VBT – Meditation 105.5
Become An Individual
Jesus says, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” Yes, there are millions of doors. In fact, for each individual there is a separate door – special; nobody else can enter through that door but you. So don’t imitate: imitation creates falsity, pseudoness, inauthenticity. Just feel your own way and don’t bother about what others say.
It is nobody else’s business. Don’t bother about what churches say, organizations say – listen to your own heart.
Bauls are very individualistic. Religion has to be individualistic because it is a process of individuation. But what other religions have done up to now is to destroy individuality and try to make everybody a part of the crowd. They have created mobs, and they have destroyed individuals. Bauls are rebellious about it.
“He who has seen the beauty of the Beloved friend can never forget it.
The form is for seeing but not for discourse, as beauty has no comparison.
He who has seen that form flashing on the mirror, the darkness of his heart is gone.”
“He lives with his eyes focused on the form, careless of the river between life and death.
His heart, forever devoted to beauty, dares the gods.”
Each one has to come to his own vision, each one has to look through his own eyes. You cannot see through my eyes, and you cannot touch him through my hands. Even if I hold your hand and put it on him, it will never reach to him – because you are not ready. If you are ready, he is always reaching you. And what is readiness in the eyes of the Bauls? – Become An Individual.
Remember, God is very original; he never makes the same model again. A Buddha is a Buddha, a Krishna is a Krishna – never again does he repeat. So don’t go on carrying Gitas and Dhammapadas. Read them as beautiful pieces, read them as poetry, but not as religion. Read them as great art, literature, but not as religion. Listen to the Quran recited – it is tremendously beautiful whether you understand it or not, whether you know the language or not. The very word koran means recite. There is no comparison; no other scripture can be recited so beautifully. It is aesthetic, it has a tremendous beauty of sound; listen to it. Read the Bible – never has literature ever been able to transcend the simple assertions of Jesus – but never as religion. Religion you will have to find yourself. Poetry you can find, beautiful assertions you can find. And I’m not saying don’t read them, because they are your heritage. They make you rich.
A man who has not read about Buddha and who has not read his assertions cannot be contemporary. Something will be missing. If you have not read the Koran and the Bible and Mahavira’s statements, then you will lack something very essential. You will be poorer for that. Read, but read as great literature. Enjoy it, delight in it, but don’t believe. A poem is not to be believed, it is to be delighted in.
Belief is borrowed. You will have to find your own trust, you will have to find your own faith. Hard is the path, arduous are the ways. In the beginning it looks almost impossible to reach, but I say to you, it is only in appearance. If you start moving: if you start praying, if you start dancing, if you start singing in his name, he arrives.
Tags: Become An Individual
