Transcription
It is easy to be free from lust because lust is nature. It will be difficult to be free from that which has been created by opposing lust, because that is one step further away from nature. Let us understand this in three words. One I call nature, which we have done nothing to, which we have received. The given, which we have received, is nature. If we do something wrong, what we do will be called perversion. And if we do something and correct it, what will happen will be called culture. We stand on nature. A slight mistake and we fall into perversion. Going into culture is very difficult because to go into culture, one has to escape perversion and rise above nature. Two things: one has to escape perversion and rise above nature. If someone tries only to fight nature, they will fall into perversion. Perversion is one step further from culture. Nature is not that far. Nature stands in the middle. Perversion and you have moved away. You have moved away from nature too. That is why such perversions are not seen in animals as are seen in humans, because animals do not fight nature, hence perversion is not seen. Now we cannot even imagine. Recently, at a crossroads in New York, and in Washington, and in other places, homosexuals have held processions and said that it is our birthright. And this year, at least 100 homosexuals got married last year, which seems beyond imagination. A man marrying a man, or a woman marrying a woman. 100 instances of same-sex marriage were registered in America this year. And these people have said that we declare that it is our birthright to love whomever we wish. Why should any government stop us? A man wants to love a man, wants to marry him, demands the right to their sexual relations. At least 150 clubs all over America and in Europe, in Sweden, and in Switzerland, all have spread. At least 200 magazines are published on the ground today, magazines of homosexuals, in which they give news and declarations. And you will be surprised that they recently held a demonstration in California, just like a beauty competition, where beautiful women are presented naked. Homosexuals presented 50 naked young men, saying that we see beauty in them, not in women. Animals, can we ever think that animals are also homosexual? Yes, sometimes circus animals become homosexual, or sometimes zoo animals become homosexual. Damas Mars wrote a book, "The Human Zoo," and he wrote that what happens to animals in the zoo is happening to humans in society. This is a zoo, not a society. Because no animal goes mad in the jungle, it goes mad in the zoo. No animal commits suicide in the jungle, it has never been seen to date, but in the zoo, sometimes an animal commits suicide. It does not become perverted because it remains in nature. Man tries. Man can make two attempts. Either he tries to fight nature, then sooner or later he will descend into perversion. Or he tries to transcend nature, then he will enter culture. Transcendence is tapasya, not opposition, not anger, not struggle. Transcendence is trans. Buddha used a very good word, that word is "paramita." He says, do not fight. Go from this shore to that shore. Go across. Paramita. Do not fight. Do not fight from this shore where you are standing, because if you fight, you will remain standing on this shore. You have to stay near what you are fighting. It is dangerous to move away from what you are fighting. Enemies stand face to face with bayonets. Look at the India-Pakistan border, they are standing there. Look at the India-China border, they are standing with bayonets. It is dangerous to move away from the enemy. You have to stand with bayonets in front of the enemy. If you fight from this shore, Buddha said, if you fight from the shore of indulgence, how will you reach that shore? Do not fight. Reach that shore. This shore will be left behind, forgotten, dissolved. That is transcendence, trans, not duality, not struggle. So, if we delve a little deeper into this form of transcendence, many things can be understood. First, let's understand what transcendence means. You are standing in a valley, it is very dark. You do not fight that darkness. You just start climbing the mountain peak. After a while, you find that you are getting closer to the sun-kissed peak. There is no darkness there. There was darkness in the valley. You did not remain standing in the valley. You started moving towards the sun-drenched peak. You reached the light. It was transcendence, not a bit of struggle. Where you are, there are two things: you are there, and the darkness of the valley surrounding you is there. You are there, and the darkness of the valley is there. If you fight the darkness of the valley, you will have to remain in the valley. If you do not fight the darkness of the valley, but raise yourself within, and walk on the upward path, then there is no need to pay attention to the darkness of the valley. Where we are standing, there are desires of indulgence all around. They are there, and you are there. The attention of a wrong renunciate