VBT – Meditation 99.2

VBT – Meditation 99.2

Aliveness Exists Against Death

Hindus have a beautiful myth. They say in heaven where Indra rules – Indra is the king of heaven – there is no love. There are beautiful girls, more beautiful than on the earth, and deities. They have sex but there is no love because they are immortal.

So it is recorded in one of the Indian stories that Urvashi, the chief of the heavenly girls, asked Indra permission to move to earth for a few days to love a man. “What nonsense!” Indra said. “You can love here! And you will not find such beautiful persons on the earth.” Urvashi said, “They are beautiful but they are immortal, so there is no charm. They are really dead.”

They are really dead because there is no death to make them alive. They will always be there. They cannot die, so how can they be alive? That aliveness exists against death. A man is alive because death is there constantly, fighting. Against the background of death life exists.

So Urvashi said, “Give me permission to move to the earth. I want to love someone.” Permission was given so she came down to earth and fell in love with Pururuwa, a young man.

But there was a condition from Indra. Indra made the condition that she could go to the earth, she could love someone, but she must tell the man who loved her not to ask anything about who she was. This is difficult for love because love is curious. Love wants to know everything about the beloved, everything. The whole unknown has to be made known. The whole mystery has to be entered and penetrated. So Indra cunningly made a condition which Urvashi didn’t understand the craftiness of. So she said, “Okay. I will tell my lover not to be curious about me, not to ask who I am. And if he asks, immediately I will leave him, I will come back.” And she said to Pururuwa, “Don’t ever ask anything about me, who I am. The moment you ask, I will have to leave earth.”

But love is curious. Because of this Pururuwa must have become more curious about who she was.

He could not sleep. He would go on looking at Urvashi. Who is she? Such a beautiful woman, made of dreamy stuff, doesn’t look earthly, doesn’t look substantial. Perhaps she comes from somewhere else, some unknown dimension. He became more and more curious. But he also became more and more afraid, because she might leave. He became so afraid that in the night when he went to sleep he would take a fragment of her saree in his hand because he was not confident about himself. Any moment he could ask, the question was always there. Even in his sleep he could ask. And Urvashi said that even in sleep he could not ask about her. So he slept with a part of her saree in his hand.

But one night he couldn’t contain himself – and he thought that now she loved him so much that she would not leave. So he asked. And Urvashi had to disappear – only a fragment of her saree remained in Pururuwa’s hand. And it is said that he is still searching for her.

In heaven there cannot be love because there is no life really. Life exists here on earth, where death exists. Whenever you make anything secure, life disappears. Remain insecure, that is the very quality of life itself. Nothing can be done about it. And it is beautiful!