Fate, Realization, Right Action, Satsang

A. Fate

You had no role to play in the incident, yet it happened. It is outside the purview of your control. All such incidents are called as ‘fate’.

To be born is the first and most important act of fate. None of us decided that we wanted to be born. Right? To be born itself is fate. All of us sitting over here have black hair and black eyes; this is fate. None of us chose it. There are a thousand things that we do not choose. There are thousand things that are just given to us. All that is fate, and so fate obviously is extremely important. You do not choose your gender, you do not choose your age, you do not choose your religion in most cases. You don’t even choose which planet to be born on, and you do not choose various situations that you come across every moment.

None of you decided that air must have around 20 percent oxygen; yet it has. And life of this planet is sustained because there is 20 percent oxygen. Had it been 35 percent or 5 percent, things would have been very different. None of you decide the ambient temperature. All this is just outside of you. Let us all call this collectively as ‘fate’

Fate is what comes to you, but you decide how you respond to it. Understand this. Fate is what comes to you, but still it is you who decided how you respond to it. So, fate may be very-very powerful but you are more powerful than fate. We accept that fate is obviously very powerful, but we are also saying that we are more powerful than fate. We are not denying the role of fate. Yes, fate has a definite role to play. But the role of fate is nothing compared to the role of my being, because the situation in itself means nothing.

We are the ones who interpret the situation, we are the ones who give meaning to the situation and then we are the ones who respond according to our being, our intelligence. Fate may be extremely powerful, but it is powerless when faced with what you are.

B. Realization

Realisation is never one thing. Realisation is never a particular sentence. If I ask you: “What are you thinking?,” you can very clearly tell me, “These are my thoughts.” Thoughts can always be captured in words, because thoughts come from the world, and whatever is there in the world can be put in words.

Do you see anything around you for which you do not have a name? There is always a word available for it. Right? There is the pillar, there is a window pane, there is a fan, there is the light, there is the floor, the building, the birds, the trees. Everything has a name. So thoughts, because they come from the world, they can always be put in a sentence, or in a word.

Realisation, on the other hand, is not about having a particular fixed sentence that you carry. Realisation is like a mirror. And thought is like a painting. A thought is like a painting that was painted five years back. And since five years, the painting is the same. The world has been flowing, but the painting is the same.

The mirror is nothing in itself, the mirror is an empty thing. But the mirror accurately reflects whatever is going on. Mirror is zero, it has nothing of its own, but it accurately tells you what is going on. The mirror never gets influenced by what is going on.

Hard thinking will not lead you to realisation. Even deep thought will not lead you to realisation. Freedom from thought is instant realisation. When the mind is composed, when the mind is not wandering in thoughts, then there is quick, obvious, spontaneous realisation. That is realisation. Like a mirror! You just know.

Let us take this present example. As I am speaking, there are many of you who are just listening, without interpreting, without analyzing, just like a mirror. There are many of you who are just listening. They are the ones who are really understanding. They will realise. And there are others who are caught in thoughts. They might be caught in miscellaneous thoughts of the world, or they might be using my words and comparing them to something else. They will not understand.

Realisation is not possible in a state of thought. Realisation is not possible when the mind is occupied with this and that. Simply attend to the present, and that is realisation. Just attend to what is going on, and that is realisation. Simple and direct!

C. Right Action

The right action happens voicelessly. It comes from nowhere, it goes into nowhere. You don’t even know that you have acted. In fact, if somebody tells you that, “You have made a choice just now”, you would be a little surprised. You would say, “But was there a choice? Have I really made a choice?” Whenever the mind is divided into two parts or ten parts and the parts are going in this direction or that direction, none of the directions is your direction. It is the direction of that particular part, right? See, you are being pulled in ten directions, one of the pullers become strong enough to overpower the other nine, and carry you towards himself, drag you, pull you towards himself. Does it mean that, that puller is you? Does it mean that going in that one’s direction is your freedom? It does not mean that. Similarly, if one of the forces pulling you is too weak, too faint, and it is not able to exercise any control over you. Does it mean that, this really is the force of the Heart? As you said that the voice of the Heart is faint. So, that means, whenever there is a faint pull, that must be the real you. It’s not really so.

None of the divisions of the mind represent the essence of the mind. It can be a large force; it can be a small force. So, when you come to this dilemma of, “What to do? The mind is being pulled in this direction and that direction”, it is not imperative for you to act. You have the freedom to not to go to either direction. You have the freedom to just stay put. Why must you move? Let both the pullers tire down by themselves. Let them keep trying and become exhausted. And then you will spontaneously know which direction to go. The movement will happen on its own. You will not need to decide and choose. Isn’t it obvious?

There is one entity that is pulling to the right. There is one entity that is pulling to the left. And then there is a third entity that is deciding whether to go to the right or go to the left. Even the third one is divided into two parts – one is biased towards the right, one is biased towards the left. Where are you in all this? When all this circus is going on, whatever comes out from this circus will be a joke. (Laughingly) So, let the joke stay as a joke. You don’t need to become a character in all that. Let the forces play out. Let them get tired. Let their power come down a little. And then you can see when movement happens by itself.

D. Satsang

Truth is not in words. Truth is in your own quality. Truth is in the quality of your own mind. Yes, what can happen is, that if the words that you hear, are themselves emanating from the right centre, then it becomes more possible for you to surrender to them. But even then, what you hear is your own domain. Whether have you decided, is your own discretion. You see, the Buddha had said, “The spoon in the soup, lives all its life in the soup, and yet it never tastes the soup,” because ‘tasting’ is your own domain. The soup is all the time available, but you are closed, what can the soup do? What can the soup do? And look at the irony, the soup will be brought to others by that same spoon. That same spoon will bring the soup to others, but itself it will never be able to taste the soup. Can there be a bigger misfortune? You have to decide, you have to give permission. One of the things about Truth is, it is not interested in anything; it is not even interested in your enlightenment. It will not force you. It will say, “You take as much time as you want to. I will come to you only when you are ready, I will come to you only when you say that I am ready. I will stand at the door, waiting, patiently. For an infinite time I will wait, but I will come only when you open the door.”

You have to open the door. That is your domain, your area. Otherwise, even the most sublime words are of little use. And the more you open yourself, the more you will find that your need for words is reducing. Why does a master speak? He speaks because you cannot hear his Silence. So it’s a compulsion that he must speak. Could you listen to him, without his words, he would not want to speak, because he is the first one to know that words do not matter much. But you need arguments, you need words, you need a particular structure, so he would speak. Do not think that there is Truth in his speaking. There is Truth in his presence, that much is alright, but not in the words. The word that is used traditionally, is Satsang. You see, sat-sang does not mention speaking or words at all. It only says, “The right company, being with the Truth. Being immersed in the Truth is, Satsang. Sat-sang, Sat is – that which is, Truth. Sat means – that which is, the present, the Truth. Being with That is enough. Satsang is not Samvaad, Satsang is not an exchange of words. Satsang is just being together, that particular quality of intimacy which does not require the use of senses.

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