Growing And Growing – In Gita Verse 16.6 O son of Pṛthā, in this world there are two kinds of created beings. One is called divine and the other demoniac. I have already explained to you at length the divine qualities. Now hear from Me of the demoniac.
Krishna is saying there are two kinds of beings. One is on the path of transcendental; and the other is stuck in the mind, objective world. Both need to go beyond – First go beyond mind. Then go beyond enlightenment too. Don’t get stuck anywhere until you are simply an ordinary part of existence…
Meaning is in the – new. And if you want to be constantly meaningful, eternally meaningful, then you have to go on growing and growing and growing. If you are stuck anywhere, meaning immediately disappears. Meaning is not in being stuck, meaning is in flow, meaning is in evolving – so remember it. You can get stuck at love; then again meaning disappears, then again you become stale. Then the river is no longer moving. Again you will become dirty, flow is lost. And when the river is flowing it is fresh, when the river is not flowing it becomes stagnant.
The same is true about life. If you get stuck at love, again flow is lost. Again you are in a rut. Prayer is needed …and there are higher things than prayer. Prayer is the last that can be defined; prayer is the last that can be talked about – that too, not adequately, but very inadequately. But prayer is the last, the horizon. Not that on the horizon the earth stops; not that on the horizon the sky finishes. The horizon simply shows our limitation: our eyes cannot go beyond it, that’s all. Prayer is the horizon of the libido energy, but it is not the end. There are higher things than prayer, but words don’t exist for those things. When you reach prayer then you will know that there are higher things than prayer, and growth is eternal.
People are almost dead because they are stuck. They go on seeking the same thing again and again. Watch it. One should be in search of the new. The very search renews you, rejuvenates you. If you have some beautiful experience today, don’t ask again for it tomorrow because now it is meaningless – you have known it, it is finished. Ask for something more, seek for something new, grope for the unfamiliar and the unknown. Go beyond it. It was beautiful but don’t try to repeat it, because repetition kills beauty; repetition makes everything boring. And once you become accustomed to boredom you will become dead. Then you will go on revolving.
In life, one has to continuously move. It is movement, it is a process. If you feel stuck you will become miserable; one has to go on and on till the goal is reached. Standing in the third mind, the individual ego faces two possibilities: either it can go up and become the universal mind, or it can fall back and can become the social mind.
Both look alike, that’s why Jesus says: Enter ye in at the strait gate… Both are gates and they look very alike. What is their similarity? The universal mind has dropped the ego, it is in tune with the whole. The social mind has not created the ego yet, it is in tune with the social. But both have a kind of attunement.
The social mind is at ease with the society, it flows rhythmically, smoothly. It has no struggle, conflict. It fits together; it is adjusted – adjusted with the society. But society is a big thing; it almost looks as if you are adjusted with existence. The social mind is very normal. That’s what psychoanalysts go on doing. Whenever somebody becomes too much of an individual, they say he is maladjusted. Then what do they do? They bring you to a gate – the social; they help you to adjust with society. They call that normal health. They call that psychological health. It reduces tensions, it reduces inconveniences; it makes you more comfortable and secure but at a great cost.
Religion also helps you to go beyond tensions, but not through the second door. Religion helps you to go through the third door. That is the difference between psychoanalysis and religion. Religion also makes you adjusted, but not with society; it makes you adjusted with the whole, with the universe, with existence. That is real adjustment, and great joy arises out of it.
To be adjusted with society is a very tiny arrangement. You will be less tense but not more joyous, remember it. The fourth mind will give you joy, celebration; the second mind will simply help you to remain more calm and quiet and collected, but there will be no ecstasy.
Let ecstasy always be the criterion. Whenever you go high, ecstasy grows. If you go low, your ecstasy is diminished. But they look alike because both are adjustments. In one you drop being the individual, you become a sheep. You start imitating people, you become part of the mob. The mob itself may be wrong – that’s not the question – but you adjust to it. The mob may be neurotic, and in fact is so: mobs are more neurotic than individuals.
Krishna says the gates are alike: both are gates. But there is a great difference.
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