The Seed

Religion Is Living

Religion is living. Living totally, living intensely, without any purpose because purpose is always in the future and living is always in the present. If you have a purpose to live your life is divided between present and future – you cannot be total. And without being total you cannot experience what life is. The only way to be total is to forget all about purpose. It is a meaningless question.

Life has no goals, no purpose.

If you are with an enlightened person with enlightenment as your goal, you can not be with him. Physically you may appear to be there, but you can not be with him. The goal is in the future. He is here. And a mind which is goal-oriented, is bound to be in the future – we will never meet. I know, you are here to attain something. That’s why you are missing it. I am here to persuade you to drop the very idea of attaining anything whatsoever. Enlightenment, moksha, nirvana, God-included. If you drop this goal oriented mind, and there is none other than goal oriented mind, there is no other mind. If you drop it, you are enlightened. Enlightenment is not a search, it is a realization. It is not a goal, it is the very nature of life itself. As life is it is enlightened. It needs nothing to be added, to be improved. Life is perfect. It is not moving from imperfection to perfection. It is moving from perfection to perfection. You are here to attain something. 

That is functioning as a barrier. Drop that barrier. Just be here. Forget about any purpose, life can not have any purpose. Life is the purpose. How can it have any other purpose? Otherwise you will be in an infinite regress. Then that purpose will have another purpose. Then that another purpose will have another purpose. Life has no purpose. And that is why it is so beautiful. Hindus have called it Leela – a play. It is not even a game. Now in the West the word game has become very, very important. Hundreds of books have been published within two, three years with the title Game. The Master Game, The Ultimate Game, The Game People Play, and so on so forth. But there is a difference between game and play. Hindus have called it play not game. Because, even a game has something as a purpose – a result to be attained – victory to be achieved – the opponent has to be conquered. Then a play becomes a game. Then it becomes serious. Grown ups play games. Children only play. Just the very activity is enough unto itself. It has an intrinsic end. There is no goal added to it. Life is Leela – it is a play. And the moment you are ready to play, you are enlightened. Try to understand from some other dimension: You are already that which you are trying to be. The more you try the more you will miss. You leave all effort. You simply accept yourself. You just be that. Suddenly it is there. It has always been there. But you were seeking so seriously, that was the only cause of missing it. You are here to attain something: enlightenment, samadhi, satori, or something. To me all those words are nonsense. Because they again give you a new line of desiring. They again open a door of desire. In the world you desire money, power, prestige, then you get fed up with it. Then you see the whole thing is just rubbish. Even if you get you are defeated. If you don’t get you are defeated. And you come to feel that this whole thing is nonsense. Now suddenly you start playing new games: Enlightenment, meditation, yoga, God, the other world, the other shore. Again, the mind is at ease. A new world of desires has opened. Now you will be after these goals. And money is not so, illusive as meditation. This world, atleast, is solid. That shore, that world, the other world – is absolutely fantasy. Now you are in a deeper ditch than before. With the first you could realize that it is useless. With the second now it will take millions of lives to realize that this too is useless. When one person comes to discover that all goals are useless – with no exception – all goals are useless, then there is nothing to do. One just has to be. One relaxes. And one relaxes so totally because there is nothing to do – there is no tension. Suddenly your boundaries melt as the snow melts in the morning. With nothing to do, you disappear. The ego disappears. With nothing to do, nothing to be, nothing to achieve – who you will be? The whole identity evaporates. This is enlightenment. Then you start a totally different way of life. You start being playful. You start being alive moment to moment. 

Nowhere to go. Whatsoever the life gives you, accept it with deep gratitude. Grace happens to you. This is what I call to become a God. The moment you start playing, living in the moment, you have become a God.

You are already that which you are seeking. Let this be your basic mantra. If you can understand this mantra you have understood all. Give it a try. To goals you have been giving. Too many lives you have already given to them. Now try to live moment to moment. As if there is no future. In the beginning it will be only as if. But by and by you will become aware that that as if is the only reality. In the beginning it may be just like acting. Soon you will realize that that acting is the only reality.