For to the one who has will be given more and he will have more than enough. But the one who does not have even what he has will be taken away from him
-(Bible, Matthew 25:29)
Speaker: The one who already has, shall be given more and more and more. The one who has not, shall be deprived of even that which he has.
This sounds very unlike our image of God. He is giving to those who already have and he is taking away from those who do not have. What is this thing about having and not having? The only thing if it can be called so, worth having, is God himself. Call him Truth, call him Love, call him Freedom, Simplicity, Joy, Realization, whatsoever, you may pick the word according to your conditioning depends on you, but that is the only thing worth having.
Lovers say that when we have Love, we do not want anything else. Those who saw Truth, they said after Truth what else is needed? Those who got Freedom, they said Freedom is freedom from wanting itself. So after Freedom what else can you want? But whosoever sought it always said that this is the one, only ultimate thing to be had- Truth, Love, Freedom, God.
Now, here we have Jesus saying that who has shall be given more, and that is the thing about God. He is infinite. There can be no boundary. The more you move into God, themore you find that your capacity to move into God has expanded. God is like infinite rain. How much you get depends on your capacity to hold. Your mind, your self is the container that holds God. It depends on how narrow its walls are. The more broad it is, the more it can hold God or let me just say that the more God it can hold. That doesn’t mean that when it will hold more God, then there will be less God remaining to be held, because God is infinite. In fact, it is only upon getting more that you realize that more is left to be had, because even this realization depends upon your capacity.
That is the reason why we come across a very startling paradox in this world. What is that paradox? Those who do not have God, do not even miss God. See, normally our common sense would suggest that if there is something valuable and I do not have it, then I would miss it, but that doesn’t happen. Those who don’t have God, don’t even miss God. Missing is a privilege not available to them. They do not even realize what they are missing, so they are happy in their ignorance. In fact all happiness is nothing but this ignorance. You do not know that God is missing from your life, so you are happy.
You have this, that, some object, some fantasy but you don’t have the real thing and you don’t even know that you don’t have the real thing, so you’re happy. If there is one stupidity that is available to the mind, it is happiness. ‘I have this.’ The more your capacity to have God increases, the more you realize how much can be had, the more you realize the scope of the opportunity, and hence the more you realize what you are missing. It is strange, very paradoxical. The more you get, the more you miss. The less you get, the less you miss.
Saints sing songs of missing the ultimate lover. The common man never sings any such song. The common man does not seem to miss anything, he is not missing anything at all. He has his ginger-tea and ginger-wife, and both are tasty. He is alright, he is not missing anything. Saints are missing, and if you look at the songs of saints, you would sometimes feel as if they have been punished. You would wonder why is this man exhibiting so muchgrief. You read a Rumi or the love songs of Kabir or Meera or all the other mystics throughout the world, it seems as if their hearts have been torn apart. They are waiting, weeping, constantly looking, a perpetual longing defines their life, and the longing keeps on increasing.
There is Joy in this longing, a very inexplicable Joy . Every consecutive moment, all that you are coming to know is that I don’t have it, I don’t even have more of it, it is so expansive that I can’t really have it. Moment by moment, you are realizing only this and this realization itself gives you such pleasure. You are saying, ‘Look at my beloved lover, look at my lord, I can’t have him, and he is my Lord. And it pleases me that I can neverhave him fully.’
Then this magic happens, the moment you say that it pleases me that I am a dwarf in front of you, he reveals more of himself and you feel more like a dwarf. The moment you say that now I am big enough to hold you and contain you, he actually reduces himself and you actually feel that you have contained him. ‘Aah! Now I am holding you, now you are within my circumference, now I have laid my hands upon you.’ That’s the trick he plays. He is a rascal actually. You say, ‘I can contain you, I know you’ and he will act as if you really know him. ‘It’s alright. Yes, you know me.’ And you tell him, ‘I am so small and you are so big’, he will tell you, ‘No, you are smaller than you think and I am bigger than you can ever think.’
