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[NOTE: This is an unedited tape transcript of an unpublished darshan diary, which has been scanned and cleaned up. It is for reference purposes only.]
People take life for granted, hence there is no gratitude in them. And without gratitude there is no growth, without gratitude there is no religion, without gratitude there is no prayer. Religion begins in gratitude and ends in gratitude. It is a journey from gratitude to gratitude. In the beginning it is a seed, in the end it becomes a flower. But the most fundamental fact is that life should not be taken for granted. We have not earned it, it is a gift. It is such a simple and obvious fact. Maybe because it is so obvious people tend to forget about it.
Religion does not begin in the belief that god exists; it begins in this awareness, that life is a gift. We don't know from whom -- that has to be enquired into -- but one thing is certain, that it is a gift. Some unknown force, some mysterious force has given you the most valuable thing. And once this feeling becomes crystallised in you then the enquiry starts. God is not very far away from gratitude.
Every child is born with great brilliance, with great intelligence, but we destroy his intelligence. Our whole structure is such that we can allow only mediocre people to survive. Our society, our state, our church, are all afraid of the intelligent person because intelligence is basically rebellious. So at the very beginning we start paralysing the intelligence of the child. By the time he is grown-up he will be mediocre -- educated, maybe well-educated, with university degrees, with a Ph.D. and D.Lit., but deep down no more rebellious, no more intelligent. Now he will function like a computer -- and society needs computers, machines, slaves.
We have not been able yet to create a society which can allow intelligence to grow to its peaks. We are still living under a primitive fear, we are still living with a thousand and one taboos and superstitions.
Meditation means getting rid of all this nonsense that society imposes upon you, meditation means freedom from all structures imposed by others
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