Talk:The Great Challenge: Difference between revisions

From The Sannyas Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 4: Line 4:
:Ch.3 - Yoga: A spontaneous happening (previously published as ''[[Yoga As a Spontaneous Happening]]'')
:Ch.3 - Yoga: A spontaneous happening (previously published as ''[[Yoga As a Spontaneous Happening]]'')
:Ch.4 - ''[[LSD: A Shortcut to False Samadhi]]'' (previously published as a booklet with this title)
:Ch.4 - ''[[LSD: A Shortcut to False Samadhi]]'' (previously published as a booklet with this title)
:Ch.5 - ''[[The Vital Balance]]'' (previously published as a booklet with this title)
:Ch.5 - ''[[The Vital Balance]]'' (extract from previously published booklet with this title; missing last 4 questions)
:Ch.6 - Religion: the last luxury (source unknown)  
:Ch.6 - Religion: the last luxury (source unknown)  
:Ch.7 - The ''[[Secrets of Discipleship]]'' (previously published as a booklet with this title)  
:Ch.7 - The ''[[Secrets of Discipleship]]'' (previously published as a booklet with this title)  

Revision as of 07:22, 14 October 2019

Sources per chapter

Ch.1 - Flight of the Alone to the Alone (previously published in a booklet with this title)
Ch.2 - Dynamic Meditation (edited from previously published material in Flight of the Alone to the Alone and Meditation: A New Dimension)
Ch.3 - Yoga: A spontaneous happening (previously published as Yoga As a Spontaneous Happening)
Ch.4 - LSD: A Shortcut to False Samadhi (previously published as a booklet with this title)
Ch.5 - The Vital Balance (extract from previously published booklet with this title; missing last 4 questions)
Ch.6 - Religion: the last luxury (source unknown)
Ch.7 - The Secrets of Discipleship (previously published as a booklet with this title)
Ch.8 - God is existence itself (source unknown)
Ch.9 - The unknown life of Jesus:
q.1 - q.8 - source unknown,
q.9 - parts from The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol 2 ch.5, extensively edited,
q.10 - is The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol 2 ch.9, q.2, abridged and extensively edited
Ch.10 - Out of nothing (source unknown)
Ch.11 - Remaining closed to the lower: a technique for transformation (source unknown)
Ch.12 - A personal seeking, an individual quest (source unknown)
Ch.13 - Appendix - Between death & rebirth (source unknown)

Added the category of First Editions series until we will know sources of a few chapters (~published earlier?). --DhyanAntar 06:58, 30 July 2018 (UTC)

As this books it seems was edited in comparing with original first editions, i preffer not use the text of it from CD-ROM for synopsises. For rest chapters where unknown source - 6, 8-13, i added questions in synopsises. Until we will not find where their places, in what event, it is better to keep synopsis (for clarification of events).--DhyanAntar 12:37, 17 June 2019 (UTC)


The Great Challenge, ch. 9

As an example, Antar has tried to find the sources for chapter 9 in the CD-ROM. This table depicts the result.

So question 9 has been traced back to parts of The Ultimate Achemy, Vol 2, ch.5 -- and question 10 has been traced to parts of ibidem ch.9.

The Great Challenge, ch. 9, question 1 (no source found)
WAS JESUS FULLY ENLIGHTENED?

Yes, he was fully enlightened. But because he lived amidst a people who were absolutely ignorant about enlightenment, he had to speak in a language which may indicate he was not. He had to use such language because, at that particular time and place, there was no other possibility -- only this could be understood. Languages differ. When a buddha speaks, he uses a language that is totally different. He cannot say, "I am the son of God," because to talk about the son or the father is just nonsense. But for a Jesus it is impossible to use any other language -- Jesus is speaking to a very different type of person. Yet in many ways, Jesus is connected to Buddha.

Christianity has no knowledge of where Jesus was for thirty years. With the exception of two earlier incidents -- when he was born, and once when he was seven years old -- only the three years of his ministry are known; the remaining period is unknown. But India has many traditions about it: there are folk stories in Kashmir indicating that he was meditating in a Buddhist monastery there during all the years which are not accounted for.

Then, when he was thirty, he suddenly appeared in Jerusalem. Then he was crucified and there is the story of his resurrection. But again, where does he disappear to after he resurrects? Christianity has nothing to say about it. Where did he go? When did he die a natural death? Miguel Serrano, in his book The Serpent of Paradise, writes: "Nobody knows what he did or where he lived until he was thirty, the year he began his preaching. There is a legend, however, that says he was in Kashir -- the original name of Kashmir. Ka means the same as or equal to, and shir, Syria."

It is also reported that a Russian traveler, Nicholas Notovich, who came to India sometime in 1887, visited Ladakh in Tibet where he was taken ill and stayed in the famous Hemis Gumpa. During his stay in the Gumpa he went through various volumes of Buddhist scriptures and literature wherein he found extensive mention of Jesus, his teaching, and his visit to Ladakh. Later Notovich published the book, Life of Saint Jesus, in which he related all that he had found about the visit of Jesus to Ladakh and to other countries in the East.

It is recorded that from Ladakh, after traveling through lofty mountain passes, along snowy paths and glaciers, Jesus reached Pahalgam in Kashmir. He lived there for a long period as a shepherd looking after his flock. It is here that Jesus found some traces of the lost tribes of Israel.

This village, it is recorded, was named Pahalgam, village of shepherds, after Jesus lived there. Pahal in Kashmiri means shepherd and gam, a village. Later, on his way to Srinagar, Jesus rested and preached at Ishkuman/Ishmuqam -- the place of rest of Jesus -- and this village was also named after him. When he was thirty, suddenly he appeared in Jerusalem and there follows the crucifixion and the story of the resurrection.

While Jesus was still on the cross, a soldier speared his body, and blood and water oozed out of it. The incident is recorded in the Gospel of St. John: "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." This has led to the belief that Jesus was alive on the cross, because blood does not flow out of a dead body.

But Jesus must die. Either the crucifixion is complete and he dies or the whole of Christianity dies. Christianity depends on the miracle of the resurrection; it had been prophesied that the coming Christ would be crucified and then resurrected. Jesus was resurrected -- it had to be so. If it were not so then the Jews would not believe that he was a prophet.

They waited for this, and it happened. After three days his body disappeared from the cave where it had been put and he was seen by at least eight people. Then Jesus disappeared again. Christianity has nothing to say about where he went after the resurrection and nothing has been recorded about when he died. He came to Kashmir again and he lived there until he was one hundred and two, when he died. And the town, the exact place where this occurred, is known.

The Great Challenge, ch.9, q. 2 (no source found)
DID HE LIVE IN KASHMIR UNDER ANOTHER NAME?

No, not another name really. While those of you from the West call him Jesus, the whole Arabic world calls him Esus, or Esau. In Kashmir he was known as Yousa-Asaf. His tomb is known as The Tomb of Yousa-Asaf who came from a very distant land and lived here. It is also indicated on the tomb that he came to live there 1900 years ago.

Miguel Serrano, the author of The Serpent of Paradise, who visited the tomb, writes: "It was evening when I first arrived at the tomb, and in the light of the sunset the faces of the men and children in the street looked almost sacred. They looked like people of ancient times; possibly they were related to one of the lost tribes of Israel that are said to have immigrated to India. Taking off my shoes, I entered and found a very old tomb surrounded by a filigree stone fence which protected it, while to one side there was the shape of a footprint cut into the stone. It is said to be the footprint of Yousa-Asaf, and according to the legend, Yousa-Asaf is Jesus.

"On the wall of the building hangs an inscription and below it a translation from the Sharda into English which reads: YOUSA-ASAF (KHANYA, SRINAGAR)."

Jesus was a totally enlightened being. This phenomenon of resurrection as far as Christian dogma is concerned seems inconceivable, but not for Yoga. Yoga believes -- and there are ample proofs of it -- that a person can totally die without dying. The heart stops, the pulse stops, the breathing stops -- Yoga even has methods that teach this. In India we know that Jesus must have practiced some deep Yogic exercise when he was put on the cross because if the body really dies, there is no possibility of resurrection.

When those who had crucified Jesus felt that he was dead, his body was brought down from the cross and given to his followers. Then, after wrapping the body in thin muslin and an ointment, which even to this day is known as the "ointment of Jesus," two of his followers, Joseph and Nicodemus, removed the body to a cave, the mouth of which they blocked with a huge boulder.

There is one sect, the Essenes, that has its own tradition about it. It is said that Essene followers helped Jesus to recover from his wounds. When he was seen again, because his followers could not believe that he was the same Jesus who had been crucified, the only way -- and this is recorded in The Bible -- was to show them his healed wounds. Those wounds were healed by the Essenes, and the healing took place during the three days when Jesus remained in the cave recovering from his ordeal. Then, when the wounds were healed, he disappeared. The huge boulder at the mouth of the cave had been rolled away and the cave was found vacant.

Jesus was not there! It is this disappearance of Jesus from the cave that has led to the common theory of his resurrection and ascent to heaven.

But after he had shown himself to his disciples he had to disappear from the country, because if he had remained there he would have been crucified again. He went to India into which, one tradition says, a tribe of the Jews had disappeared.

The famous French historian, Bernier, who visited India during the reign of Aurangzeb, wrote: "On entering the kingdom after crossing the Pir Panjal Pass, the inhabitants of the frontier villages struck me as resembling the Jews."

Yes, Kashmiris really do look Jewish -- in their faces, in their every expression. Wherever you move in Kashmir, you feel that you are moving in a Jewish land. It is thought that Jesus came to Kashmir because it was a Jewish land in India -- a tribe of Jews was living there. There are many stories in Kashmir about Jesus, but one has to go there to discover them.

