THE FOURTH SAYING

JESUS SAID: TAKE NO THOUGHT FROM THE MORNING UNTIL THE EVENING AND FROM THE EVENING UNTIL THE MORNING, FOR WHAT YOU SHALL PUT ON.

HIS DISCIPLES SAID: WHEN WILT THOU BE REVEALED TO US AND WHEN WILL WE SEE THEE?

JESUS SAID: WHEN YOU TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHING WITHOUT BEING ASHAMED, AND TAKE YOUR CLOTHES AND PUT THEM UNDER YOUR FEET AS THE LITTLE CHILDREN AND TREAD ON THEM -- THEN SHALL YOU BEHOLD THE SON OF THE LIVING ONE, AND YOU SHALL NOT FEAR.

Man lives not as he is but as he would like to be: not with the original face, but with a painted, false face. That is the whole problem. When you are born you have a face of your own -- nobody has disturbed it, nobody has changed it, but sooner or later the society starts working on your face. It starts hiding the original, the natural, the one you were born with, and then many faces are given to you for different occasions because one face won't do.

Situations change so you need many false faces, masks. From the morning till the evening, from the evening till the morning, thousands of faces are used. When you see a man approaching who is powerful, you change the mask; when you see a man who is a beggar approaching you, you are different. The whole time, moment to moment, there is a constant change in the face.

One has to be alert about it because it has become so mechanical that you need not be aware of it, it goes on changing by itself. If a servant comes in the room you don't even look at him. You act as if he is not a man, as if he doesn't exist, as if nobody has entered. But when the boss comes in the room you suddenly jump, you have a smiling face, receiving, welcoming, as if God himself has entered into the room.

Watch your face, the changes that occur continuously. Look in the mirror and think of the many faces that you can change. Look in the mirror and bring the face that comes when you approach your wife; look at the face that comes when you approach your beloved; look at the face when you are greedy, when you are angry; create the face when you feel sexual; create the face when you feel dissatisfied, frustrated. And watch in the mirror: you will find you are not one man -- you are a crowd. And sometimes it will be difficult even to recognize that all these faces belong to you. A mirror can be a great blessing. You can meditate in the mirror, change your faces and look at them. This will give you a glimpse of how false your whole life has become. And none of these faces is you.

In Zen it has been one of the deepest meditations: to find your original face, the one you had before you came to this world -- and the one you will have when you leave this world, because you cannot carry all these faces with you. They are gimmicks, techniques to deceive, techniques to defend yourself, they are armors around you. These faces have to be dropped, only then can you see Jesus, because when you see your original face you have seen Jesus.

Jesus is nothing but your original face, Buddha is nothing but your original face. Buddha is not outside you, neither is Jesus. When you drop all the falsity and you are naked -- just the original you, without any change, modification -- you are Jesus; Jesus in his absolute glory is revealed. It is not in the son of Joseph that he is to be revealed: suddenly you become Jesus. And only the like can know the like -- remember that law always: if you are like Jesus, only then can you recognize him; otherwise how will you recognize him? When you feel your own inner being, then you can recognize the inner being of somebody else.

The light can recognize the light, the light cannot recognize the darkness. And how will the darkness recognize the light? If you are false you cannot recognize a real man, and Jesus is the most real man, the most real that is possible. He is not a liar, he is authentic, and if you are lying with your life continuously -- your words, your gestures, everything is a lie -- then how can you recognize Jesus? It is impossible. In your total nudity you will recognize the inner Jesus, and only then will the outer be recognized. The inner is the first to be recognized, because the recognition can come only from your innermost source of being. There is no other way.

One of the oldest Jewish sayings is that you start seeking God only when you have found him. It looks paradoxical but it is absolutely true, because how will you start seeking him if you have not found him -- found him within yourself, realized him within yourself? Only then does the search start, but then there is no need to search really. The search starts and ends at the same point, the first step is the last step.

Only one step exists between you and the divine. There are not two steps so there is no path. Just one step: drop all falsities that you have taken upon yourself, drop all borrowed masks.

But why do we have faces? What is the need and what is the fear of dropping them? The whole mechanics has to be understood, only then will these words be clear to you.

