Unclear Journal: 10

 
Sixty-Four.
When we are driven by various forms of false ego within ourselves, disagreements arise on different matters. The entire world today understands only conflict, engages in confrontation, because accepting others' opinions strikes at our self-pride, so whatever we hear, whether good or bad, true or false, we readily dismiss almost everything others say. Our mind obstructs us by asking: why should we accept others' opinions? We consider our own opinions, our own thoughts and experiences, as the ultimate wisdom. In the realm of religion, we see that we cannot respect each other's faiths. We want everyone to follow the prescribed path of our own religion, for people to heed only our words. Throughout the world, only our religious knowledge is eternal truth; everything else is false, fabricated, baseless. Essentially, all conflicts and confrontations begin from such aggressive attitudes. Because some people cannot bear to see their ego defeated.

If we cannot consciously reconstruct ourselves by employing our subtle understanding, we will remain trapped in such webs of conflict for life. When all the fragmented emotional parts within us begin to unite, the two different parts of our brain work as one. That is, our scientific and spiritual knowledge work together. If we can deeply comprehend these two parts of our brain, we can employ them in the right way. For this, we must build a bridge to establish communication between these two different parts of our brain. Most of the time, these two parts of our brain work separately, which is why we assume two different forms within the same soul. How do these two different parts of our brain work differently? For instance, when we study something, one part of the brain reads it, while the other preserves this reading in our memory. If somehow one part of our brain becomes damaged, or cannot be utilized, then it stops that function and becomes completely separate. Then we find that we are reading something properly, but cannot remember it at all. Why does this happen? Because one part of our brain has grasped it, but the other part has not.
We cannot use our two hands simultaneously for two different tasks. We find that after starting to do two completely different tasks with both hands for some time, one hand stops doing it. Why does this happen? Because our brain stops working consciously after a while. If we remain conscious, it is possible to keep both hands active in two different tasks simultaneously. Our brain is composed of two completely different natures, and for ages it has been consciously employed in certain directed paths, as a result of which those paths have become consciously embedded in our brain, preventing us from thinking beyond this or doing any new work.
Take, for instance, how we have always brushed our teeth using our right hand. If we were suddenly asked to brush with our left hand, we would not be able to do it with the same facility as with our right, because our brain has long ago consciously accepted that brushing should be done with the right hand, or that all tasks should be performed with the right hand.
If we wish to keep both hemispheres of our brain active, we must periodically change these habits. Whenever we perform a task for some time, it becomes habitual. Then our brain exerts less effort in performing that task, and gradually becomes lazy in that particular function, causing that region of the brain to lose additional capacity. To enhance and maintain the functionality of both sides of the brain, we must introduce changes to all our habits from time to time so they do not become monotonous to our brain. This forces our brain to take considerable time to relearn each task, keeping it active during that period. How many people do we know around us who can perform all tasks equally well with both hands? Or whose left hand is more active than their right? They are few in number, yet such people do exist. The powerful memory portion of their brain remains active. Hence they are more active with their left hand. Those born naturally with such characteristics often become first-rate poets, thinkers, writers, future guides, or philosophers of some kind.
If these individuals are forced to pursue knowledge in science, mathematics, or logic, they cannot demonstrate exceptional work in those fields. Why does this happen? Because they naturally lack those characteristics. If they are forced, they might become third-rate in those areas, but never first-rate. Often our society and other family members mock such left-handed individuals, and parents force them to write with their right hand or work with their right hand. If such coercion continues, in trying to prove themselves they may lead very unsuccessful lives. They might have become excellent visionaries in their natural disposition, but now they will become third-rate people (employees), because we have forced them away from their inherent nature. In other words, when people are pulled away from their natural inclinations, it brings no good. They must be left as they are, and their best qualities must be drawn out from within.
The two parts of our brain are connected very lightly, one to the other. But if someone can consciously strengthen this connection, they can become more solid in their unique characteristics. The greater a person's capacity to connect these two parts, the more beautiful and admirable qualities they possess. They become that much more connected to all the wonderful things in this world. They become that much more capable of understanding the nature of both women and men. The presence of the Creator becomes that much more manifest within them. In the realm of spirituality, these two brains are unified and their activity is enhanced, so that these two different parts of the brain can remain very close to each other—so close that they become inseparable.
