There
are many aspects to his life- the most important aspect is that he is a Bu Dha,
that’s not his name, His name is Gautama Siddhartha but he is a Buddha.
Buddha
means- he transcended his intellect. Bu means buddhi, Dha means dhadha, Buddhi
means the intellect; dhadha means one who is above. One who is above his
intellect is a Buddha.
One who
is in his intellect is a non-stop suffering human being (Laughter), something
happens they suffer, nothing happens they suffer, whichever way (Laughs), that
is if you are below the mind we call them buddhu (Laughter). You’re missing the
point.
If you
are above the mind, you are a Buddha, if you are below the mind you are a buddhu,
if you are in the mind, you are non-stop suffering (Few laugh), so how did he
become this? He tried many things in his life.
He was a
prince of a small princely state, because some yogi predicted that this will
either become a great emperor or become a great sage, when he made this
prediction, the father got little excited.
He did
not want him to become a great sage; he wanted to become a great emperor, So he
decided he will not expose him to… because he thought by being exposed to some
suffering or misery, he may turn into a sage so he kept him in utter pleasure-
the best of food, best of clothes, best of pleasures, everything.
When he
was eight… nineteen years of age, he got him married to a very pretty young
woman, Kept him in a palace secluded form the rest of the society where he
lives in pleasure, never exposed to any kind of suffering.
One day
he thought he will just take a drive through the town. He asked his charioteer
to take him across, so he was going and then he saw a man who was old, who was
going like this (Gestures), So he had never seen a old man in his life, his
father had protected him from all this.
He said,
‘what happened to him?’ So the charioteer, Oh! He is just a old man’, ‘How does
it happen’ he asked, He said, ‘everybody gets old someday’, He looked at
himself, he was a nice youth. ‘What! Me also?’ Said, ‘yes, everybody! Everybody
gets old.
They
live long enough, they get old.’ He… this was a realization for him.
I will
become like this (Gestures), then he saw a man lying on the street who was ill
with something, not able to get up, in great suffering, He said, ‘stop! What is
this guy? What’s he doing?’ He said, ‘Oh! He is sick unfortunately’, ‘What does
that mean?’ He said, ‘a body, sometimes it gets sick. It can happen to anybody.
It can
happen to just anybody.’ ‘Me? A Prince! It can happen to me?’ ‘It can happen to
anybody, and then he saw, oh! I can become like this, then they were going
further, he was completely disturbed by this, then he saw a funeral, they were
carrying a dead body of a man. ‘What happened to that guy?’ ‘Oh, he just died
that’s all’, ‘what does that mean?’ ‘That happens to everybody without
exception.’ Then he said, ‘what am I doing? Just eating, pleasures, nonsense,
what am I doing with myself? And he struggled; he went into turmoil within
himself.
This
suddenly being a prince and these pleasures and all this palace sudd… suddenly
broke apart for him and he started looking, what is the point of all this, This
(Referring to Oneself) is going to get old, this may get sick, for sure this
will be dead.
What am
I investing my entire life in this? But by then he had an infant boy, Tch, he
looked at his wife and his child, this loving wife and this lovely little baby,
he could not leave. He struggled and struggled and struggled. By then a little
over one-and-a-quarter years passed, When the boy was one-and-a-half years of
age, he could not hold it anymore In the middle of the night, like a thief,
without telling anybody he slipped out of the palace and left for good, He went
in search; I want to know the truth about this life. He went from school to
school-these are times when different schools were established in India, At one
point there were over 1800 schools, I’m saying not just institutions, 1800
different ways of doing things, 1800 different varieties of yoga.
Not the
kind that you are seeing in California, somebody doing like this (Gestures),
somebody doing like this (Gestures), really intricate expressions.
It is
like how the Medical Science is becoming today. Twenty-five years ago, you
wanted a medical check-up; all you needed was your family doctor. Today
(Laughs) for every part of your body, there is a doctor.
I was
few years ago I had a, you know, I had a knee injury I was playing soccer and I
broke something in the knee And I was all packed up and I was speaking, that’s
how I got into golf because of this knee injury (Laughs), (Few laugh) Somebody
told me… gifted me a golf kit and said, ‘guru you’re too old for any other game
(Few laugh), you just play golf’, So I was sitting there in Atlanta and
talking, speaking at a place. Then I was in pain, I couldn’t even move. So,
after the… when this is over…
I mean
once I accustomed be speaking, one person raised his hand; I believed he wants
a matter, on the choice hand he said, ‘Guru I'd value more highly to look at
your knee after this might be often over. I’m a knee doctor’.
I said,
‘come on, you're an orthopaedic.’ Said, ‘no, no, I’m a knee doctor.’ Then I said,
‘right or left (laughter)?
