Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Be an emperor within yourself

Picture : Sadhu Vasudeva Jaggi

To be spiritual means to be an emperor within yourself. This is the only way to be. Is there any other way to be? Consciously, would anybody choose to seek something from someone or something else? Maybe out of his helplessness he seeks, but consciously would anybody choose to do this?

Friday, October 21, 2005

Vincent Van Gogh

Portrait : Vincent Van Gogh

Excerpt from Osho Books:

Nobody purchased Vincent van Gogh's paintings. During his whole life not a single painting was sold, but that didn't matter; he enjoyed himself. If they sold, good; if they did not sell, good. The real prize was not in their being sold and appreciated, the real prize was in the painter's creating of them. In that very creation he has attained his goal. In the moment of creation he becomes divine. You become God whenever you create.You have heard it said again and again that God created the world. I tell you one thing more: whenever YOU create something you become a small God in your own right. If God is the creator then to be creative is the only way to reach him. Then you become a participant, then you are no more a spectator.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Osho's Parents

Thousands of fools are making love around the earth, around the clock. Millions of unborn souls are ready to enter into any womb, whatsoever. I waited seven hundred years for the right moment, and I thank existence that I found it. Seven hundred years are nothing compared to the millions and millions of years ahead. Only seven hundred years -- yes, I am saying only -- and I chose a very poor couple but a very intimate one.I don't think my father ever looked at another woman with the same love he had for my mother.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Magga Baba

