STORY OF THE DAY

[Ramesh Ramnani]

"Drop it".......Drop your ego, your Personality.

A great king, Prasenjita, came to Buddha. He brought a beautiful lotus flower. It was out of season, and it has its own story.

A shoemaker had a pond behind his house. And suddenly they were puzzled -- out of season a beautiful blue lotus. It had never happened before. So the shoemaker thought, "Somebody who goes every day to worship Buddha and listen to Buddha may purchase it. Perhaps one rupee?" The poor man could not think it could be more.

As he came out of his house the richest man of the town was going to pay his respects to Buddha. He suddenly stopped his chariot and he asked Sudas -- that was the name of the shoemaker -- "How much will you take for this flower?"

Sudas said, "I have never sold flowers, never purchased them. It is better you give your offer. It is out of season."

The richest man, according to his dignity, said, "I will give you one hundred rupees" -- beyond the conception of Sudas.

But just then another chariot stopped. The king was going to Buddha, and the king said to Sudas, "I have purchased that flower. I will pay ten times more than the rich man is offering you."

This was even more surprising -- one thousand rupees for one flower! So that flower was a revelation to Sudas. He thought, "I am so poor I cannot afford to refuse, but my whole being says, `Refuse this offer. Go yourself to Buddha and offer the flower directly.' But my poverty is so much I cannot afford it."

The king thought, "Perhaps he considers the price is not yet right." He said to Sudas, "Don't think. Whatever you want to ask will be given. I have offered one thousand rupees. Do you want ten thousand rupees, one hundred thousand rupees?"

Sudas was going mad. One hundred thousand rupees he cannot even count!

Prasenjita ordered his people to deliver one hundred thousand rupees to Sudas.

Of course, the rich man did not contest it, it was futile. The king would not accept defeat in any way. It could even lead to bloodshed.

And when Prasenjita offered the flower to Buddha, all that Buddha said was, "Drop it." He dropped the flower. What else can you do before a buddha if he says, "Drop the flower"?

Now he was standing with empty hands and Buddha again said, "Drop it too!" This was beyond the mind and its comprehension.

Sariputra said to Prasenjita, "Buddha does not mean the flower; Buddha means the ego. You are so full of ego; even offering, touching the feet of Buddha, your ego has not changed even a little bit. And to be with Buddha, the only way is to drop your ego, your personality."

[Ramesh Ramnani]

"Nainam Chhindanti Shastrani" -- you cannot cut me with weapons --"Naham Dahati Pavakah" -- and you cannot burn me with fire. You are absolutely powerless as far as I am concerned.

Alexander the Great was going back from India, and at the very frontiers of India he remembered that his teacher, Aristotle, the father of Western logic, had asked him, "When you come back from India you will be bringing gifts for everybody; bring just one thing as a gift for me.

Alexander said, "Just say, and it will be brought to you."

He said, "I want to see a sannyasin. I have heard so much from travelers about sannyasins. It seems they are a different species of humanity; it seems they are far above us. If you can bring a sannyasin I will be immensely happy."

Alexander said, "This is a small thing. If you had asked me to bring the Himalayas I could have dragged it back to Greece. A sannyasin? --no problem."

And he remembered, although he had collected so much garbage. At the last he remembered, "My God, I have forgotten to bring a sannyasin."

But he was still on the frontiers of India, so he inquired of people, "Can I find a sannyasin nearby?"

They said, "It is a little difficult if you really want an authentic sannyasin; otherwise, this country is full of sannyasins."

Alexander said, "I want an absolutely authentic sannyasin, because I cannot offer to my teacher a phony fellow. Wherever you tell us I will go."

They said, "You don't have to go too far. Just a few miles back you may have passed by the side of a river where an old sage lives. He lives naked, and as far as we know in this part of the country there is no one who has a higher consciousness, more blissfulness, than this old sage."

Alexander sent two of his generals first, because he thought it was below his dignity to go and ask the sannyasin. Those two generals went, and the sannyasin was standing naked by the side of the river. They told him, "Alexander the Great wants you to be the royal guest. Everything you need, all the luxuries possible will be made available to you for your whole life, but you have to come with us to Greece."

The sannyasin looked at them and said, "You seem to be utter idiots. A man who calls himself Alexander the Great must be just an egoist, and a sannyasin cannot accept the invitation of any egoist. I can come running to somebody who is humble, even without invitation. Just go back and tell your Alexander the Great what I have told you."

Contd...

[Ramesh Ramnani]

"Nainam Chhindanti Shastrani" -- you cannot cut me with weapons --"Naham Dahati Pavakah" -- and you cannot burn me with fire. You are absolutely powerless as far as I am concerned.

Although they were great generals of Alexander, they started shaking, became nervous. The old man was so strong; his voice just pierced like arrows in their hearts. They came back and they told Alexander that that man was difficult.

