Stopped In Our Tracks
Stories of U.G. In India from the Notebooks of K. ChandrasekharTranslated and Edited by J.S.R.L. Narayana Moorty 2d/3d Series
Monkeys Who Sit Around the Red Ocher
I was telling my friends yesterday about the simile we had in one of our books. Those who go to listen to spiritual discourses, those who read books of a religious nature, and those who are looking beyond for something, are like the monkeys who sit around the red ocher trying to warm themselves. You know what red ocher is. It is red in color, just like flame, but there is no warmth.
There isn't anything that you can get from any religious or spiritual discourses. What I have been trying to point out to those that come to listen to me, and care to listen to me, is that there is nothing to achieve, nothing to accomplish, and nothing to attain. What is it that you want and what is it that you are searching for? That is my question.
If you are searching for anything, if you want anything, then the first thing you must do is to throw away—lock, barrel and stock, and book, bell and the candle—the stuff you are hanging on to. You have to throw the whole lot into the cocked hat. Otherwise, there isn't any chance for you to be yourself. If you follow any path, it doesn't matter what that path is, it is leading you astray.
It is putting you on the wrong path. If you make anything out of what I have been saying, then you are lost, body and soul. And if there is a God, out of sheer mercy He should save you all, and save you from me and persons like me.
One thing I make very clear: I am not here to liberate you at all. What is it that you want to liberate yourself from? You are trying to ask for a thing which you have.
There isn't anything that you can get from any religious or spiritual discourses. What I have been trying to point out to those that come to listen to me, and care to listen to me, is that there is nothing to achieve, nothing to accomplish, and nothing to attain. What is it that you want and what is it that you are searching for? That is my question.
If you are searching for anything, if you want anything, then the first thing you must do is to throw away—lock, barrel and stock, and book, bell and the candle—the stuff you are hanging on to. You have to throw the whole lot into the cocked hat. Otherwise, there isn't any chance for you to be yourself. If you follow any path, it doesn't matter what that path is, it is leading you astray.
It is putting you on the wrong path. If you make anything out of what I have been saying, then you are lost, body and soul. And if there is a God, out of sheer mercy He should save you all, and save you from me and persons like me.
One thing I make very clear: I am not here to liberate you at all. What is it that you want to liberate yourself from? You are trying to ask for a thing which you have.