The crucifixion changed Jesus' mind totally. From then on, he lived in India for seventy years continuously, in complete silence -- unknown, hidden. He was not a prophet, he was not a minister, he was not a preacher. That is why not much is known about him.

Christianity lacks much. Even about Jesus it lacks much. His whole life is not known: what he practiced, how he meditated is not known. The Christian apostles who recorded what he said were ignorant people: they never knew much. One was a fisherman, another was a carpenter. All twelve apostles were ignorant. The apostles didn't understand what Jesus was doing when he went to the hills and was silent for forty days. They only recorded that it happened and that when he came back again, he began preaching. But what was he doing there? Nothing is known -- nothing. After his period of silence, he became more and more involved in something which looked more social and political than religious. It had to be so, because the people around him were absolutely non-philosophical, so whatever he said was misunderstood. When he said, "I am the king of the Jews," he was not talking about a kingdom of this world; he was speaking in metaphors.

Not only his enemies misunderstood him -- even his followers and apostles misunderstood. They, too, began to think in terms of an earthly kingdom; they could not understand that what he was saying belonged to another world, that it was only symbolic. They also thought that Jesus was going to become king sooner or later. That created the whole trouble. Jesus might not have been crucified in a different land, but for the Jews he was a problem. Jews are very materialistic. They were materialistic in the time of Jesus, and they still are.

To them the other world is meaningless; they are only concerned with this world. Even if they talk of the other world, it is only as a prolongation of this world -- not a transcendence but a continuity. They have a different way of thinking.

That is why, as far as the material sciences are concerned, the Jewish contribution is so great. It is not accidental. The person who is most responsible for molding the whole world in terms of a materialistic concept was a Jew, Karl Marx.

Karl Marx, Freud, Einstein -- these three Jews are the builders of the twentieth century. Three Jews building the whole world! Why? No one exists in the world today who has not been influenced by the Jewish concept.

Jews are very down-to-earth, rooted in the earth, so when Christ began to talk like a Buddha, there was no meeting, no communion. He was continuously misunderstood. Pilate was more understanding toward him than his own race. He continuously felt that an innocent man was being unnecessarily crucified and he tried his best not to crucify him. But then, there were political considerations.

Even when they were about to crucify Jesus, at the last moment, Pilate asked him a question: "What is truth?" Jesus remained silent. It was a Buddhist answer. Only Buddha has remained silent about truth, no one else.

Something has always been said -- even if it is only that nothing can be said. Only Buddha has remained silent, totally silent. And Jesus remained silent. The Jews understood this to mean that he did not know. They thought, if he knows, then of course he will say. But I have always felt that Pilate understood. He was a Roman; he might have understood. But Pilate disappeared from the scene; he put the priests in total charge and just disappeared -- he did not want to be involved.

This whole thing happened because there were two languages being used. Jesus was speaking of the other world -- of course, in terms of this world -- and the Jews took every word literally.

This would not have happened in India where there is a long tradition of parables, a long tradition of symbols. In India, the reverse misunderstanding is possible because the tradition has been going on for so long that someone speaking of this earth may be understood to be speaking of the other world. There are poets in India who talk about romance, love, and sex -- of this world, totally of this world -- but their followers interpret these as symbolic of the other world. Even if you talk about wine and women, they think that the wine means ecstasy and the women are devas. It happens!

Jews are literal, very literal. And incredibly, they have remained the same. They are a strange race, with a different outlook from the rest of the world. That is why they have never been at home anywhere. They cannot be, because they have a different type of mind. To penetrate a Jew is always difficult. He has a certain closedness, a certain defensiveness. And the longer Jews have been homeless, the more defensive they have become.

The basic thing about Jews is that they think in terms of matter -- even God seems to be part of the material world. That is why it was impossible for them to understand Jesus. For example, Jews say that when someone does something wrong to you, you should do something wrong back to him -- and with double the force. This is how matter behaves. React! If someone puts out one of your eyes, then put out both of his eyes.

Jesus began to say an absolutely contradictory thing: if someone slaps you on one side of the face then give him the other side also. This was absolutely Buddhist. One cannot really conceive of how a Jew could suddenly begin to talk like this. There was no tradition for it, no link with the past.

Nothing happens unless there is a cause. So Jesus is inconceivable as a Jew. He suddenly happens, but he has no roots in the past of Jewish history. He cannot be connected with it because he has nothing in common with it. As far as the Jewish god is concerned, Jesus' love, his compassion, is just nonsense.

You cannot conceive of a more jealous god, a more violent and angry god than the Jewish god. He could destroy a whole city in a single moment if someone disobeyed him. Then Jesus suddenly emerges and says, "God is love." It is inconceivable unless something else had penetrated the tradition.

When Buddha talks about compassion it is not inconceivable. The whole of India has been talking about it for centuries, and Buddha is part of the tradition. But Jesus is not part of the Jewish tradition. That is why he was killed, crucified.

No buddha has ever been killed in India because, however rebellious, he still belongs to the tradition; however rebellious, he conforms to the deeper ideals. One even begins to think that he is more Indian than Indian society in general because he conforms more to the basic ideals of the country.

But Jesus was a total outsider in Jerusalem, using words and symbols, a language, totally unknown to the Jews. He was bound to be crucified; it was natural. I see Jesus as living deep in meditation, deep in enlightenment, but involved with a race that was political -- not religious, not philosophical.

Jews have not given great philosophers to the world. They have given great scientists but not great philosophers. The very mind of the race is different; it works in a different way. Jesus was just an outsider, a stranger. He began to create trouble; he had to be made silent.

Then he escaped, and he never tried again. He lived in silence with a small group -- working silently, esoterically. And I feel that there is still a hidden, esoteric tradition that continues. If one forgets Christianity and goes back to discover Jesus without the Christianity, one will be enriched. Christianity has become the barrier now.

Whenever you think about Jesus, the Christian interpretation of Jesus becomes the only interpretation. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found twenty years ago near the Dead Sea, they caused much agitation. The Scrolls, which were originally possessed by the Essenes, are more authentic than The Bible. But Christianity could not compromise. The Dead Sea Scrolls tell a different tale, a totally different story about the Jews. Even the Koran has a different story to tell. It seems that Mohammed also was in contact with many Jewish mystics.

This always happens: when I say something, I create two groups of people around me. One group will be exoteric. They will organize, they will do many things concerned with society, with the world that is without; they will help preserve whatsoever I am saying. The other group will be more concerned with the inner world. Sooner or later the two groups are bound to come in conflict with one another because their emphasis is different. The inner group, the esoteric mind, is concerned with something quite different from the exoteric group. And, ultimately, the outer group will win, because they can work as a group. The esoteric ones cannot work as a group; they go on working as individuals. When one individual is lost, something is lost forever.

This happens with every teacher. Ultimately the outer group becomes more and more influential; it becomes an establishment. The first thing an establishment has to do is to kill its own esoteric part, because the esoteric group is always a disturbance. Because of "heresy," Christianity has been destroying all that is esoteric. And now the pope is at the opposite extreme to Jesus: this is the ultimate schism between the exoteric and the esoteric. The pope is more like the priests who crucified Jesus than like Jesus himself. If Jesus comes again, he will be crucified in Rome this time -- by the Vatican. The Vatican is the exoteric, organizational part, the establishment.

These are intrinsic problems -- they happen, and you cannot do anything about it. Yes, Jesus was an enlightened being just like Buddha, Mahavira, Krishna.

The Great Challenge, ch.9, q. 3 (no source found)
IN THE BIBLE, MANY MIRACLES ARE RECORDED. FOR EXAMPLE, THE RAISING OF LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD BY JESUS AFTER THE BODY WAS ALREADY SMELLING. IS IT POSSIBLE FOR A DEAD MAN TO BE REVIVED?

It is possible, but it is possible in a very different way -- very different. If the person is really dead, if the body is dead, then it is not possible. But it may be that the person only appears to be dead....

The Great Challenge, ch.9, q. 4 (no source found)
BUT IT STATES IN THE BIBLE THAT THE BODY WAS ALREADY SMELLING.

The body may smell; the person may be in a deep coma and the body can begin to smell. There are other possibilities also, but the Jews of that time could not understand what those other possibilities were. For example, your soul may be out of the body and yet connected to it. Then the body will be in a deep coma, and it has to be preserved or it will begin to deteriorate -- it is a problem now. A very strong force is needed to bring the soul which is hovering around the body back to the body. But it can be revived, and a person like Jesus can help it to revive. In India, we have many such events...

You may have heard the story about Shankara's great debate with Mandan Mishra, the great Indian scholar of dualism.

He came to debate with him, because that was the traditional way in India. It was not a fight but a very friendly discussion, and if one could convince the other, then the other would become his disciple. With this as the condition, the debate continued. Shankara would go from one village to another all over India in order to discuss the issue with Mandan Mishra. But there was a problem: whom could they make the judge?

They were both pillars, one of dualism and the other of nondualism. Who would preside over the debate? No one was worthy of presiding. And who would be able to understand what they were saying? Who would know which one had been defeated and which one had won?

The only person possible was Mandan Mishra's wife, and it was rare to allow a woman to preside over such a debate. But there was no other alternative, so Mandan Mishra's wife was made the judge.

Finally, Mandan Mishra was defeated. But his wife declared that even though he was defeated, he was only half defeated because she was his other half. "So now, Shankara," she said, "you will have to debate with me!" It was a trick! Now Shankara was in great difficulty.

It was declared that Mandan Mishra was defeated but only by half because in India we say that a husband is only half a person, his wife is the other half, and it is the two halves which make one whole. So Mandan Mishra was only half defeated; half still remained. "Now Mandan Mishra will preside and I will debate with you," said the wife. And she was really a rare woman -- she began to discuss sex!