Alexander said, "How difficult? I have never met any difficulty in my life. I am the world conqueror. I will see myself; I am coming, just lead the way."

On the way those two generals trial to persuade him: "It is better to leave this man alone. He seems to be very strange; he says that the person who calls himself `the great' is simply ignorant, does not know anything, and he says, `I would have come to anyone uninvited if there was simplicity, innocence, love, humbleness, but power cannot move me a single inch.'"

Alexander said, "You don't be worried. He does not know me and he does not know my sword." He pulled out his sword as he reached the sannyasin, just to make him afraid. He was thinking the sannyasin would become afraid, but he started laughing.

Alexander looked very embarrassed. What to do...? The sannyasin said, "Yes, that's perfectly okay. You can cut off my head. Cut it! -- I am ordering you."

Alexander said, "Nobody orders me!"

The old man said, "You are strange. What do you want of me?"

Alexander said, "I want you to come with me to Greece. You will be my royal guest."

He said, "I used to be a king myself. I dropped my kingdom, I dropped all my possessions in search of something which is immortal -- and I have found it. That's why I ordered you to cut off my head.

Why are you feeling so shaky? You are a world conqueror; I am a poor sannyasin with nothing."

Alexander said, "Don't make me mad by your statements. I am a dangerous man; I can really cut off your head."

He said, "I am more dangerous than you. When the head falls on the ground, you will be seeing it from the outside, I will be seeing it from the inside. You cannot kill me. I have reached the point where there is no birth and no death; that's why I say you cannot move me a single inch. All your power is just impotent."

Against a single sannyasin the power of a world conqueror is absolutely impotent, for the simple reason that the man of meditation knows that he is not the body. And everything else that he used to be identified with -- the wife, the children, the money, the power, the prestige are all left far away. Just a pure consciousness, just a flame of light has remained within him which is indestructible.

Krishna says, in one of his most beautiful statements, "Nainam Chhindanti Shastrani" -- you cannot cut me with weapons -- "Naham Dahati Pavakah" -- and you cannot burn me with fire. You are absolutely powerless as far as I am concerned.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Be in the world, but don't let the world enter in you....Remain aloof, aware and silently watching

A man had a very beautiful house that even the king wanted to purchase. He had made it with such love -- he himself was an architect -- and the king was jealous because even his palace was not so beautiful. All sorts of rich people had offered that whatever money he wanted he could have, but the man always refused. The palace that he had made was a small palace, hidden in a thick garden, with shrubs, rosebushes.

One day he had gone out and when he came home there was a vast crowd and his house was on fire. Either it may have been the conspiracy of the king or the conspiracy of other people who were very jealous of his house. He was an old man, but tears started flowing from his ... eyes. It was not just a house for him, it was his very creativity. He was so identified with it, as if it was not the house burning but him. Such a deep attachment...

And then his son came running and told him, "Father, you need not cry for that house. Last night I sold it to the king. He was offering any price we want and there was no question of any negotiation, so I asked three times the price. We can make a house three times bigger, and then the king will know... It is already old and you have so many new ideas, it is a good opportunity."

The moment he heard that the house was sold, tears disappeared. In fact he started laughing -- this is a great coincidence. He started talking with son and with his neighbors, "Perhaps I may purchase the land back, because what is the king going to do with the land? And I will make a three times bigger and more beautiful palace." He started already dreaming about the future, and the palace was burning.

His second son came running and he told him, "Yes, my older brother is right. We had agreed to sell, but it was only verbal. Neither had the money been given to us, nor had even a sales deed been written.

We were waiting for you." Again the tears came -- because now the king is not going to purchase it, he is not going to give the money. He forgot all about the palace three times bigger and he was again crying like a small child. What happened?

The attachment... the identification... the moment you are unidentified with your body, even if the body is on the funeral pyre there will be no problem for you. It is as if somebody else is being burned. You can also stand by the side in the crowd and nobody will see you.

To be in the being, more and more one has to learn unidentification with everything. Use everything but don't get attached. I have been telling you to be in the world but don't be of the world. Be in the world, but don't let the world enter in you. I have been saying the same thing in other words. Don't be identified. Use this whole existence, but don't be possessive. Remain aloof, aware and silently watching.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

A single moment of lived experience is an eternity unto self........It is beyond time; you touch the very soul of life.

There is an old story. In the days of the Upanishads there was a great king, Yayati. His death came. He was a hundred years old. When death came he started crying and weeping. Death said, 'This doesn't suit you, a great emperor, a brave man. What are you doing? Why are you crying and weeping like a child? Why are you trembling like a leaf in a strong wind? What has happened to you?' Yayati said, 'You have come and I have not yet been able to live. Please give me a little more time so that I can live. I did many things, I fought in many wars. I accumulated much wealth, I have made a great kingdom. I have added much to my father's wealth but I have not lived. In fact, there was no time to live, and you came. No, this is unjust. You give me a little more time!' Death said, 'But I have to take somebody. Okay, make an arrangement. If one of your sons is ready to die for you, I will take him.'