First: you have never loved yourself -- otherwise there would be no need. You hate yourself, and if you hate yourself you will hide your face. If you hate yourself how can you reveal your face to others? You yourself hate it, you yourself don't want to see it, then how can you reveal it to others? Why has it happened that you hate yourself? The whole conditioning of society depends on creating hatred in you about yourself, a self-condemnation, a guilt. Religions have existed, priests have existed, society exists -- all types of exploitation exist on this basic seed that you hate yourself.

Why should you go to a priest if you don't hate yourself? What is the need? When you hate you feel guilty; when you hate you feel some transformation is needed; when you hate you think some help is needed -- somebody is needed to change you, to make you lovable, worth loving. Your parents say to you, "You are wrong, this is wrong, that is wrong!" They go on continuously saying, "Don't do this, don't do that!"

I have heard: One small child wanted to play on the beach with the sand. The mother said, "No, because the sand is wet and you will spoil your clothes." Then the small child wanted to go near the water. The mother said, "No, absolutely no! It is slippery and you may fall there." Then the small child wanted to run and jump around, and the mother said, "No! You may get lost in the crowd." Then the child asked for ice cream, because the ice cream vendor was near. The mother said, "No, because that always creates a problem with the throat and it is bad for the health." And then she said to a person who was standing by, "Have you ever seen such a neurotic child?"

And the child is not neurotic; the mother is neurotic. To play with sand is not neurosis, to go near the water is not neurosis, to run around is not neurosis, but a neurotic mind always says "No!" A neurotic mind cannot say "Yes!" because a neurotic mind cannot allow freedom to himself or herself, so how can a neurotic mind allow freedom to you? And this mother and almost all mothers are like that, and all fathers. Remember, when you become a mother or you become a father, they are all like that. Freedom is killed and the child is forced, by and by, to feel that he is neurotic, he is wrong; whatsoever he proposes to do he is told "No!"

I have heard about a small child who went to school for the first day, came back, and his mother asked, "What did you learn there?" The child said, "For the first time I learnt that my name is not 'Don't'. I always feel that 'Don't' is my name -- 'Don't do that, don't go there, don't be like that!' So I was thinking that my name is 'Don't'. In school I learned that that is not my name."

If you are neurotic   and this whole society is neurotic, there is a chain of neurosis from one generation to another. It goes on and on, and up to now no society has been able to create a non-neurotic society or a non-neurotic age. Only sometimes have a few individuals been able to get out of the prison, but that too very rarely happens because the prison is so big and has such strong foundations. The establishment is so old, it is supported by the whole past, and when a small child is born, it is almost impossible to think that he will be able to be healthy and not neurotic.

It is almost impossible because everybody around is mad and they will force him to be like themselves. They will kill his freedom and they will create the feeling that he is wrong, he is always wrong. That creates a condemnation, a self-condemnation -- you start hating yourself. And remember: if you hate yourself you cannot love anybody else. Impossible! How can you love somebody when you hate yourself? If poison exists at the source, it will poison all your relationships. So, you are never able to love anybody.

And remember the second thing which follows as a logical consequence: if you hate yourself, how can you think that anybody is going to love you? If you cannot love yourself, who is going to love you? So you know deep down that nobody is going to love you; and even if somebody tries, you never believe him. You go on suspecting that he must be deceiving you. How can anybody love you? -- you cannot love yourself. Then even if someone loves you, you are skeptical about it, doubtful. You cannot trust, and you will find ways and means to prove that he doesn't love you. And when it is proved, you are at ease, then everything is right.

This hatred is the base of all false faces -- you start hiding. Clothes exist not because of the climate, that is just a minor part of it. They exist to hide the body, they exist to hide the sexuality, they exist to hide the animal in you. But the animal is life -- all that is alive in you is animal-like. Except for your head, everything is animal-like, so everything has to be hidden except the head. Only the head, thinking, is not animal-like, so that is allowed. The society would be very happy if your whole body were cut off and only the head existed.

They are trying to do this, and the experiments have been successful. It is possible for the whole body to be dropped and the mind to go on functioning. The brain goes on functioning just through mechanical help: a mechanical heart goes on beating, a mechanical blood system goes on moving the blood, circulating it in the brain -- and the brain exists without the body. Scientists are doing many experiments, and they are in confusion as to what the brain should be thinking inside, because the body is no longer there -- the brain may be having dreams, thinking thoughts, creating systems.