Picture : Magga Baba

Magga Baba never said anything about his own life, but he said many things about life. He was the first man who told me, "Life is more than what it appears to be. Don't judge by its appearances but go deep down into the valleys where the roots of life are." He would suddenly speak, and suddenly he would be silent. That was his way. There was no way to persuade him to speak: either he spoke or not. He would not answer any questions, and the conversations between us two were an absolute secret. Nobody knew about it. This is for the first time that I am saying it.
I have heard many great speakers, and he was just a poor man, but his words were pure honey, so sweet and nourishing, and so pregnant with meaning. "But," he told me, "you are not to tell anybody that I have been speaking to you, until I die, because many people think I am deaf. It is good for me that they think so. Many think that I am mad -- that is even better as far as I am concerned. Many who are very intellectual try to figure out what I say, and it is just gibberish."
I wonder, when I hear the meaning that they have derived from it. I say to myself, `My God! If these people are the intellectuals, the professors, the pundits, the scholars, then what about the poor crowd? I had not said anything, yet they have made up so many things out of nothing, just like soap bubbles.'" For some reason, or maybe for no reason at all, he loved me.
I have had the fortune to be loved by many strange people. Magga Baba is the first on my list.
The whole day he was surrounded by people. He was really a free man, yet not even free to move a single inch because people were holding on to him. They would put him into a rickshaw and take him away wherever they wanted. Of course he would not say no, because he was pretending to be either deaf or dumb or mad. And he never uttered any word that could be found in any dictionary. Obviously he could not say yes or no; he would simply go.
Once or twice he was stolen. He disappeared for months because people from another town had stolen him. When the police found him and asked him whether he wanted to return, of course he did his thing again. He said some nonsense, "YUDDLE FUDDLE SHUDDLE...."
The police said, "This man is mad. What are we going to write in our reports: `YUDDLE FUDDLE SHUDDLE'? What does it mean? Can anyone make any sense out of it?" So he remained there until he was stolen back again by a crowd from the original town. That was my town where I was living soon after the death of my grandfather.
I visited him almost every night without fail, under his neem tree, where he used to sleep and live. Even when I was sick and my grandmother would not allow me to go out, even then, during the night when she was asleep, I would escape. But I had to go; Magga Baba had to be visited at least once each day. He was a kind of spiritual nourishment.
He helped me tremendously although he never gave any directions except by his very being. Just by his very presence he triggered unknown forces in me, unknown to me. I am most grateful to this man Magga Baba, and the greatest blessing of all was that I, a small child, was the only one to whom he used to speak. Those moments of privacy, knowing that he spoke to no one else in the whole world, were tremendously strengthening, vitalizing.
If sometimes I would go to him and somebody else was present, he would do something so terrible that the other person would escape. For example he would throw things, or jump, or dance like a madman, in the middle of the night. Anybody was bound to become afraid -- after all, you have a wife, children, and a job, and this man seems to be just mad; he could do anything. Then, when the person had gone we would both laugh together.
I have never laughed like that with anybody else, and I don't think it is going to happen again in this lifetime... and I don't have any other life. The wheel has stopped. Yes, it is running a little bit, but that is only past momentum; no new energy is being fed into it.
Magga Baba was so beautiful that I have not seen any other man who can be put by his side. He was just like a Roman sculpture, just perfect. Even more perfect than any sculpture can be, because he was alive -- so full of life, I mean. I don't know whether it is possible to meet a man like Magga Baba again, and I don't want to either because one Magga Baba is enough, more than enough.
He was so satisfying and who cares for repetition? And I know perfectly, one cannot be higher than that. I myself have come to the point where you cannot go any higher. Howsoever high you go, you are still on the same height. In other words, there comes a moment in spiritual growth which is untranscendable. That moment is called, paradoxically, the transcendental.
The day he left for the Himalayas was the first time he called me. During the night somebody came to my house and knocked on the door. My father opened it and the man said that Magga Baba wanted me.
My father said, "Magga Baba? What has he to do with my son? Moreover he never speaks, so how could he call for him?"
The man said, "I am not concerned about anything else. This was all I had to convey. Please tell the person concerned. If it happens to be your son, that is not my business." And the man disappeared.
My father woke me in the middle of the night and said, "Listen, this is something: Magga Baba wants you. In the first place he does not speak...."
I laughed because I knew he spoke to me, but I did not tell my father.
He went on, "He wants you right now, in the middle of the night. What do you want to do? Do you want to go to this madman?"I said, "I have to go."
He said, "Sometimes I think that you are a little mad too. Okay, go, and lock the door from the outside so that you don't disturb me again when you come in."
I rushed, I ran. This was the first time he had called me. When I got to him I said, "What's the matter?"
He said, "This is my last night here. I am leaving perhaps for ever. You are the only one I have spoken to. Forgive me, I had to speak to that man I sent to you, but he knows nothing. He does not know me as a spiritual man. He was a stranger and I bribed him simply by giving him one rupee, and told him to deliver the message to your house."
In those days, one gold rupee was too much. Forty years ago in India one gold rupee was almost enough to live on, in perfect comfort, for one month. Do you know the English word "rupee" comes from the Hindi word rupaiya which means "the golden." In fact the paper note should not be called a rupee; it is not golden. At least the fools could have painted it in golden colors, but they didn't even do that. One rupee, of those days, is almost seven hundred rupees of today. So much has changed in just forty years. Things have become seven hundred times costlier.
He said, "I just gave him one rupee and told him to deliver the message. He was so bewildered by the rupee that he did not even look at me. He was a stranger -- I have never seen him before."
I said, "I can also say the same. I have never seen the man either in this town; perhaps he is a passer-by. But there is no need to be worried about it. Why did you have to call me?"
Magga Baba said, "I am leaving and there is nobody whom I could call to say goodbye to. You are the only one." He hugged me, kissed my forehead, said goodbye and went away, just like that.
Magga Baba had disappeared many times in his life -- people had taken him and brought him back again -- so when he disappeared last, nobody bothered much. Only after a few months did people become aware that he had really disappeared, that he had not come back for many months. They started looking around the places he had been before but nobody knew about him.
That night, before he disappeared he told me, "I may not be able to see you blossom to a flower but my blessings will be with you. It may not be possible for me to return. I am going to the Himalayas. Don't say anything to anybody about my whereabouts." He was so happy when he was saying this to me, so blissful that he was going to the Himalayas. The Himalayas have always been the home of all those who have searched and found.
I didn't know where he had gone because the Himalayas is the biggest range of mountains in the world, but once while traveling in the Himalayas I came to a place which seemed to be his grave. Strange to say it was by the side of Moses and Jesus. Those two persons are also buried deep in the Himalayas. I had gone there to see the grave of Jesus; it was just a coincidence that I found Moses and Magga Baba too. It was a surprise of course.
I could never have imagined that Magga Baba had anything to do with Moses or Jesus, but seeing his grave there I understood immediately why his face was so beautiful; why he looked more like Moses than any other Hindu. Perhaps he belonged to the lost tribe. Moses had lost a tribe while he was on the way to Israel. That tribe settled in Kashmir in the Himalayas. And I say it authoritatively, that that tribe was more correct in finding Israel than Moses himself. What Moses found in Israel was just a desert, utterly useless. What they had found in Kashmir was really the garden of God.
Moses went there in search for his lost tribe. Jesus also went there after his so-called crucifixion. I'm calling it so-called because it did not really happen, he remained alive. After six hours on the cross Jesus was not dead.
The way Jews used to crucify people was such a crude method that it took almost thirty-six hours for a person to die. It was arranged by a very rich disciple of Jesus that the crucifixion should happen on a Friday. It was an arrangement, because on Saturday Jews don't allow any work to be continued; it is their holy day. Jesus had to be put down off the cross into a cave temporarily, until the coming Monday. Meanwhile he was stolen from the cave.
That's the story Christians tell. The real fact is that on the night he was in the cave, after having been taken down from the cross, he was taken away from Israel. He was alive although he had lost much blood. It took a few days to heal him, but he was healed and he lived up to the age of one hundred and twelve in a small village called Pahalgam in the Kashmiri Himalayas.
He chose the place, Pahalgam, because he found the grave of Moses there. Moses had gone before him to search for his lost tribe. He found it but also found that Israel is nothing compared to Kashmir. There is no other place to be compared to Kashmir. He lived and died there -- I mean Moses. And when Jesus went to Kashmir with Thomas, his beloved disciple, he sent Thomas to show India his way. He himself lived in Kashmir, near the grave of Moses, for his remaining life.
Magga Baba is buried in the same small village of Pahalgam. When I was in Pahalgam I discovered a strange relationship running from Moses to Jesus to Magga Baba and to me.
Before Magga Baba left my village he gave me his blanket saying, "This is my only possession and you are the only one I would like to give it to."
I said, "That's okay, but my father will not allow me to bring this blanket inside the house."
He laughed, I laughed... we both enjoyed. He knew perfectly well that my father would not allow such a dirty blanket in his house. But I was sad and sorry not to have preserved that blanket. It was nothing much -- a dirty old rag -- but it belonged to a man of the category of Buddha and Jesus. I could not take it to my house because my father was a clothes merchant and very careful about clothes. I knew perfectly well that he would not allow it. I could not take it to my grandmother's house either. She would not allow it because she was very fussy about cleanliness.
I have got my fussiness about cleanliness from her. It is her fault, not my responsibility at all. I cannot tolerate anything used or dirty -- impossible.
I used to say to her, laughingly of course, "You are spoiling me." But it is a truth. She has spoiled me forever, but I am grateful to her. She spoiled me in favor of purity, cleanliness and beauty.
To me Magga Baba was important, but if I had to choose between my Nani and him I would still choose my Nani. Although she was not enlightened then and Magga Baba was, sometimes an unenlightened person is so beautiful that one would choose them, even though the enlightened one is available as an alternative.
Of course if I could choose both I would. Or, if I had a choice of two among the whole world of millions of people, then I would have them both. Magga Baba on the outside... he won't enter my grandmother's house; he would remain outside under his neem tree. And of course my Nani could not sit at the side of Magga Baba. "That fellow!" she used to call him. "That fellow! Forget about him and never go close to him; even when you just pass by him, always take a shower." She was always afraid he had lice, because nobody had ever seen him take a bath.
Perhaps she was right: he had never taken a bath as long as I had known him. They could not coexist together, that too is true. Coexistence could not be possible in this case, but we could always make arrangements. Magga Baba could always be under the neem tree outside in the courtyard, and Nani could be the queen in the house. And I could have the love of them both, without having to choose this or that. I hate "either/or.
"What is the time?"
Sixteen minutes past ten, Bhagwan."
Five minutes for me. Be kind to a poor man, and after five minutes you can stop.

