THE NINETEENTH SAYING

JESUS SAID: A MAN HAD GUEST-FRIENDS, AND WHEN HE HAD PREPARED THE DINNER, HE SENT HIS SERVANT TO INVITE THE GUESTS.

HE WENT TO THE FIRST, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER INVITES THEE.' HE SAID: 'I HAVE SOME CLAIMS AGAINST SOME MERCHANTS; THEY WILL COME TO ME IN THE EVENING; I WILL GO AND GIVE THEM MY ORDERS. I PRAY TO BE EXCUSED FROM THE DINNER.'

HE WENT TO ANOTHER, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER HAS INVITED THEE.' HE SAID TO HIM: 'I HAVE BOUGHT A HOUSE AND THEY REQUEST ME FOR A DAY. I WILL HAVE NO TIME.'

HE CAME TO ANOTHER, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER INVITES THEE.' HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY FRIEND IS TO BE MARRIED AND I AM TO ARRANGE A DINNER; I SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO COME. I PRAY TO BE EXCUSED FROM THE DINNER.'

HE WENT TO ANOTHER, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER INVITES THEE.' HE SAID TO HIM: 'I HAVE BOUGHT A FARM, I GO TO COLLECT THE RENT. I SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO COME. I PRAY TO BE EXCUSED.'

THE SERVANT CAME, HE SAID TO HIS MASTER: 'THOSE WHOM THOU HAST INVITED TO THE DINNER HAVE EXCUSED THEMSELVES.'

THE MASTER SAID TO HIS SERVANT: 'GO OUT TO THE ROADS, BRING THOSE WHOM THOU SHALT FIND SO THAT THEY MAY DINE. TRADESMEN AND MERCHANTS SHALL NOT ENTER THE PLACES OF MY FATHER.'

Jesus talks in parables. The parables are very simple but very significant. They are not literal, so we will have to understand the symbolic meaning of them. These sayings today are concerned with a particular type, not exactly tradesmen and businessmen, but the type. You may not be a businessman but you may be the type; you may be a businessman and you may not be the type.

So remember, there is a particular type and that particular type constitutes almost ninety-nine percent of people: businessmen and traders are all over. They may be doing something else, but their mind is that of a businessman. So the first thing to be understood: who is a businessman, who is a trader?

A businessman is one who is busy about nonsignificant things, who is busy about the trivial, who is busy about the outside, who is busy about things, commodities, but not about himself. He has completely forgotten himself, he is lost in the world. He thinks of money, possessions, but never of consciousness, because consciousness is not a commodity, it can neither be sold nor purchased, it is useless. A businessman is one who is a utilitarian: poetry is meaningless, religion is meaningless, God is meaningless, because they cannot be converted into saleable objects, you cannot earn money through them. And money is the most significant thing for this type. He can sell himself, he can lose himself, he can destroy his whole life, just to accumulate money. This is the first characteristic of the type.

I have heard that two businessmen met in a market. It was the peak of the season, of the year. And one said to the other, "Have you heard that Sheik Fakhruddin, the clothier, died this morning?"

The other said, "What! In the middle of the season?"

Neither is life meaningful, nor death, only the season. His measurement is money, he measures a man with money; how much you have got, not who you are -- that is meaningless. If you have money you are significant, if you don't have money you are nobody. If he pays respect to you, he pays respect to your possessions, never to you. If you lose your possessions he will not even look at you.

Once it happened: A rich man became poor. He was in misery and he was saying to his wife, "I believed that I had so many friends. Fifty percent of them have already left me, and the other fifty percent do not yet know that I have become poor."

All of them are going to leave, they were never with you. You cannot have a friendship with a businessman. No, he is only friendly with the money that you have. The moment money is not there, the friendship disappears -- it was never with you.

You cannot relate to a businessman, that is impossible: you cannot be a wife, you cannot be a husband, you cannot be a son, you cannot be a father to a businessman, because he relates only to money. Everything else is beside the point, his target is money. If your son starts earning money, the son is valuable; if your father is rich, then he is your father; if he is poor, you would not like people to know that he is your father.

This actually happens every day in life: you will recognize a father who is rich; if he is a poor man or a beggar, you will not recognize him -- you recognize only the money. The businessman -- the type -- cannot love, because love is the most anti-money phenomenon in the world.

Love is concerned with being. Love is a sharing, it is a giving away -- not only what you possess, but what you are. A businessman can never be a lover, and a businessman always thinks that lovers are a little crazy, they have gone nuts, they are not in their senses, they are doing nonsense. "Why are you wasting your time? Time is money!" -- that's what a businessman says.

I have heard about one businessman who purchased one hundred clocks and put them all around his house. Somebody asked, "What are you doing?"

He said, "I have heard that time is money, so the more of it the better!"

His whole concern is about things, not about persons. Love is concerned with persons, the money-oriented mind is concerned with things. And this type of man is continuously busy; he is never at rest, he cannot be, because there is always more and more to be accumulated. There is no end to it.