Yayati had one hundred sons, thousands of wives. He asked, he called his sons. The older ones wouldn't listen. They had themselves become cunning and they were in the same trap.

One, the eldest, was seventy. He said, 'But I have also not lived. What about me? At least you have lived a hundred years, I have lived only seventy. I should be given a little more of a chance.' The youngest, who was just sixteen or seventeen, came, touched his father's feet, and said, 'I am ready.' Even death felt com passion for this boy. Death knew that he was innocent, not versed in the ways of the world, did not know what he was doing. Death whispered in the ear of the boy, 'What are you doing? You fool! Look at your father.

At the age of a hundred he is not ready to die, and you are just seventeen! You have not even touched life.' The boy said, 'The life is finished! Because my father at the age of a hundred feels still that he has not been able to live, so what is the point? Even if I live a hundred years, it is going to be the same. It is better to let him live my life. If he cannot live in a hundred years, then the whole thing is pointless.'

The son died and the father lived a hundred years more. Again death knocked and again he started crying and weeping. He said, 'I completely forgot. I was again increasing wealth, expanding the kingdom, and the hundred years have gone as if in a dream. You are again here and I have not lived.' And this continued.

The death came again and again and she would take one of the sons. Yayati lived for one thousand years more.

A beautiful story, but the same happened again. One thou sand years passed and death came. Yayati was trembling and weeping and crying. Death said, 'But now it is too much. You have lived one thousand years and you again say that you have not been able to live.' Yayati said, 'How can one live in the here and now? I always postpone: tomorrow and tomorrow. And tomorrow? -- suddenly you are there.'

Postponing life is the only sin that I can call sin. Don't postpone. If you want to live, live here and now. Forget the past, forget the future; this is the only moment, this is the only existential moment -- live it. Once lost it cannot be recovered, you cannot reclaim it. -

If you start living in the present, you will not think of the future and you will not cling to life. When you live, you have known life, you are satisfied, satiated. Your whole being feels blessed. There is no need for any compensation. There is no need for death to come after a hundred years and see you trembling and weeping and crying. If death comes right now you will be ready: you have lived, you have enjoyed, you have celebrated. A single moment of really being alive is enough, and one thousand years of an unreal life are not enough. One thousand or one million years of an unlived life are not worth while; and I tell you, a single moment of lived experience is an eternity unto self.

It is beyond time; you touch the very soul of life. And then there is no death, no worry, no clinging. You can leave life any moment and you know that nothing is left. You have enjoyed it to the very full, to the very brink. You are overflowing with it, you are ready.

A man who is ready to die in a deep celebrating mood is the man who has really lived. Clinging to life shows that you have not been able to live. Embracing death as part of life shows that you have lived well. You are contented.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Jesus says, `Those who are last in this world will be the first in the Kingdom of my God.'

Jesus must have been talking about such a man -- rich, generous. And I tell you: if you are generous, you are rich; and if you are not generous, you may be in an illusion that you are rich, but you are poor.

Generosity is the real richness.

And to be generous, to share, you don't need many things. To be generous, you just have to share whatsoever you have. You may not have much -- that is not the point. Who has much? Who can ever have enough? It is never much, it is never enough. You may not have anything at all, you may be just a beggar on the road, but still you can be generous.

Can't you smile when a stranger passes by? You can smile, you can share your being with a stranger, and then you are generous. Can't you sing when somebody is sad? You can be generous -- smiles cost nothing. But you have become so miserly that even before smiling you think thrice: to smile or not to smile? to sing or not to sing? to dance or not to dance? -- in fact, to be or not to be?

Share your being if you have nothing. And that is the greatest wealth -- everybody is born with it. Share your being! Stretch your hand, move towards the other, with love in the heart. Don't think anybody is a stranger. Nobody is. Or, everybody is. If you share, nobody is. If you don't share, everybody is.

You may be a very rich man, but a miser, a non-sharing one. Then your own children are strangers, then your own wife is a stranger -- because how can you meet a miserly man? He is closed.
 
He is already dead in his grave. How can you move towards a miserly man? If you move, he escapes. He is always afraid, because whenever somebody comes close, sharing starts. Even shaking hands a miserly man feels is dangerous, because who knows? -- friendship may grow out of it, and then there is danger.

A miserly man is always alert, on guard, not to allow anybody too close. He keeps everybody at a distance. A smile is dangerous because it breaks distances. If you smile at a beggar on the road, the distance is bridged. He is no more a beggar, he has become a friend. Now, if he is hungry, you will have to do something. It is better to go on without smiling. It is safe, more economical, less dangerous -- no risk in it.

