Mojud: The Man with the Inexplicable Life

Monday, 18 May 2009

Page 2 of 3 THERE WAS ONCE A MAN NAMED MOJUD. HE LIVED IN A TOWN WHERE HE HAD OBTAINED A POST AS A SMALL OFFICIAL, AND IT SEEMED LIKELY THAT HE WOULD END HIS DAYS AS INSPECTOR OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. That's how millions of people end their lives, as Inspector of Weights and Measures. Somebody will end up as a head clerk in some rotten office, somebody will end up as a station-master, somebody will end up as a businessman, somebody will end up as a professor; and all those things are just futile. And I'm not saying don't become a station-master, but don't end up with that. Even if you have become Inspector of Weights and Measures, what have you attained? What have you got out of life? What is your realization? You live without really living. You can have a standard of living without having any life in it. So people used to think that Mojud would end up as Inspector of Weights and Measures. But Mojud was a different kind of man, because he had a presence. He was present. Deep down, not known to anybody, he must have been meditating. His outer life was one thing, his inner life was another. He must have been getting deeper and deeper into silence, he must have been becoming more and more thoughtless -- only then are you present. Thoughts distract you from the present. Thoughts become clouds on your being and you lose contact, you become disconnected with the present. Thoughts are never of the present, they cannot be of the present; they are either of the past or of the future. If this man were really a man of presence, that simply meant that deep down, in the dark night when everybody was fast asleep, he must have been meditating, not telling anybody. He must have been watching. He was moving in the ordinary world but there must have been a witness, a watcher, an observer. That observer, by and by, created the presence in him. He became a luminous presence, hence he is called Mojud. ONE DAY WHEN HE WAS WALKING THROUGH THE GARDENS OF AN ANCIENT BUILDING NEAR HIS HOME, KHIDR, THE MYSTERIOUS GUIDE OF THE SUFIS, APPEARED TO HIM.... Now, you have to understand this: Khidr is just a name, the name for your innermost core. When your center starts whispering things to your circumference, this is Khidr. When your fundamental being starts talking to your non-fundamental being, when the essential soul speaks with the non-essential, then Khidr is speaking to you. This is just a metaphor; Khidr is not somebody outside. When you become silent, when you become present, when you become mojud, a moment comes when the inner guide starts speaking to you. That inner guide is known as Khidr. ... KHIDR APPEARED TO HIM, DRESSED IN SHIMMERING GREEN. Green is the color of the Sufis. It represents life: the green trees, the greenery. It represents freshness, aliveness; it represents silence, peace. Sufis have chosen green as their symbolic color. Just to look at green you feel a kind of peace surrounding you. That's why it is so thrilling to go into the mountains. Just to sit by the side of a forest surrounded by mysterious trees is immensely significant. It makes you again primitive, primordial. It reminds you of the primordial silence of the jungles. It reminds you that once you were also trees, as silent as the trees and as rooted as the trees. Dressed in shimmering green, Khidr appeared. KHIDR _SAID "MAN OF BRIGHT PROSPECTS!" And remember, whenever your innermost core will speak to you, it always speaks in this way: "Man of bright prospects" -- because there has never been a man who is not of bright prospects. You may not attain to it -- that is another thing -- but it is your destiny. You could have attained it. If you miss the responsibility is totally yours. The seed was there, you didn't help it to grow. Otherwise it would have become a great tree and thousands of birds would have made their nests on it, and thousands of travellers would have rested under its shade, and flowers would have-bloomed, and existence would have celebrated through you. If you don't become a tree only you are responsible. Nature has provided all that is needed. Each man is a man of bright prospects because each man has God as his ultimate flowering. KHIDR SAID, "MAN OF BRIGHT PROSPECTS! LEAVE YOUR WORK AND MEET ME AT THE RIVERSIDE IN THREE DAYS' TIME." THEN HE DISAPPEARED. When you go deep into meditation it will happen again and again. A moment will come when your circumference and center are very close, and there is no barrier between them -- not even a curtain -- and you will hear the center loudly, clearly. And again you will be clouded -- again old habits, thoughts will come in, jam your inner ways, and the center and the circumference will fall apart. It will happen many times to you too. It is going to happen to those who are around me many times. Many times you will come so close to the center that you will feel almost enlightened. You will feel you have arrived, and again it is lost. It is natural. Before it settles forever, it happens many times. Before the ultimate SAMADHI is attained, thousands of SATORIS happen: small glimpses, the opening of the window and closing again. Suddenly the door opens and you see the vision and there is a lightning experience, and again it is gone and darkness settles. MOJUD WENT TO HIS SUPERIOR IN TREPIDATION