Intellect can deceive you, can deceive others.+

Swami Ram Tirtha
 

Osho on Swami Ram Tirtha

Question - It's the brilliance and cleverness, that which thinks and judges. What is the unfamiliar? It's enlightenment, nirvana, true thusness, the buddha-nature -- where there is no thought or discrimination, where figuring and calculating cannot reach, where there's no way for you to use your mental arrangements.

Osho - Ta Hui is important for you to understand, because he is a representative of thousands of intellectuals in the world who go on deceiving themselves because they can consistently, logically, think about experiences that have not happened to them. Perhaps they are influenced by people who have actually experienced, and that impact is so great that they start believing that certainly, such things happen. Then they are capable of intellectual systematizing -- and they can go on systematizing -- but underneath they don't know a thing.

These people are the theologians, these people are religious heads, these people are philosophers, these people are great professors. These people dominate humanity, and they are the wrong people -- wrong because they are dishonest, wrong because they don't accept that it is not their experience. They simply go on fabricating beautiful words and theories and creating an illusion in the minds of people that perhaps they are authentic seers, enlightened people.

I will tell you an actual incident that happened, just at the beginning of this century. One young man, Ramateertha, was a professor of mathematics at Lahore University, and he was certainly a genius. He is well known for this incident -- perhaps nobody else has done it this way... In examinations, the question paper comes with a note, "Answer any five out of the seven questions." When he was a student this was his consistent practice: he would answer all seven questions with a note, "Examine any five questions."

He always answered all seven questions exactly right, so there was no problem for him -- you could choose any five yourself, whichever ones you wanted to examine. When he passed his post-graduation -- he topped the university in mathematics, he was a gold medalist -- he was immediately appointed as a professor. He had the caliber of a great intellectual. And just then Vivekananda returned from America.

Vivekananda was a monk and a disciple of Ramakrishna, who was an enlightened man but uneducated? Ramakrishna was not articulate enough to manage to say something about his experience, so he had chosen Vivekananda, who was a very intelligent person, from the cream of Bengal's intelligentsia. Vivekananda impressed people all over the world, wherever he went; now he had come back from America and was going around India. He came to Lahore, to the university where Ramateertha was a professor, and Ramateertha was so much impressed by Vivekananda that he wanted to be initiated by him immediately.

Vivekananda himself was just an intellectual, but a very forceful personality, a very imposing personality. He appealed to Ramateertha immediately because they were both intellectuals, so there was immediately a harmony, synchronicity between their minds. Vivekananda initiated him into sannyasa, and Ramateertha left for a world tour himself.

Ramateertha was far more articulate than Vivekananda himself, far more poetic, far more impressive... not as a personality, because Vivekananda looked like a giant -- he had a huge body -- but Ramateertha seems to have been far superior, intellectually. In particular, he was so much drowned in Persian, Arabic, and Urdu poetry, which are all unique as far as their mysticism is concerned -- they all belong to the Sufi tradition of mystics

So Ramateertha had some new area about which Vivekananda had no knowledge. He also impressed people very much wherever he went. And the problem with the mind is that if people are impressed by you, slowly, slowly, it has a feedback effect. Because they get impressed by you, you become impressed by yourself: "I must be carrying some great message; otherwise, why are so many people mad about me?" He became convinced that he was enlightened. The crowd that was following him everywhere convinced him that he was enlightened

When he came back to India, he was imagining a great reception... Naturally, an enlightened person coming back home, after impressing the whole world... He went directly to Varanasi, which has been the Hindu citadel for centuries, and where the Hindu learned people have their council which decides who is enlightened and who is not. None of these learned people is enlightened, but they are immensely learned as far as scriptures are concerned. So Ramateertha first approached the council of the learned to get recognition.

Now to me, even the idea of getting recognition from someone means you are not certain about your own attainment -- you are asking recognition from those who are not enlightened! On what grounds do they have the authority to recognize you?

In the first place, your asking makes it certain that you are not enlightened. Secondly, you are asking people who are not enlightened themselves -- that reinforces that you don't understand what enlightenment is. It never needs anybody's recognition; it is a self-evident phenomenon. Even if the whole world says you are not enlightened, it does not matter. And even if the whole world says you are enlightened and you are not, then too, you will not become enlightened.

Something very strange happened there: one scholar of the council asked Ramateertha -- It was sheer stupidity for Ramateertha to go to the council -- one scholar asked, "Do you know Sanskrit?" And Ramateertha had no knowledge of Sanskrit because he came from the part that is now in Pakistan. It was a Mohammedan area; there the language of the learned people was Arabic, Persian, Urdu. It was not the part where Sanskrit had any influence. So he was very deeply rooted in Persian and Arabic literature and certainly Sufi literature has a beauty which Sanskrit literature does not have.

Sanskrit literature is very dry, like mathematics. Sufi literature is pure poetry. It has certain juiciness about it because the whole of Sufism is based on a foundation of love. Sufis are the only people in the world who think of God as the beloved, like a girlfriend. Naturally, they have written beautiful poetry for the beloved. God is not a man, but a beautiful woman! No poetry can reach the heights of Sufi poetry.

Ramateertha was at a loss. He said, "No, I don't know anything about Sanskrit. I come from the part of the country where Sanskrit is far away; even Hindi is not spoken.

All those scholars laughed, and they said, "Without knowing Sanskrit, do you think one can become enlightened? First, learn Sanskrit."

I can forgive all those idiots, but I cannot forgive Ramateertha, because he started learning Sanskrit! -- just to get the recognition from unenlightened people that he is enlightened.

I have always liked his discourses, but I have always found places in them which show decisively that the man is only an intellectual. He has no experience of his own. He knows beautiful poetry, he can talk in a very poetic way; he knows beautiful Sufi stories, he can explain those stories very impressively. But he himself is a beggar -- his bowl is empty.

Such is the situation of Ta Hui. Understanding Ta Hui will help you to understand many others who are in the same boat.

Ramateertha went to the Himalayas, to a small state called Tihri Garhwal. The king of that state was very much impressed by Ramateertha, so he made him a special bungalow in the mountains, where he was learning Sanskrit in order to be recognized.

One day it happened... Ramateertha had a secretary, a certain Sardar Pooran Singh who was a great writer in Punjabi, certainly a very refined writer -- his prose is almost like poetry. He was so impressed by Ramateertha that he dropped his job, became Ramateertha's secretary and was taking care of his body, his letters and the correspondence from all over the world...

One day, looking out of the window, Ramateertha saw his wife coming. He had been married, but he had renounced his poor wife and become a sannyasin. The wife was so poor that she was doing all kinds of jobs in the village, grinding people's wheat or washing people's clothes. She did not even have the tickets for traveling...

When she heard that Ramateertha was in Tihri Garhwal, she had sold a few ornaments that had been given to her at the time of their marriage. She just wanted to touch the feet of Ramateertha. She had not come to complain -- she was really glad. In the East that has been the tradition: if the husband becomes a world-renowned sannyasin... even though the wife was living in rotten circumstances, still she was very happy that she had a husband whose name would go down in the corridors of history.

When Ramateertha saw his wife coming, he told Sardar Pooran Singh, "Close the window and close the door, and go out on the veranda. My wife is coming. Tell her that I am not here, that I have gone into seclusion in the forest, and nobody knows when I am supposed to return. Just somehow get rid of her."

Sardar Pooran Singh was a very sincere man. He said, "This is strange because I have seen you allowing people, both men, and women, to see you. Why are you preventing your own wife, whom you have renounced? Now she is no longer in any relation to you. Your preventing her means that deep down your mind still believes that she is your wife. Why are you discriminating between other women and her? And why are you so afraid?
"Certainly that poor woman cannot do anything to you. It must be something inside you of which you are afraid. I am not going to close the window or the door. And I cannot lie to the woman. You have to decide one thing: either you have to see her or I am no longer your secretary, no longer your disciple. I am going."

Ramateertha could not afford for Pooran Singh to go. He was dependent on him for everything. So he said, "Okay if you insist, I will see her." And his wife came with tears of joy and just touched the earth, not even his feet. And Pooran Singh wrote in his diary, "Even my tears started flowing. The woman is so respectful, she does not consider him her husband anymore. He has become so divine to her that even to touch his feet will be defiling him."

Pooran Singh touched the feet of Ramateertha's wife. He said, "To me you are more religious and more understanding than Ramateertha." And Ramateertha felt so ashamed... you will not believe what he did: he immediately changed his clothes. He was wearing the orange robe of a Hindu sannyasin. He dropped that and took clothes from Sardar Pooran Singh -- ordinary clothes, not those of a sannyasin. Sardar Pooran Singh asked, "What are you doing?"

Ramateertha said, "I am so ashamed. I am not enlightened; I am not even worthy to be called a sannyasin. The recognition has come to me, although late, but still it is good that it has come to me. I have been believing that I am enlightened, that I have renounced the world. No, seeing my wife I could see all my lust, all my repressed sexuality. I am not worthy of these orange clothes." And then he went out of the bungalow and jumped from the mountains into the Ganges -- the Ganges flows just nearby, coming down from the mountains. He committed suicide.

But such is the hypocrisy of the society that the same learned people who refused to accept him as enlightened started saying that he had "renounced his body" -- not that he committed suicide, not that he had committed a crime. Their actual word is jal samadhi: "He has dropped into the water and become one with existence."

And still there exists a Ramateertha League, and there are followers... and his books are published, and people are reading those books in order to become enlightened.

Intellect can deceive you, can deceive others.

Beware of the intellect.

Beware of the mind.

Be very careful; don't be impressed easily. Certainly don't be impressed through the intellect. If suddenly a connection happens from being to being, that's another matter.

Source - Osho Book "The Great Zen Master Ta Hui"

The soul is the ultimate truth or Brahman. The Soul is self-evident.

The soul is the ultimate truth or Brahman. The Soul is self-evident. The soul is present in the form of consciousness.  It is not established by extraneous proofs. It is not possible to deny the soul, because It is the very essence of the one who denies It. The soul is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, presuppositions and proofs. The soul is the true self. Self is within, Self is without; Self is before, Self is behind; Self is on the right, Self is on the left; Self is above and Self is below.

Investigation of the Self and Investigations of the 3 states of existence - waking, sleeping, deep sleep the self has a single unitary existence; its inherent nature is "Existence, Consciousness and Bliss". The universe and its contents are truly this at its core, but have seemingly forgotten about their true nature, in the present state of duality, which is caused by ignorance of the reality.

The non-dual self-awareness  is not an individual experience but it is the nature of the consciousness, which is the true self.  Consciousness pervades all the three states thus the self is not limited to the waking entity or waking world or dream entity or dream world.  Consciousness is the formless witness of all the three states and witnesses the waking or dream experience as a whole without the physical apparatus.

This uninterrupted Blissful awareness  is achievable by every being in this life itself, once he/she realizes this and works towards discarding the "unreal” by discriminating between real and unreal mentally.

Consciousness, which is the “true self”, does not have birth, life and death. It has not taken birth and it will not take birth. It is beyond birth, life and death, it is immortal, and it is ancient, it does not perish when the mind, which is in the form of the universe, perishes. The universe or mind is like the wave of the see but not the sea, which is the “true self” or consciousness.

Consciousness cannot be cut, cannot be burnt, cannot be melted; neither can be dried. It is eternal, unmovable, unlike the universe or mind which perishes.   It is the cause of duality. It is the consciousness or self, which oversees the duality or the universe or the mind.  

The consciousness projects itself as the inherent power of the universe.  The self-i.e., Consciousness is the essence of all happenings and circumstances in, which the seeker attempts to know the truth of his true existence.

All experiences of individual actions, conducts happenings are within the universe are a mere mirage created out of the true self, which is consciousness. All the conceivable actions and happenings are attributable to the true self in the form consciousness. 

Consciousness is real and consciousness is both real and unreal because the unreal universe or the mind is erupted out of the real, which is consciousness. Whoever does not know the truth that the self is consciousness, falls prey to his ignorance and suffers by experiencing the illusory pain and pleasure as reality.  

All the experiences of  happenings such as birth, life and death, good or bad pain and pleasure, past , present and future are a mere mirage created out of consciousness itself . When wisdom dawns, the ignorance vanishes and   the consciousness alone prevails as eternal reality.     

Self-knowledge is achievable without the grace of any guru or conceptual god or the mercy of some godly men. The seeker has to simply wake up to the Reality (consciousness), which is the formless substance and the witness of the unreal (universe of mind).

At the end of the quest the seeker becomes aware of the fact that, the true self is consciousness.  There is nothing exists other than consciousness. Thus consciousness is Ultimate Reality. 

Sri Ramana Maharishi Says: - The self is fullness of consciousness. Therefore, there is nothing apart from it. Ramana would humorously say that if god were to be separate he would be self-less. As for Sadguru his individuality is dead. It is merged in the self like waves in the sea. So, he is the Self. The guru and god are not different in their essential nature as unlimited consciousness is the same. (Page-8 – Practical Guide To Know Yourself). 

Consciousness is being identified by another name "Nothingness", because truly if there was Nothingness in the end, there must be one "final witness" to that Nothingness.

Consciousness is the substance and the witness of the duality.  The duality is present in the form of mind. The mind is present in the form of the universe. The universe appears as waking or dream and diapers as deep sleep. The one which is aware of the coming and going of the three states is neither the waking entity nor the dream entity but the formless soul, which is present in the form of consciousness.  When the soul becomes aware of its formless non-dual true nature in the midst of duality it is called self –awareness. It is foolish to limit the consciousness only to duality because the consciousness pervades all the three states 

Sage Sri, Gaudapada’s rational exposition of Advaita: - that whatever is seen, whether external or internal, whether by the ordinary persons or yogis, is unreal. 

A permanent view of the world as unreal can come only after soul centric reasoning; such knowledge cannot change. Were the seeker who is sufficiently sharpness he could grasp the unreal nature of the world by soul-centric reasoning alone.  To know the whole truth, one must know the whole universe, otherwise he gets only half-truth. 

 When waking entity becomes aware of the fact that, it itself is not the self but the self is the formless soul or consciousness than wisdom dawns. The soul or consciousness is the formless witness of the coming and going of the three states. The formless witness is also the substance of the three states. Thus in reality the formless witness and substance are one in essence.   In reality all the three states are one in essence. Therefore, the three states are mere mirage created out of consciousness, the innermost self.

When the ultimate truth is rightly known and one attains eternal life thereby. Through soul, the innermost self he gains strength and through its knowledge immortality.

Not by intellectual   speculation but only by an awakening to the reality of his true existence he gets soul-centric vision. Soul, the innermost self’s nature is like state of deep sleep.

Religion, yoga and intellectualism are not the means to acquire self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  Without getting rid of the ignorance and trying to get self-awareness through religion and yoga is like a sleeping man trying to know what he is about, without waking up. As sleep is to waking, so is ordinary life to the state of realization. 

The one who identifies himself as a swami, guru or yogi is not a Gnani. A Gnani never identifies himself as swami, guru, pundit or yogi. Swami, guru, pundit or yogi belongs to religious and yogic path not to the path of truth or wisdom.  

The scholar will remain as scholars and philosophers will remain as philosophers and intellectual remains as intellectuals arguing on their point of view.

The ultimate truth or Brahman dwells within the three states like fragrance in the flower; Musk lies within the Musk-deer yet seeks it afar." Until one trace the truth within the three states the illusion of birth, life, death and the world is experienced as reality.  –FORMLESS PATH 

If someone has acquired self-knowledge and shares his acquired knowledge with others, they cannot say that there is nothing for them to do. Everyone has to discover a fresh for himself by verifying all the facts. Each one has to grasp assimilate and realize it until he gets firm conviction of the ultimate truth or Brahman.  

A Gnani never considers himself as a Gnani. A Gnani do not consider himself as wise and others are less wise. No one is wise or less wise in in pursuit of truth. The inner revolution starts within and ends within. Gnani is neither a scriptural scholar nor he is a philosopher.  

A Gnani is   neither a teacher nor he has any teaching.  He silently works and helps the fellow seekers inspiring them guiding them towards inner reality in his own way. The scholar will remain as scholars and philosophers will remain as philosophers and intellectual remains as intellectuals arguing on their point of view. A Gnani does not  propagate any philosophy because philosophy is nothing to do with the pursuit of truth.  

Gnani respects all the sages of the truth of the past. Sharing the knowledge is his only mission.  Inspiring the serious and sincere seekers of truth and divert their attention towards the inward reality is very much necessary.  Seekers should not hold any teacher or teaching or wise men as a yardstick and indulge in argument instead try to list out the doubts and confusion arises from that teaching or declaration and try to find answers independently on their own, which opens the inner dialog, and the inner discrimination will start on its own in the subconscious, and then the truth will start revealing on its own without intellectual spoon feeding. It is not my advice but it is my humble suggestion because the advice comes from the ego and suggestion comes from the inner core of the existence.  

There is no need to follow anyone. If one wants Brahman to follow the inner guru not Hinduism.  If one wants ultimate truth follow Christ within not Christianity.  If one wants Nirvana to follow Buddha not Buddhism.  By glorifying the form and name of the sages will not yield truth. Deeper self-search is needed in order to realize what is what. It is not the man who has to get self-realization but it is the self that has to realize it is not the man and the world but it is consciousness. Thus it is the self, which has urge for freedom from this illusory prison called universe or mind.  

The universe will not vanish, when wisdom dawns, only the ignorance disappears and unreal nature of the universe or mind or waking is exposed, same way as the unreal nature of the dream exposed when waking takes place. The wisdom dawns in the midst of duality because in reality there is no duality. 

Nothing is needed other than perfect understanding of what is what is needed. The truth cannot be experienced. Because it is prior to any experience. Experience belongs to individuality. And individuality is falsehood. There is neither individual nor his experience in reality.

Man and his experience of the world cannot exist without waking experience. Whatever we are discussing, we are discussing within the waking experience, which is mere illusion from ultimate standpoint.  Thus whatever is known, seen, believed and experienced as a person is bound to be falsehood. 

The path of religion, the path of yoga and path of wisdom is meant for different classes of people. Mixing up with one another is like mixing oil in water.  One has to move ahead with his chosen path, which satisfies him. 

People who are concerned about the humanity are unaware of the fact that, their ignorance of their true existence is cause of experiencing the illusion as reality.

The practical life within the practical world is nothing to do with the innermost self. Man of truth does not renounce his worldly life and try escape from the ups and downs of the practical life. He loves humanity and attends all family and social obligations like any other householder but inwardly he moving towards his spiritual destination.  

Most People think those who follow path of truth are some useless guys wasting their time and life, only path of humanity and service are real path. That is their person opinion. The path of truth is very personal journey. Mixing egocentric paths such as path of humanity, yogic, religious path of love is like mixing oil in the water because the path of truth is soul-centric path. Egocentric paths are nothing to do with the path of wisdom.  

Truth pursuit is a mental journey. It is nothing to do with the practical life and practical world. The practical life within the practical world will go on with all its ups and downs. The man of truth is outwardly is concerned about the humanity as much as others but inwardly he is fully aware of the practical life within the practical world are mere illusion.

Only religious and yogic path people are advised to renounce the worldly life and adopt some sorts of discipline. Seeker of truth need not renounce worldly life. They need not go anywhere. They need not spend their fortune on their pursuit of truth. They need not follow anyone. They need not renounce family life, because it is inward journey [mental journey]. Pursuit of is pursuit of verification not pursuit of argument. Only perfect understanding of what is what will help the seeker to realize the ultimate truth of Brahman in lesser time and effort.  

The truth is not some information. And information is not truth. The information is mere signposts. It only highlights the obstacles in pursuit of truth, and it helps the seeker to remove the obstruction mentally which is blocking his realization. . Pursuit of truth is not for those who are follow egocentric paths. Everyone has to move on his chosen path which he feels is right for him.   

Sage Sri Sankara and Maya or illusion

VlSHNUVARDHANA, the King of the Hoysalas, was a Vaishnavite and was greatly incensed at the doctrine taught by Sri, Sankara that everything here below is an illusion. He wanted to teach the exponent of this doctrine a lesson. So he invited the then Sri, Sankara to his palace. That holy man went there and stoutly maintained that everything in this world was illusion. The king had arranged to let loose an infuriated elephant against Sri, Sankara. The beast rushed at Sri, Sankara who took to a precipitate flight to save himself. 

'Oh, Venerable Sir,' shouted the king, 'why do you run so fast seeing that the elephant is only an illusion?'

'Oh, king,' said Sri,Sankara in his course of his flight, 'my running too is an illusion. Everything in this world is an illusion. 

Thus the humanity is part and parcel of the illusion.  Whatever we do within the illusion is bound to be illusion. People who are concerned about the humanity are unaware of the fact that, their ignorance of their true existence is cause of experiencing the illusion as reality. All their concern about humanity is within the illusion. Therefore there is a need for them to understand their  own existence as a person and their experience of the world are reality within the waking experience,which is mere illusion from ultimate standpoint.  

Similarly, we all are searching truth within the illusion not being aware of the fact that, the illusion is created out of single stuff which is:-formless consciousness ,which is the inner most self. The consciousness is ultimate truth or Spirit or Self or Christ or Brahman or Emptiness.

Thus searching the truth within the illusion with the illusory self, within the illusory experience, has to be illusion. The illusion is created, and sustained, and finally dissolves as consciousness, which is the innermost Self. Since, there is no second thing other than the consciousness; the consciousness itself is ultimate truth or Brahman.