It is not a question of sharing something. It is a question of simple sharing -- whatsoever you have! If you don't have anything else, you have a warm body -- you can sit close with somebody and give your warmth. You can smile, you can dance, you can sing; you can laugh, and help the other to laugh. And when two persons laugh together, their beings are one in that moment. When two persons can smile together, suddenly all distance dissolves -- you are bridged.

So don't think that to be generous you have to be rich. Just the contrary is the case: if you want to be rich, be generous. And so many riches are always available; so many gifts you bring with your life, and you take with your death with yourself.

You could have shared, and through sharing you would have become aware how rich existence makes you, and how poor you live.

And the more you share, the more your being starts flowing. The more it flows, newer springs are always filling the river again and again. And you remain fresh.

Only a generous man is fresh. A non-generous man, a closed, miserly man, becomes dirty -- bound to become so. It is just like a well.

Nobody comes to it, and the well is not ready to give its water to anybody, then what will happen to the well? Fresh springs will not be supplying it because there is no need. The old water will become more and more dirty. The whole well will be dead. Fresh, living waters are not coming into it. This is how it has happened to many of us.

Invite people to share you.
 
Invite people to drink you.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Become aware, and every thing disappears~~~~~~~

A thief came to Nagarjuna, a Buddhist mystic. The thief said, 'Listen, I have been to many teachers and many Masters. They all know me because I am a famous thief, in fact, the master thief of this kingdom, so I am known all over. Just the moment I reach them they say, "First you have to leave stealing, robbing people. First drop your way of life and then something can happen." But that I cannot do. So the thing stops then and there. Now I have come to you.

What do you say?

Nagarjuna said, 'Then you must have gone to thieves, not to Masters. Why should a Master be worried about your stealing or not stealing? I am not concerned. You do one thing. you go on stealing, robbing people -- but rob them with awareness.' The thief said, 'This I can do.' And he was caught, trapped.

After two weeks passed, he came back to Nagarjuna and said, 'You are a deceiver, you have tricked me. Last night I entered for the first time into the palace of the King, but because of you I tried to be alert. I opened the treasury. Thousands of precious diamonds were there, but because of you I had to come out of the palace empty-handed.' Nagarjuna said, 'Tell me what happened.' The thief said, 'Whenever I would be alert and I would try to take those diamonds, the hand would not move. If the hand moved, then I was not alert. For two, three hours I struggled. I tried to be alert and take those diamonds, but it was impossible. Many times I took those diamonds, but then I was not alert so I had to put them back. Whenever I was alert, the hand would not move.' Nagarjuna said, 'That's the whole thing. You have understood the point.'

Without alertness you can be angry, violent, possessive, jealous. These are the offshoots but not the roots. With alertness you cannot be angry, you cannot be jealous, you cannot be aggressive, violent, greedy.

Ordinary morality teaches you not to be greedy, not to be angry. That is ordinary morality. That doesn't help much. At the most a little suppressed personality is created. Greed remains, anger remains, but you can have a little social morality. It may help as a lubricant in the society, but nothing much happens.

Patanjali is not teaching ordinary morality. Patanjali is teaching the very root of all religion, the very science of religion. He says, 'Bring every effect to the cause.' And the cause is always unalertness, unawareness, avidya. Become aware, and every. thing disappears.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Don't accumulate that which by giving disappears; only accumulate that which by giving accumulates..........

Two men prayed, and went their separate ways. One gathered wealth and power, people said he was famous, but there was no peace in him. The other saw the hearts of men -- glowing as lamps even in the darkness of their Own secret fears. He too had found richness and power; and his wealth, his power, was love. When simply, kindly, tenderly he touched his fellowmen with all the richness and power of this love, the light within grew clear and bright with courage and with peace.

Both men one day stood before that golden door through which all men must pass to the greater life beyond. The angel in the soul of each asked, "What do you bring with you? What have you to give?"....

God always asks, "What do you bring with you? What have you to give?" God goes on giving to you, but finally, the last day before you enter into his innermost shrine, he asks, "Now, what have you brought for me? What's your gift for me?"

... The one who was famous recounted his exploits. Why, there was no end to the people he knew, and the places he had been, and the things he had done -- and the things he had accumulated.

But the angel answered, "These are not acceptable. These things that you did, you did for yourself. I see no love in them".

If there is ego there cannot be love. Remember this. I am going to discuss it later on, because it is one of the most important things: if there is ego there can be no love.

... And the famous one sank outside the golden door and wept....

For the first time he could see the whole futility of all his efforts. It was almost like a dream that has passed and his hands are empty. If you are too full of things, one day or other you will see your hands are empty. It was dream stuff that you were carrying in your hands; they have always been empty. You were just dreaming that something is there. Because you were afraid of emptiness, you had projected something, you had believed. You have never looked deeply whether really it is there or not.