But this task is not at all easy. It requires long and skillful practice. When our reason works like love and our love works in rational ways, then we ascend to the summit of thought. This, fundamentally, is spirituality — that which helps us harmonize with everything.
Sixty-five.
When East and West unite, when right-brain and left-brain come together, that union is heavenly. When two such skies merge within our mind, we gradually become someone unique. Just as space is not fragmented, how can we think of ourselves in fragmented terms? But the age-old conflict between East and West that has persisted through the centuries is not easy to reconcile, for it has always been aggressive, repeatedly summoning processions of destruction, and it still exists in the same way. But perhaps the world has changed somewhat today; perhaps the world is somewhat gentler today, somewhat more humane. Our age-old efforts to synthesize East and West — who knows, they might even succeed today! Because the world is now prepared to accept truth in a scientific manner. Where once East and West remained immovable in their respective positions, today, as humanity delves deeper into science, the spirituality of existence becomes ever clearer. Science now knows that there is a profound connection between science and spirituality. Humanity has always sought only rationality, but it has denied the deep relationship between rationality and spirituality. We refuse to accept anything beyond reason. We are reluctant to embrace anything that deviates from the rules or conventions we have created.
The West always remains masculine-minded, and the East always remains feminine-minded. Just as we know that our right brain works in coordination with our left hand and our left brain works in coordination with our right hand, so too must the West and East work through coordination with each other if we wish to walk on the path of truth, on the path of peace — for increasing distance only creates psychological conflicts within us. The West always takes the highest initiative in searching for the mystery of truth, while the East waits patiently for truth, because the East already knows that when the time comes, truth will reveal itself. But the West refuses to accept this Eastern notion, because the West is masculine-minded, and men never believe in feminine ways of thinking. Consider this: if a woman loves a man and she openly tells him of her love, at that very moment the man's masculine essence flees from there. Why does this happen? Because a man does not expect such masculine behavior from a woman, and if a woman behaves this way, she is considered lacking in feminine qualities or masculine. And this is why women must wait. They must wait until a man himself comes forward and expresses his love to her.
The difference between West and East is exactly like this. The West prefers to take initiative in everything, but the East must wait — until truth itself comes and surrenders to them spontaneously. Whenever the West approaches the East and gains some knowledge from it, as soon as it abandons the East, it leaves that knowledge behind as well, because men never consider feminine knowledge acceptable. The world has never been as close to each other as it is now.
Whether we dwell in the East or West now, we openly embrace each other's thoughts and ideas with frank hearts. This is the true time to approach truth and to know truth. For our minds are now open, our minds are now fit to receive truth. We have crossed our long preparatory phase. We now live in that critical moment when truth itself will come to our door and reveal itself, if only we become conscious now. What we have awaited all this while is about to unfold.
Science and technology have helped us come closer to one another; all the physical walls and barriers that stood between us have begun opening one by one today. We can naturally accept each other with open minds and open hearts. The time has come to tear down our mental walls, and now it is possible to break them down. For this, we must work in unison. Supreme bliss will occur among us only when we become capable of understanding that the whole has no separate purpose. Each part of our path may have its own purpose, for there are various stages of preparation and each of these stages proceeds with its own complete purpose, but there is only one purpose to our life, to our entire existence, and that is to allow ourselves to dissolve into truth, to dedicate ourselves to the search for truth, and to consider truth alone as life's primary purpose. Beyond this, our entire existence has no other purpose. The very concept of 'the whole' is guided at the center of a purposeless supreme existence.
Sixty-Six.

We need homes because they give us security; we toil and cultivate for food because food is the body's fuel; we remain absorbed in music because it gives us mental peace; we give birth to children because through this the fundamental existence of that supreme being is created through us; we become absorbed in love because love makes our lives meaningful and soothes our feelings. Everything we need to survive has its own purpose, only our existence has no purpose. Our sole purpose is to dissolve ourselves into that supreme existence, into that truth, whose center is our origin. Returning to our place of origin is the only purpose of our existence. When we rise above all our needs, we then rush toward that one supreme power. Our purpose is to use our strength to become dissolved within ourselves. We might say our purpose is to gain joy, our purpose is love, but if we compare ourselves to a flower, then let us think—what purpose does a flower have? Only to bloom its highest inner beauty before everyone, to enchant people with its fragrance, and then? Then to exhaust itself within itself, to give itself away and come to an end. Is there anything more than this?