They were successful in this just a few years back, but society has been successful with the same experiment in a different way: your whole body is cut off from your consciousness, only your head is allowed. If you suddenly come upon your body without the head, I am certain you will not recognize that this is your body. If you suddenly come upon your body without the head, will you be able to recognize that this is your body? You have never seen it; even in the bathroom you have never seen your body. Clothes have become too much. They are not just on the body, they are on the mind also.

Two small school children were passing a big wall and they wanted to know what was going on behind the wall. They found a small hole but it was very difficult to reach, so one boy stood on the other boy's shoulders, looked through the hole and said, "Wonderful! Many people are there and they are playing, but they are all nude. It seems to be a nudist club."

The other boy became excited and he said, "Tell me something more -- whether they are men or women."

The small boy who was standing on top said, "I cannot say, because they have no clothes."

A man is recognized as a man because of his clothes, a woman is recognized as a woman because of her clothes. The small child is right. He says, "How can I say who they are? They have no clothes." Clothes are the identity. That's why a king will not allow you to wear clothes like him -- no! If ordinary people start wearing clothes like the king, then where will he be? It cannot be allowed because he should be something special.

Clothes are identities. And they become so heavy on you that even in your dreams you never see yourself naked, you always see yourself with your clothes on. This is something! It has gone very deep. Even in dreams you never see yourself naked, society naked. No! Clothes have gone into the very unconscious, because a dream is an unconscious phenomenon. At least in a dream you should be natural, but even there you are not natural; masks, faces continue.

This whole falseness exists, this pseudo-personality exists, because at the base you hate yourself. You want to hide, nobody should know your real self, because how will they be able to tolerate it if they come to know? How will they love it, how will they appreciate it? You have become actors. This is the base of Jesus' sayings.

JESUS SAID: TAKE NO THOUGHT FROM THE MORNING UNTIL THE EVENING AND FROM THE EVENING UNTIL THE MORNING FOR WHAT YOU SHALL PUT ON.

Don't think about faces, clothes, falsities. Remain yourself as you are, accept yourself as you are. Difficult, very difficult, because if you think about yourself as you are, suddenly you feel uneasy.

From where does this uneasiness come? It comes because teachers have been teaching you, and these teachers are the great poisoners of life. They are not really teachers, they are enemies. They have been teaching: "This is animal, that is animal -- and you are a MAN." What are they saying? They are saying, "Whatsoever is animal in you, deny it!" And I say to you that man is not something against the animal, man is the suprememost animal. Not something against -- the highest, the very peak. If you deny animality, you deny your very source of life. And then you will always be false.

If you make love to a woman and you deny animality, what will you do? That's why many people have become almost incapable of loving. You may be surprised that in the East I think ninety-nine percent of women have never known any orgasm. The same was the case in the West also, but now it is changing. Ninety-nine percent of women have never known any sexual ecstasy, because they were never allowed to. Men were allowed to be a little animal-like. but never women. They have to be stiff while making love, dead, almost like a corpse. They should not show any emotion, they should not show that they are enjoying it -- because only bad women enjoy sex. A prostitute is allowed to enjoy it, but not a wife. If she enjoys and becomes ecstatic, then the husband will feel hurt and think that this woman is not very good because she should behave like a goddess, not like an animal. But to behave like a goddess without being a goddess is bound to create falseness. The woman lies down, dead, corpse-like, with no emotions.

Have you ever observed the word 'emotion'? It comes from the same root as 'movement', 'motion'. When you are in an emotion your whole being moves: it is thrilled, it throbs, it is alive -- it is wild. No, a woman is not allowed to be wild, to be alive. She has to remain corpse-like, dead; then she is a good woman, then she has transcended animality. But if you deny sex and you say that this is animal, then you will have to hide it.

In America, just three or four years ago, one manufacturer of toys got into deep trouble and the case went up to the supreme court. And the trouble was this: that he created a few toys with penises, vaginas -- real. A girl must have a vagina if she has a face, a boy must have a penis if he has a face. Toys with sex organs! He got into trouble, and he had to cancel his productions. He did a beautiful thing, but the courts wouldn't allow it, society wouldn't allow it.

