I have heard…

Two turtles were dragging through the desert, very thirsty. After a while they discovered a big bottle of Coca-Cola (must have been Americans). They jumped with joy, but soon realized they had no opener. They tried hard but there was no chance to open the bottle, so they decided one would go back to the village and the other would watch the bottle.

A long time passed – five hours, ten hours, one day, two days, five days, seven days. Then the one turtle again tried to open the bottle. Immediately, the other one came running from the nearby sand dune and shouted, “If you start like this, I will never go.”

Bauls are very active people, whirlwinds – dancing, singing, and yet very inactive people as far as God is concerned. They say, “Whenever you think is the right time, come; you will find me waiting. I am helpless, I don’t know where you are. I am helpless, I don’t know how to find you. My only prayer is that you help me to allow you to find me.” They simply dance and wait, they sing and wait. This waiting for God is their prayer.

If you can wait you will pass through a great transformation. Nothing needs to be done; simple waiting – but it needs great trust. Otherwise the mind will say, “What are you doing? If you are not going to seek him, you will never find him.”

Bauls say, just like Lao Tzu, “Seek and you will miss. Seek not and find.” He is here; your seeking takes you somewhere else. He has already come. The guest is at the door; He is knocking. But you are so occupied inside the mind – maybe occupied for him, thinking about him, but so occupied – that you cannot listen to the moment, and you cannot be open to the herenow.

My heart,
dress yourself in the spirit
of all women
and reverse your nature and habits.

Patanjali calls this reversal pratyahar – go back to the source. Mahavira calls this reversion pratyakraman – come in, don’t go without; fall withinwards. Ordinarily your mind is future oriented, always moving somewhere else, looking for God somewhere in the future.

The Bauls say he has been here from the very beginning. He is not in the future. He is the very cause, the source of all, so no need to seek him in the future. Just fall deep down into your own being and you will find him waiting for you to come home. He is already there, he is already the case.