... And the famous man sank outside the golden door and wept. He had been too busy to be kind....

Too occupied to love, too engaged to be himself, too concerned with futile things to be concerned with the essential.

... Then the angel in the soul of the other asked, "And what do you bring? What have you to give?"

And he answered, saying, "No one knows my name. They called me the wanderer, the dreamer. I have only a little light in my heart, and that which I have, I have shared with the souls of men"....

The real people look like dreamers in this world of mad people.

Always the sages have been known as wanderers, dreamers, poets, imaginative, living somewhere, lotus-eaters, navel-gazers. These types of labels have been given to real people because the world belongs to paper people. They are not real. Paper people, whenever they come across a real person, call him "dreamer," "poet." That is their way of condemning him, and that is their way of defending themselves.

... And he answered, saying, "No one knows my name. They called me the wanderer, the dreamer. I have only a little light in my heart -- nothing else, just a little light in my heart -- and that which I have, I have shared with the souls of men."

Then the angel said, "Oh, blessed one, you have the greatest gift of all. It is love. Always and always, there is enough and to spare. Enter"....

That's the beauty of love: the more you give, the more you have it. Let this be a criterion in your life: don't accumulate that which by giving disappears; only accumulate that which by giving accumulates. Only accumulate that which by sharing increases and grows. That is worth: which you can share and by its very sharing it grows and you have more than before.

... "Always and always, there is enough and to spare. Enter."

Then said the wanderer, "But first let me give the extra measure to my brother, that we may both walk through the door."
 
The angel was silent; for in that moment a great light shone around the simple wanderer like a radiant mantle, enveloping both himself and his friend.
The golden door was opened wide and they walked through it together.

He shared at the very last moment also. This is real richness. A miser is never rich; if you are attached to things in the world, you are not rich. Richness arises out of the heart. Richness is a quality of the heart, glowing with love.
   

[Dipika]

What Devotion Can Achieve
A milkmaid used to supply milk to a Brahmin priest living on the other
side of a river. Owing to the irregularities of the boat service, she
could not supply him milk punctually every day. Once, being rebuked for
going late, the poor woman said, "What can I do? I start early from my
house, but have to wait for a long time at the river 'bank for the
boatman and the passengers." The priest said, Woman ! they cross the
ocean of life by uttering the - name ' of God, and cannot you cross this
little river ? "
The simplehearted woman became very glad at heart on 'earning this
easy means of crossing the river. From the next day the milk was being
supplied early in the morning. One day the priest said to the woman, How is
it that you are no longer late nowadays?" She said, I cross the river by
uttering the name of the Lord as you told me to do, and don’t .stand now in
need of a boatman. The priest could not belive this and said “Can you show
me how you cross the river? The woman took him with her and began to walk
over the water. Looking behind, the woman saw the priest in a plight and
said, How is it, Sir, that you are uttering the name of God with your mouth,
but at the same time with your hands you are trying to keep your cloth
untouched by water ? ' You do not 'fully rely on Him” Total self surrender
and absolute faith in God are at the root of all miraculous deeds.
He who has not given up sinful ways, whose senses have not been restrained,
who is unmeditative, and whose mind is devoid of peace, cannot attaint Him,
even by a highly cultivated intelligence.

(Adopted from the Book Pearls of Wisdom by His Holiness Swami Kesavaiahji)

Sai baba let your holy lotus feet be our sole refuge.OMSAIRAM

dipika duggal

[Ramesh Ramnani]

If you want Miracle to happen.....Be a Fool like!!!

Just today I was reading a story. A man who used to work as a joker, as a fool in a circus, got tired of the whole game. He was bored, so he entered a monastery, became a sannyasin.

But they were very serious people and he had never known any seriousness. He had lived out of humour, and there he was a misfit. He could not laugh, he could not dance, he could not hop and jog and make people laugh. They were serious, sombre people, long faces, great saints and monks and very ascetic -- so he was out of his element. He could not believe it. What to do? How to pray? How to meditate? He was simply a man who could laugh and who could help people to laugh.

For a few days he suffered very much in the monastery. Then he found a small temple in the monastery, far away in a corner. Nobody used to visit it, so he went there. There was a Buddha statue, so he talked to Buddha, saying, 'Help me. I am a fool and these people are all wise. I have worked my whole life as a fool, and now in the end it is very difficult to change my old habits. I feel you will understand me.' He said to Buddha, 'I cannot pray because I don't know how to -- and I don't think I will ever be able to learn it. The seriousness of it is so much. I cannot meditate, so I will do whatsoever I can. If you enjoy, good. If you don't enjoy, tolerate me.'

So before that statue of the Buddha he started dancing and doing things -- his tricks that he used to do in the circus. He became very happy. The whole monastery was thinking that something had happened to the fool -- he was so radiant. Every morning he would disappear, every evening he would disappear, so the head monk became curious.