Shankara was at a disadvantage. He was a celibate, so now he felt that he was going to be defeated. He knew nothing about sex; the whole phenomenon was unknown to him. It was a trick and now he was caught, so he said, "First give me six months' leave so that I can learn about sex. Only then can I come and discuss it with you. Otherwise I am already defeated." And the six months' leave was granted.

Then there was another problem -- the story is beautiful -- Shankara had taken a vow of celibacy for the whole of his life and so he could not use his body for any experiments in sex. Therefore he had to leave his body and enter another body, leaving his own body with his disciples to be continuously guarded and preserved, because if anything happened to it, he would not be able to enter it again. For six months a group of twelve disciples kept a constant vigil. They remained with the body continuously. A king had just died, so when Shankara entered the king's body, it was already dead. Then the dead body revived and Shankara lived inside the body for six months, deep in sexual experiments. The king's wife began to feel that something was different, but what could she do? The person was different but the body was the same. After six months, Shankara returned to his own body, the discussion took place, and Bharati, Mandan Mishra's wife, was defeated.

This is one possibility: Jesus may have helped to revive Lazarus who was not really dead but only appeared to be. Christianity is unaware of many things. Lazarus may have been in a deep coma, and the body may have begun to deteriorate. And a coma can continue for years. I have seen one woman who was in a coma for nine months. If someone had not preserved the body, she would have died immediately. Everything had to be done for her. She was just lying there as if she were dead. She could not do anything for herself. Had she been forgotten for seven days she would have begun to smell, stink.

So Jesus might have helped a person who was in a coma, or a person whose soul, for whatever reason, was out of his body. A dead man cannot become alive again. If he comes alive it only means that he was not really dead. As far as I am concerned, no miracle happens in the world. Something appears to be a miracle because we do not know the whole story, we do not know the whole reason for it.

The Great Challenge, ch.9, q. 5 (no source found)
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER MIRACLES REPORTED IN THE BIBLE? FOR EXAMPLE, THE ONE WHERE JESUS FED THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WITH TWO LOAVES OF BREAD AND FIVE FISH. CAN YOU EXPLAIN IT?

Many things are possible. Nothing is a miracle, nothing. Even materialization is not a miracle: it is a science. Materialization is possible. So are many other things. Something can be brought here by an unknown route. You are not aware of the route, but something suddenly appears here. That is not materialization. A Swiss watch can be brought here from a store -- spirits can help to bring it here. You will not see the spirits, only the watch. But that is not materialization. It is just a Swiss-made watch coming here via some route that is not known.

But materialization is also possible. Something coming out of nothing....

The Great Challenge, ch.9, q. 6 (no source found)
HOW IS IT POSSIBLE?

When you ask how it is possible, that how is difficult to answer. You have to pass through a long, long practice to be able to do it.

The Great Challenge, ch.9, q. 7 (no source found)
CAN YOU GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF THIS?

The more capable your mind becomes of concentration, the closer you come to the point where materialization can happen. If you can be in absolute concentration, materialization can happen. But with your mind the way it is, you cannot concentrate even for a single moment. If you can concentrate on something for a single moment, focusing your total mind for even one second, then you can will it to appear and it will appear.

But try it first in very easy ways. For example: you can take a glass, fill it with water, and then put some glycerin or oil on the surface of the water. Then float a very thin pin on the surface of oil or glycerin. Then concentrate on the pin. Concentrate! Without blinking, focus both your eyes on the pin for two minutes. After two minutes of concentration, begin to order the pin to go toward the right. Within seven days of practicing it, you will be able to move the pin.

Once a pin can follow orders from your mind, you have achieved something that is needed for materialization. It is a long process, but now at least you can feel that mind does have power over matter. Once this power is felt, once you are totally able to concentrate, materialization becomes possible. Then only willing is needed, nothing else. If the mind is totally concentrated on making a rose appear, then a rose will appear.

Because of this, Indians have always said that the whole world is just a dream in the mind of the divine. God dreams something, and it appears. When he stops dreaming, it dissolves.

The Great Challenge, ch.9, q. 8 (no source found)
ARE YOU YOURSELF ABLE TO MAKE THINGS MATERIALIZE?

I am able to do it. And I am also able not to do it -- because I feel the absurdity of it. And the second ability is better. Buddha could not be persuaded to do it, but Jesus had to do it. Again, the reason is the same: because the Jews could not believe anything unless it was something material. They could not be convinced without a miracle.

In India one can conceive of a Buddha who does not perform any miracles. But the Jews began to ask, "Can you do miracles? Only if you do miracles can we believe that what you are saying is meaningful." It was not Jesus who wanted to do the miracles, it was the Jews who compelled him. Without miracles, his thinking, his preaching, would have seemed meaningless to them. We cannot even conceive of Buddha's doing miracles. It is appealing to a much lower state of mind. Why be so concerned with convincing anyone? Why be so concerned?

Sometimes a miracle would happen around Buddha, but it was not deliberately done. It would happen in a particular situation.

Still, there are layers of meaning to it. All the miracles recorded in The Bible -- sometimes bread appears, sometimes disease disappears, or a dead man becomes alive again -- are all very material, very ordinary things. They are concerned with the day-to-day problems of the ordinary man: bread, disease, death.

Buddha says that the whole of life is a dream. So what does it matter if someone becomes alive again? It is meaningless. It only means that a particular dream has begun to have some reality again.


There is one story recorded. Buddha was in a certain village where a child had died. The mother was so obsessed with the child that she was weeping and crying and trying to escape in order to commit suicide. So someone said, "Come to see Buddha. He can do anything. He is an enlightened man; anything is possible. Come! He is the compassionate one. If he begins to feel compassionate toward you, the child may revive." So she came to Buddha with the dead child in her arms and laid the child at Buddha's feet. Imagine what would have happened to Jesus in a similar situation in a Jewish country. If the child had not been brought back to life, Jesus would have been finished completely because this would have proven that he was not the man he claimed to be. But when the child was brought to Buddha, what did he say? He said to the mother, "I will make your child alive again, but first you will have to do one thing. Go to every house in the city and find out if there is any house where no one has ever died. If there is any house in the village where no one has ever died, then in the evening I will revive your child."

The woman went and asked everyone. In every house, in every family, someone had died. By the time she returned in the evening she had become aware that death is a reality, death is a part of life.

Buddha asked her, "What do you say now? Is there any house, any family, any person who has not suffered due to someone's death?" The woman said, "I have not returned now so that my child can be revived. I have come to be initiated. Death is a reality. The child has gone, I will go, everyone will have to go. Initiate me into that life which never ends."


This is a greater miracle! But we cannot conceive of it. If the child had been brought back to life, it would have been a miracle. But this is a greater miracle, with deeper compassion. With a particular race it is possible; otherwise, it is not possible. The woman became a sannyasin: the death of the child was not used to satisfy the lust for life, it was used for renunciation.

If Buddha's disciples were hungry, he would not perform a miracle and provide them with bread. On the contrary, he would say, "Witness your hunger. Witness the hunger so that you can transcend it, so that you can move away from it. The hunger is not you; it is somewhere on the periphery. Remember that. Use it." Jesus had to supply bread and Buddha had to convince his followers to fast. To give someone bread is not a miracle really, but to make someone ready to fast is a miracle.

It depends on how we define things. I am not concerned with miracles because it is all nonsense. This whole life that we are living is absurd, so even if you can create something in it, it is meaningless. The only miracle that I am interested in is pushing you beyond. Even a glimpse of the beyond will be a miracle.

As I see it, if Jesus had prevented himself from doing these things, he would have served humanity better -- by doing them, he attracted fools. The masses became interested in Jesus only because of his so-called miracles. He tried to help them through his miracles but it was not possible; on the contrary, he himself got into trouble. I do not see that Christ was able to help anyone in this way.

If I were to materialize something, it would be bound to happen that fools would gather round me more and more. Soon I would be amongst fools, because only they are interested in such things.

If you go to Sai Baba you will see that he is doing certain things. But then only fools are attracted. If a ring appears in my hand, what does it matter? How is it related to any spiritual phenomenon? Even if this whole house disappears and then reappears again, what does it matter? So what? That is why I am not concerned with miracles. And those who are only attract fools.

The Great Challenge, ch.9, q. 9 The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol 2, ch.5 (parts)
IN COMPARING JESUS TO BUDDHA, JESUS SEEMS VERY ACTIVE AND REVOLUTIONARY. WHY IS THIS?

There is a reason. But first, some explanation is needed. Yoga divides man into two parts: the sun part and the moon part. The sun is symbolic of inner positivity and the moon is symbolic of inner negativity. Sun does not mean the outer sun nor does moon mean the outer moon. These words are used for the inner universe.

There is even one breath that is known as the sun breath and another breath that is known as the moon breath. Every forty to sixty minutes, your breath changes from one nostril to the other. If you need more heat in the body, or if you suddenly grow angry, your sun breath starts functioning. Yoga says that if you use your moon breath when you are angry, then you cannot be angry at all, because the moon breath creates a deep coolness inside.

The same is the case with the inner being of man also. This sutra is concerned with that. We discussed how awareness creates an inner sun. But this sutra talks about the creation of an inner moon. The sun is symbolic of the inner positivity and the moon is symbolic of the inner negativity. The sun is the inner male and the moon is the inner female. These words are symbolic, and for Indian yoga particularly they are very meaningful. By "sun" the outer sun is not what is meant, nor by "moon" the outer moon These two words "sun" and "moon" are used for the inner universe.

