sat with both hands tied. If your hand moves by mistake, tie both your hands and sit down. Do not move the body, do not move the action within. And let the mind do whatever it wants, let it enjoy. There is no harm in the celestial nymphs of heaven; let them enjoy. Nothing is being spoiled. It is a play; let it happen. What do you have to do with it? The particles of lust hidden in the body, the aspirations of lust hidden in the mind, the play of body and mind. The body is the stage, the mind is the actor. You are just a witness. You are just an audience. You do not need to get up and go on stage. You do not need to participate. You just sit. In a little while, the play will end, and you will go home. This is not your home. You are neither an actor nor the stage. The body is the stage. The hunger hidden in the body is biology, which becomes desire, anger, greed. Then the mind gives form, thought, color to this hidden hunger of the body, writes the story. The script is of the mind, the mind is the actor. You come in between. Do not come in between. Maintain distance and keep watching. And then you will be very happy. There is no drama in the mind like the drama that goes on. It is enjoyable, entertaining, and free. No need to go anywhere, no need to stand in line in front of any ticket counter. When you close your eyes, the play is already going on. And the more calmly you sit, the more colorful the play will become. Initially, the drama may be in black and white, like an old-fashioned film. Soon, multicolor, many colors, diverse colors will appear if you keep sitting. First, the worldly play will go on. If you keep sitting, soon the worldly plays will fall, and what are called spiritual plays will begin. Kundalini is not awakening; light is visible. Rama is standing with a bow; Krishna is playing the flute. Jesus is hanging on the cross. This is a spiritual drama; this too is just a drama. The whole play of these is also of the mind, and their stage is also the body. Keep watching these too. Just as the world has passed, this play will also pass. Keep watching. Do not become anything more than an audience. It is very difficult. Many times, you will feel like jumping in. Many times, you will find that you have forgotten and jumped in. As soon as you realize you have jumped in, return to your seat and sit down. This mistake will happen many times; it is an old habit. There is no need to worry about this either. When you forget, what to do? When you remember, return and sit down to watch again. First, the world will pass, then spirituality will pass. It is very easy to escape the world, but very difficult to escape spirituality, because it is even more entertaining, multi-colored. Its colors are not even visible in the world. You have seen the color blue, but it is nothing. The day the blue star appears within you, when you see it in your third eye, that blue light is divine. You will be immersed in it, you will drown in it, you will forget that you are an audience. Sit on your chair, you will become an enjoyer. Because there is nothing in the celestial nymphs, nothing in the treasure of wealth. When the subtle colors within appear, and they appear only to one who has let the world pass. For one who is entangled in the world, there is no opportunity for them to appear. For one who has let the worldly pictures pass, spiritual pictures begin to appear. This is a good sign; it indicates that you have become a little calm, you have sat in the chair for a while, you have not jumped onto the stage by jumping around. That is why these colors have started to appear. And when you find that the inner colors are very unique, everything becomes divine. Sounds are heard that even great musicians cannot produce. Even the greatest musician can do is seem like an echo of those sounds. Thousands of moons, stars, millions of suns, a very unique world appears. As you become calmer, a world of immense forms and colors appears, and it seems so real that the world appears illusory. One who has seen the blue star within, all the blue colors of the world will seem just pale. It is just a faint imprint, a blurred carbon copy. One who has seen the beautiful celestial nymph within, all the women outside will seem pale, like ruins. One who has caught a glimpse of inner wealth will find all the wealth outside to be empty. But remember that even that is outside. All scenes are outside. Inside, there is only the seer. So let these also pass. Many are entangled in the world, many get entangled in spirituality. People entangled in spirituality come to me, and they want me to testify for them. It is very difficult for me. If I tell them, "Yes, a wonderful thing is happening," they get entangled in it. And if I tell them, "Do not worry about this," they become sad. They say I am not helping; instead, I am making them sad. They came with great hope. If I tell them, "This blue star, these suns, thousands of them, these