PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DEVELOPMENTAL GAP BETWEEN THE MAN OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE WHO HAS ALREADY ATTAINED A CERTAIN DEGREE OF HIGHER AWARENESS, EVEN CERTAIN PSYCHIC SKILLS AND CAPACITIES, AND THE FULLY ENLIGHTENED BEING – THE LIVING BUDDHA.
This is the difference: a man who has become absolutely positive is the man of spiritual attainment. The person who has become absolutely negative... When I say absolutely negative, I mean ninetynine percent negative, because absolute negativity is not possible. Neither absolute positivity is possible. The other is needed. The quantity can change; the degrees differ.
The man who is ninety-nine percent negative and one percent positive is the most fallen man, what Christians call the sinner – one percent positive! That too is needed only to help his ninetynine percent negativity. But in everything negative, whatsoever you say, only no is the response.
Whatsoever existence asks, only no is the response. The atheist who cannot say yes to anything, who has become incapable of saying yes, who cannot trust – this man suffers hell. And because he says no to everything, he becomes a no, a yawning no; anger, violence, suppression, sadness, all together – he becomes a hell personified. Difficult to find such a man because it is difficult to be such a man. To live in ninety-nine percent hell is very difficult. But just to explain to you, I am telling this. This is the mathematical possibility.
One can become if one tries. You will not find such a man anywhere. Even a Hitler is not that destructive. The whole energy becomes destructive – not only of others, but of oneself also. The whole attitude is suicidal. When a person commits suicide what he is saying? He is saying no to life through his death. He is saying no to God, that ”you cannot create me. I will destroy myself.”
Sartre, one of the great thinkers of this age, says that suicide is the only freedom – freedom from God. Why freedom from God? Because there is no freedom. You don’t have any freedom to create yourself. Whenever you are, you find yourself already created. Birth you cannot take: that is not your freedom. Sartre says, ”But death you can commit; that is your freedom.” You can say at least one thing definitively to God – that ”I am free”. This man who lives always near the abyss of suicide is the last, the greatest sinner.
In existentialism, which Sartre preaches, these words have become very meaningful – anguish, boredom, sadness. They have to become meaningful because this man will live in anguish, boredom. One percent positive is needed. He will say yes to boredom, to suicide, to anguish, only for this much: he has a need to say yes. This is the modern man who is coming nearer and nearer to this last shore.
On the other peak exists the spiritual man. This is the sinner, the fallen. On the other peak – ninety-nine percent positive, one percent negative – is the spiritual man. He says yes to everything. He has only one no and that no is against no, that’s all. Otherwise he is yes. But because total yes cannot exist, he has a need to say no.
This man attains many things because the positive mind can give you millions of things: this man will be happy, serene, collected, calm and quiet. And because of this the mind will flower and give all its positive qualities to him. He will have certain powers. He can read your thoughts, he can heal you. His blessing will become a force. Just by being near him, you will be benefited.
In subtle ways, he is a blessing. All the siddhis – all the powers that yoga talks, and Patanjali will talk later on – will be easy to him; he will be a man of miracles, his touch will be magical. Anything is possible because he has a ninety-nine percent positive mind.
Positivity is a force, a power. He will be very powerful. But still he is not enlightened. And it will be easier for you to think this man that he is enlightened than to think an enlightened man as enlightened, because the enlightened man simply goes beyond you. You cannot understand him; he becomes incomprehensible.
In fact an enlightened man has no power because he has no mind. He is not miraculous. He has no mind; he cannot do anything. He is the ultimate in non-doing. Miracles can happen around him. But they happen because of your mind, not because of him, and that is the difference.
A spiritual man can do miracles; an enlightened man no. Miracles are possible, but they will happen because of you, not because of him. Your trust, your faith, will do the miracle, because you become the positive mind in that moment.
Jesus says: a woman touched his gown; he was moving in a crowd, and the woman was so poor and so old she never could believe that Jesus will bless her. So she thought it will be good to be in the crowd, and when Jesus passes, just to touch his gown. ”It is his gown, and the very touch is enough. And I am so poor and so old, who will take care of me, who will bother? There will be many people, and Jesus will be interested in them.” So she simply touched the garb. Jesus looked back, and the woman said, ”I am healed.” Jesus said, ”It is because of your faith. I have not done anything: you have done to yourself.”
Many miracles can happen, but the man who is enlightened cannot do anything. Mind is the doer – doer of all. When mind is not there, happenings are there but no more doings.
An enlightened man, in fact, is no more. He exists as a non-entity, as an emptiness. He is a shrine – empty. You can enter in him, but you will not meet him. He has gone beyond the polarities; he is a great beyond. You will be lost in him, but you cannot find him.
A man of spiritual powers is still in the world. He is your polar opposite. You feel helpless; he feels powerful. You feel unhealthy; he can heal you. It is bound to be so. You are ninety-nine percent negative; he is ninety-nine percent positive. The very meeting is between impotence and power.
Positivity is power; negativity is impotence. And you will be very much impressed by such a man, and that becomes the danger for him. The more you are impressed by him, the more ego strengthens. With a negative man, the ego cannot be very much because ego needs positive power.