What had happened to this man -- he had become almost luminous. What was he doing?

So one day they followed him. What was happening there the head monk could not believe, because the fool was talking to Buddha, joking, dancing and jumping and playing around. The head monk was simply aghast; he could not believe it.

Then the miracle happened. Whether it really happened or not, is not the point. The miracle happened that the statue of Buddha arose and, hand in hand with the fool, he started dancing and joking.

We all have a very serious habit of the mind. We are just the reverse of that fool, and we have fallen into wrong company. We have a serious habit of looking at life -- and this whole company is non-serious! I am against that seriousness, so in contrast we feel very much in difficulty.

Start mixing. Forget your old past. Start mixing and playing and be like a fool. That is going to be your prayer -- and one day you will see that Buddha is dancing with you. Start from right this moment. I am not saying to prepare for it, to get ready for it -- you are ready for it. Trust me -- you are ready for it. Right from this moment, start jumping.

Sai Ram!

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Just Drop it! `Drop your personality'......... Drop this mask, be just human.

One great king, Prasenjita, contemporary to Gautam Buddha, had come to see Gautam Buddha for the first time. His wife had been a lay-disciple of Gautam Buddha for a long time before she was married to Prasenjita.

She was a daughter of a greater king.

So when Gautam Buddha came to Prasenjita's capital, the wife said to the husband, "It does not look right that when a man like Gautam Buddha comes to your capital, you don't go to welcome him. I am going. He is sure to ask about you. What am I to say?"

The husband thought for a moment, and he said, "Okay, I am coming also. But because I am coming for the first time, I would like to give him some present. I have one very great diamond; even emperors are jealous because of that diamond. Buddha must appreciate it, so I will take the diamond."

The wife started laughing. She said, "Rather than the diamond, it will be better if you take a lotus flower from our big pond. To the Buddha the lotus flower is more beautiful. What will he do with the diamond? It will be an unnecessary burden."

He said, "I will take both and let us see who wins."

So he came on his golden chariot to the commune of Buddha, where ten thousand monks were sitting around him. Just before he was going to start his morning talk, the golden chariot of the king stopped, so he waited for the king to come in.

The king came in front of him, and first he offered Buddha the diamond. Buddha said, "Drop it!" It was very difficult for Prasenjita to drop his diamond -- that was his very life! -- but not to drop it also was difficult.

Before ten thousand people Buddha had said it -- "and you have offered the diamond so it no longer belongs to you."

He hesitated. Buddha said, "Drop it!" So he dropped the diamond, reluctantly, and offered the lotus flower with the other hand.

Buddha said, "Drop it!" Prasenjita thought, "Is this man crazy?" He dropped the lotus flower, and Buddha said, "Don't you listen? Drop it!"

He said, "Both my hands are empty. Now what do you want me to drop?"

At that moment, one of the oldest disciples of Buddha, Sariputra, said, "You don't understand. Buddha is not saying to drop the diamond, or to drop the flower. He is saying, `Drop your personality. Drop that you are a king. Drop this mask, be just human, because through the mask it is impossible for me to approach you.'"

He had never thought about it. But a great silence, and ten thousand people... and he fell spontaneously at the feet of Buddha.

Buddha said, "That's what I have been telling you: drop it. Now sit down. Be just human. Here nobody is an emperor and nobody is a beggar. Here everybody is himself. Just be yourself. This being an emperor can be taken away from you.

"Someday somebody will conquer your kingdom and you will be a beggar. This emperorhood is not your essential part. It can be stolen, it can be conquered, it can be destroyed. Better you yourself drop it -- that is more manly -- and just remain your authentic being."

[Ramesh Ramnani]

We are all brothers and sisters and we are all in the same boat.........

It is a story about a zen master who was a master to a chinese Emperor. It happened that the Emperor was defeated and had to escape into the mountains; he took the master with him. The master was surprised because this man was absolutely a different man, he was no more an emperor; all that he was putting on disappeared. He had never seen the Emperor walking, and he saw him running -- just like an ordinary man! They were travelling miles every day, and running!

The Emperor felt very hungry, and the master was surprised because that was one of the problems of the Emperor -- that he has lost his appetite; all emperors lose their appetites. Now after running for miles, by the evening when they reached a small village he was so hungry that he said, 'Master, find something, anything will do; I am so hungry!' They could not find anything: it was such a small, poor village, that only sweet potatoes were available. In china, sweet potato is not thought to be human food; it is given only to pigs. And that was the only thing available; one poor man offered some.

The Emperor ate them and he liked the sweet potatoes so much that he said, 'I have never eaten anything so delicious!' He ate like an ordinary labourer, with his hands -- no golden spoons, nothing and he slept a very sound sleep.

