Science of the Rishis: A Daily Rhythm

Part III: Waking from the Kalptaru: How Comfort Drug-Dulls the Soul

In Hindu mythology they say that in heaven, where gods exist, every wish is fulfilled immediately, with no time gap. In the Hindu conception of heaven, there are wishfulfilling trees, KALPTARUS. You just sit under them and wish anything, and without a time gap — here you wish and there it is. Not even a single moment is lost: you ask for a beautiful woman and she is there. But these gods must be living in a dream, they must be living in a drugged, stoned state.

Hindus say that from heaven there is no way towards truth. This is very beautiful. They say if a god wishes to be liberated completely, he will have to come to the earth. Why? — because in heaven there is no unhappiness, there is no misery to wake anyone. It is a long peaceful sleep where dreams are continuously fulfilled. When every dream is fulfilled, why should one open the eyes? Even gods have to come to earth; only then can they be liberated. This is a rare conception. Christians don’t have that type of conception; their heaven is the last thing. But Hindus say it is not the last thing — it is just a beautiful, good dreamstate. Good, beautiful, long, very long, for thousands of years it can last, but it is a dreamstate. If gods are to be liberated they have to fall back to earth. Why to earth? — because on the earth there is misery, pain, anguish… and only anguish is needed. Only that can shock you out of your slumber. Heraclitus is right:

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

Something or other always goes wrong. That’s beautiful! If nothing goes wrong, if everything as it is, is as you would like it to be, then who wants truth? Then who seeks existence? Then who wants freedom, total freedom, moksha? Nobody!

Through drugs, man is trying to be like gods in the Hindu heaven. You take marijuana, or hashish, or LSD, and you are in a dreamstate, a beautiful dreamstate; you are under a wishfulfilling tree. Drugs are against truth because truth needs an awakening: awakening from the past, awakening from the dreams, awakening from your desires — to see the whole fallacy that you have created around you and to drop it. And to drop it without any effort — just to see that it is wrong and to drop it.

Remember, if you make much effort to drop it, the very effort makes you ugly. Understanding needs, really, no effort. You understand a thing, you see the reality, and you drop it! Can’t you see that you are miserable because of your desires? Is it something to be argued? Something to be convinced of? Can’t you see it — it is so clear that out of desires you have created a hell; then why make an effort? In a sheer, intense moment of understanding, why not drop it immediately? And if you can drop it immediately, then you have a beauty, a grace. This grace you will not find in so-called monks. All over the world, in Catholic, Hindu, Jaina monks, you will not find this grace because they are TRYING to drop it. The very effort to drop it shows that they are still clinging; otherwise, why make any effort? They would like to stop desiring, but this is again a desiring. That’s why there is effort. They cling and they would like to drop it. They have not come to a moment of understanding, a moment of truth.

My whole effort with you is to bring you to a moment of understanding where effort is useless. The understanding is so intense, so fiery, that, simply, everything burns. You see and your very seeing becomes the dropping.

This is possible — this has happened to me, this can happen to you. I am in no way exceptional, just an ordinary man. If it happens to me, just an ordinary man, why not to you? Just make an intense search towards understanding. Understanding is transformation, mutation, a revelation. Understanding liberates. Listen to these words:

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

UNLESS YOU EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED YOU WILL NEVER FIND THE TRUTH, FOR IT IS HARD TO DISCOVER AND HARD TO ATTAIN. Let these words enter your heart:

UNLESS YOU EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED, YOU WILL NEVER FIND THE TRUTH… … Because the truth cannot be your expectation.

Whatsoever you expect will be a lie. Whatsoever you expect will be a projection. Whatsoever you expect will be a part of your mind. No, truth cannot be expected. It takes you unawares. In fact, it comes when you were not even waiting for it. It is a sudden enlightenment.

Expectation means your known projecting itself into the future, into the unknown. That’s why I say if you are a Christian, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist, or a Jaina, you will miss — because what does to be a Christian mean? It means a Christian expectation. It means a god seen through Christian eyes. It means a conception, a philosophy. What does it mean to be a Hindu? It means a system of belief. It gives an expectation: you expect a god, you expect the truth; the truth will be like this, the god will be like this — the face, the figure, the form, the name you expect.

Your expectation is the barrier because God is the unexpected, the truth is the unexpected. It has never been theorized about, it has never been brought into language, it cannot be forced into words; nobody has ever been able to and nobody ever will. It remains the unexpected! It is a stranger. Whenever God knocks at your door you will not find a familiar face, no. It is the unfamiliar, the stranger. You never thought about it, you never heard about it, you never read about it. Just the stranger…. And if you cannot accept the stranger, if you ask for the familiar, truth is not for you. Truth is a stranger.

It comes without giving any intimation that it is coming. It comes when you are not expecting, not waiting.

Remember this, that people meditate and meditate and meditate — that’s a must — but truth never happens in meditation. It happens outside. But meditation helps: it makes you alert, it makes you watchful, it makes you more aware and conscious. And then suddenly somewhere — it happens in such unexpected moments, you cannot believe why God chooses such unexpected moments.

A nun is carrying water, and the bamboo breaks, and the earthen pot falls on the ground, and the water flows… and suddenly she is awakened. What happened? For forty, fifty years she was meditating and it never knocked — because meditation means you are expecting, you are watching for something that is going to happen. Your mind is there, working — very subtly, very, very subtly; you may not even be able to detect where it is. You may think that now everything is silent, no thought, but this is also a thought. You feel absolute silence, but even this feeling that now there is absolute silence, now soon the door is going to open — this is a thought. When you become absolutely silent, even this thought is not there, that “I am silent,” but that means you must not be meditating. And this is the paradox: meditate as much as you can to bring a moment of a nonmeditative meditation.

That happened to that nun. Carrying water, she was not worried about God; the bamboo was old, and she was worried about the bamboo. She was holding it this way and that, worried that it may break any moment. And the pot was earthen, and it would break! She was not at all at the door, and the door was open because she had meditated for forty years. So the door was open and she was not there at all… suddenly the bamboo breaks, the pot falls, breaks, and the water flows. It is a shock! For a moment even this worry dissolves. Now whatsoever was to happen has happened. Now she is in a nonmeditative meditative moment — and God is there. And it happened.

Theory: The Paradox of Meditation: Finding Awakening When You Stop Looking

Mindful Workplace (Sattva): Culminate Preparation in Receptivity (Shunya)

• Workplace Practice: Execute your daily planning, skill-building, and preparation diligently, but hold space for unexpected pivots. When deep in a problem-solving session, alternate periods of intense logical analysis with brief moments of complete mental stillness to allow non-linear, intuitive insights to emerge.