Why don't your toys have sexual organs when they have everything else? You want the child to be unaware of a fact? -- then you are creating a false face. And why did people get so mad against those toys? Toys are toys! But priests, missionaries, so-called do-gooders, they got mad, and they brought the man into court. And he had done a beautiful thing, an historic thing. Children must know the whole body because the whole body is beautiful. Why hide it, why cut it? A fear, a deep fear of animality. But you are animals, it is a fact: you can transcend it but you cannot destroy it. Destruction means one thing: if you destroy the fact you will have a false face, your mask will be a false thing, your godliness will be just a mask.

If you transcend it, then your godliness will be something authentic. But transcendence means accepting it; passing through it with alertness, not being lost in it; passing through it and going above. And denial means never going into it, never passing through it, just bypassing it. In life nothing can be bypassed; and if you bypass it you will always remain immature, juvenile, you will never be a grownup. Life has to be lived -- only then do you grow. There comes a moment when you transcend sex, but that moment comes through knowing, that moment comes through experience; that moment comes through deepening of consciousness and love -- not through denial, not through repression.

Jesus says:

TAKE NO THOUGHT FROM THE MORNING UNTIL THE EVENING AND FROM THE EVENING UNTIL THE MORNING, FOR WHAT YOU SHALL PUT ON.

Don't put on anything. I am not saying go and move naked in the town, but don't put on anything: just be yourself! Whatsoever life has made you, accept it, enjoy it, welcome it. Celebrate it. Be thankful to the divine that he has made you, whatsoever you are. Don't reject, because when you reject anything in you, you have rejected God    because he is the creator, he created you this way.

Of course, he knows more than you. When you reject anything in you, you have rejected the creator, you are finding fault with the universe, with existence itself. This is foolish, stupid, but such people have become very respectable.

Jesus says don't think about what you are going to put on, just move spontaneously in life. Be responsive to life, but don't bring any falseness between you and the flow of life.

Live moment to moment without thinking, because thinking is the deepest mask. You go to a woman and you rehearse in the mind what you are going to say: "I love you," or, "There is nobody like you." If you are making a rehearsal you are not in love; otherwise, there is no need because love will speak on its own, love will flow on its own -- of their own accord things will happen. Flowers will flower, but of their own accord -- no rehearsal is needed.

Once Mark Twain was asked by a friend -- he was coming from a lecture hall where he had delivered a beautiful talk, and the friend asked, "How was it? Did you like your talk or not -- you yourself?"

Mark Twain said, "Which talk?   because there is the one I had prepared, the one that I have delivered, and the one that I wanted to deliver -- which talk are you asking about?"

But this is your whole life: you prepare something, you deliver something else, and you wanted to deliver something else entirely. Why does this happen, so much division? Because you are not spontaneous. One who is spontaneous will need only one thing, nothing else -- that is being alert, mindful. Then he will respond out of his mindfulness. You prepare because you are unaware, not mindful. You are afraid, you are fearful, because who knows what situation will be there? "Will I be able to respond or not?" The fear! Then you become false. But Jesus says: "Don't think about what you shall put on."

HIS DISCIPLES SAID: WHEN WILT THOU BE REVEALED TO US AND WHEN WILL WE SEE THEE?

JESUS SAID: WHEN YOU TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHING WITHOUT BEING ASHAMED, AND TAKE YOUR CLOTHES AND PUT THEM UNDER YOUR FEET AS THE LITTLE CHILDREN AND TREAD ON THEM -- THEN SHALL YOU BEHOLD THE SON OF THE LIVING ONE, AND YOU SHALL NOT FEAR.

Try to understand each single word. The disciples asked: WHEN WILT THOU BE REVEALED TO US? Jesus is there, revealed in all his glory; he is present to them, before them. They are asking Jesus himself: WHEN WILT THOU BE REVEALED TO US? They think as if Jesus is hiding himself.

Once Buddha was asked. He was passing through a forest. Dry leaves were on the path, leaves were falling, wind was blowing and there was much noise in the fallen dry leaves. Ananda asked   there was no one else there, because some disciples had gone ahead and a few others were coming behind, following them, but at that moment only Ananda was near Buddha. He said, "I have always wanted to ask one thing: have you revealed everything that you have? Or are you hiding something from us?"