Purposelessness is our only purpose. All purpose belongs only to need; only energy has no purpose. Energy is pervaded throughout the existence of the whole. The more we rush toward that whole, the more our principle rushes toward purposelessness. Just as energy's purpose is to rush toward the whole. What is the whole's purpose? The whole is purposeless. For the purpose of creation is to know the creator, yet the creator is always purposeless. The creator is such a melody into which one must dissolve oneself; becoming enchanted within the creator is creation's purpose. Taking joy in the melody, becoming lost in the melody, remaining absorbed in the melody—this is our work. Life is the play of that very melody. This is such a play that we must play completely without purpose, merely playing on. This play has no exchange.
Where there is exchange, it is no longer play—it becomes business. When the play of life turns into business, our purpose becomes merely profit. That profit attracts us toward more profit. Then we plunge into playing this life, this business, with ever-tighter grip. Consequently, that music, that enchantment within us gradually fades. This separates us from that supreme power and pushes us toward the principle of necessity. Slowly our life becomes entangled in the web of purpose.
Though science has already discovered much about the principle of gravity, the principle of necessity, science has still not discovered that divine power, the power of grace. This is why science remains perpetually absorbed in thoughts of cause and effect, searching for one reason or another behind everything in creation. Science remains ignorant of the principle of the highest power. What science has yet failed to unveil, religion has discovered—that supreme power. Meditation draws us to the center of thought, just as gravitational force pulls us toward the center. Everything on earth moves in balance—this requires little thought to understand. Just as birth is a truth, death creates the balance of that truth; love moves in balance with hatred, night with day, and East and West naturally create balance in two separate worlds of thought. We know of a power that attracts us toward the center; opposite to it exists a power that lifts us upward. It is not that gravitational force did not exist before Newton's discovery of it. Newton did not invent gravitational force; he merely discovered it. Even if Newton had never discovered it, the apple would still have fallen to the ground. No science knows why the apple falls to earth—by the law of truth itself, it moves toward the center. Science has given that truth a name and brought some explanation of mystery behind that name before the world. Thus through the ages science explains various philosophies with certain theories, nothing more.
Whether we accept it or not, whether we find it or not, truth exists always, everywhere. If we allow ourselves to follow the law of gravity, then such an invisible power will surely lift us upward by the principle of balance. From the moment we simply believe that by the principle of balance some power will indeed lift us upward, if we can completely surrender ourselves to this faith, then inevitably it will happen—just as we know that in the deep world of meditation, Pythagoras, Buddha, Mohammad, Jesus Christ...these individuals ascended through an unknown power. Not physically, but spiritually, through the depths of meditation this carries us upward, floating to such a summit of consciousness. When we regularly enter the world of meditation, we will feel it carrying us floating in joy, stirring music in our hearts and making us dance. This is such a feeling as we have never experienced before. This is the principle of power, the principle of divine grace. The world today awaits a new enlightened day when religion and science will become one. The day when science and religion will work together in unity.
Sixty-seven.
When someone picks an argument with us on some matter or needlessly tries to refute logic that literally has no value, but we truly know that what we are saying or the path we are following is actually not wrong—how does that actually feel?
When others disagree with our ideas without cause, what should we do? Should we engage them in argument? Should we throw ourselves into proving that our ideas are neither false nor fabricated? We shall do none of these things. We will not enter into debate with anyone, we will not exhaust ourselves trying to prove ourselves, we will not refute anyone's reasoning. We will simply listen to all manner of their commentary while remaining steadfast in our own beliefs, our own philosophy. We will keep both our words and our hands to ourselves. When we become machines, when we function like robots — as we are born, then transform ourselves for long stretches into money-earning machines, as we entangle ourselves in relationships, bind ourselves in family ties, engage in competition or rat races by comparing ourselves socially and financially with others, as we chase success or fame, and then through all this eventually bow to death — this is how we have become robot-humans, this is how we live.
