This standpoint is a half-truth – and half-truths are dangerous, more dangerous than lies because they have something of truth in them. That something can be very, very deceiving. A complete lie is not so dangerous because it cannot deceive for long. Sooner or later you will come to know that it is a lie. Half-truths are very dangerous be-cause something is true, and that something true may keep you hooked and you may never be able to know the lie.
The other extreme is that of the spiritualist. He says, “This moment is useless. Time is useless, only eternity has meaning. So don’t waste this moment in rejoicing, delighting. Don’t waste this moment, prepare for the future. Sacrifice the present for the future. Sacrifice all that you have for that which the future holds in itself as a promise. Make life a constant approach towards truth. Make life a constant effort to realize oneself, or God, or nirvana. This is not significant, but that. Here is not significant but there. The other shore is significant. This shore is to be used only as a jumping board. But you have to go to the other shore. Real life is on the other shore. On this shore there is only illusion, maya, so don’t waste your time in anything that keeps you on this shore.
“Don’t be happy on this shore, because if you are happy on this shore, how will you be able to leave it? Become sad, become serious. This shore is the shore of sorrow. This shore is not the shore of life, but death. This shore is nothing but accumulated sin, so be sad that you are here, be indifferent to whatsoever this shore can give to you. Don’t be attached to anything here. Don’t fall in love with someone. Don’t fall in love with the beauty of this shore. Be alert and remember the other shore, keep your eyes on the other shore.”
This too, is another extreme. It also carries half of the truth, and is as dangerous as the first extreme. This moment is also part of eternity, and this shore belongs to the river as much as the other shore. And the beauty on this shore, and the song and the poetry of this shore is as divine as the song and the poetry of the other shore. This very moment is eternity available to you. So just sacrificing this moment for the future is foolish, because the future will always come as this moment. The other shore will always come as this shore. And if you have learned a trick that spiritualists have learned, and that they have taught to the whole humanity and corrupted the mind – how to destroy this moment, how to be negative on this shore – then you will be negative anywhere. Wherever you are you will be negative. Wherever you are you will be destructive. Wherever you are you will remain sad and sorrowful. This is not religion.
The Baul attitude is a great synthesis between these two polarities. The Baul understanding uses both half-truths and makes a whole truth out of it. The Bauls say, “This moment is not all, right; but to say that this moment is nothing is wrong.” The Bauls say, “Life is a preparation, but the preparation is nothing but to be blissful in this moment.” They are not materialists and they are not spiritualists. They are religious people.
Religion is a great synthesis. And if you don’t understand this, you will be a victim of either this extreme or that. Or, you can be a victim of both, half-half. That’s how schizophrenia arises.