Buddha said, "My hand is an open hand -- a buddha has no fist. Look at this forest as it is revealed, nothing is hidden. I am just as open as this forest, and a buddha has no fist." Then he took a few dry leaves in his fist and said, "Now my fist is closed, you cannot see those leaves." People who are greedy about their knowledge -- those who would not like to share it -- they are like fists.

Then Buddha opened his hand, the leaves fell down and he said, "But the hand of a buddha is not like a fist, he is open. I have revealed everything. And if you feel that something is still hidden, it is because of you, not because of me."

Jesus is there, present. The disciples are asking: WHEN WILT THOU BE REVEALED TO US? He is revealed! AND WHEN WILL WE SEE THEE? They think as if Jesus is hiding himself. No, Jesus is not hiding. Rather, on the contrary, the disciples are not open, they are closed; their eyes are not open. They are hiding, not Jesus.

Truth is not hidden: you are closed. Truth is revealed everywhere, every moment. Truth by its very nature cannot be hidden. Only lies try to hide themselves, not truth; only lies are secretive. Truth is always like an open hand, it is never like a fist. But you are closed.

"The problem is with you," said Jesus. WHEN YOU TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHING WITHOUT BEING ASHAMED. Because you can take off your clothing and still feel ashamed, then this nudity is not nudity really, this nudity is not innocent. Shame is cunningness.

In Christianity shame is the original sin. You have heard the story of what happened to Adam and Eve. At which moment did the sin happen? It has been a continuous search to find in exactly what moment the sin happened. They were forbidden to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, but they were tempted. It is natural: whenever anything is forbidden, temptation comes -- this is how mind behaves. But mind has another trick also: it tempts you, but it always makes somebody else responsible. Whenever something is forbidden the mind becomes interested, it becomes an invitation. The mind wants to know, to poke its nose in, inquire.

Adam and Eve were tempted by themselves, nobody else was there. But the story says the devil, Satan, tempted them. This is a trick of the mind to throw the responsibility on someone else. And this 'devil' is nothing but a scapegoat, this 'devil' is nothing but a trick of the mind to throw all responsibilities. You are tempted, but the 'devil' is the tempter so you are not responsible. He has persuaded you, he seduced you, so he is the sinner not you. But the temptation came from the forbiddance, and this was a trick of the mind. The story is beautiful:

God said, "Don't eat the fruit from this tree!" If they were trusting, then they would have avoided the tree. But they were not trusting. They said: "Why? Why does God forbid us this tree, and this tree is the tree of knowledge?" The mind must have said to them, "If you eat, you will become like gods because you will be knowers. And he is forbidding you because he is jealous. He is forbidding you because he would not like you to become like gods. You will be knowers, then nothing will be hidden from you." But the story says the devil tempted them and said, "He has forbidden it because he is jealous and afraid." This was just a situation for Adam and Eve to prove whether they had trust or not -- nothing else.

But the mind persuaded them -- mind is the 'devil'. The devil came in the shape of a snake, and the snake is the oldest symbol of cunningness -- mind is the snake, the most cunning thing. Adam and Eve both made the devil responsible, threw the responsibility on the devil -- and Adam also threw the responsibility on Eve. Man has always said that woman is the tempter, so men have always been condemning women. In all the scriptures of the world the woman is the tempter: she leads you into temptation, she seduces you, and she is the cause of all trouble. So your so-called saints go on condemning women.

This is the way of the mind:

Eve says, "The devil"; Adam says, "Eve"; and if you ask the devil, if you get him somewhere, he will say, "God -- because why should he forbid in the first place? That created the whole trouble. Otherwise, the garden of Eden was so big and there were millions of trees, that by themselves Adam and Eve would never have come upon the tree of knowledge. 'Forbidden!' They knew this was the tree, and then the whole garden became uninteresting, their whole interest became focused -- it was God's fault!"

But the story is beautiful and has millions of dimensions around it; it can be interpreted in many, many ways -- that is the beauty of a parable. They took the fruit of the tree, they ate it, and immediately they became ashamed of their nakedness. Where did the sin happen? By disobeying God? If you ask the pope of the Vatican, he will say, "By disobeying God," because priests would like you to always obey, never disobey.