AND SAID THAT HE HAD TO LEAVE. And whenever the center speaks to the circumference for the first time, you will be in trepidation, you will be in a constant trembling. You will feel as if you are dying, you will feel, "What is happening to me? Am I going crazy or mad?" When the center speaks for the first time you cannot figure out what it is. You had never heard that voice before, you had never thought that somebody lived inside you. You had never thought that any inner voice was going to come to you. You have become so engaged with the outer, the voices that come from the outside, parental voices, teachers, priests. One man here seems to be very obsessed with the mother. He again and again goes on asking -- the same man who asked the question about Eklavya. Now he also asks the question: "Who is greater, the mother or the Master?" Now he asks: "If the mother says kill the Master, then have I to follow my mother's order? Or if the Master says kill your mother, then whom have I to obey?" He seems to be obsessed with the mother. He will need to kill his mother. That's what Jesus means when he says, "Unless you hate your father and mother and your brothers, you cannot follow me." And there is a case on record of an even stranger depth. A disciple of Buddha was taking leave of him. He was going on a faraway pilgrimage to spread Buddha's word. He touched Buddha's feet, he waited there for his blessing. Buddha blessed him and said to the assembly, "Look, brothers! This is a rare disciple! And what is his rarity? He has killed his mother and father!" He had never said such a thing. And nobody had ever thought that this man could kill his father and mother. He was one of the most silent, peaceful, loving persons they had ever seen. He was compassion incarnate. Somebody asked, "We don't understand. What do you mean by saying that he has killed his father and mother?" And Buddha said, "Exactly that: he has killed the voice of his father and mother inside him, the parental voice." That is very deep-rooted in you. This man goes on asking about the mother and the Master... my feeling is that he is afraid. He has become a sannyasin, and now he's afraid to go back home and he is afraid of his mother. Now he is in a great tension. Once you have chosen a Master all else is no longer relevant. Mother, father -- nothing is relevant. If you have not chosen a Master then they are relevant. The Master is bound to say to you, "Kill your father and mother!" -- not literally, but psychologically. And one day the Master will have to say to you, "Now kill me too!" That's what Buddha says. One day he appreciates this man: "Here is a rare sannyasin, a rare BHIKKU, who has killed his father and mother utterly." And on some other day he says, "If you meet me on the way, kill me! If any day I come between you and the ultimate, kill me, destroy me!" The Master has to teach two things: first he has to teach murder -- kill your mother and father, kill your teachers, kill your priests -- and one day he has to teach you to kill him so that you can go in absolute freedom, so the Master is also no longer a barrier. When for the first time the center speaks to you there is bound to be great turmoil, chaos, because all that was settled will be unsettled, and all that was established will be disestablished, and all that you were feeling secure in is no longer secure, and all that you were feeling as meaning-ful is no longer meaningful. Everything will go topsy-turvy because the center has a totally different approach towards reality than the circumference. When the depth speaks to the surface, there is bound to be great trepidation. MOJUD WENT TO HIS SUPERIOR IN TREPIDATION AND SAID THAT HE HAD TO LEAVE. But there is no way. If you are a man of presence, if you are a meditative person and the center speaks to you and Khidr appears -- Khidr means your inner guide -- when Khidr appears and says to you "Now do this!" if you are c man of presence you will HAVE to do it, even in spite of yourself, even against yourself. And you know, many of my sannyasins are here in SPITE of themselves. Now there is Ashoka. He has been fighting with me for years not to become a sannyasin. He HAS become a sannyasin, he HAD to become, but still the fight is there! The old is not completely gone. There are moments when the old jumps and tries to take possession. He is a sannyasin in spite of himself! And there are many, and it is natural, because you are so identified with the circumference that when you start hearing the voice from the center there is a problem: whom to choose, the mother or the Master? the teacher or the Master? the past or the present? Whom to choose? When there is no voice from the center there is no question of choice. There are a few things but all are on the surface: which dress to wear today and which not, and to which movie to go and to which not, and what book to read and what book to purchase -- things like that, meaningless choices. Whether you go to this movie or that finally makes no difference. Whether you wear this dress or that makes no difference. Whether you fall in love with this woman or that or with this man or that makes not much difference. But when the voice from the center is heard, then you are divided into two worlds, two unbridgeable worlds. The abyss is great. You are torn apart. You will have a GREAT