If you love someone, you are dependent on the person-that’s why you are always afraid to lose them; also suspicious, also jealous. You love a woman – she is your pleasure, but side by side all these things are growing in you: suspicion… You can never be certain whether she loves you or not, there is no way. She can pretend. She may be loving somebody else – if not now, tomorrow. What is the guarantee that she will love you always? There are more beautiful people around, more talented, more charming, more charismatic; hence there is suspicion, fear, jealousy. This is your pleasure!
With all these things mixed in, what kind of pleasure is this?
Bliss is absolutely pure.
First, it is not dependent on anyone, it is your own. Its source is within you, it does not come from outside; hence, nobody can take it away. There is tremendous strength instead of weakness, instead of fear there is great fearlessness. Instead of feeling jealous, there is great compassion, because your bliss cannot be stolen, cannot be taken away.
When Alexander the Great came to India he wanted one sannyasin to come with him as a guest to Athens, because his master, Aristotle, had asked only one gift: “Bring an authentic sannyasin with you, because that is the only thing the West is unaware of. We don’t know what kind of man is a sannyasin.” Wherever he went Alexander inquired, “Can I find an authentic sannyasin?” People said, “It is very difficult – you have come a little late. Three hundred years ago there was Gautam Buddha, Mahavira, Sanjay Vilethiputta, Ajit Keshkambal and there were many people who were authentic, realized beings – but now it is very difficult to find such people. But you can go on searching as you go on invading the country; perhaps somewhere…”
He came across a man who was a naked fakir standing by the side of the river early in the morning – a beautiful sunrise. Alexander approaches him with his naked sword and tells him, “You have two alternatives: one, be Alexander the Great’s guest, which is a rare honor – it has never been given to anybody, and I can promise you it will not be given to anybody else again, so you will be unique – but you will have to come with me to Athens. My master wants to meet an authentic sannyasin.”
And the sannyasin laughed loudly and said, “First, you drop the idea of Alexander the Great. Anybody who thinks himself great is not great. One who is really great is not even aware of it. So first you drop that word. That is sick and shows inferiority. Secondly, put your sword back in its sheath; it won’t be needed. Thirdly, I am not coming. I am a man of freedom – wherever I want to go, I go. Nobody can force me, bribe me, threaten me. And you are trying everything: bribing me, persuading me, and with the naked sword threatening me.”
Alexander said, “Then the second alternative, is I will cut off your head.” The Sannyasin laughed again. He said, “That you can do, because that does not matter: it will not touch my blissfulness at all. You can cut off my head, you can cut my body into as many pieces as you want, but you will not be able to touch my blissfulness, my ecstasy. That is beyond your reach. If it is your joy and if I can be of any help, I am ready: cut off my head.”