If you ask philosophers, not theologians, they will say: "By eating the fruit of knowledge." Because when you start thinking trouble arises. Life is innocent without thinking: children are innocent because they cannot think, trees look so beautiful because they cannot think. Man looks so ugly because his mind is always burdened and tense with worries and thoughts and dreams and reveries, and he is always burdened -- the whole grace is lost. So if you ask existentialist philosophers, they will say that it is because of the tree of knowledge.

But if you ask the psychologists, whose approach is deepest, they will say, "Because of shame." Because when you feel shame you have started to hate yourself, when you feel ashamed you have rejected yourself. But it came through knowledge. Children cannot feel ashamed; they move naked easily, there is no problem. You force them by and by to feel ashamed: "Don't be naked!" The more they become knowers, then the more they will hide themselves.

Jesus says: WHEN YOU TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHING WITHOUT BEING ASHAMED. But what did Adam and Eve do? They put fig leaves around their sex organs, the first clothing invented -- the world started. How can you enter again into the garden of Eden? Throw away your fig leaves! -- that's what Jesus says. He says this is the way back to paradise. This is the way back: WHEN YOU TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHING WITHOUT BEING ASHAMED. Because you can take off your clothing and remain ashamed, then deep down the clothing is there: you are hiding, you are not open. So nudity is not nakedness; you may be nude, but not naked.

Nakedness has a deeper dimension: it means no shame, no feeling of being ashamed; it means accepting your body in its totality as it is. No condemnation in the mind, no division in the body -- a simple acceptance, then it is nakedness. Mahavira is not nude, he is not a member of a nudist club; he is naked, he is naked like a child. In a nudist club you are not naked. Even your nudity is calculated, it is manipulation from the mind. You are revolting, you are rebellious, you are going against the society -- because the society believes in clothes, you are throwing the clothes. But it is a reaction so you are not innocent, innocent like a child.

Says Jesus:

AND TAKE YOUR CLOTHES AND PUT THEM UNDER YOUR FEET AS THE LITTLE CHILDREN AND TREAD ON THEM -- THEN SHALL YOU BEHOLD THE SON OF THE LIVING ONE, AND YOU SHALL NOT FEAR.

First, you should accept your nakedness as you are before God, just like a small child before his father and mother -- not ashamed. You should not be ashamed before the divine, then you will be real. If shame is there then masks will be used, they are bound to be used.

And a second thing: if the feeling of being ashamed disappears, you shall not fear. They are joined together: if you feel ashamed you will be afraid; if you don't feel ashamed you will not be afraid at all. The fear disappears with shame. And when fear and shame both disappear, your eyes are open -- and then you will see the son of God, or THE SON OF THE LIVING ONE; then Jesus will be revealed to you, then you can know a Buddha.

People come to me and they ask, "How can we recognize whether a master is enlightened or not?" You cannot recognize an enlightened master as you are. It is just like a blind man asking how he can recognize whether the light is on or off. How can a blind man recognize this? Recognition needs eyes and the blind man's eyes are closed. You cannot recognize whether a man is realized or not, enlightened or not, whether he is really a Christ or not -- you cannot recognize. Otherwise, how could Jesus have been crucified if people had recognized him?

They treated him very badly, they made him look foolish, they forced him to look foolish. The day when he was carrying his cross to Golgotha, there were soldiers, urchins, a mass of people all around, throwing stones and dirty things, enjoying themselves: "This is the 'king of Israel', this is the 'son of God', this carpenter's boy -- he has gone mad!" Jokingly they placed a crown of thorns on his head and said, "Look! Here is the 'king of Israel', here is the 'son of God'!"

And then when he was crucified, the final joke was that they put thieves on both sides of him. He was crucified as a criminal with two thieves. And not only the crowd, even those thieves made a joke of Jesus. One of the thieves said, "Now we are all going to be crucified, remember us; don't forget us in your 'kingdom of God'. We are also being crucified with you, so take note of us because you are 'the son'! So when we reach the kingdom of God, make some arrangements for us too. And you can do it -- you can do anything!" They were also joking. Jesus was made to look like a fool.

How do we miss recognizing a Jesus? We have our eyes closed. And the eyes are closed because of your clothing; not just because of your clothes, but many types of clothing: clothes of shame, fear, self-hatred, self-condemnation, guilt -- layers upon layers of clothing.