is on desires, how to destroy this desire. The attention of a true renunciate is on himself, how to rise above this desire. Understand this difference properly, because the journey of these two will be different, their rules will be different, their practice will be different, their direction will be different, their focus will be different. The one who fights desire, his focus will be on desire. The one who elevates himself, his focus will be on himself. The one who fights desire, his focus will be outward. The one who takes himself upward, his focus will be inward. And one interesting thing is that attention is food. Whatever you pay attention to, you give it power. Whatever you pay attention to, you give it power. I was talking about Pavlov, the Czech thinker and scientist. He had small devices. He says, stare at this device with focused attention for five minutes, and that device collects your energy. In America, there was a very remarkable man who was sentenced to two years by the American government. It seems that a person's intelligence does not increase. Even if he lives for 2000 years, he does the same thing. After 2000 years, he does the same thing. There was a man, Wilhelm Reich, one of the people with insight in this century. He had to serve two years of sentence, and finally, the American government declared him insane and sent him to a mental asylum. He was prosecuted for a very strange thing, about which scientists are now saying after his death that perhaps he was right. He made a wonderful box, a box which he called an Orgone box. He said that if a person lies inside this, and thinks about lust, then the energy of his lust gets stored in this box. But now, what is the scientific proof that it gets stored? He said the proof is only one: put anyone inside it who has no idea, and after one minute, they start thinking about lust. Put anyone inside. He said this is the proof. He had proof from thousands of people. But scientists said, we do not consider this any proof. That man might be hallucinating, it might be a habit of that man. He said that whatever thought you have, wherever your attention goes, that energy gets stored. He used to cure many people who had developed a mental notion that they were impotent or infertile by making them lie in these boxes, because he said that orgone energy is collected in them. This Pavlov, he collects any of your energy through your attention. You may not realize it, but when people pay attention to you, you feel healthy. When people do not pay attention to you, you feel unhealthy. Therefore, a very wonderful phenomenon occurs: when you want people to pay attention, you fall ill. Children understand this trick very quickly. 90 out of 100 of your illnesses are born from the desire for attention. Because without falling ill, no one in the house pays attention to you. The wife falls ill, so the husband sits holding her head. If she is not ill, he doesn't even look at her. The wife understands this secret, not consciously, but unconsciously, that when she needs attention, she will have to fall ill. That is why no woman is as ill as she appears, or as she pretends to be, or as she moans and groans when her husband is in the room. That sound is not as much as when her husband is not in the room, she does it then, or even if she doesn't. This is something to consider. What could be the reason? Children learn very quickly that when they are sick, all the attention of the house is on them. Once they understand that falling ill to attract attention is enjoyable, illness becomes a basis for life. Psychologists advise, but the advice of wisdom seems very contrary. They say that when someone is sick, even intentionally, pay as little attention to them as possible, otherwise you will become the reason for them to fall ill. When someone is sick, do not pay attention, just serve them, but do not pay attention. Giving any importance to illness with great enthusiasm is dangerous. Then that person will fall ill less in life and remain healthier. For him, attention and illness will not be linked. But attention gives strength. That is why there is so much effort in the world to get attention. What enjoyment would a leader get from being hit with shoes, abused, enduring disturbances? But when he stands in a crowd, all eyes turn towards him. Pavlov says that he feeds on everyone's energy. It is no wonder that Nehru would have lived a few days longer if China had not attacked. Suddenly, the food decreased, attention scattered. A political leader rarely dies while in office. That is why no political leader wants to leave office. Otherwise, death and leaving office come closer. He rarely dies. A political leader might have to die in office, that's a different matter. He tries his best to not lose his position while alive, because as soon as he loses his position, his age decreases. People retire and die early. Now, the man who was a police officer, that man retired. His age would have reduced by at least 10 years. A lot of work is being done on this, and it won't