Science of the Rishis: A Daily Rhythm

Part IV: When Emptiness Is Empty: The Silent Arrival of the Divine

It has been happening that way always — in such moments one never expected. When you expect, you miss, because you are there in your expectation. When you don’t expect, it happens, because you are not there, nobody is there. When your house is totally empty, so empty that you are not even aware that “I am empty” — because that much will be enough disturbance, when even emptiness is thrown, he comes.

UNLESS YOU EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED….

Drop all your notions about God. All notions are false. You may have heard Hindus say Christian notions are false, Christians say Hindu notions are false, Jainas say Christians and Hindus are false, Buddhists say Jainas, Hindus, Christians are false — I say all notions are false. Not that my notion is right — no! Notion as such is false, because it makes a theory out of the unknown, which is not possible. All theories are false — without any exception. All theories are false — absolutely, categorically, mine included — because the unexpected remains the unexpected.

UNLESS YOU EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED YOU WILL NEVER FIND THE TRUTH, FOR IT IS HARD TO DISCOVER AND HARD TO ATTAIN.

In fact, it is not hard to attain and not hard to discover. It is because of you that it is hard to attain and hard to discover — because how to put this mind aside? Mind is subtle: even in putting it aside it remains. The mind says, “Okay, I will not be here,” but this is also mind. The mind says, “Now, let God knock at the door. I am not,” but this is also the mind. The mind says, “I will meditate.” The mind says, “I will drop all thoughts.” The mind says, “Look! I have dropped all thoughts. Look! I am empty.” But this is also mind. This is the problem: whatsoever you do the mind stands there.

See the point — no effort will help. Just seeing the point — mind exists through claims…. See the point! Why do I say see the point? — because if you see the point then there is no claim. If you don’t see the point, then the mind can claim, “I am here without any claim.” See the point! Emptiness is needed, not the claim, “I am empty.” Awareness is needed, not the claim, “I am awareness” — because wherever comes the “I” you have entered the dark night of the mind. When the “I” is not there, it is light, everything is clear — a clarity, a perception, infinite. You can see far and wide, you can see the whole.

So the only thing that can be done is to watch the trickiness of the mind — and don’t try to do the opposite. For example: your mind is filled with thoughts. Don’t try to fight with the thoughts, because this fighter is the mind. And if you fight, the mind will claim the opposite. “Look!” he will say, “I have dropped all the thoughts. Now, where is your God? Where is enlightenment?” Don’t do the opposite, don’t create a fight, because with fight comes the claim. You simply watch and relax. You simply watch and enjoy the trickiness of the mind. Just enjoy it. So beautiful! How deceptive! How elusive! How it comes and comes and comes, again and again! Hindus have always been saying it is just like the tail of the dog. For even twelve years you keep it straight, but the moment you stop the effort it is crooked again.

One small child was talking to me one day and he was saying, “We are making many efforts to straighten out a friend — because he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus.” Then one day he said, “After seven days’ effort, now he has yielded and he has said, `Okay, I believe.’ But next day again the boy said, “Now more efforts have to be made.”

So I asked, “What is the matter? — because just the other day you said you had straightened him out. Now what is the need?”

He said, “But he is crooked again — we straighten him out, he becomes crooked again and again.”

This is the nature of the mind. You cannot do anything about it — this is the nature of the mind. Understand it, that’s all. Understanding is enough. Otherwise it is a hard thing to attain. You can go on and on and the mind will go with you like a shadow, and whatsoever you claim will be the mind’s claim. That’s why all the knowers have said: “Those who claim that they have known, they have not known. Those who say that they have achieved, they have not achieved.” Why? — because the very claim is dangerous.

UNLESS YOU EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED YOU WILL NEVER FIND THE TRUTH, FOR IT IS HARD TO DISCOVER AND HARD TO ATTAIN.

NATURE LOVES TO HIDE.

It is a hide-and-seek game. It is beautiful as it is! Nature is not on the surface, it is hidden in the center. Nature is like the roots of the trees, deep underground — the most essential is hidden. Never think that the tree is the most essential. The tree is just the periphery where flowers and leaves and fruits come; it is the periphery. The real tree exists underground in the dark. In the dark womb of the earth it is hidden. You can cut the tree; a new tree will come out. But cut the roots and everything disappears.

You are not on the surface of your skin; that is the periphery. You are deep, hidden underground. And God is not on the surface. Science goes on learning more and more about the surface, learning more and more about the skin. Howsoever deep science goes, it never really goes deep because it learns from the outside. From the outside you can learn only about the skin. The real is hidden in the inside, in the innermost shrine. In you also it is hidden in the innermost shrine. You live on the periphery, you miss it. And existence has a center — that center is hidden.

NATURE LOVES TO HIDE.

Why? Why does nature love to hide? — because it is a game. In your childhood you must have played the game of hide-and-seek. For Heraclitus, existence is a game; it is a LEELA, a play. It hides, and it is beautiful! — and you have to discover. And in the very effort to discover, you grow.

There are two types of people. One I call nondiscoverers: they remain on the periphery; and discoverers: they move towards the center. People who live on the periphery are the worldly people. The market is the periphery; politics is the periphery; success, achievement is the periphery. They are nondiscoverers, nonadventurers. Even if they go to the moon it is not an adventure because they remain on the periphery. The real adventure is religious. It is to move to the very center of being. First you have to move in yourself, because you are a miniature world. You move to your center, and from that center you have the first glimpse of how things are. The real is hidden.

On the periphery are waves, on the periphery are dreams, on the periphery is just a show. Deep inside, in the innermost core of existence, is the hidden one. That Heraclitus calls the hidden harmony.

Move towards the being, the center, the very ground. Always seek the roots. Don’t be befooled by the foliage. But you ARE befooled by the foliage. If a woman is beautiful on the surface, you fall in love; you have fallen in love with the foliage. But the woman may not be beautiful inside; she may be absolutely ugly — then you are trapped. There is an inner grace when the light burns inside, when the light comes to the periphery also; you cannot see from where it is coming. You can see a beautiful woman and yet ugly. And you can see just the opposite also happening: an ugly woman and yet beautiful. When an ugly woman is beautiful, you cannot find the source, where the source is, because the skin on the surface, the structure, the physiology, is not attractive, but something inner attracts you. When it happens that the woman is beautiful on the surface and in the inner being also, then it is very mysterious. Then what happens is charisma. Sometimes you feel a charisma around a person. Charisma means now there is some hidden harmony between the surface and the center, and then the personality has a magnetism, something of the divine.

This meeting of the periphery with the center is a hidden harmony.

NATURE LOVES TO HIDE.

Why? — because only through hiding can the play go on and on; otherwise, the play will stop. The game continues, it is an eternal game.

Theory: Nature’s Sacred Hide-and-Seek: The Mystery of the Inner Center

Mindful Workplace (Sattva): Embrace Organisational Agility as Play (Lila) – Recognising life and nature as a dynamic, unfolding game.

• Workplace Practice: Reframe restructures, shifting priorities, or market disruptions as part of the natural rhythm of business rather than personal disasters. Approaching workplace volatility with a spirit of curious play reduces burnout, increases resilience, and keeps you adaptable.