Later on priests condemned this statement in the Rig Veda by entitling it Nasdia Sutra – it means negative sutras. The title must have been given by those people who were pretending that they knew. But the people who must have written those sutras, raised those questions, were more innocent. They were simply saying, “We do not know. And there seems to be no way to know who created it all, or whether anybody created it at all. It may have existed for ever.” Is there any necessity that there should be a beginning and an end? Yes, in a human story you have a beginning and an end. In a movie you have a beginning and an end. But in existence there is no beginning, no end. But the mind cannot conceive that there is no beginning. The mind can conceive – you can take it as far back as possible, millions of light years back – it can conceive of any beginning, but it cannot conceive that it is a beginningless universe.
Mind feels some intrinsic incapacity to conceive beginninglessness and endlessness, that is the truth. But mind wants the answer to, “Who began it all?” And to satisfy the mind…otherwise it goes crazy, asking these questions and finding no answer; it becomes more and more desperate. It becomes a constant anguish. Because we don’t know the meaning of our lives, then a thousand other questions arise. Then why do we go on living? If we are just accidental, without any purpose – we happen one day, and one day we disappear, leaving not even a trace behind – the mind is not capable of conceiving of it. It wants to create history; it wants to leave its name behind. It makes pyramids which will last for thousands of years. It makes monuments. Even ordinary people….
In Jabalpur, where I lived for many years, there is one of the most beautiful spots possible. One of the most beautiful rivers of India, the Narmada, passes for almost two miles between two mountains of marble, pure white mountains of marble for two miles on both sides – mountains of marble. You can see their reflection in the river, and on a full moon night it becomes absolutely a dreamland. You cannot believe it.
When I took one of my professors, Doctor S.K.Saxena…because I was saying again and again to him, “One day you have to come with me.” Finally he said, “I don’t believe that something can be dreamlike, but if you insist, I will take the chance.” He used to live one hundred and twenty miles away from Jabalpur. I took him on a full moon night to the marble rocks. And the moment we entered the Narmada, he looked here and there. In the beginning, for half a mile, it is just an ordinary river. After half a mile, suddenly you enter into the marble world.
He could not believe it. He said to me, “Forgive me that I doubted you. Take me close to the mountains because I want to touch and see whether they are there or there is some trick, some magic. It is really dreamlike, but I want to touch and see that it is real, not just a dream, not that you have brought me into some magical world.”
I had to take the boat close to the mountains. He touched the mountains, felt the mountains and took a small rock with him. I said, “What are you doing?”
He said, “I will carry it to remember that it was not a dream. This rock will remind me that it was a reality; otherwise in the morning I may start suspecting. It is unbelievably true.” But if you ask for the meaning, there is none. If you ask for the purpose, there is none. It is utterly beautiful, just pure beauty. But bring the mind in, and immediately the question, “Why?”