Indian yoga divides man into two parts: the sun part and the moon part. Even one breath is known as the sun breath and another breath is known as the moon breath. And, really, this is one of the deepest findings. If you stop the moon breath and just breathe from the sun breath, your body will become hot. And such a great heat can be created simply by using only one kind of breath that it seems inconceivable in physiological terms. Among Tibetans there exists a heat yoga in which breathing is done only through this sun breath. not using the moon breath at all.

Ordinarily the breath is continuously changing, but Western medical science has not yet taken note of it. Breathing is not a simple process. It is a dialectical process. You are changing your nostrils within each hour. Between forty and sixty minutes, approximately, your nostrils change, and you begin to take your breath from the other nostril; then again it changes. When you need more heat in the body -- for example, if suddenly you become angry -- your sun breath starts.

Yoga says that when you are angry, if you use your moon breath and stop the sun breath, you cannot be angry at all, because the moon breath creates a deep coolness inside. The whole body is divided between the sun and the moon, and the mind is also divided between the sun and the moon.

So look at man not as one, because nothing can exist as just one. Everything exists through duality. You are divided into two: you have a negative part and you have a positive part. The positive is known as the sun in Indian symbology and the negative as moon.

The negative is cool, silent, still. The positive is hot, vibrant with energy, active. The sun is the active part in you and the moon is the inactive part in you. The negative is cool, silent, still. The positive is hot, vibrant with energy, active. The sun is the active part in you and the moon the inactive part, and if the active and the inactive both come to a deep equilibrium you are suddenly Enlightened. If one is more emphatic: you have an imbalance, but if both are of equal force, then they balance each other, negate each other, and the moment both are of equal force, your inner balance is regained and you reach to a different reality -- the reality of the non-dual. That one non-dual reality can be felt only when both of these dualities in you are balanced. Then you transcend them.

In the world we exist as duality. Beyond the world we exist as non-duality -- as one. Think of yourself as a triangle; two angles exist in the world and the third angle beyond the world. Two angles belong to this world and one angle belongs to that world -- the world of the Brahman. But if these two are in an imbalance, you cannot go beyond them. You go beyond them only when they regain balance. This balancing is Nirvana, this balancing is moksha, this balancing is the centering. Awareness works to balance this duality. And the moment this duality is balanced, you cannot be reborn again -- you disappear from the world.

You can be born again and again only if there is an imbalance. If the balance comes to a totality, if the balance becomes total, it is impossible to be born again. You disappear from the world; the body cannot exist any more. Then you cannot re-enter a body again. So first we will try to understand what this inner sun is and what this inner moon is, and how they are balanced.

This sutra says, "ACCUMULATION OF THE NECTAR OF THE INNER FULL MOON IS NAIVEDYA, THE FOOD OFFERING." You need a full moon in you to offer to the Divine as a food. That only can be the food for the Divine -- a full moon inside.

Awareness works in a double way. It creates a sun and it also creates a moon. We talked about how it creates a sun inside. When you become aware of whatsoever is happening in you, of the innermost unconscious activities, you become Enlightened. The very cells of your body become conscious; you become light. Your consciousness reaches to the very pores of your body. Just like the rays of the sun reach into the earth, your inner awareness, once awakened, begins to work in every cell of the body and every fibre, every nerve of the body. Your whole body is filled with light. But this is only one part of awareness, this is only one process of awareness. Rays from your center also go to your periphery, to the circumference. The more your rays go to the circumference, the cooler your center becomes.

I do not know whether you have heard of a particular theory about the sun -- the outer sun; I do not know whether it is right or not, but it is meaningful in helping to understand the inner reality. They say the sun at its deepest center is the coolest spot in the solar system; it is not hot at all. The heat is only on The periphery, on the circumference, not in the inner center of the sun. Because of helium gas around the sun, heat is created; because of the helium and its chain explosion of atoms, heat is created, and then the heat spreads to the solar family.

The sun has a body and it is the center. The solar family is the body and the earth belongs to the body as a cell. The heat goes to the solar family, it spreads. But the sun in itself is a cold thing, absolutely cold, and at its deepest center, it is the coldest spot in existence. It should be so because reality exists in polarities. If the sun is the hottest thing, it must have something inside it which balances the heat. Take a wheel that is just moving on the street: the wheel moves, but in the center the hub on which it moves remains still. The movement must have something non-moving in the center, otherwise movement will not be possible.

In this world of manifestations, everything exists within polar opposites. You are alive because you have death inside. If you had no death inside, you could not be alive. So do not think that one day it suddenly happens that death comes to you. It is an inner growth. It is not something that you meet, that you encounter -- no! It is something toward which you are daily growing. One day the growth is complete, and you are dead. It is an inner phenomenon. You are alive with a death center. You cannot be alive without a death center.

Nothing exists without its polar opposite. Life and death are just two positive and negative realities. So it looks logical, dialectical also, but it is not yet proved that the sun has at its center a cold spot, an absolutely cold spot, the polar opposite to the heat on its circumference. It may be true, it may not be true: that is irrelevant. But inside it is absolutely true. When you become aware, the heat begins to travel toward your circumference. Each cell of your body will become heated, warm, because of the awareness penetrating. The second counterpart will be that your center of being will become cooler and cooler and cooler. That is the moon working. The sun is the warmth spreading, the light spreading.

And you must know that light has two qualities -- light and warmth. Heat is just concentrated light; light is nothing but dispersed heat. So when light travels to your body, every cell will become warm, enlightened, aware. Sleep is a cold thing, night is a cold thing. That is why we sleep in the night: it is a cold time. And in the morning, with the rising sun, everything becomes warm, alive. Then it is difficult to sleep and easy to be awake.

When your circumference is cold, when each body cell is cold. asleep, your center will be a hot spot. Because of that hot spot in the center you will be sexual, you will be angry, you will be greedy, you will be everything. Your center will be in a fever This heat begins to travel. Of course, when heat leaves your center it spreads; and the more it spreads, the less it is heat and the more it is light.

The sunrays on the earth are life-giving. They have travelled much. If you go nearer and nearer to them they will become death-giving, because then they will not be warm: then they will be just pure fire.

As it is, the whole body structure is just cold. You feel heat only in anger, in sex, in desire, in passion. That is not light, but simply a feverish phenomenon. Because of this, sex is felt as a release -- because you lose a certain quantity of heat, and you are relieved; you lose a certain quantity of fever, and you are released.

Because of this, militaries have not allowed their soldiers any sexual freedom -- because if you allow sexual freedom to soldiers. they cannot fight. Then inner fever is released. If you do not allow them sexual freedom, their inner fever is accumulated. That accumulated fever begins to be violent automatically.

That is why a certain very deep phenomenon, a great riddle of history, can be solved whenever a society is affluent: when the problem of food and hunger is solved, a society begins to be sexually free. Only poor societies can be sexually suppressive. Whenever a society is affluent, rich you cannot suppress sex -- because the food problem has become solved. Much energy is released, so what to do with it? So an affluent society will become sexually free.

An affluent society means a society which has progressed much technologically. And whenever any civilization comes to a point of affluence, sexual freedom is bound to be there, and then any less developed society can win over this higher civilized society. So this has always been the history: a greater civilization will always be defeated by a barbaric, uncivilized society.

India was defeated continuously because of its affluence. Tartars, Berbers, Huns, Moghuls, Turks, they were all uncivilized societies -- poor, poverty-stricken, sexually suppressed. They had much violence in them. You can see this in a modern phenomenon: in Vietnam. Americans can never win. Their youth is sexually free, and they are less violent. Thus, they cannot win in Vietnam. No affluent society can really win over any poor society. They may fight for longer periods, but they cannot win. They can kill a whole country, but they cannot win because the very fighting spirit is not there.

America is today one of the most sexually free societies in all history. America cannot fight; fighting is part of a suppressed sex. The inner fever must be accumulated in such quantities that you begin to be violent. Suppress sex, and you will be violent. That is why so-called saints are very violent in their behaviour. They are angry, violent, because of suppressed sex. That fever has to be released in some way.

In sex you are releasing a particular amount of energy. They say that in one sex act you release 120 calories of heat -- 120 calories! It is the same if you run fast for one mile. Then you will release the same amount of calories -- 120. That is why there is much talk about whether sex can help heart disease. It can help! It releases energy. For persons who are well fed, it helps to delay heart disease. It releases energy, but it is not a solution. It is just a temporary arrangement. It just creates a leakage in your system from which energy is released.

Any day that you are angry your whole body is heated. It becomes feverish. The center releases anger: energy comes to the periphery. Ordinarily it is cold. The periphery is cold ordinarily, and the center is hot. The reverse will be the case when awareness happens to you. When you meditate and go deep within, when you become aware of every activity, everything will take a turn -- an about-turn. Your periphery will not go into anger, not go into sex, not go into greed, not go into passion. It will lose its coldness -- its sleepy coldness. It will become warm, alive and aware. And because this energy is released to the periphery every twenty-four hours continuously, you will not need any anger or any sex.

A Buddha doesn't need anger. It is absolutely useless for him because the very energy system has changed. He is using his heat for light and you are using your light for heat. The same fuel can be used to burn your house and the same fuel can be used to light it. The fuel is the same, but the direction changes. The inner fuel, the inner energy, becomes fire -- suicidal. It burns you down, and ultimately you are just ashes. In the end, when death comes near you, you are just ashes. Everything is burnt out because you used your energy not as a light, but as a fire.

