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Nirvana Upanishad Chapter 4
Nirvana Upanishad Chapter 4
Upanishad
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Chapter 4 : Separation from Dreams; Communion with
Truth
These sutras are about the inner basis of the seeker, the
sannyasin.
Those who have set out on the search for truth have to become
insecure, without support. They have to give up all shelter; only
then can they receive the protection of existence. They have to
become helpless; only then the help from existence is available. As
long as you feel that you can do something, that you are capable,
as long as you feel that you have the means, the necessary
shelters and supports, you will remain closed to the grace of
existence. It is like when the rains fall on the hills - the hills remain
dry as the water flows away, down the hills. The hills are
themselves so full that there is no possibility for them to store any
water. The rains fall into the valleys, and the valleys are filled. So
whatsoever is empty is filled; whatsoever is full will remain empty.
This is why the sannyasin becomes independent, without
support, without shelter. This is the way he lives. This is the way he
is; without support, without dependence on anything, without any
security. Let this matter of insecurity be clearly understood.
If a man possesses wealth, he feels that he has something. If he
has prestige, he feels that he has something. If he has acquired
knowledge, then also he feels he has something. These are all
means, supports, shelters, and on the base of these a man can
prop up his ego.
The sage says that the sannyasin is without support. A
sannyasin has no means. This does not necessarily mean that if
he is naked, without any clothes, he will not have anything. One
who has become naked can make the very giving up of clothes a
support for his ego. He can proclaim to the world, "I am naked. I
have sacrificed even my clothes. I am a real sannyasin.” Even this
can be a prop to the ego.
But when you have something, you cannot stand before
existence as a complete bhikku; your pride and conceit will
continue within you.
The word bhikku means a begging monk. Buddha did not call his
sannyasins swami. The word swami is beautiful: it means master.
It is because of this that Buddha called his sannyasins bhikkus.
Bhikkus have only their begging bowls, nothing else. The bhikku’s
bowl, which Buddha gave to his sannyasins, was not only for
begging alms. Buddha also said that his bhikkus must understand
themselves to be like empty bowls and nothing more. Only then
can the supreme truth be realized.
It is very difficult to be without support. The mind says, "I would
like to have something to hold onto, some support, some help,
some shelter, so I am not alone and insecure. At least there should
be something to save me from danger.” And you are all seeking
these arrangements. You may be interested to know that the word
grihastha, householder, means a person who is in search of some
shelter. A householder is not someone who stays in a house, no. It
is someone who is in search of security; he can never live in
insecurity.
Alan Watts has written a wonderful book called The Wisdom of
Insecurity. Sannyas means the understanding that howsoever
much you may try to become secure, you cannot be; howsoever
much money you may accumulate you will remain poor, poor
within; howsoever much physical power you may develop you will
remain weak within. To save yourself from death you may plan very
carefully, but you can never really know how or from where death
will arrive; you cannot hear its footsteps. All your arrangements will
remain ineffective - because you will still die.
Sannyas is the wisdom which knows that despite all your
arrangements for security, there is no security. It would be worth
the trouble if security were possible, but it is not possible. You may
cling to the hope of being secure, but you can never become
secure. Life is insecure. Only the dead can be secure because only
the dead cannot die. Otherwise, everyone dies.
Insecurity is all around. We are all adrift in a sea of insecurity.
There is no safety possible, there is no boat nearby; you are bound
to sink. But you close your eyes and make dreamboats. You close
your eyes and imagine you have reached the coast - but this is
nothing more than self-deception.
The sannyasin has understood that whatever he may arrange to
be secure, he cannot be secure. However much he may try to save
himself from death, death comes. However much he may wish to
live, death is certain. If one cannot be secure by arranging to be
secure, then the sannyasin says it is better to relax with his
insecurity. He is determined not to try to make false boats. He will
not make any paper boats, he will not erect a house of cards, he
will not arrange for a sentry; he will not make such futile attempts.
Now he understands that there is no shore to the insecure sea of
life; sinking is a certainty. Death is unavoidable, so he is ready to
die. He does not seek any protection.
Those who are ready to be insecure suddenly find that they are
absolutely secure. They find that the sea is transformed, that they
are standing on the shore. Why does it happen? How does this
miracle come about? Someone who seeks security cannot find it,
but someone who is prepared to live in insecurity finds himself to
be totally secure. There is a reason for it.
The feeling of insecurity arises because of the search for
security. The more you are afraid, the more you will arrange for
security all around you. That sea of insecurity that I have described
is nothing but a creation arising out of your search for security. It is
a vicious circle: the desire to save oneself from insecurity creates
insecurity; when that insecurity is created within, the desire for
protection increases and that creates more insecurity. The sea
becomes bigger and bigger, and within you the desire for security
grows deeper and deeper. That desire for security is what makes
the sea look so vast.
The experience of the sannyasin is that he has stopped
bothering about security, so for him, there is no insecurity. For one
who is ready to die, there is no death. What can death do to the
one who is ready to die? Death can only do something to you if you
are trying to save yourself, if you run away and arrange to be
secure from death. But if you are ready to embrace death, how can
there be death for you? Death is not in death, but in the fear of it.
Because of that fear you die every day, you live in death. You
cannot live in life, you die a continuous death.
Hence, living without security is the state of the sannyasin. He
does not desire anything else; he does not ask for protection. He
says, “I am ready, come what may." He becomes like a dry leaf
adrift on the wind, going wherever the wind may take him. He does
not say, "I will go to the west, that is my direction," or “I will go to
the east so the wind will lift me high and enthrone me in the clouds."
When the wind takes him east, he goes to the east; when it takes
him west, he goes to the west. There is no demand to go in any
particular direction.
A sannyasin has no particular desires, neither does he have a
preference for any particular state. He is open to whatever
happens. In such a life, all unhappiness disappears. So Alan Watts
has recommended the "wisdom of insecurity.” Those who are
intelligent are ready for insecurity, and only in this way do they
become secure. There is no one as secure as a sannyasin, and yet
who makes fewer arrangements for his security than a sannyasin?
And there is no one as insecure as a family man because nobody
hankers more for security than a family man.
“He has no support.” It is a wonderful statement. The sannyasin
has no support. When a person gathers enough courage to be
without any protection, he immediately receives the support and
protection of existence. Existence helps you when you are no
longer in the delusion that you can help yourself. When the
delusion about being able to do things yourself has disappeared,
when you have ceased to consider yourself the doer, in that very
moment existence takes care. The power of existence enters every
particle of your body. But you go on depending upon yourself,
thinking that you will be able to save yourself.
Under the spot where you are sitting right now, a minimum of ten
dead human bodies must be there. There is no part of the earth
where at least ten bodies are not buried. I am talking only about
human bodies, animals are not counted. There are the ashes of ten
bodies under you. When they were alive, they also thought in the
same way as you are now thinking while sitting on top of them.
Even after you die, whoever sits in the place above where you are
buried will think in the same way. But you do not realize that by
doing something, nothing happens - so why not do something
toward non-doing?
To become supportless means to live without any help or the
expectation of any help. It is to say, "I will dare to do nothing.
Whatever existence wishes, I am ready for it. Even if it destroys me
here and now, that is my goal."