This chaos cannot allow you to see either the beauty that surrounds you or the beauty that resides in you. it cannot allow you to see the rainbows on the circumference and it cannot allow you to see the source of all joy, of all truth, of all beauty within you – the kingdom of God within you.
You ask me: “Sitting fretfully, squirming endlessly, does the spring still come…?”
Certainly…the spring comes, but not for you. You are not available, you are not there. You are so much occupied, so much engaged, you can’t see out, you can’t see in. Your eyes are covered with layers of desires and thoughts.
The grass certainly goes on growing, because the grass is sitting silently doing nothing – but you are not sitting silently, doing nothing. If you can sit silently doing nothing like the grass. you will also grow.
That’s the way how the ignorant becomes enlightened: becoming silent…just now…just a moment of silence, a pause…and you can hear the songs of the birds and you can suddenly feel the silence. Then there are no more five thousand sannyasins here: the Buddha Hall is empty, and that emptiness is a great experience. It is ecstatic!
The spring is felt suddenly – it can be felt right now! Then nothing distracts you. This noise of the plane is not a distraction; it will even deepen your silence, it will become a contrast to the silence, it will help define the silence.
The outer noise is not a distraction; but the mind inside remaining continuously in an insane state is the only distraction.
And there are foolish people who renounce the world in search of silence. The world does not disturb you; what disturbs is your mind – and they don’t renounce the mind. When a Hindu becomes a monk he still remains a Hindu. Do you see the absurdity? He has renounced the Hindu society, but he still carries the idea of being a Hindu! If you have renounced the Hindu society…then this idea of being a Hindu was given by the same society, how can you carry it?
Somebody becomes a Christian monk, but he still remains a Christian – a Catholic, a Protestant…The mind is so stupid; if you look at its stupidities you will be surprised, amazed! How can you be a Catholic if you have renounced the world? But people renounce the world, they don’t renounce the mind – and the mind is a byproduct of the world! The child is raised by the Hindus, then he becomes a Hindu, because the parents are cultivating Hindu ideology – or Christian, or Mohammedan, or Jain.
Just the other day I was talking about how Jainism destroyed the beautiful concept of the Upanishadic ashrams. When I passed around the Buddha Hall going back, I looked particularly at my Jain sannyasins – they were not looking happy! Even my sannyasins! But whenever I criticize Hinduism and I have seen the same sannyasins – so joyous. Of course Hindus feel offended. Even my sannyasins somehow deep down go on carrying their mind.