So sinners are sometimes beneficial and saints are sometimes very harmful. Saints and sinners are both in the same boat! Once you understand this then a change is possible; then you don’t look at the actions. If the proportion is the same whether you do good or bad, then what is the point of judging a man by his actions? Then change the whole emphasis, then move to another gestalt – the sky.

That’s what Saraha is saying to the king. He is saying: Right you are! People have told you and they are not wrong. I run like a mad dog. Yes, if you just watch the action you will be misguided, you will not be able to understand me. Watch my inner sky. Watch my inner priority, watch my inner core; that’s the only way to see the truth. Yes, I live with this woman – and ordinarily living with a woman means what it means. Now Saraha says: Watch! This is no ordinary living! There is no man-woman relationship at all. It has nothing to do with sexuality. We live together as two spaces, we live together as two freedoms; we live together as two empty boats. But you have to look into the sky, not into the clouds.

As a cloud that rises from the sea
Absorbing rain, the earth embraces,
So, like the sky, the sea remains
Without increasing or decreasing.

And another thing he reminds him of: Watch the sea. Millions of clouds rise out of the sea, so much water evaporates, but the sea does not decrease because of that. And then the clouds will rain on the earth, and rivulets will become great rivers, and many rivers will be flooded, and the water will rush back towards the ocean, towards the sea…all the rivers of the earth will pour down their water into the sea, but that does not make the sea increase – the sea remains the same. Whether something is taken out of it or something is poured into it makes no difference; its perfection is such that you cannot take anything out of it and you cannot add anything to it.

He is saying: Look! the inner being is so perfect that your actions may be those of a sinner, but nothing is taken away. And your actions may be those of a saint, but nothing is added unto you. You remain the same.

It is a tremendously revolutionary saying, it is a great statement. He says: Nothing can be added to man and nothing can be deleted from man, his inner perfection is such. You cannot make man more beautiful and you cannot make man ugly. You cannot make him more rich, you cannot make him poor. He is like the sea.

In one of the Buddhist sutras, Vaipulya Sutra, there is a statement that there are two very costly jewels in the ocean: the one prevents it from becoming less when water is drawn from it, and the other from becoming too large when water flows in it. Two great jewels are there in the ocean, and those two great jewels prevent it; it never becomes less and it never becomes more, it just remains the same. It is so vast, it does not matter how many clouds arise out of it and how much water evaporates. It is so vast, it does not matter how many rivers fall into it and bring great amounts of water. It just remains the same.