Jesus says:

WHEN YOU TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHING WITHOUT BEING ASHAMED, AND TAKE YOUR CLOTHES AND PUT THEM UNDER YOUR FEET AS THE LITTLE CHILDREN.

When in the beginning a child is forced to put on clothes for the first time, he rebels. He is against it because it confines his freedom and it gives him a falseness. His resistance is natural. But you can force him, you can persuade him. You say, "When we go out you have to put on these clothes, when we come back you need not; because in society clothes are needed -- otherwise you cannot come with us." And he wants to come so he has to put on the clothes.

But the moment he is back, this is what he will do: he will take off the clothes, and not only take them off, he will also jump on them. They are the enemies, they make him false. He is no more himself when those clothes are there. Now he is free again. He will celebrate this nakedness by throwing off the clothes and putting them under his feet, treading on them and celebrating the nakedness. If you do that like children, THEN SHALL YOU BEHOLD THE SON OF THE LIVING ONE, AND YOU SHALL NOT FEAR.

In your nakedness there is no fear, because fear is something that is added to you; fear is created through shame. Many religions have been creating guilt, so that you are guilty. Feel shameful and then you become afraid. Then a neurosis is born, and then you go to the same persons who have been creating guilt and fear in you, you go to the same persons to learn how to transcend them! They cannot be helpful because they are the creators of fear. They will say: "Pray to God and be God-fearing." They cannot lead you beyond fear. Jesus can lead you beyond fear, but then the whole thing has to be demolished from the very foundation. This is the foundation: don't accept yourself, and you will always be afraid.

Accept yourself, and there will be no fear. Don't think in terms of 'should' and 'should not', 'ought' and 'ought not', and you will never be afraid. Be real and trust reality; don't fight with reality. If sex is there, it is there, accept it; if anger is there, it is there, accept it. Don't try to create the opposite: "I am angry, this is not good: I must not be angry, I must be forgiving. I am sexual, this must not be there, I must be celibate." Don't create the opposite end, because if you create the opposite end you are trying to create masks. Anger will remain, your forgiveness will be just a false face; sex will be there, moving deeper and deeper in the unconscious, and on your face there will be a mask of BRAHMACHARYA. That is not going to help.

I have heard: One scientist was working to find the secret of diamonds. He worked hard and almost all the clues were revealed to him, except one single point. If he came to know that single thing he would become the richest man in the world. But he worked hard and couldn't find the single clue. Then somebody suggested, "You are wasting your life and time. I have heard there is a woman in Tibet, a very wise woman, and she knows all the answers. You go to her and just ask the simple question about this, your problem, and she will give you the answer. Why waste time here?"

The man traveled to Tibet, but it took many years. It was very difficult to reach the wise woman. He went through much hardship and many times his life was at stake, but he got there. In the morning he knocked at the door and the wise woman opened it. She was a very beautiful woman, such as he had never seen before. And not only was she beautiful, but her very being was inviting -- in her eyes, the glimmer of "Come hither!" She said. "Okay, so you have arrived. My husband has gone out, and this is the rule: you can ask only one question and I will answer it. One question only, remember, no second question." The scientist blurted out: "When will your husband be back?"

This is the one question he had come to ask. Somewhere deep down in the unconscious, sex must have been the problem, the real problem. Working with diamonds, finding the secret of diamonds, must have been a distraction. Deep down in the unconscious he must have been thinking, "When I become the richest man in the world, all the women, all the beautiful women, will be mine" -- somewhere, although he may not have been aware of it.

You can go on working on the surface without being aware of the unconscious, but at the right moment it will come, it will explode. Escape is futile. Only transformation can be helpful, and transformation needs deep acceptance of your being as you are. With no judgment, not saying, "This is good, that is bad" -- with no evaluation. Don't be a judge! Just trust your nature and flow with it, and don't try to swim upstream -- that is what nakedness means.