That’s why, in sinners, you can find very, very humble people, but never in saints. Saints are always egotistic. They are somebody – powerful, chosen, elite, messengers of God, prophets. They are somebody. A sinner is humble – afraid of himself, moves carefully; he knows who he is. It has happened many times that a sinner has taken a direct jump and has become enlightened, but it has never been so easy for a man of spiritual power because the very power becomes the hindrance.
Patanjali will talk much about it. He has a complete section of these sutras devoted to vibhuti pada – to this dimension of power. And he has written the whole part just to make you beware that don’t become a victim of it, because ego is very subtle.
It is such a subtle phenomenon and such a deceptive force, and wherever there is power it sucks on it. It is a sucking phenomenon, this ego.
So in the world the ego finds politics, prestige, power, wealth. Then it feels somebody – you are a president of a country or a prime minister: then you are somebody. Or you have millions of rupees – then you are somebody: ego is strengthened. The game remains the same because the positive is not out of the world. The positive is within the world – better than the negative, but then the danger is also more, because a man who feels himself very great because he is a prime minister or a president or a very rich man he also knows that he cannot carry these riches beyond death.
But a man who feels powerful because of psychic forces – ESP, thought-reading, clairvoyance, clair-audience, astral traveling, healing – he feels more egoistic. He knows he can carry these powers beyond death. And, yes, they can be carried, because it is mind who is reborn, and these forces belong to the mind.
Wealth belongs to the body, not to the mind: you cannot carry it. A political power belongs to the body – when you are dead, you are nobody. But these forces, these spiritual powers, belong to the mind, and the mind moves from one body to another.
It is carried. You will be born in next life as a charismatic child from the very beginning, you will have a magnetic force in you. Hence, more attraction; hence, more danger.
Remember, don’t try to become spiritual. Spiritual is against material just as negative, positive. In fact, they are not opposites. The quality of both is the same. One is superior and subtle; another is gross and inferior, but both are the same.
Don’t be deceived by spiritual powers. And whenever spiritual powers start arising in you, you have to be more alert than ever. And they will arise! The more you will meditate, the mind will become refined. And when the mind is refined, seeds which you have been carrying always start sprouting. Now the soil is ready and the season has come. And beautiful are those flowers...
When you can touch somebody and heal immediately, it is difficult to resist the temptation. When you can do much benefit to people, you can become a great servant; it is very difficult to resist the temptation, and immediately temptations arise and you rationalize because this is just for the service of the people that you are doing it. But look within: through the service of the people the ego is arising, and now the greatest barrier will be there.
Materialism is not such a great barrier. It is just like the negative mind – not a great barrier to drop. It is suffering. Positive is difficult to drop, spirituality is difficult to drop. You can drop the body easily: to drop the mind is the real problem. But unless you drop both the material and the spiritual – neither
this nor that – unless you go beyond both, you are not enlightened.
A man who is enlightened in fact becomes simply very, very ordinary. He has nothing special, and that is the specialty. He is so ordinary that you can bypass him on the street. You cannot bypass a spiritual man. He will bring a wave around him; he will be energy. You will be simply bathed by him if he passes you on the road – attracted like a magnet.
But you can pass a Buddha. If you don’t know that he is a Buddha, you will not know. But you cannot pass a Rasputin. And Rasputin is not a bad man: Rasputin is a spiritual man. You cannot pass a Rasputin. The moment you see him, you are magnetized. You will follow him your whole life. This happened to the Csar. Once he saw this man he became a slave to him. He had a tremendous power. He will come like a strong wind, it is difficult not to be attracted by him.
It is difficult to be attracted to a Buddha. Many times you can bypass him. He is so simple and so ordinary, and that is the extraordinariness, because now the negative, positive are both lost. He is no more under the electric realm. He exists! He exists like a rock, like a tree. He exists like a sky. If you allow him, he can enter in you; he will not even knock at your door – no! – he will not be even that much aggressive. He is a very very silent phenomenon; he is a nothingness.
But this is the greatest thing to achieve because only he knows what existence is, only he knows what being is. With the negative and the positive you know the mind: negative is impotent, positive is powerful. Never try to be spiritual – it will happen automatically, you need not try it. And when it happens, remain detached.
There are many, many stories in the past. Buddha had a cousin-brother: Devadatta was his name. He took initiation from Buddha. He was a cousin-brother and of course, deep down, jealous – and very powerful man like Rasputin. Soon he started gathering his own following, and he started telling people that ”I can do many things and this Buddha cannot do anything.” Followers again and again came to Buddha and said that ”This Devadatta is trying to create a separate sect, and he says that he is more powerful.” And he was right, but his power belonged to the positive mind. He made many efforts to kill Buddha. He made an elephant mad. When I say he made an elephant mad, I mean that he used his positive power, and it was such a strong phenomenon the elephant became intoxicated. He rushed madly; he tore down many trees. Devadatta was very happy because just behind the trees was sitting Buddha, and the elephant was going mad – just a mad energy. But when the elephant came near Buddha, he looked at the Buddha – sat silently in deep meditation, that elephant... Devadatta was puzzled.