When we become such robot-humans, the principle of necessity weighs upon us. The more unconscious we become, the more it operates upon us. Therefore, if we wish to establish our control over it, we must become more conscious. The more conscious we become in our actions, the more the principle of necessity will lose its control over us, and eventually it will vanish entirely from within us. How shall we make ourselves more conscious? By performing all our actions, small and great, more consciously than before, we will increase our awareness. In our eating, walking, speaking, breathing, even in sleep we can remain fully conscious. But this requires much patience and regular practice. How can we regularly increase the practice of consciousness? For instance, when we walk about, ordinarily we walk in a certain way — from now on we must become exceptional to that rule. We must make our walking pace more relaxed than before, because the moment we begin to walk more slowly than usual, that old habit can no longer remain fixed within us, since we are consciously forcing our body to follow some new technique, and our body must follow it, even if by force.
This will take time to become habitual, and we can use this habituation by changing it periodically to make ourselves even more conscious. This is a form of meditation. When we walk, we shall walk so slowly that each of our movements, our pace, the rise and fall of our breathing, our gestures, the movement of our hands — all these motions adopt maximum relaxation, and we will consciously observe these movements. This is how we can become more conscious. The more conscious we become in all our actions this way, the more the principle of necessity will gradually disappear from within us, and simultaneously the principle of power will gradually become effective. Under the principle of power, even if we don't wish it or don't consciously focus on it, it will continue doing its work according to its own law. Power means freedom, a completely free heart. The more conscious we become, the more we will live in each moment. The more we attain that power, the faster our past will wash away from us. Power means we are no longer governed by our past.
The past no longer holds any power over us. We establish complete self-control over each moment of our lives.
Each moment will become fresh, vital, vibrant, alive as youth itself. We live each moment in freedom, yet this freedom creates no bondage. Every moment becomes unpolluted and transparent as glass, whereas when we live solely by the principle of necessity, it imprisons us in the chains of need. Then the law of action influences all our deeds. The law of action is this: everything we have done in the past comes to dominate our future. We become governed by our past, our past controls our future. Everything we have done before repeats itself cyclically in our present and future, and will continue to do so. When we repeat this process, we actually make it more active. Each day it grows a little stronger, and when we constantly repeat any action, it becomes an indispensable part of our life. Then we can no longer escape from it, because it has already become our habit. This is how we eventually become robot-humans.
Consciousness means to be awakened and alert—that is, we must first awaken that sleeping being within us. In truth, a conscious person has no fixed character or characteristics. For they have no past that can trap them in any cycle, and no past event or experience can dominate them. A conscious person has no past, because they live each moment consciously, which means they always live in the present. Having complete control over all their actions, they generally do not perform any unwanted acts; they do not become entangled in actions that could later dominate them through unconsciousness. This is why a conscious person is always free from the past, free from the burden of the past, and completely detached, independent, and dispassionate. A conscious person is their own reflection. They do not react to anything but simply continue to act.
On the other hand, an unconscious person merely reacts, because they are ignorant in all their actions. Being completely unaware of each moment's action and its consequence, they become startled by the results of their own deeds and keep displaying reactions. But a conscious person, having complete control over themselves, need not suffer the consequences of any action—they simply continue to act. If we constantly correct our mistakes, improve our actions, and live as purely as possible, then we have no past to haunt us. Then only the present remains for us to work with, and we pour ourselves so completely into present action that no deed can form in this gap to become our past and dominate our future. Consciousness means being so completely aware of our actions that we don't even get the time to become unconscious or senseless.
When we live in full consciousness, we transcend our entire past, just as a serpent sheds its old skin.
