The Teacher Is the Voice of Truth, Not the Man Behind the Voice
“A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings.
Alone must it seek the ether.
And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun”.
Kahlil Gibran
Speaker: “A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings”. You may say that you are talking, that it is your voice that is emerging. But I am asking you, how is it possible that you, who are limited, are talking of the unlimited?
Kahlil Gibran is saying, “A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings”, that the voice is not really related to the tongue, that the voice is not really related to the lips either, provided the voice is flying towards the sky. And if there are words that relate to the sky, that relate to the Truth, then those words, remember, could not be coming from the tongue or the lips. It might be appearing so, that the movement of the throat, the tongue and the lips is producing that voice but rest assured that the voice does not belong to the throat and the tongue and the lips. Because as I asked, “How can the limited throat and the petty lips talk of the unlimited?” How is it possible that a mind, a body, living in space-time, really talk of the beyond? How is it possible that a brain conditioned to think only of security and continuation, sing of fearlessness and eternity?
Whenever you hear such a voice, you should know that it is not a tongue or a lip talking. Whenever you hear such a voice, you should know that it is not a body or a person talking. Kahlil Gibran is saying exactly what Ramana Maharshi keeps telling you.
“The real Teacher is not a person. The Prophet is not a body”.
I repeat his words, “A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings”. Do not associate these two; do not let your mind be engaged in gossip about the source of the voice. Rest assured the source of the voice is not the throat or the brain. Yes, because the voice is coming to you, so it must appear as if it is coming from a tongue, as if the language has been thought out by a human brain. But no, neither has the language been thought off by the human brain nor is the lip responsible for bringing the words to you. It is the song of the beyond. Just that it is being transmitted through a body, do not be concerned with the body, listen to the song.
“Alone must it seek the ether”. The Truth is subtle, that voice is subtle. The gross body will not reach there, the tongue and the lip and the throat and the brain will not reach there. The Upanishads say, “That the tongue cannot talk of It, the mind cannot think of It, the ears cannot hear of It and the eyes cannot look at It. Alone the Truth, alone reaches the Truth”. Not with the body or with the mind and its thoughts, your hand won’t reach there and your concepts won’t reach there either.
“And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the Sun”. One of the beautiful names given to Truth in Vedant is aniket . Aniket means without nest, without home, without niketan .
“And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the Sun”. Not while carrying his nest. What does nest refers to? It refers to both body and the mind. It refers obviously to the four walls of the house. It refers to the urge of the body to seek shelter and physical pleasure within those walls. But nest also relates to everything that brought you up because whatever brought you up remains in you in form of your mind. That is your nest. Till the time you think of yourself as the product of the factors that brought your body up, till the time you think of yourself as the product of mortal bodies, you will remain exactly that, a mortal body. You will never, never become the eagle that flies across the Sun.
The Sun, the source of all energy, the centre of the movement obviously refers to the Truth. The eagle is what you are, eagle is the mind. At one end of the eagle, at one end of the mind lies the nest, that is one possibility of the eagle’s life. It can spend the life living in the nest. At the other end of the eagle lies the Sun, that is the other possibility of the eagle’s life.
Kahlil Gibran says, “The eagle can fly across the Sun”.
I am saying, “*The eagle can become one with the Sun*”. Merely flying across the Sun does not suffice. And if the eagle is really flying across the Sun, the Sun will pull it. The magnificent charm of the Sun will consume the eagle but only if eagle is first prepared to leave its nest.
And if the eagle is not prepared to leave its nest, it’s alright. Even the nest is being powered by the Sun. Without the Sun where will the twigs and the leaves come from? How will the nest be made? So it is ok, it is a game. As long as the eagle wants to remain a little bird of the nest, the eagle can do that.
But the eagle is born with wings and a restlessness. The eagle is born with wings; the wings refer to your potential. You can fly high. And the restless refers to your suffering. You do not open your wings, you do not fly to the Sun, you will remain suffering in the nest.
But it is alright; it is a game, you can remain suffering.
One day your suffering has to end.