Excerpt from the Osho Book : Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Ch. 15
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Sunday, October 16, 2005

Shirdi Sai Baba

Portrait : Shirdi Sai Baba

Excerpts from Osho Books :

If you watch you will feel ripples coming back in a reverse order, and when they are totally concentrated in the navel, you can see a tremendous energy, a tremendous light-force. And then that center leaves the body. When a man 'dies', that is simply a stopping of the breath, and you think he is dead. He is not dead; that takes time. Sometimes, if the person has been involved in millions of lives, it takes many days for him to die -- that's why with sages, with saints, particularly in the East, we never burn their bodies. Only saints are not burned; otherwise everybody is burned, because others' involvement is not so much. Within minutes the energy gathers, and they are no more part of this existence.
But with saints, the energy takes time. Sometimes it goes on and on -- that's why if you go to Shirdi, to Sai Baba's town, you will still feel something happening, still the energy goes on coming; he is so much involved that for many people he is still alive. Sai Baba's tomb is not dead. It is still alive. But the same thing you will not feel near many tombs -- they are dead. By 'dead' I mean they have accumulated all their involvement, they have disappeared.
And The Flowers Showered, Ch. 5
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Sai Baba of Shirdi became world-famous because of the simple coincidence that Shirdi is near Bombay, and all the celebrities of Bombay and the rich people of Bombay started going to Sai Baba of Shirdi. And the richer you are, the more famous you are, the more successful you are, the more you are in need of something to give you fulfillment, because all your success, your riches, your fame has brought you nothing. These are the emptiest people in the world, the hollowest. And because of Bombay being a world center, soon Sai Baba of Shirdi's name started reaching outside India, and so many miracles were created around him.
From Misery To Enlightenment, Ch. 14
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Saturday, October 15, 2005

Greatest incarnation since Buddha in India


World Teacher
An interview with the Tibetan Lama, His Holiness Lama Karmapa
Ma Prem Jeevan

In 1972, Swami Govind Siddharth visited the Monastery of the Tibetan Lama, His Holiness Lama Karmapa in Darjeeling. When he arrived, accompanied by his wife and two young daughters, the monastery was completely closed. He told, in an interview, of his disappointment at not meeting the Karmapa. Then all of a sudden, one lama came out to tell him that he was immediately wanted inside by His Holiness. He went in and was greeted by him as if he was expected there. His Holiness never even knew anything about him beforehand, as he had never made any appointment... he never knew anything about him except that he was in sannyasin’s dress. About His Holiness, he is said to be a ‘Divine Incarnation’. In Tibet, they believe that whosoever attains to buddhahood, to enlightenment, if by their own wishes they are born again to help people in the world, then they are divine incarnations — bodhisatvas. His Holiness is said to be the sixteenth incarnation of Dsum Khyenpa, the first Karmapa, who was born about 1110 AD. He is descended from the chain of master going back to Marpa, one of Tibet’s great yogis.
When Swami Siddharth first entered, the Karmapa immediately told him that he knew where he was coming from. He said, “I am seeing that you have somewhere some photograph or something which is printed on two sides, of your master.” Swami Siddharth answered that he had nothing like that which is printed on two sides. He had completely forgotten about the locket hanging from his mala of Osho’s photograph on both sides! There was an English woman who was acting as an interpreter since the Lama Karmapa does not know English. She immediately saw his mala and said, “What is this?” He then remembered that the locket was printed on two sides and he said, “This is the photograph of my master.” She was curious to see it, so Siddharth took it off and showed it to her. Immediately, His Holiness said, “That is it.”

