The next question:
Question 4
YOU QUOTED GEORGE GURDJIEFF AS SAYING THAT IDENTIFICATION IS
THE ONLY SIN, BUT IN MANY TECHNIQUES THE PROCESS OF
IDENTIFICATION IS USED. THEY SAY, FOR EXAMPLE, BECOME ONE WITH
THE BELOVED, BECOME ONE WITH THE ROSEFLOWER, OR BECOME ONE
WITH THE MASTER. AND, MOREOVER, EMPATHY IS SUPPOSED TO BE A
MEDITATIVE AND SPIRITUAL QUALITY, SO THE ABOVE SAYING OF
GURDJIEFF'S SEEMS TO BE PARTIALLY TRUE AND USEFUL ONLY FOR
CERTAIN TECHNIQUES.
No! It is not partially true, it is totally true. But you will have to understand.
Identification is unconscious, but when you use identification in a meditative technique it
is conscious.
For example, your name is Ram. Someone insults "Ram" -- immediately YOU feel
insulted because you are identified with the name Ram. But this is not a conscious thing
for you, it is unconscious. Your mind doesn't work in this way: "I am called Ram. Of
course, I am not Ram, this is only my name, and everyone is born nameless. This name is
given, and it is arbitrary. This man is only insulting my arbitrary name, so am I to be
angry or not?" You would never reason it out in this way. If you reasoned it out in this
way, you would not be angry at all. Suddenly someone insults "Ram" and you are
insulted, but this is just an arbitrary name. This identification is unconscious, it is not
conscious.
When you are identifying with a rose, it is a conscious effort. You are not identified with
the rose. You are TRYING to identify yourself with the rose, and you are trying to forget
yourself. You are trying to become one with the rose, and you are deeply conscious,
aware of the whole process. YOU are doing it. Even if identification is done consciously,
it becomes a meditation. And if you do a certain technique of meditation unconsciously,
it is not meditation -- remember.
You go on doing your prayer every morning or every night unconsciously, just as a
routine affair. While doing it you are not conscious at all of what you are doing. You are
not conscious at all of what words you are saying in prayer. You just repeat them like a
parrot. This is not meditation. And if you are taking your bath consciously, it is a
meditation. So remember this: whatsoever you are doing consciously, with alertness,
fully aware, becomes meditation. Even if you kill someone consciously, while fully conscious, it is meditative.
That is what Krishna was saying to Arjuna: "Do not be afraid. Kill, murder, fully
consciously, knowing fully that no one is murdered and no one is killed." Arjuna could
very easily kill his enemies unconsciously. He could go mad in a rage and kill -- that is
easy. But Krishna is saying, "Be alert, be fully conscious. Just become the instrument of
divine hands, and know well that no one is killed, no one can be killed.
The inner being is eternal, immortal. So you are only destroying forms, not that which is
behind the forms. So destroy the forms." If Arjuna can be so meditatively aware then
there is no violence, no one is killed, no sin is committed.
I will tell you one anecdote in Nagarjuna's life. Nagarjuna was one of the great masters
India has produced -- of the caliber of Buddha and Mahavir and Krishna. And Nagarjuna
was a rare genius. Really, on the intellectual level there is no comparison in the whole
world; such a keen and penetrating intellect rarely happens. He was passing through a
city, a capital city, and he always remained naked. The queen of that kingdom was a
believer, a follower and a lover of Nagarjuna, a devotee. So Nagarjuna came to the palace
to ask for food. He had one wooden begging bowl. The queen said, "Give this begging
bowl to me. I will cherish it as a gift, and I have another made for you. You can take
that."
Nagarjuna said, "Okay!" The other one was golden, and many precious stones were set in
it; it was very valuable. Nagarjuna didn't say anything. Ordinarily no sannyasin would
take it, he would say, "I cannot touch gold." But Nagarjuna took it. If really gold is just
mud, then why make any distinction? He took it. Even the queen didn't feel it to be good.
She felt, "Why? He should have said no. Such a great saint! Why has he taken such a
valuable thing while he lives naked, without any clothes, without any possessions? Why
should he not reject it?"
If Nagarjuna had rejected it, the queen would have insisted, requested, but then she
would have felt better.