It becomes fire if it is concentrated in the center and is released only temporarily, whenever it is overflowing. In a sudden shock it comes to the periphery and is released. This is a very chaotic state. You go on accumulating it inside. Then one day it is overflowing and you have to throw it. We go on rationalizing our actions. When you Get angry you say that someone has made you angry. No, really, it is that you were ready: you were overflowing inside. You do not know this because you were not aware. You were overflowing with a certain amount of energy which was waiting to be released. When someone abuses you, insults you, and you become angry, you think that this person is creating anger in you.

No, this person is simply giving you a situation and opportunity to release the overflowing energy. In a way, he is your friend, a helper. If he is not there you will be in a very difficult situation. If no one is giving you any opportunity to throw your energy, you will project, you will imagine something, and you will get angry with anything at all.

People get angry with their shoes; they will throw them. They can get angry with the door; they become violent with it. They can be angry with everything. When no opportunity is given, they can even become angry with themselves. They will begin to harm themselves or they will create some substitutes.

We have created many. Someone is just smoking: we think it is a simple thing. It is not! Now psychologists say it is a deep violence You take the smoke in and then throw it out, you take the smoke in and then throw it out: it helps to release hunger, violence, sex. We have many, many devices. Persons who are violent will eat more. Just by destroying the food they are releasing violence.

You may not have observed it, but when you are loving you cannot eat much, when you are happy you cannot eat much, when you feel blissful, you cannot eat too much. Ordinarily it should not be so. It looks opposite to what we think should be the case. We think that when one is happy he should eat more. No, a happy person will not eat more. He cannot eat more because eating is part of violence. A happy person is not violent; hence. when you are in love you cannot eat very much.

Two persons, when in love, unmarried, will not eat much. But when married they will begin to eat more because love has disappeared. Now it is a violence, and it is related with many deep things. In animals violence is expressed through teeth, and we are related to animals. When one animal is violent, angry, the energy comes to the teeth and to the nails. These are the instruments for being violent for an animal. But, still, the same happens with us. When you are violent, your teeth, your fingers, your nails, are filled with heat, with energy. Now you have to release it. You can eat, you can use gum, you can smoke, you can take PAN (a leaf preparation in India which is chewed), because you need something to crush. So there are people who are the whole day crushing pan. Their violence is thus released.

Even by continuously talking, violence is released. Women talk more than men because men can be violent in other ways while women cannot be. That is the only reason. They talk more! They talk continuously, they talk madly, because man has other possibilities for expressing violence -- in the office, with the car, etc. Have you observed a man who is angry driving his car? He is releasing his anger through the accelerator. The car will speed up He is releasing anger, and the car is just a medium. Fifty percent of car accidents are not because of cars but because of drivers. not because of traffic but because of mental tension.

But women cannot release anger in so many ways. They have only one: going on talking. By their doing something with the teeth and the lips, much is released. A woman who is angry will break more saucers, more cups, unknowingly. She will be surprised why today everything is just breaking. It is the unconscious mind. Energy is in the hands. The energy wants to destroy something. So it is good to have breakable things in the house. It helps! Then before the husband is back, the wife is released. If you make everything unbreakable, it will break families. Breakable things help families to continue. Now these are proven facts.

If you have energy in the center which is feverish, not transferred to the periphery, not used as light for the whole body and for your whole being, this is bound to happen. Every day you will accumulate energy, and then you will have to throw it. And this is nonsense! For the whole life you are doing this: accumulating. throwing; accumulating, throwing. What are you doing twenty-four hours a day? Just accumulating energy to throw it. Then when energy is there, the only problem is how to throw it. So we throw it in sex, in anger, in greed. When energy is thrown, then the only problem is how to accumulate it.

What sort of life is this? A vicious circle! With awareness the whole mechanism changes. With awareness, every moment your inner center is sending its energy to every pore of your body. And\ your body is not a small thing. It is a miniature universe: as above, so below. Everybody is a small universe. And when I say "small", I feel guilty -- because, really, it is not small. It is as vast as the universe. But because of our language, there are problems. The universe appears vast and your body appears small.

What is the difference between the two? They say that if we can throw out all space from the earth, if we can compress it and throw out the space, if the vacant space in it is thrown out, our earth will be just like a small ball. If we can throw out all the empty space from the Himalayas, they can be put into a match box. The material is not much, the matter is not much. The matter is very small, only the emptiness in it is vast.

So how to judge whether a thing is big or small? A very small thing can be blown up to any bigness if we put space in it. If we put as much space into your body as there is in the earth, you will be like the earth. So all the differences are of spaces -- empty spaces. No difference is there really.

But when I say "a small universe", I mean only this: that everything that exists in the universe exists in you also. Whatsoever may be the measure, exactly everything exists in you also. So when your solar center, your sun, releases energy, it releases it in two ways. Either you are unconscious: then it releases it into sex, anger. greed and other diseases. Or if you are conscious, through this consciousness heat is transformed into light: then it is released as light. Then you are under a shower of light continuously. Your every pore, your every cell, is bathed. There is a continuous shower of light. When this happens, your inner center begins to become cooler and cooler and cooler, and ultimately it becomes the coldest spot.

Hindus have a myth that Shankara lives on Kailash. Kailash is the coldest mythological spot -- the coldest peak, the highest peak -- and it is always covered with snow. This is just a symbolic way of saying that you have the coldest spot -- a Kailash -- in you. But you can know it only when the heat is transformed into light -- never before. And the more you become aware, the more heat is transformed into light, and you begin to feel a moon inside. You begin to feel a cool, silent pool.

This sutra says, "Accumulation of the nectar of the inner full moon..." In the beginning, of course, you will feel it and miss it. It is just like the first day's moon. Then there is the second-day moon, the third-day moon. You feel it and it is gone; then it grows :again; then comes the full-moon night. Just like this, this inner spot of coolness grows. As your consciousness grows, your heat is transformed into light. As your periphery becomes enlightened, as your each and every cell is filled with light and becomes aware and awake, this inner moon grows. Sometimes you feel it and sometimes you miss it. Sometimes there is an inner cool breeze, and you know something has happened inside. You feel it, but then you miss it again. Then it goes on growing. Ultimately, when there is no unconsciousness left and your total energy has become light. you come to know the full moon.

Buddha has talked about this full moon in negative terms because it is the negative pole. So Buddha says that when this inner silence is achieved, it is Nirvana. The word is very meaningful in reference to this sutra. Nirvana means "cessation of the flame": a lamp is burning and then the flame disappears.

When your heat is totally transformed into light, there is no flame. That is why the moon symbol is used. The moon has light. but no flame. That is why its light is cool. It is without flame, without fire. Light is there without any flame. The flame has disappeared.

When one first becomes acquainted with the sun, the light is burning hot, like a flame.

If you analyze the inner life of Buddha or of Jesus with this distinction in mind, many things which are ordinarily hidden will become apparent. For example, whenever an enlightened one like Buddha is born, his early life will be very revolutionary. The moment one enters the inner dimension, the first experience is of a fiery flame. But the older Buddha grows, the more an inner coolness is felt. The more perfect the moon stage becomes, the more the revolutionary fervor is lost.

That is why Buddha's words are not revolutionary.

Jesus did not have this opportunity. He was crucified while he was still a revolutionary and he died, as far as Christianity is concerned, at the age of thirty-three. If you compare Buddha's sayings with those of Jesus there is a clearcut difference. Jesus' sayings look like those of a young man -- hot. Buddha's early sayings were also like this, but he was not crucified for them; he lived to be eighty.

The reason he was not crucified is that India has always known that this happens. Whenever a person moves within, whenever a buddha enters into himself, his first expression is fiery, revolutionary, rebellious. He bursts open and explodes into fire. But then that phase disappears and ultimately there is only the moon: silent, without any fire, with only light. That is why India has never killed anyone; that is why India has never behaved the way the Greeks behaved with Socrates or the Jews with Jesus.

Jesus was crucified early. Christianity still remains incomplete because Christianity is based on the early Jesus, on Jesus when he was just a flame. Buddhism is complete. It has known Buddha in all his stages. It has known Buddha's moon in all the stages of the moon -- from the first day to the full moon light.

It has been a misfortune for the West, it has proven itself to be one of the greatest misfortunes in history, that Jesus was crucified when he was just a flame, when he was only thirty-three. The flame would have turned into moonlight, but the opportunity was not given. The reason is that the Jews were not aware of the inner phenomenon.


India has known many buddhas, and it is always true that whenever someone enters the inner dimension, he has to feel the fire of the revolutionary side coming up. If one continues going inward, this dissolves, and then there is only silence, a moonlit silence.

When one first becomes acquainted with the sun, the light becomes like a flame, burning. hot. So if you analyze the life, the inner life. of a Buddha or of a Jesus or of a Mahavir, many things will become apparent which are ordinarily hidden. For example, whenever a person like Buddha is born, the early life will be very revolutionary -- because the moment one enters the inside, the first experience is a fiery flame. The more Buddha grows older, the more the inner coolness is felt, the more the moon becomes perfect. Revolution is lost. Then Buddha's words are not revolutionary.

Jesus couldn't get this opportunity. He was killed when he was still a revolutionary. That is why, if you compare Buddha's sayings with Jesus' sayings, there is a clear-cut distinction and difference. Jesus' sayings look like that of a young mall -- hot! Buddha's early sayings are also like that, but he lived to be eighty. He was not killed. There are reasons. And one reason is this: India always knew that this happens: whenever a person goes in, the first expression is fiery, revolutionary, rebellious. That is why India never killed anyone. That is why India could never behave as Greeks behaved with Socrates and Jews behaved with Jesus. India knew much. It has known many, many such persons. India knows it is natural that whenever a Buddha enters into himself the first experience will be revolutionary. He will burst open, explode into a fiery flame. But then the flame will disappear, and ultimately there will be only a moon -- silent. cool, with no fire but only light.

