IT IS FROM MANEESHI.
NOW WHAT TO DO? WHOM TO ANSWER? The same discourse can be
tremendously beautiful to one; to another it can be terribly boring. It depends on you; it
has nothing to do with the discourse. You are not saying anything about the discourse --
Vandana or Maneeshi. You are saying something about you.
Vandana must have been in a flowing state; Vandana must have been in a 'beautitude'.
Vandana must have been open -- I could enter into her. My words went deep into her
heart and became songs.
Maneeshi must have been closed -- too much in the head. Maneeshi must have been
without heart, at least in that discourse. Then everything went wrong. It depends on you.
Whenever you feel something like that, always remember it depends on you.
Now Maneeshi asks: "Why do you go on chattering...?" I go on chattering because there
are Vandanas also -- so I have to go on chattering for them.
And you say: "I am fed up with you and I am bored...." But, who forces you to be here?
This is something beautiful! There are two guards on two gates and Shiva with his big
nose is there to smell you. And you have to pay to listen to me. Have you ever heard? --
in the history of India it has never happened -- religious discourses are always free. And
you ask me: "Why do you go on chattering?" Why do you pay in the first place? You
need not come. All the management that I can make to prevent you, I have made.
It is your mind. But I know Maneeshi, I know his heart also. The heart goes on pulling
him here; the head does not allow. That is the conflict. When heart and head meet there is
a synchronicity. When head and heart meet there is a harmony. That's what happened to
Maneeshi has lost contact with his heart. His heart goes on pulling him, so he cannot
escape. Because he cannot escape he is annoyed with me -- as if I am doing something to
him, as if I don't allow him to escape. You are completely free, Maneeshi -- though I
know you cannot escape. It is impossible because wherever you are you will hanker for
this chattering. I will haunt you because as far as your heart is concerned, I am in
possession of it. The head will not allow you totally to be here, but it cannot help you to
go away either.
Listen from the heart because what I am saying has nothing to do with the head. What I
am saying is not logical, what I am saying is not rational.
Just the other day I was reading a letter in CURRENT written from some Rationalist
Association in South India, that they would like me to become a member of their
association.
Now, I am overwhelmed. This is such a great honour. Even if a Nobel Prize was given to
me I would not have been so much overwhelmed -- because Nobel Prizes have been
given to so many people, hundreds. Who has ever heard about this Rationalist
Association? that it has invited anybody else to become a member? This is without
precedent. In fact I have never heard the name of the village either. Must be a very
esoteric association. There are esoteric groups who work completely hidden behind, who
don't believe in publicity.
Such a great privilege! I hope the village has a post office and a primary school, and at
least a bus stop -- because in India every village that has a bus stop and a primary school
and a post office starts claiming for a university. It is enough to open a university. That's
why every day universities are being opened, hundreds of universities. Sooner or later
every village is going to have its own university.
Just one condition they have made that is very simple, and I can fulfil it immediately, at
the drop of a hat. One condition they have made: IF you drop being called Bhagwan. That
I am ready to do, absolutely ready. Because in the first place I am a Bhagwan, so whether
you call me or not makes no difference -- a rose is a rose is a rose. You can call it by
another name, that makes no difference. I can pretend that I am not a Bhagwan -- there is
not much of a problem in it -- but I cannot lose this membership.
The trouble arises not by their condition; the trouble arises because it is a rationalist
association. And I am absolutely irrationalist. I am almost absurd. I play with reason,
certainly, as a toy. I enjoy reason certainly, but as a toy. But I am not a rationalist.
Those who hear me from their heads will go on missing me. And when you hear me and
you miss me, of course you will be fed up. You won't be able to see: "What is the point of
it all? Why does this man go on talking?" -- because you don't get anything out of it. I go
on nourishing you and you are there without being nourished. Then certainly you will
feel bored.
But boredom is your problem, and you have to learn how to listen from the heart. If you
listen to me from the heart you can go on listening to me eternally -- and there will be no
boredom at all. The more you listen to me, the more you will enjoy, because from the
heart a tremendous revolution happens.
Have you observed small children? You tell them one story, next day they come; they
say, "Again, tell the same story!"
And you say, "But I have told you."
They say, "Okay, but you tell me again."
And they are so thrilled. Again listening to the same story, and they know, and sometimes
they will tell you ahead what is going to happen. But they are so thrilled, so enthusiastic
about it. What is happening? They hear it from the heart; they hear from innocence, not
from knowledge. They hear from a tremendous purity, from love. They hear for the
hearing's sake.
Howard, who was one of New York's leading custom tailors, went to Rome for a
vacation. While there, his wife, who was a firm believer in 'when in Rome do as the
Romans', insisted that they have an audience with the Pope. It was arranged through the
American Embassy and they were granted their audience.
When they returned to New York they told one and all of their trip and of course about
the visit to the Pope. Howard's father asked, "Howard, tell me, what is the Pope really
like?"
His son replied, "He's a 42 short."
A tailor is a tailor. That is his understanding -- 42 short.
Jack came home in the middle of the afternoon. He was met at the door by his wife and
his son. His son exclaimed, "Dad there is a bogey-man in the closet."
Jack rushed to the closet and flung the door open. There huddled among the coats was his
partner Sam.
"Sam," shrieked Jack, "why in hell do you come here in the afternoon and scare my kid?"
Get it? It depends on your mind, on you, what attitude you will take. You can listen to me
year in, year out, and you can remain thrilled.
But I am not worried about that. At least I am always thrilled. If nobody comes to listen
to me I will go on talking here. I love to say that which has happened to me, and I love to
say it a thousand and one times. And that is the only way to convey it. Because one time
you may miss, second time you may miss, but how many times can you miss? One day
out of sheer boredom you will say, "Let us now listen to this man."
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