be long before people refuse to retire, as soon as they realize what the problem is. Until a person retires, he seems healthy. As soon as he retires, he falls ill. The food of attention he was receiving, he used to go to the office, people would stand up, he would come out on the street, people would salute. Children also used to be afraid because the father had control over money, the bank balance was in the father's name. The wife was also afraid. Then everything retired. Yes, all the strings gradually loosened. Now he sits in a corner, people pass by as if he is not there. So he makes a fuss, calls out, saying "I am also here." He interferes in everything. The habit of old people to interfere is not for any reason. He interferes in everything, there is nothing in which he does not interfere, because by interfering, he can show that he exists and attract a little attention. This is a very pitiable state, a very pathetic state, a very sick, sad state, but it is so. He will not let anything happen in the house without giving advice, even though no one listens to his advice. He knows this. He says all day, "No one listens to me," but then why does he give advice all day? He says all day, "No one listens to me," but then why does he give advice all day? He says all day, "No one listens to me." Mahatma Gandhi used to say that he would live for 25 years and could have lived for 125 years if India had not become independent. India's independence became a part of his death, because after independence, those who listened to him stopped listening, because they themselves became powerful, they themselves reached positions. So Gandhi said, "I have become counterfeit coin, no one listens to me anymore." But Gandhi might not have known that whenever Gandhi used to say, "No one listens to me, I have become a counterfeit coin, I keep talking, no one cares about me, no one accepts my advice," even though he kept giving advice. Before his death, he had started saying, "I have no desire to live for 125 years anymore, may God take me away soon." Why? Because he had become a counterfeit coin, because no one listened, because no one paid attention. Those who paid attention, they paid attention only because without paying attention to Gandhi, no one paid attention to them. Now they themselves had become eligible to receive attention, people were paying them direct attention. Now they were in the corner to be noticed by Gandhi. No one can say that seeing the bullet of the Gonsai, thanks did not arise in their mind. No one can say that they thought, "The messenger of God has come, farewell." They are leaving. Attention is food. Very subtle food, very subtle food. You can live on attention alone. That is why when someone falls in love, their appetite decreases. You know, if someone loves you a lot, your appetite decreases suddenly. Why does it decrease? When someone loves you, what is the meaning of love? It means someone pays attention to you. What else is the meaning? And when no one pays attention to you, you know, psychologists say that when no one pays attention, people eat more. When someone pays attention, they eat less, because attention also works as food at a deeper level, at a very subtle level. Whatever we pay attention to, we give it power. I am saying this, and now there are scientific bases for saying this, and there are also ways to measure it. Earlier, I mentioned Nicolai and Kamon. These two individuals are currently the most skilled in telepathic communication on Earth. Nicolai sends thoughts, broadcasts them, and Kamon, thousands of miles away, catches those thoughts. Scientists, using instruments, were greatly surprised that when Nicolai sends a thought, his energy diminishes. Instruments around him indicate his energy is diminishing. And when Kamon, thousands of miles away, receives Nicolai's thought, instruments indicate his energy increases. Astonishing, thousands of miles away. But when Nicolai sends a thought to Kamon, he was asked what he does. He says, "I close my eyes and meditate that Kamon is present before me, he is not far away, he is present before me. I focus all my attention on him. I forget everything else, only Kamon remains. And when only Kamon remains, I see him appearing before me, then I speak to him." He is paying attention, so his energy becomes available to the person sitting thousands of miles away. Whatever we pay attention to, energy is collected there. And from where we pay attention, energy is withdrawn and dissipated. Whatever you pay attention to, energy is collected there. When you think about lust, the center of your lust starts collecting energy. Whatever you pay attention to, the center of that desire collects energy within you. You yourself give energy by paying attention. Then that center becomes full of energy, so it wants to be free from energy because it becomes burdensome. This is a trap within man. But attention can be given to lust in two ways. One, if you take pleasure in lust, then attention can be given. Then natural lust will intensify within