chaos. But if you are a man of meditation only then will you be able to absorb that chaos and make some order out of disorder. Hence my insistence for meditation, because unless you are deep in meditation you will not be able to understand me,,and you will not be able to go with me. There are people -- particularly Indians -- who come here and they say, "SATSANG is enough. We just want to be in your presence. Why should have do meditation?" They don't understand. They cannot be in my presence because they are not present yet They are not MOJUD. Just sitting by my side is not real SATSANG, because you can think a thousand and one thoughts sitting by my side. You can be physically here and you may not be psychologically here at all. You can be anywhere in the world. You can be on some other planet. That is not SATSANG. Unless you are present here -- not only physically but psychologically too -- unless your whole presence surrounds me, unless you are really here in this moment, connected, plugged, only then is there SATSANG. But for that to happen you will have to go through meditations. And people are lazy: they would like God as a gift without even trying to become worthy of receiving it. He said he had to leave. EVERYONE IN THE TOWN SOON HEARD OF THIS AND THEY SAID, "POOR MOJUD! HE HAS GONE MAD!" That is what is always said about a meditator. Remember it, it will be said about you too. It must have been said already. "Poor Mojud!" they said. "He has gone mad!" -- because everyone in the world thinks he is sane. They cannot believe why one should meditate. For what? They constantly go on asking the person who meditates, prays, "Why? What are you getting into? For what? Why are you wasting your time sitting silently and gazing at your navel? Don't waste time! Time is money! You can do many things. You can have more, you can possess more. Don't waste time! Time gone is never recovered. And what are you doing sitting silently with closed eyes? Open your eyes and compete in the world! This world is a struggle for survival; those who sit silently and meditate will be lost. The only way to attain anything is to fight, be aggressive! Don't be passive." Remember, there are two modes of life: the action mode and the non-action mode. The action mode believes in action, the non-action mode believes in receptivity. Meditation is a non-action mode, what the Chinese call WEI-WU-WEI, action without action, action through inaction, doing without doing anything at all. Meditation is an inaction mode, and the world is full of people who live in only one mode, the action mode. And the man who lives in the action mode cannot understand what is going on in the person who has entered into the non-action mode. Now Mojud is entering into the non-action mode. This is revolution. This is sannyas. He has seen the world, he has acted in many ways, he has done many things, and now he knows that if he goes on doing those things he will end up as an Inspector of Weights and Measures. That no longer has any appeal for him. He wants to see, he wants to be, he wants to know that which is. Before death knocks him down he wants to know something of the deathless. He risks. People are bound to think, "Poor Mojud! He has gone mad!" BUT AS THERE WERE MANY CANDIDATES FOR HIS JOB, THEY SOON FORGOT HIM. And that's how it happens. If you become a sannyasin, for a few days people will think you are mad, and then they forget about you. They have a thousand and one things to think about, they can't go on thinking about you. They take it for granted that you are mad. So you are mad: now what is the point in thinking about it again and again? If you renounce, if you escape, if you start moving into the non-action mode, for a few days they will think about you and then all things will disappear, because there are always too many candidates for your place. When you die, immediately your place will be filled. All that you have in the world you have against others. They are just waiting for your death. You die -- your house will be filled by some-body else, your post will be filled by somebody else, your bank balance will be in somebody else's name. They are just waiting. In fact they are getting worried: "Why are you staying so long? Why don't you go?" Everybody here is interested in everybody else's death, because life is such a cut-throat competition. It is murderous competition! So soon they all forgot about him. ON THE APPOINTED DAY, MOJUD MET KHIDR, WHO SAID TO HIM, "TEAR YOUR CLOTHES AND THROW YOURSELF INTO THE STREAM. PERHAPS SOMEONE WILL SAVE YOU." The words are of great significance. Khidr says, "TEAR YOUR CLOTHES AND THROW YOURSELF INTO THE STREAM." That's what I go on saying to you. Many are told, only few listen. Many are called, only few come. Now, for no rhyme or reason at all, this poor Mojud comes, and Khidr simply says this: "TEAR YOUR CLOTHES AND THROW YOURSELF INTO THE STREAM." Just a few days ago a beautiful woman, Sharda, became a sannyasin. The next day she wrote a letter: "It was quick and efficient" -- that she was not ready to become a sannyasin, that I seduced her into sannyas. Naturally, later on she must have felt that she had been seduced into it. She had not come with a conscious desire. The unconscious desire was there, otherwise I would not have pushed her. But later on she must have thought, "What has happened?" -- she