He took the locket of Osho in his hand and he touched it to his forehead and then said: He is the greatest incarnation since Buddha in India — he is a living Buddha!” His Holiness went on to say, “You may be feeling that he is speaking for you, but it is not only for you that he speaks. Osho speaks for the Akashic records also, the records of events and words recorded on the astral planes. Whatever is spoken is not forgotten. That is why you will find that he goes on repeating things and you will feel that he is doing this for you, but as a matter of fact, he speaks only for a few people. Only a few people realize who Osho is. His words will remain there in Akashic records, so that they will also be helpful to people of the future.”
His Holiness went on to say that Osho was with them in past lives. “If you want to see one of Osho’s previous incarnations — who he was in Tibet — you can go to Tibet and see his golden statue there which is preserved in the Hall of Incarnations.”
He went on to say that about Osho and his work, “My blessings are always there, and I know that whatever we are not going to be able to do to help others, Osho will do.” The main aim of the lamas in coming to India was to preserve their occult sciences. Osho also confirmed this in his Kashmir lectures given in 1969. The Dalai Lama has not escaped only to save himself, but to save the Tibetan religion, the meditation secrets and the occult sciences. “We have gotten these things from India in the past, and now we want to return them back. Now we have come to know that here is an incarnation, Osho, who is doing our job in India and the world and we are very happy about it. The world will know him, but only a few people will realize what he actually is. He will be the only person who can guide properly, who can be a World Teacher in this age, and he had taken birth only for this purpose.”

Picture : Ogyen Trinley Dorje, 17 th Karmapa

The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa was the head of the Kagyu or “Black Hat” school of Tibetan Buddhism.


For more information on the 16th Karmapa, his reincarnation Ogyen Trinley Dorje and the Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism visit http://www.kagyuoffice.org/ or the official site of the Dharma Chakra Center of Rumtek Monestary http://www.rumtek.org/

Friday, October 14, 2005

Awareness

Picture : Osho

I don't teach you any morality.
I don't say "this is good, this is wrong,
this is moral, this is immoral" --
that is all childish.
I teach you a single criterion:
Awareness.
If in awareness you do something,
it has to be right,
because in awareness you cannot do anything wrong.
And without awareness,
you may be doing something very good,
appreciated by everybody,
but still I say it is wrong because you are not aware.
You must be doing it for wrong reasons.

Excerpt from the book: Sermons in Stones, Ch. 23
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Cheerfulness

You must bear your karma cheerfully, whatever it may be, taking it as an honour that suffering comes to you, because it shows that the Lords of Karma think you worth helping. However hard it is, be thankful that it is no worse. Remember that you are of but little use to the Master until your evil karma is worked out, and you are free. By offering yourself to Him, you have asked that your karma may be hurried, and so now in one or two lives you work through what otherwise might have been spread over a hundred. But in order to make the best out of it, you must bear it cheerfully, gladly.
Yet another point. You must give up all feeling of possession. Karma may take from you the things which you like best- even the people whom you love most. Even then you must be cheerful- ready to part with anything and everything. Often the Master needs to pour out His strength upon others through His servant; He cannot do that if the servant yields to depression. So cheerfulness must be the rule.

Excerpt from the book : At the feet of the master by J. Krishnamurti
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Thursday, October 13, 2005

Mind Without Fear

Picture : Rabindranath Tagore

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

GITANJALI
"Song Offerings"
Translations made by the author from the original Bengali.
Selected, Titled and Edited by Ralph Losey.
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Existence of Time

Picture : George Gurdieff

" 'Time in itself does not exist, there is only the totality of the results issuing from all the cosmic phenomena present in a given place. ' "Time in itself no being can understand by Reason or perceive by any outer or inner being-function It cannot even be sensed by any gradation of the instinct present in every more or less independent cosmic concentration. "It is possible to evaluate Time only by comparing different cosmic phenomena occurring under the same conditions and in the same place where Time is being considered. "It should be noted that in the Great Universe all phenomena, without exception, wherever they arise and are manifest, are simply successive, lawful 'fractions' of some whole phenomenon which has its prime arising on the Most Holy Sun Absolute. "In consequence, all cosmic phenomena, wherever they proceed, have an 'objective' significance. "And these successive, lawful fractions are actualized in every respect, even in the sense of their involution and evolution, according to the fundamental cosmic law, the sacred Heptaparaparshinokh. "Time alone has no objective significance, since it is not the result of the fractioning of any definite cosmic phenomenon Issuing from nothing, but always blending with everything while remaining self-sufficiently independent, Time alone in the whole of the Universe can be named and extolled as the 'Ideally Unique Subjective Phenomenon. ' "Thus, my boy, Time or, as it is sometimes called, the 'Heropass,' is unique in having no source on which its origin depends, and it alone, like "divine Love," always flows independently and blends proportionately with all the phenomena present in all the arisings in any given place in our Great Universe.
All and Everything, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, First Book, Ch. 16, G. Gurdieff
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"Commentaries on Living" By J Krishnamurti