To the common man it is sheer injustice. He says, ‘See, that fellow is so humble, he is saying that Lord, I am so small and you are so big’, and to him lord becomes even bigger. He is already so humble. Why are you further crushing him down under the weight of your revelation? Because that is the only good that the Lord can do to you, crush you down. The more you are prepared to be crushed, the more he will crush you down, themore harsh he will be with you, and it appears so unjust.
The ones who are close to him get the harshest punishments. The ones who are away from him are granted the best pleasures. In fact, all pleasure is nothing but punishment of separation, there is no other definition of pleasure. For those who are close to the Lord, there is just punishment. Even the last traces of your ego will be wiped away. Even the last remains of your self will be burnt. And he will be harsh, he will show no mercy. That is his love. This harshness itself is his love. You come close to him, he will burn down your ego. You go further away and further away and further away, you will enter the domain of pleasure, because ego finds pleasure in separation from the center.
So you will find all these happy men and happy women giggling, laughing, entertaining themselves, celebrating marriages and child-birth. They have really been granted pleasures. This pleasure is real punishment.
What appears like his punishment, is the gift of love, in punishment is love. And when he really punishes you, he gives you pleasure. Strange are his ways and he does not conform to any of your codes of law. Your courts will fail to understand what kind of justice is this. To all the rascals you are granting pleasure, to all the devotees you are only giving tests, punishments. This is what happens.
He is a saying, ‘One who has not shall be deprived of what he has.’ So, those who havelittle have only two choices, either to move into fullness or lose even that much what theyhave. A common wish that we entertain is to remain in the middle, to maintain that balance, to have a little bit of both. ‘I am a little bit spiritual and a little bit materialistic.’
Now Lord says, ‘I don’t like this middleness.’ In fact middlemen are not tolerated in his business. He says, ‘Either you come fully to me or you move away from me. And if you are hell bent on preserving a sense of separation, then all you will get is more separation. If you want to maintain a distance, then I will increase the distance. If you are coming close to me, I shall draw you even closer. You come close to me, and I shall create situations that will enable you and help you coming close to me. But if you want to remain at your place, if you want to maintain the distance, I will not allow you to maintain the distance, I will increase the distance.’
So, ‘Those who have little shall be deprived of even what they have’, that little bit of closeness that you had, even that shall be taken away, the distance shall be increased. Your wish will not be granted. Your wish is that let me stay at a safe distance. ‘I do not want to go too far away because you know one needs to have some face to show to himself. A little bit of moral goodness. I also need to declare to myself that I am not too far away from the Lord otherwise I will have to become evil in my own eyes.’ So you want to maintain a safe distance, you don’t want to go away either. You want to maintain that four-feet distance.
The Lord says, ‘No, either come and merge into me, or I will increase this four-feet distance into four kilometres, and if still you don’t heed then the distance will become infinite.’ Getting it? Those who have, will be given more and more. Those who want tohave just a little, shall be deprived of even that which they have.
We have many people who want to have just a little, who want to maintain their sense of fifty-fifty. Balance. fifty-fifty won’t do. At least that’s what Jesus says. He says fifty-fifty shall be converted into zero-hundred. You go totally on that side. One step in-one step out is not tolerated. In my Lord’s kingdom we cannot have the middle path, either it is here or there, fifty-fifty won’t do. Bad news! Those who have little, shall be deprived of even the little. Those who have much, shall be given all the more. But why worry? Those who are thrown away, are thrown away into pleasure. Your life will be full of pleasures. Thou shall have the pleasure of sleeping till eleven in the morning on Sundays, which is right now not available.
None of you are beginners anymore. The highest texts that have been written in the history of mankind have been opened to you. Highest texts opened in the highest manner possible. If still your life is colourless and lukewarm, then you do not need texts, you need something else. No more can be given. What else can be given? This is not hobby or pastime that you can generally keep reading it. These are medicines, the medicines haverun their course, the course is finished. You have to ask yourself whether it is possible to be more unlucky than you. With all the medicines having run their course, you are still what you were. Can one be more unfortunate than this?
Find this out for yourself.
-Excerpts from Clarity Session held at Advait Sthal. Edited for clarity.