had become a sannyasin. And she knows much of the world, she is a money-expert, so naturally she is worldly-wise. She must have thought that this was quick and efficient, that she was not even willing to become a sannyasin and she is a sannyasin now. But she is intelligent too: soon she had understood that it was not I pushing her into sannyas. I was just mirroring her inner guide. That's what I go on doing. A Master on the outside is nothing but a reflection of Khidr. You cannot understand your own inner guide, hence the Master on the outside is needed. And you cannot understand your own inner guide because you don't know that language. You are completely unacquainted with those words, those symbols, those metaphors, those whispers, those sounds. You are completely unaware of how the inner guide conveys its message to you. The outer Master is just a screen on which you project your Khidr. And the outer Master helps you to understand your inner Master. When you have understood the inner Master perfectly, then the outer Master says, "If you meet me on the way, kill me." Now Khidr is saying this to him without even introducing him to what is going to happen, without even motivating him about what is going to happen, about why, why he should tear his clothes and throw himself into the stream? Why? There is no why. If you live with a Master, there is no why. Only then are you with a Master. "TEAR YOUR CLOTHES AND THROW YOURSELF INTO THE STREAM." And not only that, he says, "PERHAPS SOMEONE WILL SAVE YOU." There is no guarantee either. The Master always speaks in that language, of perhaps, because if the Master says it is guaranteed then you will not need trust. Then the guarantee will function as your trust. You will trust the guarantee, you will not trust the mysterious life and its mysterious processes. The Master always says, "Perhaps." People come to me and they ask, "If we become sannyasins, will we be able to become enlightened?" I say, "Perhaps. Perhaps not. Who knows?" I have to use that 'perhaps'. I have to give you a feeling of perhaps because only then will you be able to risk. If it is guaranteed, a hundred per-cent guaranteed, then where is the risk? And where is the need for trust? Nothing can be guaranteed, all remains open. That's why only those who can dare, who have GUTS to dare, enter into sannyas, enter into meditation, enter on the spiritual path. MOJUD DID SO, EVEN THOUGH HE WONDERED IF HE WERE MAD. Have you not wondered many times about yourself: "What am I doing here?" It comes again and again to your mind, I know: "What am I doing here? What have I got into? For what? Why am I in orange? Why am I wearing this mala around my neck? What am I doing with this madman here? And who knows, he may be simply mad? And what is the guarantee that he is enlightened?" That is natural. But one who trusts, one who loves, goes in spite of all this. The mind will go on following you and chasing you like stray dogs, barking, but slowly, slowly if you don't pay much attention to it and you go on going those dogs are left behind. Their barking becomes more distant and distant and distant, and one day suddenly you are alone; the mind is no more there. That day is a day o great joy. MOJUD DID SO, EVEN THOUGH HE WONDERED IF HE WERE MAD. Who will not wonder? This looks so absurd. He may have gone there thinking that Khidr might give him . glimpse of God, or might give him a key to open the door of mystery, or might show him hidden treasures or some thing. And now here is this man: he says, "Tear your clothe and throw yourself in the stream. Perhaps someone will save you." That's all! But he did. Remember it: when I say to you, "Jump into the stream," I know, it is natural -- the mind will resist But if you can do it, only then is something possible. SINCE HE COULD SWIM, HE DID NOT DROWN, BUT DRIFTED A LONG WAY BEFORE A FISHERMAN HAULED HIM INTO HIS BOAT, SAYING, "FOOLISH MAN! THE CURRENT IS STRONG. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?" "Since he could swim.... " I know that if you jump into the stream you will be able to swim, because swimming is a natural phenomenon. One need not learn it. I'm not talking about the outer stream and swimming. There you may be drowned. But I am talking about the stream of the inner consciousness, the stream of consciousness. If you jump into it.... And that's what is meant, that is the parallel story that you have to decode. You naturally know. Have you ever seen any fish learning to swim? Once Mulla Nasrudin was caught because he was fishing at a place where fishing was prohibited. And the inspector came suddenly, and he was caught red-handed. He was just taking out one fish. He immediately dropped the fish back and sat there, undisturbed. The inspector was standing there. He asked, "What are you doing, Mulla?" He said, "I am teaching this fish to swim." Now no fish needs to be taught swimming; the fish is born there. Swimming is like breathing. Who has taught you breathing? And there is no need to be afraid: if you are ready to trust, to jump into the stream of your consciousness, you will know how to swim. At the most it can happen that you may be drifted a long way before a fisherman hauls you up. You can, at the most, drift, that's all. You cannot be drowned. You belong to consciousness, you are part of that stream. THE FISHERMAN SAID, "FOOLISH