Then we discover the true beauty of life, for we move with our complete power. Such a power that is not truly mine, where nothing belongs to the self. It is actually the power of an undivided whole, which flows naturally from nature into our minds. Then we move with the power of mind, transcending all limitations of the body. The power we gain by casting off our ego in this way becomes our very nature. Ego is merely a kind of poison that comes from the past. It is such a poison that creates obstacles to living in the present. A person is not strong through his own power; he is merely a vehicle for the power of total existence. Man functions as a part of total existence. Here man is supremely free, a freedom that has no walls, that is infinite. Man has no connection with his place or time. Man is beyond space, beyond time. Beyond character, beyond personality, beyond all ego-identity—this merging into the part of the whole is what it means to be illuminated. Man is not merely a small entity but a vast power. The dimensions of consciousness build bridges between necessity and power. Entering into that total power, becoming a radiant source of that energy—this is man's birthright.
Sixty-eight.
For ages across the world, terrible religious wars of destruction have raged on the foundation of loyalty, and continue still. Our loyalty keeps creating wars against ourselves, leaving us at the very threshold of destruction. Serving with loyalty is not a sign of any evolved or liberal mentality. One can serve with consciousness, one can be consciously loyal, but unconscious loyalty is not a good thing. It is essentially due to unconscious loyalty that throughout the ages, in the name of religious wars, humanity has had to embrace terrifyingly unnatural death. Loyalty becomes acceptable only when it is internal. But we are generally victims of external loyalty. The fruits of external loyalty are immediate and visible, so everyone accepts it. External loyalty is terrible because it gives birth to 'yes' on the outside and 'no' on the inside. When we indulge external loyalty, we actually invite many unwanted things, because it can bring both good and evil simultaneously—we don't know which we are summoning.
The person who dropped the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in the name of democracy was asked, "Why did you drop the bomb?" He replied, "Keeping the noble purpose of democracy in front, he had dropped the bomb." That is, to him it was a noble act, yet those who became victims of such a great catastrophe in those two cities at that moment—did they know exactly what wrong had caused them to receive such great punishment! Where everything had been alive just the day before, within mere seconds everything had turned into devastation. The people who were affected—all those elderly, children, and youth—were they not all innocent? When we think that only we are God's chosen people, to whom the message of truth has been sent, therefore we must save our race even if it means destroying other humans, because this is the command of the great Creator to us—then what about the divine guidance of the races opposing us? Surely their Creator has shown them exactly the same path, and it is in this context that we engage in war against each other, isn't it?
Thus we engage in the complete destruction of humanity entirely unconsciously, because we both stand on logical ground within the essence of our respective religions.
Yet if we had consciously analyzed our decisions, then through the ages millions upon millions of people would have been spared from perishing in this false sense of loyalty. When we pledge allegiance through conscious deliberation, it saves us from destruction, keeps us free from irrelevant thoughts, because in the logic of false loyalty we hide capitalism behind democracy, we hide communism behind equality. What we express with our mouths, our inner selves remain cloaked in precisely the opposite. Whenever a politician uses grandiose language, we must understand that selfish interests lurk behind it. Then death itself becomes more meaningful than following such words. Then comes the time when we must shake off these false loyalties hidden behind our grand interests and become even more conscious. Loyalty is merely a subtle strategy employed by politicians and clergy to serve their own interests. Building a better world is only possible when we consciously desire it.
When the need arises, when our minds become capable of making conscious yes-or-no judgments, only then will we learn to say yes or no with loyalty. Even if death comes, we will not retreat from that yes or no. And this is only possible when our minds remain consciously discerning. When the bomber of Nagasaki and Hiroshima was asked the next morning, 'Were you able to sleep last night? How did you go to sleep after burning a hundred thousand people alive yesterday?' he replied, 'I slept quite peacefully last night, because I carried out my duty properly! You know, when someone doesn't shirk their responsibility, they actually earn a peaceful sleep!' What a destructive consequence of loyalty! After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when America's then-President Truman was asked, 'How do you feel?' he responded, 'It's a wonderful feeling, because democracy has triumphed over fascist forces!'
We must always remember that all these grand, meaningful words are terrible. These grand words possess tremendous hypnotic power. These grand words can create vast unconsciousness among us; under their influence we might commit acts against humanity that we could never normally imagine ourselves capable of. We cannot fathom that these grand words are capable of making us do such things, or that such deeds could occur through us. We must remember that behind these apparently noble acts lies a destructive game. Everyone must be allowed to make decisions through judgment, employing their own consciousness. It is improper to propagate anything in the name of loyalty that brings catastrophic consequences for our entire human race, because it becomes easy to apply this under the excuse of our duty. We can always say, 'What could I do? Or was there anything I could have done?'