Nagarjuna took it and went away. One thief saw him passing through the city, and the
thief thought, "This man cannot keep this begging bowl, someone is bound to steal it or
someone is bound to take it away from him. With the nakedness -- how can he protect
it?" So he followed... the thief followed Nagarjuna.
Nagarjuna was staying outside the town in an old monastery, alone; the monastery was
just in ruins. He went in, he heard the footsteps of the man, but he didn't look behind
because he thought, "He must be coming for the begging bowl, not for me, because who
would come? No one ever comes following me to these ruins."
He went in. The thief stood behind a wall and waited. Nagarjuna, seeing that he was
waiting outside, threw the begging bowl out of the door. The thief couldn't understand:
"What type of man is this? Naked, with such a precious thing, and he has thrown it out."
So he asked Nagarjuna, "Can I come in, sir? I have to ask a question."
Nagarjuna said, "I have thrown the bowl out just so that you can come in -- to help you to
come in, because I am just going to take my afternoon nap. You would have come for the
begging bowl, but then there would have been no meeting with me. So come in."
The thief came in. He said, "Such a precious thing and you have thrown it? And you are
such a sage that I cannot lie before you -- I am a thief." Nagarjuna said, "Do not be
worried, everyone is a thief.
You proceed on, do not waste time about such unnecessary things."
The thief said, "Sometimes, looking at persons like you, my mind also longs to know
how this state can be attained. I am a thief; it seems impossible for me. But I hope and I
pray that someday I will also be capable of throwing away such a precious thing. Teach
me something. I go to many sages, and I am a well-known thief, so everyone knows me.
They say, `First leave your business, your profession, only then can you proceed in
meditation.' That is impossible, I cannot leave it, so I cannot proceed in meditation."
Nagarjuna said, "If someone says first leave thieving and then proceed in meditation,
then he doesn't know meditation at all -- because how is meditation related with theft?
There is no relationship. So you go on doing whatsoever you are doing. I will give you a
technique; you practice this."
The thief said, "Now it seems we can go on together. So I can go on doing my
profession? What is the technique? Tell me immediately!"
Nagarjuna said, "You just remain aware. When you go to steal something, just be fully
conscious and aware. When you are breaking into some house, be fully conscious. When
you are breaking into a treasury, be fully conscious. When you are taking something out
of the treasury, be fully conscious. Do it consciously. Whatsoever you do is no concern
of mine.
And come after fifteen days, but do not come if you have not practiced. Practice for
fifteen days: go on doing whatsoever you are doing, but do it fully consciously."
The third day the thief came back and he said, "Fifteen days are too long, and you are a
very tricky fellow. You have given me such a technique that if I am fully conscious I
cannot steal. The last three nights continuously I have been to the palace. I reached the
treasury, I opened it, precious things were before me, but then I became fully conscious.
And the moment I become fully conscious, I became like a Buddha statue. I could not
proceed further; my hand would not move, and the whole treasury seemed useless. So I
have been going back there again and again. What am I to do? And you said that leaving
my profession was not a condition, but your method seems to have a built-in process."
Nagarjuna said, "Do not come to me again. Now you can choose. If you want to go on
stealing, forget meditation. If you want meditation, then forget stealing. You can
choose." The thief said, "You have put me in a dilemma. For these three days I have
known that I am alive. And when I came back without taking anything from the palace,
for the first time I felt that I was a sovereign, not a thief. These three days have been so
blissful that now I cannot leave meditation. You have tricked me; now initiate me and
make me your disciple.
There is no need to go on trying, three days are enough."
Whatsoever may be the object, if you are conscious it becomes meditation. Try
identification consciously -- it becomes meditation. Unconsciously, it is a great sin.
You are all identified with many things: "This is mine, that is mine..." You are identified!
"This is my country, this is my nation, this is my national flag..." If someone throws your
national flag you become furious -- what is he doing? You have no nation and all national
flags are myths. It is good to play with them like children do; they are toys. But you can
murder and be murdered for them, and countries can be created and destroyed for
insulting a national flag. And it is just a piece of cloth.
What is happening? You are identified with it. That identification is unconscious.
Unconsciousness is sin.