are all imaginations. This Krishna playing the flute, this is also your mind's game. This Buddha, Mahavir, you are creating them yourself. This is the last call of the mind." Then they feel pain. I tell them their Krishna is a figment of the mind, and they have found it with great difficulty, and I am snatching it away from them. So either they run away and never return. What is the use of going to such a person? They look for people who say, "Amazing! You have become a Siddha Purusha! You have attained it! This is the real secret! This is spirituality!" No, this is not the real secret, nor is it real spirituality. This is also a game of the mind. When the mind sees that you are not getting entangled in the world, the mind throws a new temptation. The mind says, "The old greed is gone, no worries. You have caught the magician's trick." The magician says, "Wait, we'll show you another one, even better. This is nothing; we just showed this casually." The mind is the magician, and the mind will keep showing until the end. And you have to maintain your consciousness. A time comes when you do not get tired of consciousness, and the mind gets tired of showing. Just at that moment, a revolution happens. Then the mind-magician says, "Take your basket, your belongings, and your puppets, and let's go." He leaves you. The play ends, the stage disappears. You are alone on your chair. That is what Mahavir called Siddha Shila. Nothing is left; sitting alone is enlightenment. Now nothing is visible. Now there is only the seer. Now there is no object, only subjectivity. Now only the soul remains; no experience remains. That is why Kabir says, "Sun dies, Ajapa dies, Anahad dies, even emptiness dies," because emptiness is also an experience. If you say, "I am experiencing emptiness," this is also a drama of the mind. Experience itself is of the mind. When all experience is gone, Sun dies, Ajapa dies, Anahad dies, nothing remains. That is true emptiness where no experience remains. That is true emptiness where you cannot even say, "I am experiencing emptiness." Nothing is left, only the experience of the experience itself. Established in your ultimate, your ultimate energy, everything is lost. The play has ended. You have returned home. This return home is Moksha. That is why it is said, "Deal with something before it comes into existence." This is dealing. All subtle seeds are hidden in the mind. Deal with them. Let them manifest. Do not make them actions in the mind. Let them manifest in the mind. See them and become a witness. Stop the disturbance before it matures. The tree whose trunk is full and complete starts from a tiny sprout. If you want to destroy it, destroy the tiny sprout. It will be difficult to destroy the big tree. Then why make it big if it has to be destroyed? Why water it if you have to transcend it? Why develop attachment to it if you have to move away from it? Why foster any attachment to it if you have to be free from it? If you have to leave this place, consider it a resting place, not a home. Do not make a stopover a destination. Before the stopover becomes a destination, leave. Before something catches you, before you get stuck, be alert. A nine-story balcony starts from a handful of soil. A journey of a thousand kos begins with the traveler's foot. One of Lao Tzu's famous sayings: "The journey begins at the first step, and the end of the journey is at the first step." What is the first step? It is to prevent problems before they arise. That's it. If you have done this much, everything is done. If you have achieved this much, everything is accomplished. You achieve one step, the first step of Gangotri, and then nothing gets entangled; things keep getting resolved. And you know how to resolve one step. No one ever takes more than one step. Whenever you take one step, you will resolve it. You resolved it today, you will resolve it tomorrow, you will resolve it the day after tomorrow. One step will keep moving, it will keep resolving. Light will keep falling. Then how far the pilgrimage may be, who cares? The one whose first step is taken, resolved, their destination is near. That is why Lao Tzu says, "This is the end, this is the beginning." And one who strays at the beginning never reaches the end. They are like a river that gets lost in the desert and does not reach the ocean. If you want to reach the ocean, do not look at the ocean. Look at one step. One step is enough. Pick it up, resolved. Be resolved in this moment. All moments will emerge from this moment. All steps will emerge from this step. One is resolved, the second will emerge from that resolution itself. So do not worry about it. Do not worry about tomorrow. Do not think about the future. Do not worry about whether you will reach the destination or not. Resolve one step. Those who have resolved one have always reached their destination, because that is the beginning and that is the end. That is all for today.