Why Great Masters are continuously misunderstood and misinterpreted by people?
On the 7th day of our Great Fasting, the satsang was going on with our spiritual master Yogasree Yogiraj. A kid, one of his youngest disciples asked a simple but important question. (It was a big question; I simplified it in my way)
Master, “Our country is blessed with many spiritual masters. All these masters have extra sensory perception skills including you. Many times we have experienced it. But still all the masters facing lot of problems from the people. Every time your words become controversial. All masters facing lot of cases in the court. Why they not use their sixth sense to prevent this?”
After a deep breath Yogiraj explained the answer.
(I am sorry. I am unable to translate Guru’s words. I try many times but my poor language unable to Conway the exact meaning which Yogiraj meant. So I am adding the same question and answer which I read in a book “The Dhammapada: The way of the Buddha – volume 10“ by the great master Osho Rajaneesh.)
Question 2
BELOVED MASTER,
HOW CAN I BECOME THE NEW MAN THAT YOU SPEAK ABOUT?
Bhagwato, Jesus says: Unless you are born again you will not enter into my kingdom of God. Exactly that's what I say to you: Unless you are born again....
There are two births. One is given to you by your parents; that is a physical birth. That is only an opportunity for the second birth. If you think that the first birth is all, you have missed the whole point. The first birth is only a seed. It is of immense value if the second happens; it is of no value at all if you miss the second birth. You have to be twice-born. That's how we have defined the buddhas in the East.
The second birth has to happen within you; it is of consciousness. It is not of your body, it is not even of your mind; it is of awareness.
Ordinarily, the first birth makes you only a machine. You start living in a very superficial way; you don't have any depth, you don't have any soul yet. You eat, you drink, you work, you sleep, but all like a robot. You don't see the beauty of existence -- you can't see it. You don't see the godliness of every moment; it is impossible for you to experience it. It needs a transformation of your whole interiority. It needs a new subjectivity, a new vision, a new perspective.
You see in a certain sense, you hear only in a certain sense. Yes, you hear the words, but the meaning is missed. You read the Bible, the Koran, the Vedas, but just like a parrot. Even parrots are far more intelligent than your so-called pundits, than your so-called knowledgeable people. You go on repeating like a gramophone record. And you are so egoistic that you can't accept, you can't say, "I don't know."
Jascha Heifetz, the distinguished violinist, was in London where he was scheduled to give a concert. A few hours before curtain time, he noticed that a violin string had broken, so he hurried to a music supply shop for a replacement. He was waited on by a girl who was new to the business.
"I would like to have an 'E' string for my violin," said Heifetz.
"A what?" asked the uncomprehending girl.
"An 'E' string."
"Sorry, luv," she replied apologetically, "but ye will have to pick it out yourself. I can't tell the he's from the she's!"
People are very reluctant to accept the fact that they don't know. They try in every possible way to manage a facade that they know. This is the greatest mistake in life. You are not yet born, but if you think you are already born, if you think you have already attained to life, then this whole opportunity is going to be lost. It will go down the drain.
And you can learn great words; they are available. You can learn them so much so that if you meet Jesus you may repeat his words better than he can do it himself because you have been repeating them for so long. You may defeat him; in a competition he may not be able to survive at all. Some stupid priest may win the competition because he will be just repeating exactly, word for word. Jesus cannot do that; that is impossible. He has to be spontaneous. He will respond to the situation. He may say some new things -- because twenty centuries have passed. How can he go on saying the same old things? Impossible.
That's why the people who believe that they know are the most ignorant in the world. To be ignorant is not that bad, but to believe that you know, without knowing, is very dangerous.
It seems that talking parrots had become quite fashionable. Understandably, Mulla Nasruddin's wife decided she must have one for herself. However, every store she went to had sold out of parrots. Finally she found a shop that had one left. "But," the owner cautioned, "this bird was previously owned by a madam in a whorehouse and its language may be quite salty. Perhaps if you keep him covered for a week, he will forget what he has seen and heard."
Mrs. Nasruddin purchased the bird and did as the shopkeeper bid. At long last the week was over and the bird was finally uncovered. He first blinked his eyes and then after adjusting to the light looked around and said, "Hmm... pretty new house. Hmm... pretty new madam. Hmm... pretty new girls too."
Just then Mulla Nasruddin walked in. The bird took one look at him and said, "Ah, shit! Same old customers. Hi, Mulla!"
Yes, even parrots are more spontaneous than your pundits. You go on repeating. Your parents believed that they lived and their parents believed that they lived, and they have given you the idea that you are alive. You are not alive, you are only vegetating. To be alive means to be awakened.