you, natural lust will become powerful within you. A perverted attention can be given. A person pays attention to lust, thinking, "I have to fight lust, I will not let lust enter within me." He is also paying attention. His sex center also collects energy. Now it becomes very difficult, because the one who pays attention to natural lust, his energy will naturally be dissipated. But what about the one who does not want to dissipate it and pays attention? His energy will start taking a perverted form. It cannot be dissipated. It will enter other parts of the body and start perverting them. It will enter other nerves of the mind and start perverting them. This person will get entangled within himself and get trapped by the very energy he himself has given. It is like watering a tree and praying that the tree does not grow. We pray that the tree does not grow, and we water it. Whichever person you pay attention to, whether in favor or against, you give them water and food. The fundamental principle of tapasya is to pay attention elsewhere. Do not pay attention where you want to collect energy. Just shift your attention upwards. If you want to be free from lust, then do not pay attention to lust at all, neither in favor nor against. But you have to pay attention, because attention is your energy. It demands something. So, the fundamental principle of tapasya is to create new centers for attention. New centers are within man, and take your attention to those centers. As soon as attention finds a new center and starts pouring energy into that new center, it starts becoming free from the old centers. The climb up the mountain has begun. The center of lust is our lowest center. From there, we are connected to nature. Sahasrara is our highest center. From there, we are connected to divine energy, divinity, divinity. Whenever you pay attention, you notice that a thought of lust runs in your mind, and your lust center is immediately activated. A thought runs here, the thought runs in the mind, and the lust center is very far away, it is immediately activated. This is exactly the method the ascetic uses by turning his attention towards his Sahasrara. As soon as he pays attention to Sahasrara, Sahasrara starts to activate. And when energy goes upwards, it does not go downwards. And when energy starts finding a path to ascend, it starts leaving the valleys. And when energy starts entering the world of light, it quietly rises from the world of darkness. There is no condemnation of darkness in his mind, no opposition to darkness in his mind, no thought of darkness in his mind, no attention on darkness. Attention is transformation. So, if you understand it this way, then I can tell you another meaning of tapasya. Tapasya means fire.
The meaning is fire. Austerity means inner fire. The fire of life within man, taking that fire towards ascent is the work of an ascetic. Taking it downwards is the work of a hedonist. A hedonist means one who is causing the fire to flow downwards, towards downward movement in life. An ascetic means one who is causing that fire to flow upwards, towards the divine, towards the Siddha state. This fire can go in both directions, and the interesting thing is that it goes upwards easily, but downwards with great difficulty. This is because the nature of fire is to go upwards. Have you noticed, when you light a fire, it starts to go upwards? Therefore, it is given the name 'tapas' (austerity), it is given the name 'agni' (fire), it is given the name 'yajna' (sacrifice), so that it remains in mind that the nature of fire is to go upwards. To take it downwards requires great effort. Water flows downwards. If you want to take it upwards, great effort is required. And if you stop the effort, water will again flow downwards. If you stop the pumping system, water will flow downwards again. If you want to lift it up, you have to pump, apply force, work hard. Water does not require anyone's effort to flow down; it flows on its own; that is its nature. If fire is to be taken downwards, an arrangement will have to be made. Fire rises upwards on its own. It is called 'tapas' because the inner fire, the fire of life, is naturally upward-moving. Once you experience its upward movement, you do not have to make an effort to take it up; it keeps going. Once the ascetic's attention turns towards Sahasrara, then he does not have to strive; then that fire keeps flowing on its own. Gradually, he forgets what is down and what is up; he forgets everything because then the fire flows upwards naturally. Once fire finds its path, going upwards is its nature. To take it downwards requires a great arrangement. But we are so accustomed to taking it downwards, for lifetimes, our practice is to take it downwards. Therefore, taking it downwards, which is actually difficult, seems easy to us. Taking it upwards, which is actually easy, seems difficult to us. Difficulty is in our habit. Habits become very difficult. And sometimes, our habit becomes so strong over the nature, which is not our habit, which is the property of