Move with life with a deep trust, wheresoever it leads. Don't create your own goal; if you create your own goal you will become false. Life has no goal; if YOU have a goal you are against life. Life moves not like a business, it moves like poetry; life moves not from the head, it moves from the heart -- it is a romance. Trust is needed, doubt won't be helpful. Life is not scientific, it is irrational. Life doesn't believe in Aristotles and the logicians, it believes in love, in the poets, it believes in the mystics. It is a mystery to be lived, not a riddle to be solved -- it is not a puzzle, it is not a problem. The secret is open, only you are closed. It is revealed everywhere: in each tree, in each leaf, in every ray of the sun it is revealed -- but you are closed.

Why are you closed? You don't accept life within you, how can you accept life without? Accept! Start from the center of your being. Accept yourself as you are and then you will accept everything as it is. And with acceptance comes transformation: you will never be the same as you are once you accept.

The transformation happens by itself, it comes of its own accord, but it always comes in a letgo. This is what Jesus says: Be naked so that you can be in a letgo. Drop all that the society has given to you -- that is the meaning of the 'clothing'. The society has not given you life, it has given you only the 'clothing'. The society has not given you the self, it has given you the ego. Drop the clothing and the ego disappears. Think of yourself walking on the street nude.

One man called Ebrahim came to his master -- Ebrahim had been a king, and then his search started -- he came to the master and the master said, "Are you ready to accept everything?"

Ebrahim said, "I have come for that -- you say and I will do."

The master looked at him and said, "Okay, drop your clothes!"

The disciples became uneasy, because Ebrahim was a great king and this was too much and unnecessary. It was never asked of them, so why such a hard thing for the king? One disciple even whispered in the master's ear, "This is too much, don't be so hard -- you never asked it of us!"

But the master said, "And take your shoes in your hands and go on the street and beat your head with the shoes! Move all over the town naked!"

This town was his capital, but Ebrahim followed him. Nude, he went around the capital beating his head with his own shoes. And it is said that when he came back he was enlightened.

What happened? He was a man with great potential, that's why the master demanded so much. A master demands only that much which is possible for you. The more potential you have, the more he will demand, but if you are just poor, he will not demand so much. Ebrahim was a man with much potential -- he himself became a great master in his own right. What happened? This happened, as Jesus is saying to his disciples: clothing dropped, ego dropped -- all that society has given to you.

Many times the ego drops by itself because it is a burden, but again you put it on your head and carry on. Many times you are a failure, many times you don't succeed. Many times the ego falls by itself, but again, bruised, frustrated, defeated, a failure, you will carry the burden in some hope.

Here is one story I have heard: One day the lion came to the tiger and said, "Who is the boss of this forest?"

The tiger said, "Of course, master, you are the one, you are the king!"

Then the lion went to a bear, grabbed hold of him and asked, "Who is the master? Who is the boss?"

The bear said, "Of course, there is no need to ask -- you are the king of all the animals, you are the boss!"

And then the lion went to the elephant and asked the same question: "Who is the boss here?"

The elephant grabbed the lion and threw him away, at least fifty feet. He was struck by a rock, bleeding, bruised, weak, but he stood and said, "If you don't know the right answer this is no way to behave!"

This is what you have been doing. But you will not drop, you will also say, "If you don't know the right answer this is no way to behave! Why be so rough? You can simply say, 'I don't know the answer.'"

If you can recognize that in failure all that society has given you falls, the failure can become the beginning of the greatest success that is possible in life. That is why only in failure does a man become religious -- if he can recognize the failure. It is very difficult to become religious when you succeed. Then the clothing is giving you so much, why bother about being naked? Then the clothing is such a good investment. But in failure, suddenly you become aware of the nakedness that is there. Nothing can hide it, you can only deceive yourself.

Use your failures! And when you are thrown against a rock, bruised and bleeding, don't repeat the stupidity of the lion. Recognize that there is no success in this world. There cannot be because this whole thing is so false, and with false faces how can you succeed? Even your Napoleons, your Secundars, Alexanders, your Genghis Khans, are all failures.

A Jesus succeeds because he stands in his originality, he stands in his nature. Try to understand this; and not only through understanding but by dropping, by and by, your clothing; become naked and you will be pure. Then you will have thrown that apple Adam and Eve ate; then the door of paradise is open again.

Christians say that with Adam and Eve humanity was thrown out of paradise; with Jesus the doors are again open -- you can enter. But it will not happen just by being a Christian. You will have to recognize Jesus, and that recognition comes only when you have recognized yourself as Jesus -- nothing less can do.