Which
one are you?’ So specialization, specialization goes, a time will come probably
in fifty years’ time, if you'd quite medical check-up, you would like 100
doctors to check you.
By the
time you get these 100 appointments (Gestures) (Laughter), maybe you'd like an undertaker,
and then it’ll become ridiculous. Okay you visited three doctors, alright. You
visited five doctors, alright.
If it
becomes fifty-hundred doctors for a medical check-up, it’s become ridiculous,
isn't it? This happened to yogic system- people started specializing and
specializing in an exceedingly similar way of small things.
Each
specialization encompasses a unit by itself, someone just came and told me,
there are dentist… okay, and I’m not speaking in any this thing, as example
dentistry, just thirty-two teeth, alright? They study for nine years.
Thirty-two
teeth, nine years of study still they don’t know everything about it. That’s
the character of creation.
If you
start studying one tooth at a time, you may see each of them has something
specific about it, You… somebody can spend a lifetime of study just learning
about one tooth, just see if you had thirty-two dentist to appear into your
mouth (Few laugh), disaster you're, isn't it (Laughs)?, So as specialization,
specialization happens, when it crosses a selected point, it’ll become
ridiculous.
This
happened to yoga. It crossed that point where 1800 schools, different
specializations of yoga happened, So that is when Patanjali came and kind of
assimilated everything into Yoga Sutras to minimize this expanse that was
growing endlessly, So when Gautama came, it had been post-Patanjali but still
there are many things, So he went from school to high school. He pursued eight
differing kinds of Samadhi.
We are
talking about Samadhi, okay (Laughs)?,He pursued eight differing kinds of
Samadhi. He saw all of them were wonderful experiences but still it didn't
liberate him. So during this condition he was walking as a Samana.
There is
a particular system of practice called as Samanas, Their fundamental practice
is this- they'll never evoke food. You’d opt to not be available pursuit of
food because they have to beat the essential instinct of survival.
No
matter what you're always getting in pursuit of food, please understand this,
You may complicate it in numerous ways but fundamentally… you’re talking most
about economy means you’re just wondering survival all the time, isn't it? Survival
glorified, but still its survival, So one fundamental sadhana for them is, you
never pursue your instinct of survival, you only keep going. So Samanas
accustomed just walk, never requesting food, But the culture was sensitive, if
they saw a spiritual person walking, people will cook reception and run behind
him and serve him wherever he's because they know he won't elicit food.
Today if
you become a Samana, you'll walk yourself to death (Laughter), those days’
people were sensitive to his sadhana and responded so there are thousands of
Samanas walking the country, So Gautama became a Samana and whether or not you
are not requesting food, you'll walk near a town Tch, so as that food will
come. But Gautama took it too seriously and just walked!
He
became all bones, just bones and a bag of skin, like that he became.
Then he
came to a component where there was a river called Niranjana, unfortunately
that river is gone now, no more river, nearly eighteen-to-twenty inches of
water, maybe moving little rapidly, He stepped into it, halfway down into the
river he failed to have the energy to cross.
There
was a limb, a dead branch, he just held onto it, He doesn’t have the strength
to wish the following step but he is not the kind of man to dropping, He held
on, we don’t know for the way long, people say for a awfully very while. Maybe
it absolutely was two minutes, when you are feeling so weak, those two minutes
might need gave the planning of some years.
Then as
he persisted, he just realized what's it that I'm striving for?, What is it I’m
wandering the full country, going from school to high school, learning this,
learning that, what is it that I’m looking for? Then he realized, there’s
really nothing, this life is on.
All I've
should attempt to to is solely remove the barriers which don't seem to be
allowing me to experience this, When he realized that everything is within him,
there's not any because of search, suddenly he had the energy to wish the next
step and also the following step. He crossed the river, came and sat down
thereunder now very famous Bodhi tree, which has become more famous than Buddha
himself (Laughs).
A part
of the tree, a remnant or a… a progeny of the tree still exists in Bodhgaya and
he sat under the tree, it absolutely was this full-of-the-moon night which is
coming now on 10th of May.
He sat
there and he sat there with this determination- either I'd value more highly to
work out the last word nature of my existence now or I'll sit here and die,
I'll not open my eyes till I do know this.
Once he
made that resolve, because the only real problem is there's not any resolve,
every two minutes your intentions are changing, if you're totally on, to know
what's within you, how long should it take? Hmm? It should happen during a
flash, isn't it? Because there's not any distance to travel.
Time
could be a quantity which is important only there's a distance to travel, isn't
it?, If there's no distance to travel, if I ask you the way long does it hold
you to sit down here?
You’re
already siting, it’s already there. It doesn’t take any time, so you're already
alive and on, it doesn’t take any time for realization because you don’t should
do anything particular.