That was another problem: he was suffering from insomnia for years. -- that's also part of being an emperor. The appetite always goes when you are rich, sleep goes when you are rich. These two things god allows only to poor people!

He slept... he snored! The master was awakened two, three, times in the night because he was snoring so much! He had never heard him snore, mm? -- people like emperors don't snore! Even in their sleep, if they sleep at all, they follow a certain etiquette, they remain appropriate.

Now this was too much -- snoring like a labourer, a farmer, a fisherman -- and in the morning the master said to the Emperor 'What were you doing? You snored!'

The Emperor said, 'Forget all about it! I am feeling so happy, I have never felt so happy in my whole life. It is good that the kingdom is lost. I have become alive!'
After one week of running towards the mountains, all airs, all that pretension, all that pseudo-personality disappeared, and the Emperor was just as a human being -- as any other. Even the master started forgetting that he was the Emperor.

After two, three weeks, things changed: the enemies left, the Emperor came back, and within a single moment -- as he entered the capital and was received with a golden chariot -- all those airs were there again. The master could see that he was a totally different man! Suddenly everything changed, and next day the Emperor was suffering from loss of appetite and after two, three days he was saying that sleep did not come.

And the master said, 'But now you know! Don't ask me and don't bother me about this nonsense! Now you know all this can be changed.'

The Emperor said, 'That almost seems like a dream that we had; it is not possible. Now I am an emperor.'

Remember: each human being -- maybe the human being is Alexander the Great or just a beggar on the roadside -- each human being is as fragile as anybody else. Deep down he is the same -- the same consciousness, the same fear, the same death, the same lust, the same love: all exists the same.

So don't be worried about that. Accept yourself, allow your unconscious to be revealed to you. This is how each human being is. By knowing it, you become a separate kind of human being. By accepting it, cherishing it, you bring a revolution to your life. And when you look at others with that understanding, you will not find strangers; you will find all are friends.

Everybody is looking for a friend. Everybody is hiding behind a wall and waiting for somebody to say 'hello', somebody to say, 'Why are you there? Come out! I am waiting for you!'... somebody to hold hands with. Everybody is waiting for that -- somebody to hug, somebody to love and be loved by....

There is nobody who is in any way different from you. Once you understand yourself you have understood the whole humanity. In that very understanding a great vision arises in which we are all brothers and sisters and we are all in the same boat.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Anything that is too much cannot be expressed, cannot be conveyed, cannot be communicated.

A man came and spat on Buddha's face.

He was very angry. He was a Brahmin and Buddha was saying things which the priests were very angry about. Buddha wiped it off and asked the man, "Have you anything more to say?"

His disciple, Ananda, became very angry . He was so angry that he asked Buddha, "Just give me permission to put this man right. This is too much! I cannot tolerate it."

Buddha said, "But he has not spat on your face. This is my face. Secondly just look at the man! In what great trouble he is -- just look at the man! Feel compassion for him.

He wants to say something to me, but words are inadequate -- that is my problem, my whole life's long problem. And I see the man in the same situation. I want to relate things to you that I have come to know, but I cannot relate them because words are inadequate. And this man is in the same boat: he is so angry that no word can express his anger. Just as I am in so much love that no word, no act, can express it. I see this man's difficulty -- hence he has spat. Just see!"

Buddha is seeing, Ananda is also seeing. Buddha is simply collecting a factual memory; Ananda is creating a psychological memory.

The man could not believe his ears, what Buddha was saying. He was very much shocked. He would not have been shocked if Buddha had hit him back, or Ananda had jumped upon him.

There would have been no shock; that would have been expected, that would have been natural.

That's how human beings react. But Buddha FEELING for the man, seeing his difficulty.... The man went, could not sleep the whole night, pondered over it, meditated over it. Started feeling a great hurt, started feeling what he had done. A wound opened in his heart.

Early in the morning, he rushed to Buddha's feet, fell down on Buddha's feet, kissed his feet. And Buddha said to Ananda, "Look, again the same problem! Now he is feeling so much for me, he cannot speak in words. He is touching my feet.

"Man is so helpless. Anything that is too much cannot be expressed, cannot be conveyed, cannot be communicated. Some gesture has to be found to symbolize it. Look!"

And the man started crying and he said, "Excuse me, sir. I am immensely sorry. It was absolute stupidity on my part to spit on you, a man like you."

Buddha said, "Forget about it! The man you spat upon is no more, and the man who spat is no more. You are new, I am new! Look -- this sun that is rising is new. Everything is new. The yester-day is no more. Be finished with it! And how can I forgive? because you never spat on me. You spat on somebody who has departed."

Consciousness is a continuous river.

So Drop you memory, I mean psycho-logical memory; I don't mean factual memory. Buddha remembers perfectly that yesterday this man had spat on him, but he also remembers that neither this man is the same nor is he the same.