I was instructed to do this by my superior.' And then, if the same question is posed to that superior, he too responds in exactly the same manner: 'This was an order from my superior!' Even when such a question is thrown at a president, he might say, 'My army chief advised me to do exactly this!' And thus it continues in an endless circle.
Actually, no one is to blame for this, because responsibility seems to exist solely to be shifted onto someone else's shoulders. Only a truly religious person bears responsibility. Because a truly religious person always accepts accountability for their actions. A genuinely religious person says, 'If I have done something, then I alone am responsible for that action, and I must think again and again about what I am actually going to do, or how rational it is to perform this act. If my conscious mind permits me to do it, then I will do it, but if my conscious mind refuses to consent to the action, then even if not doing it means certain death for me, I still will not do it — let it be called disobedience.' Therefore, obedience is not something valuable, nor is disobedience worthless. Our faculty of reason is valuable; with it, both obedience and disobedience can be good. But regrettably, finding a truly religious or virtuous person is very difficult these days.
**Sixty-seven.**

Morality never disappears, but it takes on a completely different meaning. Shame or pride depends upon how perfectly, how adequately, a person has functioned for their institution. Morality, responsibility, obedience, discipline — the sphere and language of such values bestow meanings of every kind. We must become more conscious of all such noble, meaningful words as motherland, fatherland, mosque, temple. We must become aware of those languages and words that render us unconscious or turn us into robot-humans. If we wish to create a new humanity, we must reconsider the entire human mind. Because our past has left us with a very beautiful envelope, painted with a sweet smile, concealing an utterly filthy mentality behind a veneer of civilized behavior. If we want to emerge from the vortex of this filthy, distasteful mentality, we must build our society on the foundation of religion's true philosophy, and the entire community must break free from all forms of slavery to become independent.
We must become conscious beyond consciousness. Only when we can establish this consciousness deep within our souls will it yield good results for us. Obedience is good, but obedience must be conscious obedience. Both obedience and disobedience beyond our consciousness are bad, and both are good when conscious. All actions beyond conscience, whether cloaked in obedience or disobedience, are harmful to us. We must make all decisions consciously and perform all work, small or great, with awareness. When we take responsibility for all our actions upon our own shoulders, only then will we be able to consciously apply our intelligence to our work. We are all responsible for our actions. This is why we must reevaluate our work. We must think, meditate, and continue working. Whatever we do, we must be morally virtuous. If we can become fully ethical, only then will it transform into a completely different kind of morality.
Excessive importance or solemnity about any matter is a kind of illness, because it is a form of hyper-emotionalism. It is a kind of pretense and artificial expression.
We can act with sincerity only from the strength of our hearts. Laughter is vital for everything — physical, mental, spiritual — yet we somehow conceal our smiles. We think laughter might make us appear trivial before others. So we hide our natural joy beneath a veil of gravity, hoping everyone around us will take us seriously. We wear many masks because we have been wrongly taught. We believe that those who have established truth through the ages never laughed! How could a guide, a teacher, indulge in laughter and jest! Certainly our spiritual guides must be intensely serious. The truth is this: none of those who showed us the path of truth were above natural behavior, but we were never allowed to know these things — we have been gradually miseducated.
Laughter is one of our special qualities. For only humans among all creatures know how to laugh. If we suddenly saw a buffalo laughing on the street, we would go mad. Why? Because it lies outside its natural characteristics. It is humanity's glory that humans can laugh. There is spirituality in laughter. It exists only at the higher levels of intelligence. The more enlightened we become, the more our capacity for laughter will grow, and then we will learn to laugh not only at things around us but at ourselves. We will learn to recognize the meaninglessness of our lives, life's absurd aspects. In all of life's trivial sincerity lies a special hue. There exists a carefree, weightless, noble, blessed beauty. So there is nothing to worry much about laughter, play, childish acts, joy — rather, these are life itself. Life is so very childish.
