Tag Archives: spirituality

Hotei, The Laughing Buddha !!

In Japan, a great mystic, Hotei, is called the laughing Buddha. He is one of the most loved mystics in Japan, and he never uttered a single word. As he became enlightened, he started laughing, and whenever somebody would ask, Why are you laughing? he would laugh more. And he would move from village to village, laughing.
A crowd will gather and he will laugh. And slowly — his laughter was very infectious — somebody in the crowd will start laughing, then somebody else, and then the whole crowd is laughing — laughing because…. Why are they laughing? Everybody knows, “It is ridiculous; this man is strange, but why are we laughing?”
But everybody was laughing; and everybody was a little worried, “What will people think? There is no reason to laugh.” But people would wait for Hotei, because they had never laughed in their whole life with such totality, with such intensity that after the laughter they found their every sense had become more clear. Their eyes could see better, their whole being had become light, as if a great burden had disappeared.
People would ask Hotei, “Come back again,” and he would move, laughing, to another village. His whole life, for near about forty-five years after his enlightenment, he did only one thing and that was laughing. That was his message, his gospel, his scripture.
And it is to be noted that in Japan, nobody has been remembered with such respect as Hotei. You will find in every house, statues of Hotei. And he had done nothing except laugh; but the laughter was coming from such depth that it stayed with anyone who heard it and triggered his being, created a synchronicity.
Hotei is unique. In the whole world there is no other human being who has made so many people laugh — for no reason at all. And yet, everybody was nourished by the laughter, and everybody was cleansed by the laughter, felt a well-being that he had never felt. Something from the unknowable depth started ringing bells in peoples’ hearts.

~ OSHO

Four Varnas explained

*भोग यानी शुद्र (देह)*
*तृष्णा यानी वैश्य (मन)*
*संकल्प यानी क्षत्रिय (आत्मा)*
*समर्पण यानी ब्राह्मण ( परमात्मा)*

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

तुम यह जानते हो कि इस देश में जो बड़े से बड़े ज्ञानी हुए–सब क्षत्रिय थे।
बुद्ध, जैनों के चौबीस तीर्थंकर, राम, कृष्ण–
सब क्षत्रिय थे! क्यों? होना चाहिए सब ब्राह्मण, मगर थे सब क्षत्रिय। क्योंकि ब्राह्मण होने के पहले क्षत्रिय होना जरूरी है।

जिसने जन्म के साथ अपने को ब्राह्मण समझ लिया, वह चूक गया। उसे पता ही नहीं चलेगा कि बात क्या है!

और जो जन्म से ही अपने को ब्राह्मण समझ लिया और सोच लिया कि पहुंच गया, क्योंकि जन्म उसका ब्राह्मण घर में हुआ है, उसे संकल्प की यात्रा करने का अवसर ही नहीं मिला, चुनौती नहीं मिली।

इस देश के महाज्ञानी क्षत्रिय थे।
हिंदुओं के अवतार, जैनों के तीर्थंकर, बौद्धों के बुद्ध–सब क्षत्रिय थे। इसके पीछे कुछ कारण है।

*सिर्फ एक परशुराम को छोड़कर, कोई ब्राह्मण अवतार नहीं है। और परशुराम बिलकुल ब्राह्मण नहीं हैं। उनसे ज्यादा क्षत्रिय आदमी कहां खोजोगे! उन्होंने क्षत्रियों से खाली कर दिया पृथ्वी को कई दफे काट–काटकर। वे काम ही जिंदगीभर काटने का करते रहे। उनका नाम ही परशुराम पड़ गया, क्योंकि वे फरसा लिए घूमते रहे। हत्या करने के लिए परशु लेकर घूमते रहे। परशु वाले राम–ऐसा उनका नाम है।*

वे क्षत्रिय ही थे। उनको भी ब्राह्मण कहना बिलकुल ठीक नहीं है, जरा भी ठीक नहीं है। उनसे बडा क्षत्रिय खोजना मुश्किल है! जिसने सारे क्षत्रियों को पृथ्वी से कई दफे मार डाला और हटा दिया, अब उससे बड़ा क्षत्रिय और कौन होगा?

