| |
superficial things can be reduced to knowledge. The profounder a truth, the harder it is to reduce it to knowledge. The knowledge seems so pale, and truth is so alive. Knowledge is bloodless, heartless. And truth is the beating of the heart and the circulation of the blood and the breathing of the air, and love, and dance.
Now the sutras.
THERE IS NOTHING BUT WATER IN THE HOLY POOLS...
In the East the holy pools have been believed in for ages -- that if you go to the Ganges you will be purified; nothing else is needed. Very cheap, very easy to do. But very tricky; you are be fooled by the priests. Kabir says, 'There is nothing but water in the holy pools' -- he takes the hammer in his hand and he starts destroying your so-called religion. The holy pools halve been of immense value to the Hindus. The water certainly cleanses the body but it cannot cleanse the soul. How can it cleanse your consciousness? You commit wrong, and you go and take a dip in the Ganges and you think it is finished.
It happened, a follower of Ramakrishna was going to the Ganges on a certain auspicious day, and he asked permission of Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna was not like Kabir. A very polite man, he would not take a hammer in his hand. But truth is truth. He would hit with a flower, not with a hammer -- but hitting is hitting, and sometimes a flower hits more deeply than a hammer. He said 'Good, you go -- the Ganges is beautiful, it purifies. But remember one thing: don't come back, remain in the Ganges for ever. Because the moment you get out, the effect is lost. And have you seen the trees on the bank of the Ganges?' And the devotee said 'Yes, there are big trees on the Ganges.'
And Ramakrishna said 'Have you ever pondered over it, why they are standing there?' He said 'No, I have never thought about it.' And Ramakrishna said 'When you take a dip in the Ganges and you go underwater, naturally, the Ganges is so pure that your sins leave you immediately. But they jump on the trees and sit there. And when you are coming back home they jump upon you again.'
But this is saying the same thing. It is just that Ramakrishna's and Kabir's way of saying it are
|
|
|