When he
saw this, he was fully enlightened and therefore the moon was shining and he
had not eaten for several months on end properly, years actually, four years he
was a Samana and other people around him, he had gathered about five disciples
I feel, these guys thought he’s real because he doesn’t eat, he’s really rigid
and that they saw, he’s in some state, exuberant state and that they could see
the sunshine on his face.
Then
they were awaiting him to open his eyes and provide the teaching, He opened his
eyes, checked out them, smiled and said, ‘cook something, let’s eat!’
(Laughter), they were totally disappointed, they thought he’s lost it.
They
walked with him for four to eight years when he had nothing but torture, when
he got enlightened, they left him (Few laugh) because they wanted to listen to
something severe, He said, ‘cook something, let’s eat.’ We’ve been wasting our
time (Few laugh).
There
are many beautiful episodes in his life when he at some point walked upon the
riverbank after he has become a Buddha and went and sat down under a tree, Tree
not because tree is that the best place to sit down under, you recognize ants
can get you.
Because
that was the sole real estate of those times, there were no buildings and
buildings and buildings everywhere, so tree was an honest place, a nice place
to take a seat under instead of sitting in harsh sun, you sit under a tree.
An
astrologer, who is of great proficiency in his trade saw the footprint on the
riverbank, he had come to… In India people of any this thing means, bath means
always river, Those rivers are departure, I will be able to tell you later,
Bath means always river so, he came for a shower to the river then he saw the
footprint there's a full science or rather observations through which by gazing
the way one’s feet is somebody predicts exactly what he will do, So he saw the
footprint and so he saw that this is often the footprint of an emperor, somebody
who should rule the planet.
Then he
wondered, why would such an individual be during this remote place near a
jungle, Then he followed the footprint thinking he will meet an emperor, Then
he saw this monk- Gautama sitting under a tree, Then he checked out this, this…
he thought either my astrology is gone all wrong or I’m being fooled or I’m in
some reasonably a hallucination, what’s happening here? Then he visited Gautama
and asked, ‘who are you?’ Gautama was tch, during this quite, Jasjeet
(Referring to a Participant) quite state (Few laugh), he said, ‘I’m nobody. I’m
just a nobody.’ But you have got the feet of an emperor! You should conquer the
globe. Gautama said, ‘that I will be able to but not by conquest’.
See,
there are two ways you'll be able to have the globe, either by conquest or by
inclusion. Yes? I can cause you to yours, either by capturing you; chaining you
and making you are doing what I need or by including you as a component of
myself, yes? Both ways something or somebody becomes yours, isn't it? But if
you elapse conquest, it'll be a pain in your neck always.
If you
include, this can become a good enhancement of life. He said, ‘I am the emperor
of the globe.’
Then he
said, ‘you are a monk! You own nothing’, I own nothing and that i am a nobody
that's why everything is mine, Even mathematicians try to show you the zero and
therefore the infinite are one and also the same, hmm? So you becoming a
no-thing don’t mean you're no use.
You are
a no-thing means you’ve become all inclusive, isn't it? You’re something means
you'll only be that, you are a no-thing; you'll be any way you would like. This
can be how this life is formed, if your ability to reply is not curtailed,
you'll be able to be anything you would like at any given moment, isn't it? So
Gautama said, ‘I’m anyway the emperor of the globe if that’s a word you wish
but I’m actually a nobody because everything is anyway mine’.
If you
see I’m to blame for everything, everything is yours, isn't it? How does somebody
become yours? Hmm? Because you own them or take responsibility for them?
Because you are taking responsibility for them, they become yours not
otherwise, isn't it?
If you
own them forcefully, they'll never be yours. Yes or no? Participants: Yes.
If you
forcefully own somebody, will they ever be yours? They’ll never ever be yours.
So this astrologer sat down, He said, ‘you are a monk, you've got nothing, on
top of it you say you're Jasjeet (Referring to a Participant), I’m sorry (Few
laugh), on top of it you say I'm a nobody and everything is yours’ what's this?
Gautama said, ‘you come. I’ve got some way for you.
You are
busy making predictions of life. I’ve got an idea.’ Why does one make
predictions of life? You’re incapable of constructing an inspiration and
executing an idea, that's why you fall back on a… prediction, isn't it? Yes or
no? If you're capable of creating an idea and executing a concept, would you
fall back on predictions? Participants: No! Guru: No, so, Gautama said, ‘you
are busy making predictions. I am here, I’ve got an inspiration.
Come…
become an element of my plan. We’ll make something else happen; you must become
a component of this plan. We will make something wonderful happen, this same
world, this same world is paradise if all of sus… all people go by a paradise
plan, isn't it? Yes or no? Participants: Yes. The question is simply, do that…
because between a chance and a reality there's a distance Are… can we have the
courage and therefore the commitment to steer the distance? That’s all its.
Yes? Participants: Yes.