MAN! THE CURRENT IS STRONG. WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO?" Just see the beauty of the answer. And he really does not know what he is doing, because he has not been told for what. He had not even asked Khidr, "Why should I jump into the stream, and why should I throw my clothes? What is the purpose of it?" He had not asked about the purpose. That is trust. That is going into the unknown I talk about continuously. That is adventure, that is an unclinging mind, that is courage. "I DON'T REALLY KNOW," he said. And he is true, he does not know. If you know and then you do something it is not courage. If you know and then do something it is not trust; you are trusting your knowledge. There are two kinds of sannyasins here: one who has jumped into the stream when I told him or her to jump, the other who thinks, broods, contemplates for and against, and then one day decides. That decision is coming out of his mind, that decision will be only of his own past, of his own conditioning. I will have to work hard on him, because he had missed the first opportunity that was provided for him. He clings to his ego. The first opportunity was there, and things would have been immensely simple if he had simply taken a jump. There are those types of people here also; the majority are of that type. My work basically consists with those who have simply taken a jump, who have not asked why, who have simply looked into my eyes and felt a mad desire, a mad longing to go with me, to go with me without knowing where it is going to end. "YOU ARE MAD," SAID THE FISHERMAN, "BUT I WILL TAKE YOU INTO MY REED-HUT BY THE RIVER YONDER, AND WE SHALL SEE WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR YOU." WHEN HE DISCOVERED THAT MOJUD WAS WELL-SPOKEN, HE LEARNED FROM HIM HOW TO READ AND WRITE. IN EXCHANGE MOJUD WAS GIVEN FOOD AND HELPED THE FISHERMAN WITH HIS WORK. AFTER A FEW MONTHS. KHIDR AGAIN APPEARED, THIS TIME AT THE FOOT OF MOJUD'S BED, AND SAID, "GET UP NOW AND LEAVE THIS FISHERMAN. YOU WILL BE PROVIDED FOR. Now things are changing. Mojud is trusting, and even the inner guide is showing respect. This time he appeared at the foot of Mojud's bed -- this is showing respect. Now Mojud is not an ordinary man anymore: the trust changed him, transformed him. He is a courageous man, heroic, brave -- without asking any why. He knows how to love, he knows how to penetrate into the future without carrying the load of the past. The inner guide is showing respect. Khidr said, "GET UP NOW AND LEAVE THIS FISHERMAN... It is the middle of the night. Things have settled by now, the fisherman is very happy. Whenever you are settling the inner guide will unsettle you again. Whenever you are settling the Master will unsettle you again. Because you are not to be allowed to settle anywhere before God, hence constant unsettling. All are stations on the Way. You can have an overnight stay but by the morning you have to leave. In the middle of the night Khidr says, "Get up now and leave this fisherman." And it is always now with a Master, it is never tomorrow. It would have been far easier and more compassionate to tell him, "You can rest right now, but tomorrow morning you leave." But it is always now! For a Master the only time that exists is now and the only space that exists is here. "YOU WILL BE PROVIDED FOR." Now things have changed. He does not say, "PERHAPS you will be provided for." Just these small nuances of the words, and you will be unfolding the mystery of the story. First he had said, "PERHAPS someone will save you." Now he says, "You will be provided for." What has changed? The trust shown by Mojud is enough. There is no need to say 'perhaps'. He has been tested by 'perhaps', he has proved his mettle. Now things can be said as they are. There is no perhaps really. If you meditate, SAMADHI is guaranteed. If you fall in love with an alive Master, enlightenment is guaranteed. There is no perhaps, but the perhaps has to be used just to give you an opportunity to grow in trust. Once the trust has arisen there will be no need for perhaps. Mojud immediately quit the hut. He didn't even ask for time: "I can go tomorrow. In the night where will I go? It is so dark. And what is the point of going in the night, and where?" No, he simply quit the hut, DRESSED AS A FISHERMAN, AND WANDERED ABOUT UNTIL HE CAME TO A HIGHWAY. AS DAWN WAS BREAKING HE SAW A FARMER ON A DONKEY ON HIS WAY TO MARKET. "DO YOU SEEK WORK?" ASKED THE FARMER, "BECAUSE I NEED A MAN TO HELP ME BRING BACK SOME PURCHASES." MOJUD FOLLOWED HIM.... That's how it happens in the inner journey. If you can trust, something or other will ALWAYS happen and will help your growth. You will be provided for. Whatsoever is needed at a particular time will be given to you, NEVER BEFORE IT. You get it only when you need it, and there is not even a single moment's delay. When you need it you get it, immediately, instantly! That's the beauty of trust. By and by you learn the ways of how existence goes on providing for you, how existence goes on caring about you. You are not living in an indifferent existence. It does not ignore you. You are unnecessarily worried; all is provided for. Once you have the knack of knowing this, all worry disappears. << Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>

 

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