संकल्प यानी क्षत्रिय..।

ऐसा समझो कि भोग यानी शूद्र। तृष्णा यानी वैश्य। संकल्प यानी क्षत्रिय। और जब संकल्प पूरा हो जाए, तभी समर्पण की संभावना है। तब समर्पण यानी ब्राह्मण।

जब तुम अपना सब कर लो, तभी तुम झुकोगे। उसी झुकने में असलियत होगी। जब तक तुम्हें लगता है मेरे किए हो जाएगा, तब तक तुम झुक नहीं सकते। तुम्हारा झुकना धोखे का होगा, झूठा होगा, मिथ्या होगा।

अपना सारा दौड़ना दौड़ लिए, अपना करना सब कर लिए और पाया कि नहीं, अंतिम चीज हाथ नहीं आती, नहीं आती, नहीं आती, चूकती चली जाती है। तब एक असहाय अवस्था में आदमी गिर पड़ता है। जब तुम घुटने टेककर प्रार्थना करते हो, तब असली प्रार्थना नहीं है। जब एक दिन ऐसा आता है कि तुम अचानक पाते हो कि घुटने टिके जा रहे हैं पृथ्वी पर। अपने टिका रहे हो–ऐसा नहीं, झुक रहे हो–ऐसा नहीं, झुके जा रहे हो। अब कोई और उपाय नहीं रहा। जिस दिन झुकना सहज फलित होता है, उस दिन समर्पण।

समर्पण यानी ब्राह्मण। समर्पण यानी ब्रह्म।
जो मिटा, उसने ब्रह्म को जाना।

*ये चारों पर्तें तुम्हारे भीतर हैं।*
यह तुम्हारे ऊपर है कि तुम किस पर ध्यान देते हो। ऐसा ही समझो कि जैसे तुम्हारे रेडियो में चार स्टेशन हैं। तुम कहां अपने रेडियो की कुंजी को लगा देते हो, किस स्टेशन पर रेडियो के कांटे को ठहरा देते हो, यह तुम पर निर्भर है।

*ये चारों तुम्हारे भीतर हैं।*
देह तुम्हारे भीतर है।
मन तुम्हारे भीतर है।
आत्मा तुम्हारे भीतर।
परमात्मा तुम्हारे भीतर।

अगर तुमने अपने ध्यान को देह पर लगा दिया, तो तुम शूद्र हो गए।

स्वभावत:, बच्चे सभी शूद्र होते हैं।
क्योंकि बच्चों से यह आशा नहीं की जा सकती कि वे देह से ज्यादा गहरे में जा सकेंगे। मगर के अगर शूद्र हों, तो अपमानजनक है। बच्चों के लिए स्वाभाविक है। अभी जिंदगी जानी नहीं, तो जो पहली पर्त है, उसी को पहचानते हैं। लेकिन का अगर शूद्र की तरह मर जाए, तो निंदा-योग्य है। सब शूद्र की तरह पैदा होते हैं, लेकिन किसी को शूद्र की तरह मरने की आवश्यकता नहीं है।

अगर तुमने अपने रेडियो को वैश्य के स्टेशन पर लगा दिया; तुमने अपने ध्यान को वासना-तृष्णा में लगा दिया, लोभ में लगा दिया, तो तुम वैश्य हो जाओगे।

तुमने अगर अपने ध्यान को संकल्प पर लगा दिया, तो क्षत्रिय हो जाओगे।

*तुमने अपने ध्यान को अगर समर्पण में डुबा दिया, तो तुम ब्राह्मण हो जाओगे।*

~ ओशो
ऐस धम्मो सनतनो–
प्रवचन-118

AVADHUTA !!

THE AVADHUT

The Avadhut has no ideal,
neither strives after the attainment of an ideal.
Having lost his identity in the Self,
free from the limitations of the illusory world,
free also from the perfections of Yoga,
thus walks the Avadhut.
He argues with no one,
he is not concerned with any object or person.

Free from the snares of expectations and hopes, he has cast off the worn-out garments of purity, righteousness, and all ideals.

His path is free from any such consideration. It can only be said about him that he is purity absolute, and is far, far above the clouds of maya and ignorance.

He has no such thoughts as
“I am not in the body,” or
“I am not the body.”

He has no aversion, attachment or infatuation towards any object or person. Pure as space he walks, immersed in the immaculate bliss of his natural state.

The Avadhut may be compared to immeasurable space.
He is Eternity.
In him is neither purity nor impurity.
There is no variety nor unity in him;
no bondage nor absence of bondage.

Free from separation and union,
free from enjoyment or absence of enjoyment, he moves calm and unhurried through the world.

Having given up all activity of the mind, he is in his normal state of indescribable bliss.

– AVADHUTA GITA.
Chapter VI. Verses 25 -29.

What is GOD ??

What is God?

God is not a person. That is one of the greatest misunderstandings, and it has prevailed so long that it has become almost a fact. Even if a lie is repeated continuously for centuries it is bound to appear as if it is a truth.

God is a presence, not a person. Hence all worshipping is sheer stupidity. Prayerfulness is needed, not prayer. There is nobody to pray to; there is no possibility of any dialogue between you and God. Dialogue is possible only between two persons, and God is not a person but a presence – like beauty, like joy.

