and the reality of the branches; the law of the intransient
and the law of the transient – it is only in the harmonious balance
of these two that such a culture can be born
which will neither be polar nor lopsided,
which will use the tension of the opposite poles, the same
as architecture
uses opposing bricks in creation of an arched door.
The truth of life is pluralism.
And, the stream of life always flows taking the opposite poles
as its banks.
160. Love.
We just do not know life, that is why we get bored.
We make life mechanical, that is why we get bored.
We are not living life, we only drag along with it, that is why we get bored.
Boredom is not in life, rather it comes out of our fear of living.
We are not only afraid of death – we are afraid of life as well.
In fact, we fear death because we fear life.
Otherwise, death is not the end of life – it is the completion of life.
This is why I say: live – live fearlessly.
Let go of the past: man goes on carrying it because of fear.
And do not invite dreams of the future, because in order to avoid living today
man plans for living in the future.
Live today, and now, and here.
‘Tomorrow’ is a deception –
the ‘tomorrow’ that has passed as yesterday, as well as the tomorrow
that is yet to come.
Only this moment is.
Only this moment is eternal.
161. Love.
Life is a mystery.
It can be lived.
It can also be known by living it.
But it cannot be solved like a mathematical problem.
It is not a problem – it is a challenge.
It is not a question – it is an adventure.
Hence, those who only go on asking questions about life remain,
by this action, deprived of the answer forever.
Or acquire answers which are not answers at all.
It is such answers that one acquires from scriptures.
In fact, an answer acquired from any other source
cannot be an answer.
Because the truth of life cannot be borrowed.
Or such questioners fabricate answers of their own;
thus they certainly gain consolation, but not solutions.
Because fabricated answers are not answers.
Only the experience can be an answer.
Hence, I say: do not ask – live and know.
This is the difference between philosophy and religion.
To ask is philosophy, to live is religiousness.
And, the interesting thing is that philosophy asks but never gets the answer,
and religion does not ask at all and yet attains the answer.
162. Love.
Society is only a collectivity of individuals.
Hence, finally and essentially, it is a reflection of the minds
of the individuals.
If the individual mind is without peace, the society cannot be at peace.
Only a radical transformation of the individual mind can become the peace
of the society.
There is no other alternative.
Nor is there any shortcut.
The technique for individual transformation is meditation.
With more and more people moving into meditation; only then
is something possible.
To take shelter in the divine is the only way.
1971
163. Love.
You ask for the way to make the invisible visible?
Pay attention to the visible.
Do not just see, pay attention.
It means, when you see a flower,
let your whole being become the eye.
When you listen to the birds, let your entire body-soul become the ear.
When you look at a flower, do not think.
When you listen to birds, do not ponder.
Let the total consciousness
either see or hear or smell or taste or touch.
Because it is due to a shallowness of sensitivity that the invisible is unable
to become visible,
and the unknown remains unknown.
Deepen the sensitivity. Do not just swim in sensitivity, drown in it.
This I call meditation.