Picture : J. Krishnamurti
Website: http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/

The hills across the lake were beautiful, and beyond them rose the snow-covered mountains. It had been raining all day; but now an expected miracle, the skies had suddenly cleared, and everything became alive, joyous and serene.
The flowers were intense in their yellow, red and deep purple and the raindrops on them were like precious jewels. It was most lovely evening, full of light of spelndour. The people came out into the streets, and along the lake, children were shouting with laughter. Through the all movements and beauty there was enchanting beauty and a strange all-pervading peace.There were several of us on the long bench facing the lake. A man was talking in rather a high voice, it was impossible not to overhear what he was saying to his neighbor. ?On the evening like this I wish I were far away from this noise and confusion , but my job keeps me here, and loathe it.? People were feeding the swans, the ducks and few stray sea-gulls. The swans were pure white and very graceful. There wasn?t a ripple on water now, and the hills across the lake were almost black; but the mountains beyond the hills were aglow with setting sun, and the vivid clouds behind them seemed passionately alive.

Excerpt from the book : "Commentaries on Living" By J Krishnamurti
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Dolano: The 21st Century Zen Master



"Dolano was born in 1952, in Lindau, Bodensee Germany and grew up in institutions. From childhood on throughout her life she was in search for truth. After a long wandering and getting lost in so-called wrong directions, dolano finally found Osho, her beloved Master in1979. Osho saved her from drowning and introduced her to meditation."
I attended her satsang in pune, india in the winter of year 2001 and liked her very much because of her simplicity and clarity.


The meeting with Truth is Satsang.
"Truth itself is Satsang"

With an empty mind and open heart,
out of not knowing you know.
You are Truth itself, it is your very, very nature.

What is called Truth is That which is always and does not change.
It is That which is before, during and after experiences;
That which remains the same.
It is That which does not come and go.

You are Truth itself.

Source is Truth, pure intelligence and clarity.
Its nature is emptiness and openness.
Truth is the light, the power, which removes lies and confusion.
When you bring light into a dark room, darkness disappears naturally,
without ever needing to touch or analyze darkness.
You are the light.

When Osho says, "be a light unto yourself",
he points to "who you are".
You are the light; who else will ever recognize if not YOU, Truth itself?
Truth recognizes Truth-itself by itself.

It is That, which cannot be seen or experienced, because it is YOU.
You can't see your own eyes, because they are too close to you.
But "who you are" is not even close to you, it is YOU.

No beginning no end --- is always and has been always. You have only overlooked.

OM-shanti

Tantra Master












Here is the website by ma krishna Radha : http://www.tantralife.com/english/default.htm , a long time osho sannyasin.
I read her book on tantra and i can say that the essence of her book is described in the following quote on the front page of her website:

"Generally what we call love,
it's not true love.
We ask, we demand.
Ordinary love is a kind of begging:
"Give me more, give me more!".
True love says: " ask me more, take more".
When love is giving, it is true.
When it longs to have, it is false.
And when love is giving,
it spreads, it pulsate."

Osho

How I Became a Madman

You ask me how I became a madman. It happened thus: One day, long
before many gods were born, I woke from a deep sleep and found all my
masks were stolen -- the seven masks I have fashioned and worn in seven
lives -- I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, "Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves."

Men and women laughed at me and some ran to their houses in fear of me.

And when I reached the market place, a youth standing on a house-top cried, "He is a madman." I looked up to behold him; the sun kissed my own naked face for the first time. For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, "Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks."


Thus I became a madman.

And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.

But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief.

The Madman : His Parables and Poems (1918) , Khalil Gibran

Success













So Called Success:

"In seeming contrast to the descending or unsuccessful type, but in reality in exactly the same position, are people who are successful from the ordinary point of view, but successful through adaptation to the darkest or most senseless sides of life: people who quickly amass enormous fortunes, millionaires and super-millionaires; successful statesmen of opportunist or definitely criminal activities; " scientists " who create bogus theories, which become fashionable and arrest the development of true knowledge; " philanthropists " who support all forms of prohibitive legislation; inventors of high explosives and poisonous gases; sport-addicts of every kind and description; prizefighters, world champions, record breakers, cinema-clowns and " stars "; novelists, poets, musicians, painters, actors, commercially successful, but having no other value; founders of crazy sects and cults, and the like. In each new life these people continue to do what they did before, spend less and less time on preparatory training, grasp sooner and sooner the technique of their business and the technique of success, attain greater and greater celebrity or fame. Some of them become " infant prodigies " and show their special capacities from the earliest years.
The danger for the successful type of people is their success. Success hypnotises them, makes them believe that they themselves are the cause of their success. Success makes them follow the line of least resistance, that is, sacrifice everything to success. Therefore nothing changes in their lives, save that success is attained ever more easily and ever more mechanically. Without formulating it they feel that their strength lies precisely in this mechanicalness, and they suppress in themselves all other desires, interests and inclinations. "

