Science of the Rishis: A Daily Rhythm

Part II: The Master’s Mirror: Breaking the Mind’s Projections Through Surrender

Now listen to these words of Heraclitus:

IT WOULD NOT BE BETTER IF THINGS HAPPENED TO MEN JUST AS THEY WISH.

Why? Why would it not be better? — because whatsoever you wish will be wrong because YOU are wrong! How can you wish, desire, something right? To desire something right, you have to be right in the first place. Out of ignorance, whatsoever is desired will lead you to a deeper and deeper hell — because a desire is part of you, it comes out of you. How can anything else come? All that will come will be you. That’s why your desires create problems, more and more. The more you desire, the more problems you create. The more you achieve your desires, the more you are in difficulty. But there is no going back, you have to go on and on and on. Hence the insistence of all the knowers that to meet the existence, the first point is to become desireless.

Nothing is wrong in desiring; desiring in itself is beautiful… if a buddha desires. But you desiring, how can you desire something which will lead you towards bliss? No — because desire comes out of you, it is part of you, it is a continuity. And if you are wrong, the desire is going to be wrong. It will repeat you again and again; in different situations, of course, in different worlds, on different planets, in different lives, but your desire will repeat you. Your desire cannot transform you. That’s why I say to people, “If you want to take sannyas, if you want to take a jump into the unknown, don’t think about it — leave it to me!” Why the emphasis on leaving it to me? Just so that you don’t desire it. Let it be something which has not come from you, because whatsoever comes out of you will be you — modified, colored in different ways, but it will be you.

If you are a businessman and desire MOKSHA, it will be a business; it cannot be otherwise. You will be looking for profit — in the other world, of course, but whatsoever comes out of your mind will be out of your past. And a break is needed, a complete rift is needed, a rift which is unbridgeable.

That is the meaning of going to a master and surrendering. What do you surrender? You surrender your desiring — what else can you surrender? Nothing else have you got. You say, “Now I will not desire. Now you say something and I will do it.” You are allowing something else to enter in your past. If you say, “Yes, I’m convinced. I’m ready to take sannyas,” the sannyas will be futile. If out of your conviction a sannyas happens, it is meaningless. But this is the trouble: you would like to be convinced first; you would like to argue about it first. Your mind would like to settle for it.

People come to me and they say, “Unless the desire comes to us, how can we take the jump?” But precisely this is the problem. You have been desiring out of yourself continuously for many lives. It leads nowhere — it cannot. Can you see the point? You are wrong, you desire, the desire goes wrong. You are wrong, you believe, the belief goes wrong. You have heard about King Midas? Whatsoever he touches becomes gold. Whatsoever you touch, even if it is gold, it is immediately turned into dust. The question is not of a right desire or a wrong desire, the question is of a right being or a wrong being. The question is not of a right act or a wrong act. There are no right acts and no wrong acts, there are no right desires or wrong desires. There is only a desiring being. If it is ignorant, whatsoever comes out of it is going to be wrong. And if the desiring being is not ignorant, then something totally different is born out of him.

Remember: Being matters and only being matters — nothing else.

IT WOULD NOT BE BETTER IF THINGS HAPPENED TO MEN JUST AS THEY WISH.

Stop wishing! You have been living in hells because you have been wishing. Stop desiring! Stop desiring and the doors are open. Desiring is bringing your mind into existence. Try to understand the nature of desire. Desiring means projecting your past into the future, and the future is unknown, and whatsoever you ask will be from the past. All desiring will repeat the past again and again. How can you desire the unknown? That which is in the future, how can you desire it? You don’t know it. The future is the unknown, the past is the known. If you desire, it will be from the past.

Mulla Nasruddin was on his deathbed. Somebody asked him, “If you were born again, would you like to make any change or would you like to live the same life again?”

Mulla brooded long. Then he opened his eyes; he said, “One thing: I always wanted to part my hair in the middle — and that would be the only change. I have been parting my hair on the right and I always wanted to part it in the middle. Otherwise, everything would be repeated as it is.” It looks stupid but this is how it is. If you think, if another chance is given to you, what will you do? All the changes that you will want to make will not be more than Mulla is asking: they will be just a parting of the hair in the middle. You would like to have another woman, but what difference does it make? You would like another profession. What difference does it make? It will not be more than parting the hair in the middle.

You cannot ask from the past, and the future is unknown. Because you go on asking from the past, you move in a vicious circle. That circle is the world, the SANSAR, the coming and going, being born again and dying again. Again and again you do the same. Not a single basic change! There cannot be because whatsoever you think, you think out of the known. The known is your past. Then what to do? Don’t desire. Let the future come without you desiring it. The future WILL come — it need not be desired. It is already coming. You need not force your projections on it. Be passive, don’t be active about it. Let it come! Don’t ask anything about it — that’s what the meaning of desirelessness is. It is not moving from the world, renouncing the world and going to the Himalayas — all those things are immature.

Leaving, renouncing, means not desiring, and waiting without any desire. Just waiting: “Whatsoever happens we will be a witness to it.” If you can wait without desiring, everything will happen to you — and then it happens from the totality, from the whole, from God itself. If you ask, desire, it will happen, but it will happen out of you. And then you move within yourself, never allowing existence to happen to you — enclosed.

IT WOULD NOT BE BETTER IF THINGS HAPPENED TO MEN JUST AS THEY WISH.

Says Heraclitus, “It is good that things don’t happen as you wish them.” That is the only possibility of your awakening. That’s why he says it is good — because if every desire is fulfilled you will be completely in a coma because there will be no disturbance. You wanted riches, and riches are there. You wanted beautiful women, and beautiful women are there. You wanted success and success is there. You wanted a ladder to reach to heaven and the ladder is there. You will be in a coma, you will be in a dream. If everything is fulfilled you will never try to seek the truth, there will be no gap for you… because only misery, DUKKHA, unhappiness, the hell that you create around you, helps you to wake. It shocks you towards waking.

Theory: Awakening Through Unfulfillment: How Misery Serves Your Consciousness

Mindful Workplace (Sattva): Surrender Control via Ishvara Pranidhana

• Workplace Practice: Accept that while you own your effort, you cannot control every market variable, team dynamic, or corporate decision. Trusting the broader process allows you to remain adaptable, calm, and resilient when projects take an unexpected turn.