the thing itself, that it suppresses nature. All our natures are suppressed by habits. What Mahavir calls the sequence of karma is the sequence of our habits. We have formed habits, and they are suppressing us. That habit is long, old, deep. It is not possible to break free from them right now. So, we start fighting them and form opposite habits. But a habit is still a habit. A false ascetic only forms a habit. A true ascetic seeks nature, does not form a habit. Understand the difference between habit and nature. We all form habits. We tell a child, "Don't get angry." The habit of anger is bad. "Make a habit of not getting angry." He forms the habit of not getting angry, but anger does not disappear. Anger starts to operate within. When lust grips us, we say, "Make a habit of celibacy." It becomes a habit, but lust keeps burning within. It keeps flowing downwards. It makes no difference. An ascetic seeks the thread of nature, its essence, its dharma. He seeks what is his nature, removing all habits, he witnesses his own nature. But there is only one way to remove habits: do not pay attention. Do not pay attention to the habit. A friend came to me four or six days ago. He said, "You say that even living in Mumbai, meditation is possible. What about the roads? What about the horns? What about the trains blowing whistles? What about all this?" I told him, "Do not pay attention." He said, "How can I not pay attention? The horn is blaring right on my head. Someone is playing a drum down below. How can I not pay attention?" I told him, "Try this one thing. The horn is being blown down below. Let him blow the horn. You sit like this. Do not react. Whether the horn is good or bad, whether the blower is a friend or an enemy, whose head will you break if he blows it further? Do not react. You just sit and listen. Just listen. After a while, you will find that even if the horn is blowing, it has stopped blowing for you. Accept it. Whatever habit you want to change, accept it. Do not fight it. Accept it. When we accept something, we stop paying attention to it. Do you know, when you are in love with a woman, your attention is on her? Then you marry her and make her your wife. Then she becomes accepted, and attention stops. The things we accept, we stop paying attention to them. You don't have a car. It shines on the road and catches your attention. Then you get it. Then you sit in it. After a few days, you don't even think about that car. Whatever attracts attention all around becomes accepted. When something is accepted, attention stops going to it. Accept what is. Accept even your worst parts. Stop paying attention. Do not give it energy. It will gradually wither away and shrink, break. And the remaining energy will automatically start flowing inwards. A false ascetic pays attention to the same things that a hedonist does. A true ascetic, the process of true austerity is a transformation of attention. He pays attention to things that neither a hedonist nor a so-called renunciate pays attention to. He transforms attention itself. And attention is in our hands. We give it where we want to give it. You are sitting here listening to me. If a fire breaks out in the house right now, you will completely forget that you were listening or that someone was speaking. You will forget everything. Your attention will rush to the fire. You will run out. You will forget that you were listening to anything. The question of listening will not arise. Attention can change every moment. It just needs to find new points. If it finds fire, which is more important for saving life, then attention will immediately rush there. In the process of austerity within you, you have to search for those points and centers where attention rushes and where new centers become strong. Therefore, an ascetic does not become weak; he becomes powerful. A false ascetic becomes weak. A false ascetic becomes weak and thinks, "We will win," and delusion arises of winning. If a person is not given food for 30 days, then lust weakens, not because lust has gone, but because the body does not form the essence for lust. Then, if food is given, the lust that went in 30 days returns in three days. The body receives food, receives essence, and the center becomes active again. Then attention starts rushing there. Therefore, one who has supposedly conquered lust by remaining hungry, that poor person keeps trying to remain hungry his whole life because he fears, "If I eat, lust will arise." But this is completely foolish. Lust has not gone from outside; it is only that lust is not getting strength due to weakness. Actually, of the energy a person generates, some is necessary and is consumed in his daily activities. A certain amount of calories is used in his daily activities of getting up, sitting, bathing, eating, digesting, coming to the shop, going, sleeping. The remaining energy goes to the center on which your attention is. The superfluous, the extra. Suppose, let's say 1000 calories are spent in your daily activities, and from your food and your system, 