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to learn religion, or truth, then it is different: it is not accumulation of information, it is not an increase in your knowledge; it is a growth in your being. Not that you will know more, but that you will BE more. Not that your memory will be more disciplined, no, but your being, your very being will become more still and silent, blissful.
Religion is the learning of being. And all other learnings are just training for memories. All other disciplines give you knowledge. Religion gives you KNOWING, not knowledge; knowing, the capacity to see, the tremendous energy to be. This difference has to be understood, then you will be able to understand this small dialogue -- but very potent.
A MAN CAME TO LIBNANI, A SUFI TEACHER, AND THIS INTERCHANGE TOOK PLACE.
MAN: I WISH TO LEARN. WILL YOU TEACH ME?
The man emphasizes his wish. That is necessary, but not enough. You may wish, that doesn't show that you are ready. Your wish may be just a dream, your wish may be founded on wrong reasons, your wish may have no willpower behind it, it may be impotent. Your wish may be the wish of a beggar -- and truth is not possible for a beggar. Your wish may be just childish. By accident you may have come upon the idea that one needs truth, that one needs to know God.
A wish is very feeble unless it becomes a burning desire -- what Sri Aurobindo calls ABHIPSA. Abhipsa means such an intense burning desire that you are completely absorbed by it. Nothing of you is left behind. It is not a part of you that desires, it is the whole of you that desires. The desire has become your being. Then it is abhipsa. It is a total desire in which everything is surrendered.
A wish is just a ripple on the surface of the mind. You are passing on the road and a beautiful Rolls Royce passes by: a wish comes in the mind that you also would like to have a Rolls Royce. You see a beautiful woman -- and a wish arises. A wish is just a ripple on the surface -- and truth is not open for those who come to it in such a feeble way. Truth demands you in your totality.
Truth is like a woman: it wants to possess you totally. Truth won't tolerate any competitor, it is jealous.
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