True Success:

"Men of real science, of real art, of real thought or action, differ from these chiefly in very seldom attaining success. As a rule, they begin to be recognised only long after the end of their earthly life. And this is an exceedingly favourable factor from the point of view of the repetition of their lives. The inner decomposition which almost inevitably comes with success never sets in with them. And they start each new life striving towards their unattainable aim, every time with new strength, and they sometimes begin and " remember" astoundingly early, like some famous musicians or thinkers.
Evolution, that is, inner growth, inner development, cannot be either accidental or mechanical. The ways of evolution are the ways of Jnana-Yoga, Raja-Yoga, Karma-Yoga, Hatha-Yoga and Bhakti-Yoga, or the way of the special doctrine accessible only to few, which was mentioned earlier, in the chapter on Yoga. The five Yogas and the way of the special doctrine are the ways of work on oneself for people of different inner type. But all the ways are equally difficult, all the ways equally demand the whole of man. "

A New Model of the Universe, P. D. Ouspensky
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Identification : An Obstacle to Self-remembering

Picture : P. D. Ouspensky

Identifying is the chief obstacle to self-remembering. A man who identifies with anything is unable to remember himself. In order to remember oneself it is necessary first of all not to identify. But in order to learn not to identify man must first of all not be identified with himself, must not call himself 'I' always and on all occasions. He must remember that there are two in him, that there is himself, that is 'I' in him, and there is another with whom he must struggle and whom he must conquer if he wishes at any time to attain anything. So long as a man identifies or can be identified, he is the slave of everything that can happen to him. Freedom is first of all freedom from identification.
"After general forms of identification attention must be given to a particular form of identifying, namely identifying with people, which takes the form of 'considering' them.
"There are several different kinds of 'considering.'
"On the most prevalent occasions a man is identified with what others think about him, how they treat him, what attitude they show towards him. He always thinks that people do not value him enough, are not sufficiently polite and courteous. All this torments him, makes him think and suspect and lose an immense amount of energy on guesswork, on suppositions, develops in him a distrustful and hostile attitude towards people. How somebody looked at him, what somebody thought of him, what somebody said of him?all this acquires for him an immense significance.
"And he 'considers' not only separate persons but society and historically constituted conditions. Everything that displeases such a man seems to him to be unjust, illegal, wrong, and illogical. And the point of departure for his judgment is always that these things can and should be changed. 'Injustice' is one of the words in which very often considering hides itself. When a man has convinced himself that he is indignant with some injustice, then for him to stop considering would mean 'reconciling himself to injustice.'
"There are people who are able to consider not only injustice or the failure of others to value them enough but who are able to consider for example the weather. This seems ridiculous but it is a fact. People are able to consider climate, heat, cold, snow, rain; they can be irritated by the weather, be indignant and angry with it. A man can take everything in such a personal way as though everything in the world had been specially arranged in order to give him pleasure or on the contrary to cause him inconvenience or unpleasantness.

Excerpt from the book : IN Search of the Miraculous, P. D. Ouspensky
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cosmic Consciousness


In contact with the flux of cosmic consciousness all religions known and named today will be melted down. The human soul will be revolutionized. Religion will absolutely dominate the race. It will not depend on tradition. It will not be believed and disbelieved. It will not be a part of life, belonging to certain hours, times, occasions. It will not be in sacred books nor in the mouths of priests. It will not dwell in churches and meetings and forms and days. Its life will not be in prayers, hymns and discourses. It will not depend on special revelations, on the words of gods who come down to teach, nor on any bible or bibles. It will have no mission to save men from their sins or to secure them entrance to heaven. It will not teach a future immortality nor future glories, for immortality and all glory will exist in the here and now. The evidence of immortality will live in every heart as sight in every eye. Doubt of God and of eternal life will be as impossible as is now doubt of existence; the evidence of each will be the same. Religion will govern every minute of every day of all life. Churches, priests, forms, creeds, prayers, all agents, all intermediaries between the individual man and God will be permanently replaced by direct and unmistakable intercourse. Sin will no longer exist nor will salvation be desired. Men will not worry about death or a future, about the Kingdom of heaven, about what may come with and after the cessation of the life of the present body. Each soul will feel and know itself to be immortal, will feel and know that the entire universe with all its good and with all its beauty is for it and belongs to it for ever. The world peopled with men, possessing cosmic consciousness will be as far removed from the world of today as this is from the world as it was before the advent of self-consciousness.

Excerpt from the book : Tertium Organum, P. D. Ouspensky
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The Buddha

The Buddha went on his way, modestly and deep in his thoughts, his calm face was neither happy nor sad, it seemed to smile quietly and inwardly. With a hidden smile, quiet, calm, somewhat resembling a healthy child, the Buddha walked, wore the robe and placed his feet just as all of his monks did, according to a precise rule. But his face and his walk, his quietly lowered glance, his quietly dangling hand and even every finger of his quietly dangling hand expressed peace, expressed perfection, did not search, did not imitate, breathed softly in an unwhithering calm, in an unwhithering light, an untouchable peace.