What happened? When there is emptiness, everything is absorbed. Emptiness has no limits to it. The madness was absorbed. Not that Buddha has done anything – he has not done anything – he is just a vacuum. The elephant came and lost his energy, became silent. He became so silent that it is said Devadatta tried many times, but again he could not make that elephant mad.
The enlightened man is not a man at all – one thing. He is not at all – another thing. He appears to be there but he is not. You see his body but not him. The more you search him, the less is the possibility to find him. In the very search you will be lost. He has become the universal. The spiritual man is still an individual.
So remember, your mind will try to become spiritual. Your mind has a hankering to be more powerful, to be somebody in this world of nobodies. Be alert of it. Even if much benefit can be done through it, it is dangerous; the benefit is only on the surface. Deep down you are killing yourself, and soon it will be lost and again you will fall into the negative. It is a certain energy. You can lose it: you can make use of it; then it is gone.
Hindus have a very scientific category; nowhere exists that categorization. In the West they think in terms of hell and heaven – just two things. Hindus think in three categories – hell, heaven and moksha. It is difficult to translate the third into western languages because there exists no category. We call it liberation, but it is not. It gives the feeling, the fragrance of it just, but not exactly the same.
Heaven and hell, they are there. The third is not there. Hell is negative mind in its perfection; heaven is positive mind in its perfection. But where is the beyond? In India they say if you are a spiritualist, when you will die you will be born in a heaven. You will live there for millions of years happy, absolutely enjoying everything – but then you will have to fall back to the earth again. Energy lost, you will have to come back. You earned a particular energy, then you used it. You will fall back again to the same situation. So they said don’t seek heaven in India. Even if for millions of years you will be happy, that happy is not going to be forever. You will lose it, you will fall back; it is not worth the effort. What Hindus call devatas – those who live in heaven, the people who reside in heaven...
They are not muktas: they are not enlightened. But they are positive; they have reached to the peak of their positive energy, the mind energy. They can fly in the sky; they can move from one point of space to another immediately with no time gap. The moment they desire something, immediately it is fulfilled with no time gap. Here you desire, there it is fulfilled. They have beautiful, ever-young bodies. They become never old. Their bodies are golden. They live in golden cities with young women, with wine and women and dancing, and they are continuously happy.
In fact, only one trouble exists there – that is boredom; they get bored. That is the only negative – one percent negative, ninety-nine percent they are happy – simply they get bored, and sometimes even they try to come on the earth. They can come; they come and they try to mingle with human beings just to get out of the boredom. But finally they fall back... as if finally you come out of a dream, a beautiful dream, that’s all.
Heaven is a dream according to Hindus – beautiful dream. Hell is also a dream – a nightmare. But both are dreams because both belong to the mind. Remember this definition: all that belongs to the mind is a dream. Positive, negative, whatsoever: mind is dream. To go beyond the dream, to awake, is to become enlightened.
Difficult to say anything about the enlightened man, because he cannot be defined. Definition is possible if there is some limitation. He is vast as a sky; definition is not possible. The only way to know an enlightened man is to become enlightened. The spiritual man can be defined; he has his limitations. Within the mind, there is no difficulty in defining him.
When we will come to VIBHUTI PADA – to Patanjali’s sutras about siddhis, powers, we will see he can be defined completely. And in the West, scientific research is going on which they call psychic research. Psychic societies exist all over the world; many universities now have labs for psychic research. Sooner or later, what Patanjali says will be scientifically categorized and proved.
In a way it is good. It is good because then you will be able to know that this is something of the mind which can be even examined by mechanical devices, categorized and finished. You cannot have any glimpse through any mechanical device of enlightenment. It is not a phenomenon of the body or of the mind. It is very elusive, mysterious.
Remember one thing: never try to gain any spiritual powers. Even if they come on your path by themselves, drop them as immediately as possible. Don’t move in their company and don’t listen to their tricks. They will say that ”What is wrong in it? You can help others; you can become a great benefactor.” But don’t become that. You say simply that ”I am not in search of power and nobody can help anybody.” You can become an entertainment but you cannot help anybody.
And how can you help anybody? Everybody moves according to his own karmas. In fact, if a man of spiritual power touches you and your disease disappears, what is happening? Deep down your disease was to disappear; your karmas were fulfilled. It is just an excuse that it disappeared by the touch of a spiritual man. It was to disappear: because you did something, that’s why it was there. The time has come... You cannot help anybody in any way. There is only one help, and that is you become that which you would like everybody to become. You simply become that. Your very presence, not your doing, will be helpful.
What Buddha does? He is simply there, available, like a river. Those who are thirsty, they come. Even if a river tries to satisfy your thirst, it is impossible if you are not ready. If you don’t open your mouth, if you don’t bow down to receive the water, even a river may be flowing, you can remain thirsty. And this is what is happening: the river is flowing and you are sitting on the bank thirsty. The ego will always remain thirsty, whatsoever it attains. Ego is thirst. Satiety is of the soul, not of the ego.