Jesus was killed. That is why Christianity has still remained incomplete. Christianity was based on early Jesus -- on Jesus when he was just a flame. That is why Christianity has remained incomplete. Buddhism is complete. It has known Buddha in all stages. It has known Buddha's moon in all stages -- from the first day to the full-moon light. This crucifixion has been unfortunate for the West. It has proved one of the greatest misfortunes in history that Jesus was killed when he was only thirty-three, just a flame. The flame would have turned into moonlight, but the opportunity was not given. And the reason was only this: that the Jews were not aware of the inner phenomenon.

India knew many, many Buddhas, and it is always the case that whenever someone enters in, he first sees the fire, the flame, and the revolutionary spirit comes up. But if one goes on in and in, it dissolves, and then there is only silence -- a moonlight silence.

This sutra says, "Accumulation of the nectar of the inner full moon..." This silence. this cool silence of the moon, Hindus have called nectar, the amrit, the elixir. It is not to be found somewhere else. It is in you. This nectar is in you! Once you are established m this nectar, once you are in this pool of cool moonlight, then you are a full moon inside. Then you have known both the polarities: you have known life, you have known death, you have known the sun, you have known the moon. You have known both the polarities -- life and death. And once you have known both you have transcended both. That is why it is called the nectar amrit. Now you will not die. Now you are drunk with elixir; you cannot die. But you will not be alive in the old sense either. You have died in the old sense; you are reborn in a new moon. Now death will not be a death and life will not be a life. Now you will be beyond both.

I have heard about Tanka. the Zen Master, who one day declared before his disciples that Buddha was never born. He said, "This whole story is just false; this whole Buddha legend is just false. He was never born." His disciples were just perplexed. What did he mean? It seemed he had gone mad. Every day he had himself been teaching the life of Buddha, his birth and everything, and suddenly one day he said, "This whole thing is nonsense. He was Never born." Then he left the platform and went into his hut. The disciples gathered around his hut and asked, "What are you saying? What about that which you were always teaching us for your whole life?" Tanka said, "Tanka is no more. He was never born, so the whole legend is false. The teaching of Tanka and your listening to Tanka is just false. Someone has created a fiction. Do not be deceived."

Then they were even more perplexed. It may be that Buddha was not born, but Tanka was already there standing beside them. Tanka laughed and said, "That which is born, that which was born. was not Buddha."

In India we have two names: "Gautam Siddharth" is the name given by the parents. Then one day he became Enlightened: his consciousness flowered, bloomed. Then he used another name -- "Gautam the Buddha": "Buddha" means the Enlightened One. This second name doesn't belong to Gautam at all. Gautam is just a situation. In his place Buddha happened, and this Buddha did not really happen on the day of his Enlightenment. He had been always there, but it had been recognized only on this day. Gautam had come to recognize on that day something which was always there -- the Buddha.

This inner phenomenon is beyond birth and death. It is never born and never will it die, because that which is born can die and that which is not born cannot die. Death needs birth as a prerequisite, as a necessary prerequisite. You cannot die if you are not born. With this inner phenomenon -- when sun and moon are balanced, when the dialectical process is finished, when the synthesis is complete -- you come to feel in yourself something which is eternal.

That is why this sutra says, "Accumulation of the nectar of the inner full moon is NAIVEDYA." Now you have become food yourself. Now you can offer yourself to the Divine. Now you are food. Now you are eternal. And why is it called "food", NAIVEDYA? Because when you are eternal, you can become food for the eternal. And by "food" the ordinary meaning is also implied. When you take food in, it becomes one with you. It becomes your blood, it becomes your bones, it becomes you: you are your food! So when you have come to know this inner reality, the eternal reality, you can offer it as food to the universe, to the Existence.

By this is meant that now you can become the bones of the universe, you can become the blood of the universe. Now you carl be one with it just like food becomes one with you. The meeting is complete because you have become food for the Divine. Then you are naivedya. Then the offering can be accepted. But you cannot offer your body as the food. It will be food, but for the vultures, not for the Divine. This cannot be offered as food for the Divine. Your body comes out of the earth and goes back to the earth. It can only be eaten by the earth again: "Dust unto dust.'It can only return to dust, so this body cannot be offered to the Divine. One young seeker came to Gautam Buddha. He said, "I have come to offer myself to you. Accept me" Buddha asked him, "What are you offering -- your body? But that is already offered and the earth will claim it, so how can you offer it to me? What are you offering? Tell me exactly!"

The man was confused. He said, "Whatsoever I have I offer to you " Buddha asked him, "What do you have? What is it that belongs to you? Do your thoughts belong to you? They belong to the society; your mind belongs to the society. Your body belongs to your parents, to the earth, to the sky, to water, to fire, to many things to the five elements. What do you have that you can offer to me?" The man could not answer because he had nothing else. He could not think of anything else, so Buddha said, "Do not offer now. First find out what you are. And the moment you find it, it is already offered. Then there is no need to offer."

When you find the inner balance that is known from finding the sun and finding the moon, only when you know both, they balance each other, and in that balance you escape from duality. And then the third angle of the triangle is touched. For the first time you are above yourself: you are the inner self. Now you can look down at yourself -- at your sun, your moon, your body, your soul, your positivity, your negativity, your male, your female. Now you can look down at yourself -- at the whole world of duality, at multidimensional duality -- and now you can become naivedya, the food offering.

But now there is no need even to offer: you have already offered. Now there is no need to ask to be accepted: you are already accepted. You are one. Just as food becomes one with you, you become one with the Divine. And by "Divine" I mean the Whole, the Totality, everything -- the very Existence.

So what to do? Transform heat into light: that is the mantra.

Transform heat into light! Do not use heat as heat: use it as light. When you think anger is coming to you, close your eyes and meditate on what anger is. Dig deep inside and find out the source from where it is coming. What we are doing ordinarily is just the opposite. When we get angry we begin to think about the object of anger. about who has created it, and not of the source of anger, from where it is coming. When you get angry, close your eyes. This is the right moment to meditate. Close your eyes, go in, and find out from where this anger is coming. Follow it to the very source. Go deep, and you will come to the source of heat from where the accumulated energy is bursting forth to go out.

Observe it; do not indulge in it -- because if you indulge in it, it will be thrown out without being transformed. And do not suppress it -- because if you suppress it, it will be thrown back to the original source which is overflowing. It cannot absorb it. It will be thrown back again with a more forceful movement. So do not suppress it and do not indulge in it. Just be conscious. Move inward to the source. This very movement slows down the process; this very observation transforms the quality of anger, because this calm observation is an antidote.

Anger and calm observation are different phenomena. When this calm observation enters into anger, it changes the energy, the very chemical composition of it, and the heat becomes light. That is the change: heat becomes light! Then the anger is neither thrown back to the original source which cannot contain it because it is overflowing, nor is it thrown to the object in a wastage, a foolish wastage. Then this energy neither moves out to the object of anger, nor is It suppressed back to the original source. With observation this energy becomes diffused. It moves to the periphery of your body as light. When diffused, it moves as light, and the very anger becomes ojas, the very anger becomes a light, an inner light.

So do not be disturbed and disappointed if you have much anger. That only shows you have much energy. A person born without anger cannot be transformed. He has no energy. So be happy that you have energy, but do not misuse it. Energy can be misused, it can be transformed. Energy in itself is neutral. It will not tell you what to do with it -- you have to decide.

To change heat into light is the secret science of inner alchemy. To change coal into diamonds, to change baser metals into gold -- these are just symbols.

Alchemists were never really concerned with changing baser metals into higher metals, but they had to hide what they were doing. They had to create an esoteric, secret symbology, because it was very difficult in early times to talk about an inner science and not be murdered. Jesus was killed: he was an alchemist. And the Christianity that developed after Jesus went against him. The Christian Church began to kill and murder those who were practicing the alchemy of inner transformation.

This is the secret science of inner alchemy -- to change heat into light, to change coal into diamond, to change baser elements into gold.

These are just symbols. Alchemists were not really concerned with changing baser metals into higher metals, but they had to hide and they had to make an esoteric, secret symbology, because it was very difficult in past ages to tank about the inner science and not be murdered or killed. Jesus was killed: he was an alchemist. And the Christianity that developed, that followed Jesus, went quite against him. The Christian Church began to kill and murder those who were again trying alchemy.

This word "alchemy" is very beautiful. Our "chemistry" is born out of alchemy. The word "chemistry" comes from "alchemy", but "alchemy" itself is a very deep and significant word. The word "alchemy" comes from Egypt. The old name of Egypt was "Khem" and "Al Khem" means "the secret science of Egypt". The Egyptians were deep in the alchemy of inner transformation, in how to transform the inner chemistry.

Many Egyptian mummies are preserved. They are the oldest, most ancient mummies, and still scientists are not able to probe into how they were preserved, why and how they were preserved. But that "why" we can guess, and our so-called history is nothing but a guess. But about esoteric things it is always a fallacious guess.

Why they were preserved is difficult to understand, but more problematic is the "how", by what chemical process they were preserved. They are still as fresh as if they had just died. If there had been any outer chemical process, our chemistry could know it; we are more chemically developed than old Egypt. The real thing is that these bodies were preserved not by any outer chemical process, but by inner alchemy. If your sex energy, which is the source of life, can be transformed inwardly, then your body can be preserved for any length of time very easily. If your sex energy is transformed, then your body can be preserved even for a million years. If the cells of your body lose sex then the body can be preserved, because birth comes through sex and death comes through sex. Your freshness, the youngness of the body, comes through sex, and then deterioration comes through sex.

