The perfume of sandalwood,
rosebay, or jasmine,
cannot travel against the wind.

But the fragrance of virtue
travels even against the wind,
as far as the ends of the world.

How much finer
is the fragrance of virtue
than of sandalwood, rosebay,
of the blue lotus, or jasmine!

The fragrance of sandalwood or rosebay
does not travel far.
But the fragrance of virtue
rises to the heavens.

Desire never crosses the path
of virtuous and wakeful men.
Their brightness sets them free.

How sweetly the lotus grows
in the litter of the wayside.
Its pure fragrance delights the heart.

Follow the awakened
and from among the blind
the light of your wisdom
will shine out purely.

Man is not a being but only a becoming. Man is a process, a growth, a possibility, a potentiality. Man is not yet actual. Man has to be, he has yet to arrive. Man is born not as an essence but only as an existence…a great space where much can happen, or nothing may happen – it all depends on you.

Man has to create himself. He is not ready-made, he is not given. And the creation has to be a self-creation – nobody else can make you. You are not a thing, a commodity; you cannot be produced or manufactured. You have to self-create yourself, you have to become awakened on your own, nobody can wake you up.

This is man’s grandeur, his glory, that he is the only being on the earth who is not a being but a freedom to be. All other beings are already fixed, patterned. They bring a blueprint, and they simply follow the blueprint. The parrot will become a parrot, the dog will become a dog, the lion a lion; there is no question of the lion being somebody else. But with man it is relevant to ask whether he is really a man.

Each lion is really a lion, and each elephant is an elephant too, but man is a question mark. A man may be a man, may not be. A man can fall below the animals, and a man can rise above the gods. That ultimate state above the gods is buddhahood – the awakening, the ultimate awakening, the realization of your potential in its totality.

The buddha is above gods. This was one of the reasons Hindus could not forgive Gautama the Buddha, because he said the buddha is above the gods. Gods are also asleep; of course, their dreams are nice, their dreams are not nightmares, they live in heaven. Their lives are only of pleasure. Heaven is nothing but pure hedonism, the very idea is hedonistic. Hell is just the opposite. Hell is pain, heaven is pleasure; hell is a nightmare, heaven a sweet dream. But dreams are dreams; sweet or bitter, it does not matter.