God simply means godliness. It is because of this fact that Buddha denied the existence of God. He wanted to emphasize that God is a quality, an experience – like love. You cannot talk to love, you can live it. You need not create temples of love, you need not make statues of love, and bowing down to those statues will be just nonsense. And that’s what has been happening in the churches, in the temples, in the mosques.

Man has lived under this impression of God as a person, and then two calamities have happened through it. One is the so-called religious man, who thinks God is somewhere above in the sky and you have to praise him to persuade him to confer favors on you, to help you to fulfill your desires, to make your ambitions succeed, to give you the wealth of this world and of the other world. And this is sheer wastage of time and energy.

And on the opposite pole the people who saw the stupidity of it all became atheists; they started denying the existence of God. They were right in a sense, but they were also wrong. They started denying not only the personality of God, they started to deny even the experience of God.

The theist is wrong, the atheist is wrong, and man needs a new vision so that he can be freed from both the prisons.

God is the ultimate experience of silence, of beauty, of bliss, a state of inner celebration. Once you start looking at God as godliness there will be a radical change in your approach. Then prayer is no more valid; meditation becomes valid.

Martin Buber says prayer is a dialogue; then between you and God there is an “I-thou” relationship – the duality persists. Buddha is far closer to the truth: you simply drop all chattering of the mind, you slip out of the mind like a snake slipping out of the old skin. You become profoundly silent. There is no question of any dialogue, no question of any monologue either. Words have disappeared from your consciousness. There is no desire for which favors have to be asked, no ambition to be fulfilled.

One is now and here. In that tranquility, in that calmness, you become aware of a luminous quality to existence. Then the trees and the mountains and the rivers and the people are all surrounded with a subtle aura. They are all radiating life, and it is one life in different forms. The flowering of one existence in millions of forms, in millions of flowers.

THIS experience is God. And it is everybody’s birthright, because whether you know it or not you are already part of it. The only possibility is you may not recognize it or you may recognize it. The difference between the enlightened person and the unenlightened person is not of quality – they both are absolutely alike. There is only one small difference: that the enlightened person is aware; he recognizes the ultimate pervading the whole, permeating the whole, vibrating, pulsating. He recognizes the heartbeat of the universe. He recognizes that the universe is not dead, it is alive.

This aliveness is God!

The unenlightened person is asleep, asleep and full of dreams. Those dreams function as a barrier; they don’t allow him to see the truth of his own reality. And, of course, when you are not even aware of your own reality, how can you be aware of the reality of others? The first experience has to happen within you. Once you have seen the light within you will be able to see it everywhere.

God has to be freed from all concepts of personality. Personality is a prison. God has to be freed from any particular form; only then he can have all the forms. He has to be freed from any particular name so that all the names become his.

Then a person lives in prayer – he does not pray, he does not go to the temple, to the church. Wherever he sits he is prayerful, whatsoever he is doing is prayerful, and in that prayerfulness he creates his temple. He is always moving with his temple surrounding him. Wherever he sits the place becomes sacred, whatsoever he touches becomes gold. If he is silent then his silence is golden; if he speaks then his song is golden. If he is alone his aloneness is divine; if he relates then his relating is divine.

The basic, the most fundamental thing is to be aware of your own innermost core, because that is the secret of the whole existence. That’s where the Upanishads are tremendously important. They don’t talk about a God, they talk about godliness. They don t bother about prayer. their whole emphasis is on meditation.

Meditation has two parts: the beginning and the end. The beginning is called dhyana and the end is called samadhi. Dhyana is the seed, samadhi is the flowering. Dhyana means becoming aware of all workings of your mind, all the layers of your mind – your memories, your desires, your thoughts, dreams – becoming aware of all that goes on inside you.

Dhyana is awareness, and samadhi is when the awareness has become so deep, so profound, so total that it is like a fire and it consumes the whole mind and all its functionings. It consumes thoughts, desires, ambitions, hopes, dreams. It consumes the whole stuff the mind is full of.

Samadhi is the state when awareness is there, but there is nothing to be aware inside you; the witness is there, but there is nothing to be witnessed.

Begin with dhyana, with meditation, and end in samadhi, in ecstasy, and you will know what God is.

It is not a hypothesis, it is an experience. You have to live it – that is the only way to know it.

~ OSHO

Narayana !!

Narayan means what?

That energy which is present in all the nervous systems, in all of creation. Anything that sparkles in living beings is called Narayan.

The word ‘nervous system’ comes from the Sanskrit word ‘Nara’, which also means ‘human beings’.

Narayan means that which is housed in the beautiful and amazing nervous system. Just imagine a human being without a nervous system, he will not be alive. It is because of your nervous system that you are able to express yourself.

That energy which perceives and which expresses in the whole universe is Narayan.

OM NAMO NARAYANA !

~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar