In India there is an organization of Hindu monks. It has been founded by one of the politicians who
has been twice prime minister of India, for a few days only. His name is Guljarilal Nanda. Whenever a prime minister dies this man is put as acting prime minister. Before the second one comes, for a
few days, a few weeks, he remains a prime minister. He has no support but he is a person who can
be relied on not to create any trouble. And he is not even courageous enough to create any trouble
– he is a weakling.
Sometimes your weakness proves of great help. When Jawaharlal died, Morarji was hoping to
become immediately the acting prime minister, but he was not chosen because he is, although very
mediocre, also very stubborn. If once he becomes acting prime minister then it will be difficult to
recall him, to tell him to get down. He will not get down so easily once he gets up.
Some weakling has to be chosen for the interim period so you put him up like a puppet; and when
you want him down, he comes down. The same man did it twice: when Jawaharlal died he became
the prime minister, and when Lal Bahadur Shastri died he became the prime minister. Both times
Morarji was hoping, and both times he was denied, because everybody was afraid that once he got
up, he would not come down.
But this man was cowardly, weak; hence, naturally, he could not manage to be a great political force.
Guljarilal Nanda turned towards religion. Many weaklings turn towards religion, many cowardly
people turn towards religion, because here you don’t need much guts. He founded an organization
of Hindu monks; he was the president of the organization.
When I started initiating people into sannyas, he told me, ”You are creating trouble.”
I said, ”What trouble?”
He said, ”You are giving them the same robe. Now it is going to be a very confusing thing: who is
who?”
I said, ”That is what I want to do. And I am going to fill your whole organization with my sannyasins,
you cannot prevent it. And soon you will see, my sannyasins will be the president, the secretaries,
in your organization.”
They became freaked out so much! I was just joking – I was not interested; who bothers about these
idiots and their organizations? They became so freaked out they immediately made a resolution that
anybody wearing my mala should not be allowed in the organization as a member – ”He is not really
a Hindu sannyasin.”
I said, ”That’s true, he is not. He is neither a Hindu sannyasin nor a Mohammedan sannyasin, nor
a Christian sannyasin. He is just himself. The orange robe I have chosen is just to destroy this
monopolistic idea.”
But Ramateertha was subdued so much by those mere intellectuals that he dropped his orange
robe. These are all ways of the ego. Now he would learn Sanskrit; he would prove to himself that
he was a scholar in Sanskrit too – and with grace and honor he would receive the robe from them.
These are the ways of the ego. Who are they? On what authority ...? Just because they are
crammed with rotten knowledge? So I said to his followers, ”To me his saying that ‘Ramateertha is hungry’ rather than saying, ‘I am hungry’ does not change his ego; it simply makes it more
complicated. And the greatest problem is, he may be deceived by it. If others are deceived, that
is not much of a trouble; he himself may be deceived. He may himself start thinking that he has
dropped the ego because now he never uses the word ‘I’.”
So the question is not of using the word. The question is of understanding how you are using it. Use
it as a utility, don’t make it a psychological trip.
Now you are asking me – how are we going to raise the consciousness of the world? Why should
we raise the consciousness of the world? Are you nuts or something? Can’t you let the world alone?
You just raise your consciousness.
No, but this is how the world is. Nobody is interested in raising his own consciousness. Everybody
is interested in raising the world’s consciousness – that seems to be easier, more fun. To raise one’s
own consciousness is arduous. To raise the consciousness of the world is just fun, no problem to
you. Whether it is raised or not, you are not losing anything.
Yes, by trying to raise it suddenly you become a great sage, you become a great religious leader,
you become world famous. You are raising the consciousness of the world – as if consciousness
is just lying down there asleep and you just have to wake it up. Just pour cold water over it and
consciousness rises up and says, ”What is the matter? Who is troubling me?”
It is not so easy. Consciousness is not there in any collective sense, there is no world consciousness.
There are only trees, no forest. Forest is only a word – convenient, useful, but non-existential. If you
go in search of a forest you will never find it. Standing in the middle of it still you will not find it. What
you will find always is an individual tree, and of course an individual tree is not the forest.
This consciousness of the world, consciousness of humanity, is just a word. Don’t fall into linguistic
games.
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