Ultimate Destiny – In Gita Verse 13.29 One who sees the Supersoul equally present everywhere, in every living being, does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination.
Krishna is talking about an inner psychological process – making you free from the master, from the parents, from the friends. It has nothing to do with the outside world, it is your inner world where images go on gathering. And unless all these images are dissolved, you cannot see yourself. They are preventing your perception.
The meditation that Buddha gave to the world is perhaps one of the most significant. There are many meditations, many ways to enter into yourself, but Buddha’s is sharp, almost like a sword – it cuts everything that hinders. And even in a split second, you can reach your ultimate destiny.
We will take support of Rinzai’s teaching to understand what Krishna is saying.
Rinzai says: IF YOU MEET A BUDDHA… He does not mean the actual Buddha, because where will you meet him now? Even when he was alive – I mean Rinzai – Buddha had been dead for almost fifteen hundred years. So what is the meaning? – IF YOU MEET A BUDDHA, CUT HIM DOWN…Immediately! IF YOU MEET A PATRIARCH, a master, CUT HIM DOWN – immediately!… IF YOU MEET AN ARHAT, CUT HIM DOWN; IF YOU MEET YOUR PARENTS, CUT THEM DOWN AND IF YOU MEET YOUR RELATIVES, CUT THEM DOWN. ONLY THUS WILL YOU BE LIBERATED…
It is an inner psychological process – making you free from the master, from the parents, from the friends. It has nothing to do with the outside world, it is your inner world where images go on gathering. And unless all these images are dissolved, you cannot see yourself. They are preventing your perception. Rinzai’s description of Buddhist meditation is excellent.
AND IF YOU ARE NOT HELD BY EXTERNALS, YOU WILL BE DISENGAGED AND COMFORTABLY INDEPENDENT.
Now, the internals you have cut down. The images, your dreams, your love affairs, you have destroyed all of them and made the path towards you clean, but you may still be attached to externals. You may be ready to cut away from your parents’ image and be free of it, but the desire for power in the world, the desire to be the richest man in the world… A thousand and one desires surround you in the external world.
Now the second step is easier. Rinzai begins with the hardest because he knows if you can do the hardest, the easier can be done without any difficulty.
IF YOU ARE NOT HELD BY EXTERNALS, YOU WILL BE DISENGAGED AND COMFORTABLY INDEPENDENT.
AFTER THIS MOUNTAIN MONK HAS SAID THAT THERE IS NO DHARMA EXTERNALLY, STUDENTS WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS, IMMEDIATELY MAKE THEIR INTERPRETATION OF THE INTERNAL.
Rinzai is saying that it is very easy to misunderstand a master. In fact, it is easier to misunderstand a master than anybody else, because he is talking a new language, giving new meanings to words, talking about spaces you have never been to. It is almost human to be mistaken, to misunderstand.
He says: AFTER THIS MOUNTAIN MONK HAS SAID THAT THERE IS NO DHARMA EXTERNALLY… There is no religion externally. Going to the temple or to the church or to the synagogue, reading scriptures, ancient holy books – these are all externals and there is no dharma as far as externals are concerned. They are dead skeletons, remnants of somebody who attained, but now it is too difficult to decode the scriptures. The man is no more there, only the skeleton of the man which cannot speak, which cannot explain, which cannot help you in any way.
You can go on carrying scriptures, but those scriptures will be your interpretations not the meaning of the masters. Outside you can go to the temples, but what are you doing? Man-made temples, man-made gods – and you are worshipping those stone gods. And you are not alone! Almost the whole world is worshipping something or other as a god. But in this way you cannot find the essence of dharma. It is a very upside down, disturbed and perverted situation when man starts worshipping gods he has made himself.
You have to know the source of life – the source from which you spring, just as roses spring. And it is not a question of prayer, it is a question of intense exploration inside to find your roots. And you will be surprised: your roots are the roots of the moon, of the sun, of the stars – of the whole existence. You are just a small branch of a vast tree. Once you know it, there is no fear of death. You cannot die – you belong to immortality. There is no more desire.
Krishna says what more can you have? You have the whole universe in your hands. You are already everything you could have dreamed, desired, asked to be. A great contentment descends over you. In this contentment are all the qualities of blissfulness, of ecstasy, of all that is a continuous dance, a festivity, a ceremony.
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