would become the perfect master for this age. But the problem was very deep.
They had chosen the right person, but they hoped wrongly – because a man who is born an asampragyata buddha cannot even be active as an avatar. All activity has ceased. He can simply watch – he can be a witness. You cannot make him very active. He can be only a passivity. They had chosen the right person, but still wrong…
They hoped very much… And the whole movement whirled around Krishnamurti. When he dropped out and said, “I cannot do anything because nothing is needed,” the whole movement flopped because they had too many hopes for him, and the whole thing turned out completely differently. But this could have been prophesied.
Annie Besant, Leadbeater and others, were very beautiful people, but not really aware of Eastern methods. They had learned a lot from books, scriptures, but they did not exactly know the secret which Patanjali is showing: that an asampragyata, a videha, is born, but he is not active. He is a passivity. So much can happen through him, but that can happen only if somebody comes and surrenders to him. He is a passivity, he cannot force you to do something. He is available, but he cannot be aggressive.
His invitation is for everybody and for all. It is an open invitation, but he cannot send you a particular invitation because he cannot be active. He is an open door; if you like, you can pass through. The last life is an absolute passivity, just witnessing. This is one way asampragyata buddhas are born from their past life.
But you can become an asampragyata buddha in this life too. For them Patanjali says, “Shraddha virya smriti samadhi pragya.” Others who attain asampragyata samadhi attain through faith, effort, recollection, concentration, and discrimination. It is almost impossible to translate it, so I will explain rather than translate – just to give you the feel, because the words will misguide you.
Shraddha is not exactly faith, it is more like trust. Trust is very, very different from faith. Faith is something you are born into, trust is something you grow in. Hinduism is a faith; to be a Christian is a faith, to be a Mohammedan is a faith. But to be a disciple here with me is a trust. Remember – I cannot claim faith. Jesus also could not claim faith because faith is something you are born into. Jews were faithful; they had faith. In fact, that is why they destroyed Jesus because they thought that he was bringing them out of their faith, and destroying it. He was asking for trust. Trust is a personal intimacy, it is not a social phenomenon. You attain it through your own response. Nobody can be born in trust; in faith, okay.
Faith is dead trust, trust is alive faith.
So try to understand the distinction. One has to grow in shraddha, trust – it is always personal. The first disciples of Jesus attained trust. They were Jews, born Jews. They moved out of their faith. It is a rebellion.
Faith is a superstition; trust is a rebellion.
First, trust leads you away from your faith. It has to be so because if you are living in a dead graveyard, first you have to be led out of it. Only then can you be introduced to life again. Jesus was trying to bring people toward shraddha, trust. It will always look as if he is destroying their faith.
Now when a Christian comes to me, the same situation is repeated. Christianity is a faith, just as Judaism was a faith in Jesus’ time. When a Christian comes to me, once again I have to bring him out of his faith to help him grow toward trust. Religions are faith, and to be religious is to be in trust. To be religious doesn’t mean to be Christian, Hindu, or Mohammedan because trust has no name; it is not labeled. It is like love. Is love Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan? Is marriage Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan? Love? Love knows no caste, no distinctions. Love doesn’t know if you are a Hindu or a Christian.
Marriage is like faith; love is like trust – you have to grow into it, it is an adventure. Faith is not an adventure; you are born into it, it is convenient. If you are seeking comfort and convenience, it is better to remain in faith. Be a Hindu, a Christian; follow the rules. But it will remain a dead thing unless you respond from your heart, unless you enter religion on your own responsibility, and not because you were born a Christian. How can you be born a Christian?
How is religion associated with birth? Birth cannot give you religion. It can give you a society, a creed, a sect; it can give you a superstition. The word superstition is very, very meaningful. It means, unnecessary faith. The word super means unnecessary, superfluous – faith which has become unnecessary, faith which has died. At some time it may have been alive.
Religion has to be reborn again and again. Remember, you are not born in a religion. Religion has to be born in you, then it is trust – again and again. You cannot give your children your religion, they will have to seek and find their own. Everybody has to seek and find his own. It is an adventure – the greatest adventure. You move into the unknown.
Patanjali says that if you want to attain asampragyata samadhi, shraddha is the first thing. And for sampragyata samadhi, reasoning, right reasoning. See the distinction? – for sampragyata samadhi, right reasoning, right thinking is the base; for asampragyata samadhi, right trust – not reasoning.
No reasoning… But a love. And love is blind. It looks blind to reason because it is a jump into the dark. Reason asks, “Where are you going? Remain in the known territory. What is the use of moving to a new phenomenon? Why not remain in the old fold? It is convenient, comfortable, and whatever you need, it can supply.” But everybody has to find his own temple. Only then is it alive.
You are here with me – this is trust. When I am no longer here, your children may be with me. That will be faith. Trust happens only with a living master, faith happens with dead masters who are no longer there. The first disciples have the religion.
By and by, the second and third generation loses the religion, it becomes a sect. You simply follow because you are born into it. It is a duty, not a love. It is a social code. It helps, but it hasn’t gone deep in you. It brings nothing to you; it is not a happening. It is not a depth unfolding in you – it is just a surface, a face. Just go and look in the church: the Sunday people attend, they even pray. But they are just waiting for it to finish.
A small child was sitting in church. He was just four years old and had come for the first time. His mother asked him how he liked it.
He replied, “The music is good, but the commercial is too long.”
It is a commercial when you have no trust. Shraddha is right trust; faith is wrong trust. Don’t take religion from somebody else. You cannot borrow it; that is a deception. You are getting it without paying for it, and everything has to be paid for. And to attain asampragyata samadhi is not cheap. You have to pay the full cost, and the full cost is your total being.
To be a Christian is just a label. To be religious is not a label, your whole being is involved. It is a commitment. Some people come to me and say, “We love you. Whatever you say is good. But we don’t want to take sannyas because we don’t want to commit ourselves.” But unless you are committed, involved, you cannot grow, because there is no relationship. There are just words between you and me, not a relationship. I may be a teacher to you, but not a master. You may be a student, but not a disciple.
The first door is shraddha, trust; the second is virya. That too is difficult. It is translated as effort. No, effort is simply a part of it. The word virya means many things, but deep down it means bioenergy. One of the meanings of virya is semen, sexual potency. If you really want to translate it exactly, virya is bioenergy, your total energy phenomenon – you as energy. Of course, this energy can be brought only through effort; hence, one of the meanings is effort.
