| |
Mahavira is saying that if you have started the journey you have already reached. You may not see it like that because your comprehension is very limited. You cannot see your own future flowering. But if a man of enlightenment cannot see either, then what is the difference? You are both blind.
AT ANOTHER TIME KYOZAN, ON SEEING A MONK APPROACH HIM, RAISED HIS MOSQUITO FLAPPER. AT THIS, THE MONK SHOUTED LOUDLY, "KWATZ!"
KYOZAN COMMENTED, "THERE IS SUCH A THING AS SAYING `KWATZ,' BUT TELL ME, WHERE WAS MY MISTAKE?"
THE MONK REPLIED, "IN IMPROPERLY POINTING TO AN EXTERNAL OBJECT" -- AT WHICH KYOZAN HIT HIM.
A man like Kyozan always points inwards. Whatever he does, whatever he says, is always pointing towards the internal.
Just on the margin... Gautam the Buddha never went outside the state of Bihar, except once. For forty-two years he went round and round in a small state. It has got its name, Bihar, because of Gautam Buddha's walking continuously around and around. `Bihar' means the place where the Buddha walked.
He went only once out of Bihar, to Sarnath -- a small village near Varanasi. But he stayed there only one day, and for twenty-five centuries people have been wondering.... He stayed in Vaishali at least twenty times, and in some places for many months because every rainy month he would not move; so every year for four months he stayed in one place. It's significant to note why he escaped from Sarnath after only one day.
There exists now in Sarnath a great institution teaching the philosophy of Buddha and his language, Pali. The director of the institute, Bhikkshu Jagdish Kashyap, invited me to his institute to speak on Gautam the Buddha, but I had to leave after one day. He had come to take me to the station. He said, "This is strange; why are you leaving after one day?"
I said, "For the same reason that Gautam Buddha left this place after one day."
He said, "It is strange, but we have been discussing..." and he was a Buddhist, "We have been discussing for all these centuries why he did not stay."
I said, "You are all idiots! Just see! I have moved around the whole country but I have never
|
|
|