Excerpt from the book : Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
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Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Take it Easy

Don't make the search for truth a serious phenomenon.Take it easy and remember: Easy is right. If strong winds take you hither and thither, don't resist. They appear strong because of your resistence. Relax, go with them. Go with them with totality.

Osho: The Golden Future, Chapter 19

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

A Tribute

Came across Priya Florence Shah's blog and i didn't know that she was single not by choice but because her husband passed away. A nice song is also there. Made me cry.

Visit: http://marketingslave.com/2005/06/06/a-tribute-to-my-love/

The days of the mahatmas and gurus is gone.

I have found these Interesting Osho quotes from sw. milarepa's website:

“I want you to live moment to moment according to your awareness. I will give you methods to be aware but not a discipline, not ready-made answers. I will give you a mirror which reflects, wherever you are, whatsoever the situation is, so that you can act on your own. You need not wait for my guidance. I am not a guru. I am nobody’s leader. I hate the very word ‘leader’. I am not giving you any guidance, telling you where to go. I am not at all interested to give you a certain character, discipline. On the contrary, I am destroying your desire to be a follower and your desire to have a fixed pattern so that unconsciously you can repeat it. Once you are on your own, listening to your own heart, following your own silence, that’s enough. Then you have risen above the so-called humanity.”
The Old Pond - Plop, Chapter 11

“The days of the mahatmas and gurus is gone. They are not needed anymore. A great mankind is essential. The need of the hour is for a great humanity.”
From Sex to Superconsciousness, Chapter 5

“You have to be very careful and cautious because there has never been such a tremendous desire for transformation. Hence, there are bound to be many people who will not miss this opportunity to exploit you.”
I Am That, Chapter 3

"Trust life, love life ... Rejoice life and existence will take care of you."
Om Shantih Shantih Shantih, Chapter 14

Monday, October 10, 2005

laagi tum se man ki lagan

Picture : John Abraham and Udita Goswami in the movie ' Paap '


I can listen to this song day and night. It's such a wonderful song. Touched me deeply. It takes me into deep meditative state. Enjoy!

O laagi tum se man ki lagan
Lagan laagi tum se man ki lagan
Gali-gali ghoome dil tujhe dhoondhe
Tere bin tarase nayan
Lagan laagi tum se man ki lagan
Aa ja o meri jaan
Mere dil ka jahaan
Maange teri khabar
Dhoondhe tera nishaan
Laagi tum se man ki lagan
Lagan laagi tum se man ki lagan

Tera tujhako saunp de
kya laagat hai mor
Mera mujha mein kuchh naaheen
jo hovat so tor

Tere bin mera man
Jaise ban mein hiran
Jaise pagali pawan
Laagi tum se man ki lagan
Lagan laagi tum se man ki lagan

Amzad Islam Amzad

To listen the song click the link
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/17/s/movie_name.1508/

For downloading the song:
http://www.bollyfm.net/temp/mp3/m-p/paap.php

Movie –Paap
Singer – Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Music –Shahi

Anne Frank's Writings


http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/af/htmlsite/story.html
Go to the above mentioned link and click ' An Unfinished Story ' on top to enter the museum of Anne Frank:
"Born on June 12, 1929, Anne Frank was a German-Jewish teenager who was forced to go into hiding during the Holocaust. She and her family, along with four others, spent 25 months during World War II in an annex of rooms above her father’s office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After being betrayed to the Nazis, Anne, her family, and the others living with them were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. In March of 1945, nine months after she was arrested, Anne Frank died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen. She was fifteen years old.Her diary, saved during the war by one of the family’s helpers, Miep Gies, was first published in 1947. Today, her diary has been translated into 67 languages and is one of the most widely read books in the world."

Nicholas Roerich, A Russian painter


Nicholas Roerich, A Russian painter

http://www.roerich.org/



"The pursuit of refinement and beauty was sacred for Roerich. He believed that although earthly temples and artifacts may perish, the thought that brings them into existence does not die but is part of an eternal stream of consciousness. Finally, he believed that peace on Earth was a prerequisite to planetary survival and the continuing process of spiritual evolution. "

I visited Roerich's art gallery in manali on september last year. I was thinking that osho must have said something about him & found this.

Osho mentions Roerich in two of his talks:

One very great painter not much known in the West, although he was a Western man -- he lived in the Himalayas. He was a Russian, Nicholas Roerich, and he belonged to the czar's family. So while the revolution was happening and nineteen members of the czar's family were slaughtered, even a six-month-old child -- sometimes these revolutions can be so ugly -- Nicholas Roerich escaped; he was just a boy at that time.He lived in the Himalayas. He was a painter, but not a painter for art galleries and marketplaces. He never sold any of his paintings -- not because people were not ready to purchase, but because he was not willing to sell. He said, "It is not a commodity, it is me spread on the canvas. How can I sell it?" He died with all his paintings in his house.I have been to his house -- he was very old at that time -- and seeing that he was vegetarian, I asked, "You are a Russian, why should you be vegetarian?"He said, "Because of my paintings. I cannot even destroy a painting, which is not alive. How can I destroy a living being for my food? And if I can destroy a lion or a tiger, then why not destroy a man?"Because human meat will be more digestible, more in tune with you, what is wrong with the cannibal? Why is everybody against the cannibals? Just because they are eating human beings? But cannibals say human meat is very delicious. They say there is nothing so delicious on the earth as human meat, particularly the meat of small children. If deliciousness and taste are decisive.... And perhaps they may be right, because they have eaten other foods also, and if they are saying it -- and all cannibals agree.... But you can't think of eating a man. How can you think of eating a tiger? How can you think of eating a deer? Just if there is no mind given to you by the past, or if you can put it aside and see directly, you will be simply amazed at what people have been doing.Vegetarianism should not be anything moral or religious. It is a question of aesthetics: one's sensitivity, one's respect, one's reverence for life.To me this is the law of karma. All other interpretations of it are absolutely wrong, just boo boo.

