Only the man who is neither a theist nor an atheist, neither a believer nor a non-believer, can undertake the journey to truth. In a small village one moonless night everyone was fast asleep when the sound of weeping and crying suddenly broke the stillness. It awakened everyone, and the villagers confused and shaken, ran towards the small hut from which the shouting came. From within they heard, “Fire! I am on fire! My house has caught fire!” Some of the villagers immediately ran to fetch buckets of water, but on closer examination and to their great amazement they could find no sign of fire anywhere in the vicinity of the hut. There did not even seem to be a lamp burning inside. Someone brought a lantern and they pushed open the door and crowded into the hut. They found the old woman there, still yelling, “Fire! I am on fire! My house has caught fire!” “Have you gone mad?” they shouted back at her. “Where is the fire? Show us where it is and we’ll put it out.” The old woman’s shouting stopped and she began to laugh instead. “I am not mad,” she said, “But you are. You have all gathered here to put out a fire that has broken out in your own houses. Go back to your own homes and look for the fire there. The fire I am shouting about has broken out within me and you will not be able to extinguish it. Only knowing myself can put out this fire. If the fire had been outside you could have doused it, but what I am shouting about is the inner fire.” And once again she began weeping and wailing that her house had caught on fire and that she was burning up inside. I was in that village on that particular night — and all of you were there too. You may have forgotten the incident but I have not. I saw you all returning to your houses, upset by the old woman’s behavior, annoyed that she had disturbed your sleep. When you arose next morning you had forgotten all about it. Actually one could say the whole world has forgotten that incident, since that village is also the dwelling place of the entire human race. You all went back to sleep but I could not. That old woman shook me out of my sleep once and for all, because when I looked inside to find that invisible fire I found nothing at all. I did see, though, that my sleep had been only a dream, only an illusion, and that the illusion itself was the fire of which she spoke. Most people’s lives are simply consumed in flames because of this illusion, because of this ignorance of the reality of life. But that ignorance itself is only an illusion, and it is this illusion that causes you pain, that makes you miserable. But you cannot see the fire, and so you go back to sleep, back to your dreams. Dreams are good companions of sleep, but they make it difficult for you to awaken. Dreams are, in fact, fuel for this fire of illusion. Painful dreams may make you uncomfortable, but then you simply turn over. You tolerate bad dreams in expectation of nice ones. But the absence of painful dreams does not guarantee pleasant ones. It just makes you hope for better dreams to come. But pleasure and pain are yoked together; they are like a pair of bullocks pulling the cart of dreams. And so a man wastes his life in sleep, in dreams. And one who is asleep cannot be called alive. This is the very old and very painful story of humanity. It is as old as creation. But whenever a man says that he is on fire people say he is mad. They ask where the fire is and then rush to him with buckets of water to put it out. But the fire is not on the outside, and so those whose eyes are only accustomed to looking outwardly cannot find it. And how can outer water extinguish inner fire anyway? Whether the fire is visible or not, every individual feels at some point that his life is consuming him. And where there is fire, there is flame — whether we can see it or not. Its existence does not depend on our sight. The truth is that the fire only exists because we cannot see it. It’s very existence is due to our unawareness. It lives only in our ignorance. But when a man feels the heat of the flame he thinks he is burning up and instead of looking for the cause of the fire he rushes madly about in search of water. This quest for water is also an illusion. Everyone is running here and there in search of water — be it in the form of wealth, fame or salvation. Water is outer, and to find it requires an outward approach. But this outer race only adds fuel to the flames; it only stimulates the fire. Any outer search only fans the flames and as one is running about looking for water on the outside the flames get higher and higher, the inner fire grows hotter and hotter. It is just a vicious circle. But even this vicious circle is also an illusion. And you can never find the water you are looking for. All the wells are illusory too. How can any outer effort extinguish this inner fire? The man who thinks he has found water and the man who cannot find any at all really share the same defeat. Illusion and real success can never exist together. One’s lack of success is really fuel for the fire of illusion. When Alexander the Great died, millions of people came to pay homage. And they found, much against tradition, that his hands were visible. In almost every country it is customary to place the hands inside the coffin. When people asked about it they were told Alexander has expressly wished his hands be visible so that people could see that he too had left the world empty-handed. A great conqueror like Alexander also leaves the world with nothing is his hands! How nice it would be if every corpse’s empty hands were exposed so mankind could witness again and again the truth that worldly possessions have nothing to do with life at all.
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 19:09:39 +0000
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