2000 calories of energy are produced in the body. Then, the 1000 calories that remain will rush to the center on which your attention is. It has no other way; attention is the way. Attention is the arrow by which it will go. It doesn't know where to go. Your attention informs it that it has to go here, and it goes there. Now, if you want to engage in false austerity, then eat so little that not more than a thousand calories are produced within you. Then you will appear to be a controlled celibate because you will have no extra energy left to be given to the sex center. A thousand calories are produced, and a thousand are spent. Therefore, the ascetic reduces food, starts walking, does more labor, and keeps reducing food. He does this dual process so that the energy in the body is less, and the energy is more. He starts living at the minimum. There will be no extra energy, and no lust will be formed. But by this, he is not freed from lust. Lust remains in its place. The center of lust will wait for infinite births, will say, "When there is more energy, I am ready." This is just living in fear. Nothing is achieved by this living. Nature is missed; culture is not attained; only perversion is attained. And a distorted consciousness remains. This is not the path. The path of true positive austerity, true constructive austerity, is to generate energy, transform attention, take attention to new centers so that energy goes there. As we go deeper into the transformation of attention, this process will become clear. But first of all, one should realize which center is consuming my extra energy. Attention must be placed on the opposite center. I will complete this with a small incident from today. A conference of religious leaders was held. Great religious leaders gathered in a city of that country. There are four major religions in that country, and the four top religious leaders were engaged in a private conversation. The conference was nearing its end. They were sitting and talking. High-minded talks had happened, fake talks had happened. Now they were sitting and having real gossip. A 75-year-old religious leader says, "Those talks are over. People have heard them. But why should I hide from you? And I hope you will not hide either. It would be good if we tell what our real life is. I have been troubled by only one thing: money. I speak against money day and night, but I have a strong grip on money. If even one paisa of mine is lost, I don't sleep all night. Or if the hope of getting even one paisa is lost, then I don't sleep all night with excitement. Money is my biggest difficulty. I cannot get past it. If any of you have gotten past it, please tell me." The second said, "We haven't gotten past it either. We have our own troubles. One said, "My trouble is ego. I live for it, I get up for it, I sit for it. I even speak against ego, but I cannot get out of it." The third said, "My weakness is lust. Women are my weakness. I explain day and night, I give sermons, I lecture on celibacy in the church. But I don't enjoy speaking on the day women don't come. I myself don't enjoy it. The day women come, my enthusiasm is worth seeing. That day, when I speak, it's something else. But now I know very well that it is also my lust. I cannot get out of it." The fourth person was Mulla Nasruddin. He stood up and said, "Excuse me, I am leaving." They said, "But you haven't told your weakness." He said, "I have only one weakness: slander. I cannot stop now for even a moment. The whole village must be waiting for me. What I have heard here, I have to tell them. Excuse me, my only weakness is gossip. And now it is difficult for me to stop." They tried, "Wait, brother, this was your weakness, so why didn't you say it earlier? Why were you silent for so long?" [Music] "Everyone has some weakness. Identify that weakness properly. Your energy is also there. Mulla said, "Until then, I sat as long as I could listen completely. But when I heard completely, my energy awakened. Now it is beyond my control to sleep tonight. Now that my energy has awakened, that weakness of ours is the outlet for our energy. That is where our energy comes from." Mulla was sitting completely listless, as if lifeless. Suddenly, light came, life came, radiance came. Mulla said, "Amazing! I never thought that this conference would bring such joy. Our weakness is the point of expenditure of our strength. Whether it is indulgence or renunciation against indulgence, the point remains the same. Attention remains focused there. Energy is discharged and radiated from there. The process of change is this. I will talk about this tomorrow. Perhaps it will require a long discussion, because Mahavir has divided austerity into 12 parts, and each part is a scientific process. So, tomorrow, let's understand the scientific process, and then we will talk about each part of Mahavir's austerity. Don't leave yet, although the weakness of the mind might be saying, "Run away." If we stop for a little while, the sanyasis sing kirtan, that much patience and [Music]