From Personality to Individuality
-------------------------------------------------------------

You are here in Manali, in the Himalayas, surrounded by beautiful hills and majestic mountains. But you can see only that much beauty in these mountains as your eyes, your perception, your perspective are capable of. Nicholas Roerich, the renowned painter, happened to live here for a long time. If you go and see his paintings, they will give you quite a different perspective of the same mountains; you will see them with the eyes of Roerich. He came to these mountains from distant Russia at a time when there were no roads as there are today to connect the Himalayas with the rest of the world. And once he saw the Himalayas he made them his lifelong home; he never left again. These very mountains before you now had possessed Roerich, enchanted him.You have been in the Himalayas for some time, and I don't think you look at these mountains any more. You might have seen them for a little while the first day you arrived and you were finished with them. They are now nothing more than mountains.But Nicholas Roerich spent his lifetime watching and painting the same Himalayas. The eternal and inexhaustible beauty of these mountains continued to enchant him till his last day; he never felt sated. He dedicated his life to painting them, yet his thirst and passion and love for them remained undiminished. He looked at them from hundreds of angles -- during the day and night; morning, noon and evening; summer and winter; spring, rains and autumn; sun and moon and stars -- and in all their myriad colors and moods. He was busy painting them even at the time of his death. So these mountains will look very different if you see them through the eyes of Roerich. They will tell you a different story if you get acquainted with the works of this man.I don't say that you should see these mountains the way Roerich saw them. No, I don't say that. And it is impossible for you to see them as this great painter has. But for sure, after knowing him and his works your perspective will change and deepen, you will know these mountains better.

Krishna: The man & his philosophy
--------------------------------------------------------

Friday, October 07, 2005

Badalaa na apane aap ko


Artist: Jagjit Singh
Album: In Sight

badalaa na apane aap ko jo the vahii rahe
milate rahe sabhii se magar ajanabii rahe

duniyaa na jiit paao to haaro na Khud ko tum
ThoDii bahut to zahan men naaraazagii rahe

apanii tarah sabhii ko kisii kii talaash thii
ham jisake bhii qariib rahe duur hii rahe

guzaro jo baaG se to duaa maaNgate chalo
jisamen khile hain phuul vo Daalii harii rahe

Listen to this Ghazal here: http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/9/s/album.636/

Ab Khushi hai Na Koi Gam Rulaane waala

I don't know why i'm only posting the lyrics of the gazals, songs etc. only but the following gazal sung by jagjit singh describes my present state of being beautifully.

Artist: Jagjit Singh
Album: Hope

ab khushi hai na koi Gam rulaaNe-waaLa
humNe apna liya har ranG zamaane-waaLa
usko ruKhsat to kiYa tha mujhe maloom na tha
saara Ghar le gaya, ghar chod ke jaane-waaLa
ik musaFiR ke safaR jaisi hai sabki duniyaN
koi jalDi meiN koi de'r se jaane-waaLa
ek be-chehRa see ummid hai chehra-chehra
jis taraF dekhiYe aane ko hai aane-waaLa

Monday, October 03, 2005

Mera Kuch Samaan

Picture : Gulzar


Wonderful and very touching Song from the bollywood movie ' Ijazat ', lyrics/Direction by Gulzar Enjoy:

Mera Kuch Samaan tumhare paas parha hai
Sawun ke kucch bheeghey bheeghey din rakhey hain
Aur mere ik khut main lipti raat parhi hai
Wo raat bhujha doh mera woh samaan lauta doh

....Ek akeli chuthri mai jub aadhey aadhey bheegh rahey thay
Adhey sukhey adhey geeley.. sukha toh mai ley aai thi
Geela mann shayad bistur ke paas parha ho
Woh bhijhwa doh..Mera woh samaan lauta doh

Ek soh saula chaand ki raatein, ek tumhare kaandhey ka til
Geeli mehndi ki khushboo, jhoot moot ke shikway kuch
Jhoot moot ke waadey bhi subh yaad karwa doon
Subh bhijwa doh..Mera woh samaan lauta doh

Ek ijazat dey doh buss..
Jubh isko dafnaoun gi..
Main bhi waheen soh jaon gi..
Main bhi waheen soh jaon gi...

(Song from Bollywood Movie "Ijazat")

Listen to this song here: http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/17/s/movie_name.959/