These mummies were preserved not just as historians say or as Egyptologists say, that man has always been thinking in terms of ego to preserve himself. With the kings, the emperors, for example, that is not the case. Totally different is the secret. They were preserved only so that they would be recognized when their souls would be born again. When a man is born again in another body, if his old body is preserved it helps to further his inner progress.

But the old body will be useful only if it was transformed by alchemy; otherwise it is of no use. If you change your body inwardly, your body then becomes a laboratory. It is a lab; it is not just a body. If you have been working inside, experimenting inside, then you know this body from the inside, not only from the outside.

We know our bodies only from the outside. Whatsoever the mirror tells is our only knowledge -- it is from the outside.Our knowledge is as if someone goes around a house and looks at it, and then says, "I know it." He has never come in; he has never looked from the inside. We look at our bodies from the outside, never from the inside.

If you begin to transform your anger, your sex, you will begin to look at your body from the inside. Then your body is a great experiment, a great laboratory, very complex, and then you will want to preserve it for further growth. When one enters another body, one can learn much from the old body. It was a great experiment in old Egypt, and many things were done with the body. They were successful in some things, failures in some things.

If you have again a new body, a new laboratory, then if the old is preserved you will not have to begin again from ABC. If the old is preserved, this is a record. Death had interrupted, but now you can proceed. You are not to proceed from the beginning again; you can proceed from the point where death interrupted in the last life.

So only Egyptians and Tibetans have preserved bodies for this reason, but only those bodies which were undergoing deep inner experiments. Otherwise it is useless to preserve your old body. Other vise you will not even be able to recognize it.

Lenin's body is preserved in Moscow, but he would not even recognize it. If he were born again, he would not even recognize it! His body was never used as a laboratory; he never knew it. He was just acquainted with it in the mirror, never with the body itself.

This process is alchemical: observe anger, and anger is transformed into light; observe sex, and sex is transformed into light. Observe any inner phenomenon which creates heat. Observe it, and through observation it becomes light. And if your every heat phenomenon is transformed into light, you will come to feel the inner moon. And when there is no heat left, then you have accumulated the nectar of the full moon.

And through this nectar you become immortal. Not in this body, not with this body: you become immortal because you transcend life and death both. Then you are naivedya: then you are a food offering to the Divine -- to the Total.

The Great Challenge, ch.9, q. 10 The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol 2, ch.9, q.2
IF JESUS WAS STILL IN A REBELLIOUS AND ACTIVE STAGE AT THE TIME OF THE CRUCIFIXION, DOES THAT MEAN THAT HE HAD NOT ACHIEVED THE TOTAL SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND INNER SILENCE OF BUDDHA? OSHO, ONE NIGHT YOU SAID THAT CHRISTIANITY HAS REMAINED INCOMPLETE BECAUSE FOR CHRISTIANS JESUS DIED AT THE AGE OF THIRTY-THREE WHEN HE WAS FIERY, REBELLIOUS AND ACTIVE, WITH SUN-LIKE CONSCIOUSNESS AS HIS INNER CENTER. DOES IT MEAN THAT JESUS COULD NOT ACHIEVE TOTAL SPIRITUAL GROWTH, INNER SILENCE, INNER PEACE AND AN INNER FULL-MOON STAGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS LIKE BUDDHA AND MAHAVIR?

PLEASE ENLIGHTEN US ON THIS POINT.

Many things may have to be considered: one, Jesus died for Christianity at the age of thirty-three. Remember, for christianity, because actually he did not die -- he lived to be one hundred and twelve. But that is another story, not related with Christianity at all. and he died a fully Enlightened One like Buddha, Mahavir and Krishna. So this is the first thing to be understood.

Christianity has only this much to say, that he was seen resurrected after his crucifixion. For three days he was seen somewhere by some disciples and somewhere else by some other disciples, and then he disappeared. So one thing is certain: even Christianity thinks that whether he died or not on the cross, he was seen after the crucifixion for three days.

They think that he died on the cross and then was resurrected, but then they do not have anything to tell about what happened to this resurrected Jesus. The Bible is silent. What happened to this man who was seen? When did he die again? He must have died again because on the cross he did not die. So what happened to this man Jesus? The Bible is incomplete because Jesus disappeared from Israel.

In Kashmir, there is a shrine which is believed to be that of Jesus Christ -- his tomb. He lived in Kashmir, in India, then he died when he was one hundred and twelve.

At the time of the crucifixion he had just entered the moon center. But only on that very day! That has to be understood.

The Jesus of The Bible is not like Buddha, Mahavira, or Lao Tzu. You cannot conceive of Buddha's going into a temple and beating moneylenders. But Jesus did it.

There were many different activities connected with the great temple of Jerusalem. There was a great moneylending business which exploited the whole country. People would come for an annual gathering and for other gatherings during the year, and obtain money at the temple at a high rate of interest. Then it would be impossible to repay and they would lose everything.

The temple was becoming richer and richer: it was religious imperialism. The whole country was poor and suffering, but so much money would be automatically coming into the temple.

At the time of the crucifixion he was just entering the moon center. On that very day he entered -- on the very day of the crucifixion. So that is the next thing to understand.

Jesus in the Bible is not like Buddha, Mahavir or Lao Tzu. He is not! You cannot conceive of Buddha going into the temple and beating the money-lenders -- you cannot conceive of it! But Jesus did it. He went into the temple; the annual festival was on. Many things were connected with this great temple of Jerusalem. There was a great money-lending business associated with it. Those moneylenders of this temple exploited the whole country. People would come for the annual gathering and other gatherings during the year, and they would obtain money at a high interest, but it was impossible to repay it. They would lose everything, and this temple was going on becoming richer and richer. It was a religious imperialism. The whole country was poor and suffering, but the money would come automatically to this temple.

Then Jesus entered one day with a whip in his hand. He overturned the moneylenders' boards and began to beat the moneylenders. He created chaos in the temple.

You cannot conceive of Buddha doing this. Impossible!

Jesus was the first communist: he was fiery, rebellious. That is why Christianity could give birth to communism. Hinduism could not give birth to it, no other religion could give birth to it; it is impossible. Only Christianity could do it, because with Jesus it has a relevance.

The very language he used was totally different. He got so angry at some things that we cannot even believe it. He cursed a fig tree which was not yielding any fruit because he and his disciples were hungry. He destroyed it!

He threatened in a type of language that Buddha could not even utter. For example, he said that those who would not believe in him and the kingdom of God would be thrown into the fires of hell, the eternal fires of hell, and they would not be able to come back. Only the Christian hell is eternal. Every other hell is just a temporary punishment: you go there, you suffer, you come back. But Jesus' hell is eternal.

This looks unjust, absolutely unjust. Whatsoever the sin, eternal punishment cannot be justified. It cannot be! And what are the sins? Bertrand Russell has written a book, WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN, and one of the reasons he gives is that Jesus seems absurd. Russell says, "If I confess all the sins that I have committed, and all those sins which I have just thought about but never committed, you cannot give me more than five years' imprisonment. But eternal hell?"

Jesus speaks the language of a revolutionary when he talks about eternal, nonending punishment -- revolutionaries always look to the opposite end, to the extreme. You cannot conceive of Buddha's saying it or Mahavira's saying it, but Jesus says that a camel can pass through the eye of a needle sooner than a rich man can enter the kingdom of God. He cannot pass! This is the seed of communism, the basic seed. Jesus was a revolutionary. He was not only concerned with spirituality but with economics, politics -- everything. Had he been only a spiritual man he would not have been crucified, but because he became a danger to the whole social structure, to the status quo, he was crucified.

Jesus entered one day with a whip in his hand. He overturned the money-lenders' boards, then began to beat them. He created a chaos in the temple. You cannot conceive of Buddha doing this. Impossible!

Jesus was the first communist, and, really that is why Christianity could give birth to communism. Hinduism could not give birth to it, no other religion could give birth to it -- impossible! Only Christianity! With Jesus it has a relevance. He was the first communist, and he was fiery and rebellious.

The very language he uses is totally different. He gets angry with such things that we cannot even believe it -- such as a fig tree: he destroyed it because he and his disciples were hungry and the tree would not yield any fruit. He destroyed it! He has threatened in such language that Buddha could not utter. Those who are not going to believe in him and his Kingdom of God will be "thrown into the fires of Hell" -- the eternal fires of Hell -- and they cannot come back.

Only the Christian Hell is eternal. Every other hell is just a temporary punishment. You go there, you suffer and you come back. But Jesus' hell is eternal. This looks unjust, absolutely unjust. Whatsoever may be the sin, eternal punishment cannot be justified; it cannot be! And what are the sins? Bertrand Russell has written a book, "Why I am Not a Christian," and in that book one of the reasons he has told is this, that "Jesus looks absurd". Bertrand Russell says, "If I confess all the sins that I have committed and all those sins which I have thought about but never committed, then too you cannot give me more than five years imprisonment." Eternal punishment? Non-ending punishment? Jesus speaks the language of a revolutionary!

Revolutionaries always look to the other end -- to the extreme. He says to a rich man -- and you cannot conceive of a Buddha or a Mahavir saying it -- that "A camel can pass through a needle's eye, but a rich man cannot pass through the gates of my Father to the Kingdom of God." He cannot pass! This is the seed of communism, the basic seed. Jesus was a revolutionary. He was concerned not only with spirituality, but with economics, with politics and everything. Really, had he been only a spiritual man he would not have been crucified. He was crucified because he became a danger to everything -- to the whole social structure, to the status quo.

He was not a revolutionary like Lenin or Mao but still, Mao and Lenin and Marx are inconceivable without there having been a Jesus in history. They belong to the same path as Jesus: the early Jesus, the fiery man -- rebellious, ready to destroy everything -- the Jesus who was crucified.