There is a joke current among the Jews on this subject. Frank was terribly worried about his son Ezra. Because Ezra ate the flesh of forbidden animals and whenever he saw other Jewish girls, he would go sleep with them, which was completely unacceptable to his father. So Frank went to complain to a Jewish legal scholar and told him everything about Ezra. When the scholar called Ezra and questioned him about everything, Ezra apologetically said to the scholar, 'I am mad.' Then the scholar said to Ezra, 'Fool, if you were to bite girls and kiss animal flesh, then you would be mad! Otherwise you are not mad.' The point was that his advice to the boy was — this is my guidance that you are completely healthy, just don't do these things anymore! Ignorance, childishness, jest, laughter, joy — all these are natural parts of life. There is nothing to hide them; rather, we can make merry with them. This is a kind of celebration. So we must not hide our wrongs, but acknowledge them and seek ways to liberation. But first this assurance is necessary — that if I confess my crime, I will no longer be punished; I must be granted amnesty for the first time. Yes, here too the degree of the offense and the harm to others must be taken into consideration.
Seventy.
Whatever has taken birth must taste death. The flower that spread infinite beauty and fragrance in the morning must also fade with evening's descent. It is nature's law that nothing is forever. Everything remains visible only for a time, then disappears again in time's cycle. Everything is like sea foam.
For this we cannot blame the evening flower, nor can we reproach it for why its petals begin to wither as dusk falls! We cannot accuse the sunrise of why it devours the sun when evening comes, because once the sun has risen it must set, and then the time comes for another sunrise—this is the natural law. All the great souls who have come through the ages, however luminous and radiant they may have been, have all had to fall away according to nature's law. Among them come some cunning, self-seeking people as well; they band together and turn everything into commerce—this too is part of nature. But this does not mean that those illumined beings who found the light should cease distributing the knowledge they gained. Even though they all knew that all their words, all the paths they showed would one day crumble, knowing this they still worked with their whole hearts, distributed their gained wisdom-light, their love, everything they had to all levels of society, and those who were worthy of receiving soon filled their empty hearts with these gifts.
Among them, those who were wise absorbed into themselves the power of these illumined beings. They never considered what calamities might occur by absorbing these things into themselves, because they had no fear of calamity in their minds. If we follow their path, if we follow the ashrams of all religions and fear that this might be a business, what will become of our future—then I say, we actually have no fear of the future, because from among us will emerge people like those illumined souls who have guided and will guide human society through the ages. Therefore all those who seek the light must know that everywhere on earth the radiance of those great souls is still spread, everywhere on earth the light of Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Krishna is still spread, because they were all illumined by the same light.
Those among us who have that thirst will find them if we wish. But among us there are some people who are not truly thirsty, though they outwardly show that they are thirsty. Those millions of people who show themselves to be religious, truth-seekers, thirsty, but they are not, because they are victims of certain cunning saints, priests, pirs, and clerics—these priestly communities have successfully exploited them, because these are the people who want to remain blind themselves, who willingly keep themselves exploited. This is a well-planned arrangement, because the priestly class knows that it is impossible to do business outside of religion. If there had been any truly thirsty among them, they would not have been deceived by such people. In reality, there are millions among us who are unwilling to know the real truth, who are not yet mentally prepared to accept real truth; what is most painful is that they actually do not want to know what the real truth is! For such people, plastic flowers are desirable.
They need plastic truth, because plastic flowers never decay, plastic truth is never in danger of being lost, it never loses vitality—for what has no life within it never has to lose vitality, and somewhere or other it remains just as intact.
There is much for us to learn from this...falsehood has a longer life than truth, because falsehood has adapted itself to that process of time and created certain qualities within itself, which is why it can easily survive for ages in a lifeless state and becomes part of time itself. Truth always transcends everything, it can never become part of time, it belongs only to the realm beyond death. Truth does not need to move with time; rather, it enters time as a visitor. Time cannot absorb it—it is only a moment when we become illuminated, and after a while that luminous being disappears and fades away again. It exists only for a single moment, when immortality shows the world a glimpse of time, suddenly presents a flash of truth before us. This is why flowers fall—no matter how vibrant, how bright, how alive, how beautiful or fragrant they may be, they must fall.