VBT – Meditation 27.3
The Animal And The Saint
The animal is single, unitary; the saint too is single and unitary. Man is double because man is just between the two, the animal and the saint – or, you can say between God and dog. Man is just in between. Inside he remains the dog; outside he pretends to be God. That creates tension, anguish, and everything becomes false. You could fall down and become an animal; then you would be more authentic than man. But then you would miss much – you would miss the possibility to become God.
The animal cannot become God because the animal has no problems to transcend. Remember, the animal cannot become God because there is nothing to be transformed. The animal is at ease with himself; there is no problem, no struggle, no need for transcendence. The animal is not even conscious, he is simply unconsciously authentic. But the animal IS authentic, although the authenticity is unconscious. No animal can lie; that is impossible. But it is not because animals maintain a morality, they cannot lie because they are not aware of the possibility that one can be false.
They are bound to be true, but that truth is not their choice, it is their slavery. An animal is bound to be true, not because he has chosen to be true, but because he cannot choose the other alternative.
There is no alternative for him; he can only be himself. There is no possibility to be false because he is unconscious of possibilities.
Man is conscious of possibilities. Only man can be untrue. That is growth! That is evolution! Man can be untrue and that is why he can be true. Man can choose. Animals are bound to be true; that is their slavery, not their freedom. If you are true, that is an achievement because you could always be untrue. The possibility is open, but you have not chosen it, you have chosen the other. It is a conscious choice.
Of course, then man is always in difficulties. Choosing is always difficult, and the mind wants to choose something which is easy to do. The mind wants to have the thing with the least RESISTANCE. To lie is easy; to be false is easy. To appear loving is easy; to BE loving is very difficult. To create a facade is easy; to create a being is difficult. So man chooses the simple, the easy, which can be done without any effort and without any sacrifice.
With man freedom comes into existence. Animals are just slaves. With man, freedom comes into existence, choice comes into existence – then difficulties and anxieties. With man, the untrue, the false, enters. You can deceive. Up to this point it is a necessary evil.
Man cannot be simple and pure in the same way as animals, but he can be more simple and pure, and he can be more impure and more complex. He can be more simple and more pure and more innocent, but he cannot be simple and pure and innocent just like animals. That innocence is unconscious, and man has become conscious. Now he can do two things: he may go on with his falsities, with his falseness, and constantly remain a divided being in conflict with himself. Or he may become conscious of the whole phenomenon of what has happened and what is happening to him, and he may decide not to be false. He may leave all that is false. He may sacrifice, he may choose to sacrifice whatsoever can be gained by being false. Then he becomes authentic again.
But this authenticity is different, qualitatively different from the authenticity of an animal. The animal is unconscious. He cannot do anything – he is forced by nature to be authentic. When a man decides to be authentic, no one is forcing him; on the contrary, everything is forcing him to be inauthentic – the society, the culture, all that exists around him is forcing him to be inauthentic. He DECIDES to be authentic. This decision makes you a self, and this decision gives you a freedom which no animal can attain and no false man can attain.
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