Awwala: Prem means love, Awwala is a sufi name for God. It means: the first, the alpha. Sufism has both names for God: one is 'the first' and the other is 'the last'. God is the first and also the last, the source and the goal, the root and the flower. God is all -- the beginning and the end. But it is good to begin with the beginning. Just start thinking from this moment that basically you are divine, that at the source you are divine; then the goal becomes very easy. Once this milieu surrounds you -- that basically you are divine, that at the source you are God -- then the goal is not far away.

One cannot become divine unless one already is. We can become only that which we are. Becoming is nothing but unfolding: the hidden becomes manifest. But the hidden is as much as the manifest. And once we know that at the source we are divine, then a great trust arises that nothing can go wrong. Even if we go as far away as possible, we remain divine. The sinner is as divine as the saint. There is no distinction at the root, at the source.

All distinctions are just fictitious, fictions that we create. All action is fiction. You do something; you become confined by that act. I do something else; I become confined by that act. But neither are you your act nor am I my act -- the action cannot become our definition. But that's how it happens. A person who works as an engineer becomes an engineer. That is only his act, that is not his definition; but we start thinking about him as the engineer, as a doctor, as the sinner, as the saint, as good, as bad, but these are just acts. Our reality is infinite and cannot be contained by any act whatsoever. The act is just a ripple on the ocean -- almost irrelevant.

That is the greatest message the East has to give to the world -- that what we do is immaterial. Christianity has made too much fuss about the act and has completely forgotten the language of being. Hence it has reduced people to sinners, into guilty persons, pathological. People have to be redeemed from their guilt; they have to be redeemed from the very idea that The act can define them. They have to be redeemed from this reductionism, that a man is nothing but his acts: 'You are what you do.' No, you are not what you do. What you do is a response in a certain circumstance. It may be good, it may be bad, it may be moral, it may be immoral. It is only that -- a certain response to a certain stimulus, nothing more, nothing less. You remain out of it, your purity remains uncontaminated.

This is the meaning of Awwala: we are God in the very source of our being. The very ground of our being is divine; there is no way to lose it. Even if we try, we cannot succeed. It is intrinsic, it is not something like an attribute given to us from the outside . it is our nature. Once this vision gets deeper and deeper into your heart you will start feeling a great change arising.

The moment guilt disappears, a person becomes religious, never before. So any religion that depends on creating guilt in people is not true religion. It is really exploitation, a very psychological conspiracy against humanity. But almost all the priests of all the religions have depended on that strategy. It gives them immense power. The more you can make people feel guilty, the more powerful you become. And the more guilty they feel, the more they bow down to you, the more they are ready to submit, to become slaves. They are afraid, shaken. They cannot depend on themselves -- they have to lean on some authority.

This is a psychological strategy to exploit people. It is really the oldest technique of mind-wash. And all the religions have used it. Christ has not used it, Buddha has not used it, but the priests -- whether they are christian, buddhist or hindu -- have all used it. If we look into the strategy of the priests we will find only a few simple rules: create guilt in people, create fear in people and they will be in your hands.

My work here consists of giving you freedom... in reminding you that you are God.

A sannyasin couple are leaving to finish things in the west so they can be here forever. The woman says: I feel very privileged.

You are... and you will become much more! To those who have, more shall be given to them; that's how it works. The richer you are, the richer you become. The happier you are, the happier you become. And the vice-versa is true too: a miserable person attracts misery. So remember that always.

If this simple law can be remembered the whole of life becomes transformed, because the like attracts the like. If you are happy, the whole existence starts flowing towards you in happiness. If you are dancing, the whole existence is ready to meet you in the dance, as a dance. If you are miserable, things start going away from you; you are left alone.

To be with me one has to follow this fundamental law: the more you absorb me, the more privileged you feel, the more you will get. And there is no end to it because I am simply a door to the non-ending, to the infinite. Pass through me... and as fast as possible!

  A sannyasin, leaving, says: I'm a little bit afraid of the change. I'm becoming stronger but I'm feeling less soft.

Allow it to happen. Women have been taught a false softness; one that is not true. A true softness is never weak; a true softness has its own strength.

But down the ages women have been taught a false kind of softness which is not true. That makes them weak. That is just on the surface -- it is a polish. Every girl has been taught to be soft, to be feminine, to be this and that. And in fact there is no need to teach -- a girl is a girl, she is feminine. The taught femininity is false, pseudo, and when the taught femininity surrounds you, your natural femininity disappears. That's what is happening: your false softness will disappear and you will become more and more strong. And you will feel afraid: What is happening to you ? Where is your femininity going ? You will be afraid of the strength, but never be afraid of the strength.

It will make you your real self, and then a totally different kind of softness will arise: the real, the untaught, the spontaneous. That which you are carrying hidden in your heart will bloom. But the false has to be dropped for the real to be and between the two you will feel a little hesitant and afraid, uncertain, uncentered. But there is no need to be afraid.

A sannyasin, arriving, says when he was in away he had a lot of questions all the time and he felt very aggressive. Once he arrived here he stepped into another dimension and all the questions disappeared.

That's very good! That's how it should be. If you really love me, just by being in my presence your questions will disappear. There is no need to ask; th~y are answered before you ask. And the presence answers them far more deeply, far more profoundly.

To be here means to be in my presence, and without your knowing you start falling in tune with me. Your state of consciousness is altered, your level of consciousness becomes different so the questions that existed on the first level can't exist on this level. There is every possibility that when you lose contact with me they will bubble up again. That will be an indication that you have forgotten me.

Don't be worried about those questions. Rather, try to contact me again. And you can invoke my presence anywhere. All that it needs is a prayerful, loving heart. You can call me anywhere. There is no need for you to come here to feel my presence; I can come to you. Slowly slowly all of my sannyasins learn the knack of it.

And wherever you are, once you have caught me and can feel me, those questions will disappear immediately. Alone, on your own, you are nothing but a bundle of questions. To be with me is to become the answer. So let this experience become very significant to you.

The real thing is never to solve the questions. The real thing is to transcend them, to surpass them, to go beyond them, to be in another kind of reality where those questions do not arise.

This is the difference between religion and philosophy. Philosophy tries to solve the questions, and hence not a single question has been solved by philosophy. It is an exercise in utter futility. Religion tries to change the level of consciousness, the state of the mind. There is a state in which there are questions and there is a state where no questions exist. Religion has solved all questions without solving a single one. In fact it solves the questioner.

To be with me is to be in contact with a living religion. I am not here to solve your questions; I am here to solve you. If you allow me, I am not going to destroy your questions -- I am going to destroy the questioner. And it has started happening. Become a little more courageous and go ahead!

A sannyasin says she feels like she is dying. She is working in the pottery department.

That's good work! That's really good work. If you can go deep into it, no other meditation is needed. It is a great meditation in itself and it can centre you. So go deep into it.

And don't be worried: you are not dying. You are becoming more alive -- you were dead.

Yes, of course -- as you are, you have to die. You have been dead up to now; you have to die to that deadness in you. But in fact you are becoming more alive. It will look like a kind of death in the beginning.... Allow it. And you are in the right kind of work to help it.

You wanted to become assistant to Somendra but I didn't like that idea, it would not have helped you at all. It would have destroyed your energy, it would have eaten you up. You would have fallen into fragments. To be a therapist or to be an assistant to a therapist needs a different kind of person and you are not that kind of person at all. But this work is perfectly good for you. Go into it, put all your energy into it.

And we are going to make pottery something really big -- just a few days more, mm? -- because I love it.