That chapter is closed; it is not worth carrying it your whole life. But you go on carrying. Somebody had said something to you ten years before and you are still carrying it. Your mother was angry when you were a child and you are still carrying it. Your father had slapped you when you were just small and you are still carrying it, and you may be seventy years old.

These psychological memories go on burdening you They destroy your freedom, they destroy your aliveness, they encage you. Factual memory is perfectly okay.

And one thing more to be understood: when there is no psychological memory, the factual memory is very accurate -- because the psychological memory is a disturbance. When you are very much psychologically disturbed, how can you remember accurately? It is impossible! You are trembling, you are shaking, you are in a kind of earthquake -- how can you remember exactly? You will exaggerate; you will add something, you will delete something, you will make something new out of it. You cannot be relied upon.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Go slowly, patiently, not in a hurry............

Today I will tell you one small story. Once it happened that two monks were traveling. They crossed a river in a boat, and the ferryman said to them, "Where are you going? If you are going to the city beyond this valley, go slowly."

But the old monk said, "If we go slowly we will never reach, because we have heard that the gates of that city are closed after sunset, and we have just one or two hours at the most, and it is a very long distance.

If we go slowly we will never reach, and we will have to wait outside the city. And the outside of the city is dangerous -- wild animals and everything -- so we will have to make haste."

The ferryman said, "Okay, but this is my experience: those who go slowly, reach."

The other monk listened to it. He was a young man and he thought, "I don't know this part of the country, and this ferryman may be right, so it is better to follow his advice." So he walked slowly, leisurely, as if not going anywhere, not in a hurry, just for a walk.

The old man hurried, started running. He had many scriptures on his back. Then he fell down: tired, carrying weight, old, and in such a hurry, so tense, he fell down. The man who was not in a hurry simply walked and reached.

The ferryman was coming and he came near the old man. He was lying by the side of the road; his leg was broken and blood was oozing out. The ferryman said, "I told you that this has been always so: those who walk slowly reach, those who are in a hurry always manage to stumble somewhere or other. These parts are dangerous. The road is rough and you are an old man. And I had advised you, but you wouldn't listen to me."

This is one of the Korean Zen stories, and this is how it is in life. Go slowly, patiently, not in a hurry, because the goal is not somewhere else -- it is within you.

When you are not in a hurry you will feel it; when you are in a hurry you cannot feel it because you are so tense. If you are not going anywhere at all, then you can feel it more immediately.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Religion Vs. Religious

Corpses cannot do any good to anybody, unless you like stinking things. It is a question of preference.
 
Religion means something dead.

A roseflower alive, dancing in the sun, in the wind, surrounded by its aura of perfume, is one thing. You can find a roseflower, dry and dead, in THE HOLY BIBLE, GITA too; people keep them. The color has faded, the fragrance is gone, there is no life in it. It only reminds you of a flower, it is no longer a flower. There is no longer any juice in it, it is dead, dry. Even to call it a roseflower is not right -- it is only a corpse. Religions are corpses.

Religious experience is the living rose. Religious experience is individual. Religion is an organization, and the moment truth is organized it dies. Truth can have a beating heart only in the individual, because organization has no heart. Organization does not breathe, organization is just a graveyard.

All religions are graveyards. Yes, underneath the graves there are people who have once been alive, who had once loved, sang songs, danced, laughed. But now it is only a graveyard. Those people may be there only just as skeletons.

Religion is always dead. Religious experience is always alive. Religious experience has given tremendous riches to humanity. Religion has simply harmed. Religious experience needs no priests, no churches, no ritual, no God, no heaven, no hell. It needs only an inward journey, because there is the real shrine. There is the source of your life, of your love, of your joy, of your celebration.

Moving inwards, you will find living sources, living waters which are eternal. And the man who finds it can help others. He cannot give to you his experience, but he can explain it to you -- in a very rudimentary way, because words are not capable of expressing the wordless. But he can try. He can at least create an urge in you -- which is dormant in every human being -- to enter into your own being.

And once you know yourself, you know there is no death. Once you know yourself, you know there is no inferiority. Once you know yourself, a tremendous rejoicing arises in you which wants to create. It wants to sing, it wants to dance, it wants to compose music. To different individuals it will happen in different ways.

Religious experience has been a benediction, a tremendous blessing -- but to very few people, because most of the people don't bother about individual experience. They simply become Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Jews. They become part of an organization which promises, "Just believe in THE HOLY BIBLE, in the TORAH. Believe in the GITA, in the KORAN. Just belief is needed on your part and you will reach to the ultimate state of bliss, to paradise."

Organized religions are cheap. They have not helped anybody; they have harmed millions. They have created thousands of wars, burned living human beings -- they have called them crusades, jihads, wars of religion, wars for God.

Every kind of nuisance has been committed in the name of religion.

It is time -- we should get rid of religions and start searching for religious experience, which has never harmed anybody.