Bhagwato, when I say the new man, I mean the conscious man. Humanity cannot be saved if the conscious man does not arrive. In the past it was not so necessary, but now it is absolutely necessary, it is a must. If the new man does not arrive on the earth, if more and more people are not going to become conscious, alert, awake, then this earth is doomed. Its fate is in the hand of the stupid politicians, and now they have immense power of destruction, such as they never had before. That is something new. Just five years ago they had so much power that they could have killed every single human being seven times -- although you don't need to kill any human being seven times, once is enough. We had five years ago so much atomic energy -- atom bombs, hydrogen bombs -- that we could have destroyed this earth seven times. And within five years we have really progressed -- now it is seven hundred times! We can destroy seven hundred earths like this earth, and we go on piling up.... And any moment, any mad politician can trigger the process of self-destruction.
The coming twenty years are going to be the most dangerous in the whole history of humanity; it has never been so dangerous -- we are sitting on a volcano. Only more consciousness, more alertness can save it; there is no other way. We have to de-automatize man. The society automatizes you. It creates efficient machines, not human beings.
My effort here is to de-automatize you. I am doing something absolutely antisocial. The society makes you a machine and my effort is to undo it. I would like this fire to spread and reach to all the nooks and corners of the earth, to help as many people as possible to be conscious. If in a great quantity consciousness grows on the earth, there is a possibility, a hope, we can save humanity yet. All is not lost, but time is running short. Everything is being controlled by politicians and by computers, and both are dangerous. Politicians are mad. It is impossible to be a politician if you are not mad enough. You have to be absolutely insane, because only insane people are power-obsessed.
A sane person lives life joyously; he is not power-obsessed. He may be interested in music, in singing, in dancing, but he is not interested in dominating anybody. He may be interested in becoming a master of himself, but he is not interested in becoming a master of others.
Politicians are insane people. History is enough proof. And now computers are dominating.
You know the saying: To err is human.... That is true, but if you really want to create a great mess, human beings are not enough -- you need computers. Now machines and mad people are dominating the whole world. We have to change the very foundation. That's what I mean by a new man.
A new man means more conscious, more loving, more creative. This whole process is possible through being more meditative. Become more meditative, silent, still. Experience yourself deeply. In that experience, a fragrance will be released through you. And if many many people become meditators, the earth can be full of a new perfume.
(Source: The Dhammapada: The way of the Buddha – volume 10 , Chapter 11)
Why Great Masters are continuously misunderstood and misinterpreted by people?
On the 7th day of our Great Fasting, the satsang was going on with our spiritual master Yogasree Yogiraj. A kid, one of his youngest disciples asked a simple but important question. (It was a big question; I simplified it in my way)
Master, “Our country is blessed with many spiritual masters. All these masters have extra sensory perception skills including you. Many times we have experienced it. But still all the masters facing lot of problems from the people. Every time your words become controversial. All masters facing lot of cases in the court. Why they not use their sixth sense to prevent this?”
After a deep breath Yogiraj explained the answer.
(I am sorry. I am unable to translate Guru’s words. I try many times but my poor language unable to Conway the exact meaning which Yogiraj meant. So I am adding the same question and answer which I read in a book “The Dhammapada: The way of the Buddha – volume 10“ by the great master Osho Rajaneesh.)
BELOVED MASTER,
WHY ARE YOU BEING CONTINUOUSLY MISUNDERSTOOD AND MISINTERPRETED BY PEOPLE?
Rajesh, it is absolutely inevitable, it is unavoidable. It has to be so. It is part of the destiny of those who speak the truth. They are bound to be misunderstood, misinterpreted. If they were not misunderstood, not misinterpreted, that would be a miracle. It has not happened up to now and there is no hope that it is ever going to happen.
Buddhas have always been misunderstood for the simple reason that they speak from a totally different vision which is not available to the masses. They speak from a totally different experience. Their experience is such that it cannot be expressed through words, yet they try to express it through words -- they try to do the impossible. Saying it through words creates trouble. They use words in their own way, they give the words their own color, but when those words reach you they have lost all the meaning that was given by the awakened ones. Immediately you interpret them, you translate them into your experience.
Buddhas speak from sunlit peaks and you live in dark valleys. They talk about light and you have never seen light. They talk about eyes and you have not even dreamed about eyes. They talk about eternity and all that you know is time; all that you know is temporary and they talk of that which never changes, which is always the same, which abides. It is unbridgeable, the gap. Unless you become also conscious it remains unbridgeable.
Hence only a few disciples, slowly slowly, attain to the meaning of the masters. Very slowly a few people become awakened, they come out of their sleep. It is arduous, too, because all that you know about your life is your sleep and your dreams. Leaving your dreams and your life behind is hard. It is demolishing your whole past. It is entering into such an unknown territory and without maps -- one feels scared.