But Jesus was not simply revolutionary, he was also a spiritual man. He was, somehow, a mixture of Mahavira and Mao. The Mao was crucified and only the Mahavira remained in the end. The day Jesus was crucified was not only the day of his crucifixion, it was the day of his inner transformation also.

When Jesus remained silent after Pilate asked him, "What is truth?" he was behaving like a Zen master. If you look at the previous life of Jesus, if you look at his whole previous life, this silence was not like Jesus at all. What happened? Why did he not speak? Why was he at a loss? He was one of the greatest orators the world has ever produced; we may even say, without hesitation, the greatest. His words were so penetrating. He was a man of words, not a man of silence. Why did he suddenly remain silent?

But he was not a revolutionary like Lenin or Mao. Of course, Marx and Mao are inconceivable without there having been a Jesus in history. They belong to this same Jesus, the early Jesus, the Jesus who was crucified. He was a fiery man, rebellious, ready to destroy everything, but he was not simply a revolutionary. He was also a spiritual man. He was somehow a mixture of Mahavir and Mao. But the Mao was crucified and the Mahavir remained in the end.

The day Jesus was crucified was not only the day of crucifixion. It was a day of deep inner transformation also. The day he was crucified, Pilate, the Roman Governor, asked him, "What is Truth?" Jesus remained silent. This was not like Jesus at all. It was more like a Zen Master. If you see the entire previous life of Jesus, this remaining silent when someone has asked, "What is Truth?" was not Jesus-like at all. He was not that type of Master who would remain silent.

Why did he remain silent? What had happened? Why was he not speaking? Why was he at a loss? Why was he incapable of speaking? He was one of the greatest orators the world has ever produced -- or we may say, even without hesitation, the greatest: his words are so penetrating. He was a man of words, not a man of silence. Why did he remain silent suddenly?

He was moving toward the cross. Pilate asked him, "What is truth?" Jesus had spent his whole life talking about truth; he was defining only that, that is why Pilate asked him. But he remained silent.

What happened in Jesus' inner world has never been reported because it is difficult to report. Christianity has allowed it to remain submerged because what happened in the inner world of Jesus can only be interpreted in India, nowhere else. Only India knows about the inner changes, the inner transformation that happens.

What happened was this: Jesus is suddenly on the verge of crucifixion. He is about to be crucified and now his whole revolution is meaningless. Everything that he has been saying is futile, everything that he has been living for is coming to an end. Everything is finished. And because death is so near, he must now move within. No time can be lost, not a single moment can be lost. He must come to the end of his journey now, and before he is crucified he must complete the inner journey.

He was just stepping, going to the cross. But Pilate asked him, "What is Truth?" For his whole life he was defining only that; for his whole life he was talking only about Truth: that is why Pilate asked him. But he remained silent.

What had happened to the inner world of Jesus? It has never been rported because it is difficult to report what had happeend. And Christian theology has remained shallow, because the inner world of Jesus can only be interpreted in India and never anywhere else. Only India knows the inner changes, the inner tranformation of what happened.

What has happened suddenly? Jesus is on the verge of death. He is to be crucified. Now the whole revolution is meaningless. Whatsoever he has been saying is futile; whatsoever he has been living for is just coming to an end. Everything is finished, and because death is so near he must now move inwards. Time cannot be lost now! Not a single moment can be lost now! He must move in before he is crucified; he must complete the inner journey.

He has been on the inner journey, but he was also entangled with outer problems. And because of these outer problems, he could not move to that cool point which this Upanishad calls "the moon point". He has remained fiery, hot. In a way, he might have done it consciously.

There is a story: Vivekananda achieved his first satori, his first glimpse of Samadhi, and Ramakrishna said, "Now I will keep this key with me; I am not going to give it to you. It will be given to you only three days before your death. Before you die, only three days before, this key will be given back to you. Now no more glimpses of Samadhi." Vivekananda began to weep and he said, "Why? I do not want anything. I do not want the whole kingdom of the world. Give me only my Samadhi. The one glimpse was so beautiful. I do not want anything more."

Ramakrishna said, "The world needs you and something has to be done. And if you move into Samadhi, then you will not be able to do anything. So do not be in a hurry. Samadhi will wait for you. Move into the world; give my message. And when the message is delivered, the key will be given back to you."

Ramakrishna died, but these are not visible keys. And only three days before his death, was Vivekananda able to achieve Samadhi -- only three days before! So it may have been a very conscious thing when Jesus did not move to the moon center right away, because once you move you become absolutely inactive.

All along he had been on an inner journey. But because he was also entangled with outer problems he could not move to that cool point, the moon point; he remained fiery, hot. But it may be that he did this consciously. Jesus was a disciple of John the Baptist who was a great revolutionary and spiritual leader. John the Baptist had waited for Jesus for many years. Then, on the day he initiated Jesus in the River Jordan, he said to Jesus, "Now take over my work and I will disappear. It is enough." And from that day on, he was rarely seen again; he disappeared. In the words of the inner language, he disappeared from the sun point and moved to the moon point; he became silent. He had done his work and had now given the work to someone who would complete it.

On the day of the crucifixion Jesus must have become aware that now his work was finished: "There is no longer any possibility of doing anything more now. I must move within. The opportunity must not be lost." That is why, when Pilate asked him what truth is, he remained silent. Because of this, the miracle happened which has remained an enigma for Christianity. Because of this.

As he was moving to his cooler side, to the moon center, he was crucified. When someone comes to the moon center for the first time, his breathing stops because breathing, too, is an activity of the sun point. Now everything becomes silent; everything is as if dead. They thought he was dead, but he was not. He had simply come to the moon center where breathing stops: no outgoing breath, no ingoing breath -- the gap.

When one remains in the gap, there is such a deep balance that it is a virtual death. But it is not death. The crucifiers, the murderers of Jesus, thought that he was dead so they allowed his disciples to bring the body down. But he was not dead, and when the cave was opened after three days he was not there. The "dead" body had disappeared. After three days, Jesus was seen again by four or five people. But no one would believe them when they went to the villages to say that Jesus was resurrected. No one would believe it.

When he escaped from Jerusalem, Jesus went to Kashmir, where he remained. But then his life was not the life of Jesus but the life of Christ. Jesus was the sun point and Christ the moon point. From then on, he remained totally silent. That is why there is no record of him. He would not talk, he would not deliver any message, he would not preach. He remained in Kashmir, not as a revolutionary but as a master, living in his own silence. A few people traveled to be with him. Those who became aware of his presence in Kashmir, without having had any outward information about it, would travel to him. And really, there were not so few -- maybe only a few in comparison to the world, but there were many.

Christianity is incomplete because it knows only the early, revolutionary Jesus. And because of that, Christianity could give birth to communism. But Jesus himself died as a fully enlightened man -- a full moon.

One story more: Jesus was initiated by John the Baptist. He was the disciple of John the Baptist who himself was a great revolutionary and a great spiritualist. He waited for Jesus for years together. On the day he initiated Jesus in the river Jordan, he said to Jesus, "Now take over my work and I will disappear. It is enough." And from that day he was hardly ever seen again. He disappeared in the forest. In the inner language, he disappeared from the sun point to the moon point. He became silent. He had done the work and he had given the work to someone who would complete it.

Just on the day of crucifixion Jesus must have become aware that now the work he was doing was finished. He must have thought, "There is no more possibility for it. I cannot do anything more now; I must move in. This opportunity must not be lost." That is why, when Pilate asked him, "What is Truth?" he remained silent. This is not Jesus-like. This is like a Zen Master; this is more like Buddha. And because of this, the miracle happened which has remained an enigma for Christianity. Because of this, the miracle happened.

When he was moving to his cooler, coldest point, the moon point, he was crucified. And when for the first time someone comes to the moon center, his breathing stops, because that breathing too is an activity of the sun point. Everything becomes silent; everything is as if dead.

He moved inward to the moon point when he was crucified, and they thought he was dead when he was not. This was a mis. conception -- a misunderstanding. Those who were crucifying him thought he was dead, but he was simply at the moon point where breathing stops. Then there is no outgoing, no ingoing breath. He was in the gap.

When one remains in the gap, it is such a deep balance that it is virtually death. But it was not death. So they, the crucifiers, the murderers of Jesus, they thought he was dead, so they allowed the disciples to bring the body down. As was the custom in the Jewish land, his body was to be preserved just in a nearby cave for three days and then delivered to the family. It is reported -- and, again Christianity has only fragments -- that when his body was being carried to the cave, his body was dashed against some stone and there was blood. If he had really been dead, blood would have been impossible.

He was not dead. And when after three days the cave was opened, he was not there. The dead body had disappeared, and in these three days he was seen. Four or five people had seen him, but no one would believe them. They went to the village and said that he was resurrected, but no one would believe it.

So he escaped from Jerusalem. He came to Kashmir and remained there. But then this life was not the life of Jesus, but the life of Christ. Jesus was the sun point and Christ the moon point. And he remained totally silent: that is why there is no record. He would not talk, he would not give any message, he would not preach. Then he remained totally silent. Then he was not a revolutionary: he was just a Master living in his own silence, so then very few people would travel to him.

Those who became aware without any outer information about him, they would travel to him. And they were not few but many -- few only in comparison to the world, but many in a way. And a whole village came to be established around him. The village is still called Bethlehem. In Kashmir, the village is still called Bethlehem after the birthplace of Jesus, and the tomb is preserved which is Jesus' tomb.

I have said that Christianity is incomplete because it knows only the early Jesus and that, because of that, Christianity could give birth to communism. But Jesus himself died a fully Enlightened man -- a full moon.