Only disciples can understand; the masses cannot understand. The masses have every investment in not understanding. Even if there is some possibility of understanding they will avoid that possibility. They will not come close to the buddhas. They will try in every possible way to create more and more barriers. They will create rumors, all kinds of rumors. They will surround the buddhas with so much smoke of their own creation that the buddhas become almost invisible to them. They don't want to listen -- it hurts. Their whole life is rooted in lies and the truth hurts, it shatters.
And the masses are vast, the blind people are millions. The people with eyes are rare, few and far between. Only once in a while comes a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu, a Jesus, a Moses, a Buddha. They are doing something unimaginable. They are trying to explain light to the millions who are blind. The blind people can hear the word 'light', but they cannot understand it -- or they will understand it in their own way, whatsoever is their idea, opinion about light. And they are not only blind; they have thousands of opinions. They have much knowledge -- without knowing anything at all. They are full of scriptures. They hide their blindness behind scriptures. They can quote scriptures, they can argue. They are clever and skillful in argument.
In fact, truth cannot be argued about. Either you know it or you don't. Truth cannot be proved either; either you know it or you don't. Knowing is all that is possible, or not-knowing; there is no way to prove it.
Once it happened:
A blind man was brought to Gautama the Buddha. He was a logician, a philosopher, very argumentative. He had been arguing with the village that there is no light, "and you are all blind, just as I am blind. I know it and you don't know it, that's the only difference." He was saying this to people who had eyes! And he was so clever in argument that the villagers were at a loss what to do with this man.
He was asking them, "Bring your light. Let me taste it or smell it or touch it. Only then will I believe."
Now, light cannot be touched, cannot be tasted, cannot be smelled. You cannot hear it. And these were the four senses available to the blind man. Then he would laugh in victory. He would say, "Look! There is no light. Otherwise, give me the proofs!"
When Buddha came to the village, the villagers thought it would be good: "Let us take this man to Buddha."
They brought the man to Buddha. Buddha listened to the whole story and then he said, "He does not need me. I also work with blind people, but of a different kind -- spiritually blind people. I heal them, I cure them. But this is physical blindness. You take him to a physician. You take him to my personal physician."
He had a personal physician a king had given him. The greatest physician of those days, Jivaka, was given to Buddha as a gift to take care of his body. "You take him to Jivaka, and I am certain that he will be able to do something. He needs a physician; he does not need great philosophy about light. Talking about light is just stupid. And if you argue with him, he is going to win. He can prove that there is no light."
Remember, to prove that there is no God is very easy; to prove that there is God is impossible. To prove the negative is easy because all logic tends to be negative. To prove the positive is not possible; logic has no opening towards the positive. Hence the atheist is more argumentative and the theist feels almost defeated. He cannot prove the existence of God or the soul.
Buddha said, "You take him to Jivaka." Jivaka cured his eyes. Within six months the man was able to see. He came dancing with many flowers and fruits as a present to Buddha. He fell at his feet and he said, "If you had not been there I would have argued my whole life against light -- and light is! Now I know!"
Buddha said, "Can you prove it? Where is light? I would like to taste it and touch it and smell it!"
And the blind man -- the ex-blind man -- said, "That is impossible. Now I know it can only be seen; there is no other way to approach it. Excuse me, I am sorry. I was blind, utterly blind, and in my blindness I was saying things. I was arguing against something which exists and is the most beautiful experience of life. If you were not there I would have argued my whole life against something which is, and I would have remained a blind man. And you did well that you did not say a single word about light; otherwise, I had come prepared, fully prepared to argue with you, and I know now, even you would not have been able to prove it. But your insight is deep: you could see that I didn't need any proofs; I needed some medicine. I didn't need philosophy, I needed a physician. You directed me to the right person. I am immensely grateful."
And the man never left Buddha. He said, "What you have done to my physical eyes, now do to my spiritual eyes too."
He became a disciple, he became a sannyasin.
To be a disciple means to be ready to be operated on. It is a surgery, a very internal surgery: surgery in the very deepest core of your being. Only then can you understand me, what I am saying to you.
But the masses are not ready. And don't be worried about them, Rajesh. That is none of our business. If they misunderstand, for us it does not matter. If they misunderstand, they miss something. If they misinterpret, it is their loss. Try to help them to come closer to me, but don't argue with them.
I am a physician, I am not a philosopher. My work here is that of a surgeon, not that of a teacher. The master is always a surgeon. He cuts away all that is false in you, chunk by chunk. Slowly slowly, he demolishes the whole edifice of your falsehood. And then what is left behind is your truth, is your being. When you have experienced it, only then will you be able to understand what is being conveyed to you through words, through silence, through communion.
I am trying every possible way to reach to you, but I can reach you only if you are open to me. I cannot reach to the masses; that is not possible in the very nature of things.
To be continued...
(Source: The Dhammapada: The way of the Buddha – volume 10 , Chapter 11)