A man of love can rest. There is a fulfillment when you can rest. But a man after money can never rest because there is no end to it. And there is never fulfillment because money cannot fulfill the soul; the soul remains empty, the inner remains a void. You go on throwing things into it but they never touch your inner emptiness. The more you accumulate, the more you become aware that you are empty, your hands are empty; money is with you but you have lost yourself. Your whole effort is not to look at this fact, because this is very painful.

The businessman runs after money more and more. He wants to completely forget himself in the money; money becomes an intoxicant. He is always busy, a businessman is always busy about nothing. I say about nothing, because in the end it proves nothing. All that you possess proves to be as if you were making drawings on water: they disappear; death comes and your whole effort is nullified. Death negates the businessman.

I would like to tell you that only the businessman dies, nobody else -- but he constitutes ninety-nine percent of people. Only the businessman dies because only he accumulates things, and death can snatch things away. Death cannot take your love, death cannot take your prayer, death cannot take your meditation, death cannot take away your God. But a businessman only becomes interested in God if there is some business to be done.

Once it happened: The weather was bad and stormy, and an airplane was lost. The fog was so dense that everybody became afraid and fearful. A minister was aboard; except for him, everybody was weeping, crying, perspiring. The moment was dangerous -- any moment, death. Even the pilot was perspiring and nervous. The minister told everybody to kneel down and pray. They all, except the businessman, a small man, kneeled and started praying.

The minister asked the businessman, "Why are you not praying?"

The man said, "Forgive me, Father, because I don't know how to pray. I have never prayed."

And there was no time to teach the man: any moment the plane would be falling, any moment it would crash. So the minister said, "Okay, there is no time left now. So you just behave as if you are in a church."

The businessman walked down the aisle and collected money from people.

The type -- even at the moment of death he knows only one way to behave in a church: to collect money. At the last moment money still remains the focus. This is the first thing to be understood, then you will be able to understand these sentences.

Second thing: in this parable Jesus says God's invitation is always there. Many times he comes and knocks, or his messenger comes and knocks, at your door. He invites you to come for a dinner, but you are always busy and you cannot go. You want to be excused.

Think about yourself: if a messenger comes and invites you, are you ready to go? You have so many things to do and finish first -- and you will never be able to finish them, because there is no end to them. The invitation is rejected. You say, "I would have come, I would have liked to come..." but these are all false things. Why can't you accept the invitation? -- because more important things are to be done: there is some marriage and you have to go because it is a business relationship; or you have purchased land and you have to go and collect the rent; or something else. God is always the last item on the list of a businessman. And he never comes to the last item -- before that, death comes.

God is the most useless phenomenon. People come to me and they ask, "Why meditate? What will we achieve out of it?" They are asking, "What profit? What are we going to achieve out of it?" And if I say, "Nothing," they simply cannot understand. Why are people coming to me? To learn nothing? To attain nothing? The businessman needs something visible, tangible. If he meditates and money starts falling on him, then it is worthwhile; if he meditates and he becomes successful in the world, then it is worthwhile; if he meditates and the illness disappears from the body, then it is worthwhile.

But if you say, "Nothing," or "God" -- which means the same, just the words differ, because God is nothing -- if you use your measurements that you use in this world, what is God? You cannot categorize him. Where will you put him? In what category? How will you label him? And how will you decide the price? He is nothing, he does not belong to this world. In what way can you use him? You cannot use him because God is not a utility, he is an ecstasy.

An ecstasy cannot be used. You can enjoy it but you cannot use it. What is the difference between enjoying and using? You look at a tree, at the green, the sun rising -- you enjoy it but you cannot sell it. You look at a flower, you enjoy it. But the businessman will pluck the flower and go and sell it in the market. You cannot pluck God and go and sell him in the market. You have tried; that's why temples, mosques, gurudwaras, churches exist. This is how the businessman has behaved with God: he has tried to sell him also and earn something out of it. It is a great business.

And the priest is the businessman turned into a religious man -- he is not religious at all. That's why he is always against Jesus, Buddha, Nanak, Kabir: he is against all of them because these people are dangerous, they destroy the whole business. A businessman is not interested in God, in poetry, in prayer, in love, in beauty, in goodness; he is not interested in ecstasy. Just to enjoy means nothing to him. He says, "What is the profit out of it?"

One millionaire once visited a primitive tribe. When he got down from the train he saw a primitive man lying just on the platform under a tree. The morning was beautiful, very sunny, the air was clean, fresh and cool, birds were singing and the man was resting. The businessman could not tolerate it. He said, "Hey, chief, what are you doing there? It is time to go and earn something!"

The man who was resting opened his eyes and asked very sweetly, "Why?"

This 'why' cannot be understood by a businessman. He said, "Why? To earn some money!"

The primitive started smiling and again asked, "Why?"

This was impossible. The businessman became annoyed and he said, "Why? To have a bank balance so that you can retire and rest, and then there is no need to work."

The primitive closed his eyes and said, "I am resting now."

This is impossible -- resting now is impossible. A businessman postpones rest for the future: "Work here, now. Have a bank balance, then retire, then rest and enjoy!" But that never comes, it cannot come. A businessman can never retire -- that is not in the type, that is not the quality of the type. He may retire from one business, but immediately, or even before it, he will manage another, because he cannot rest. He always thinks in the future, he postpones his enjoyment. Remember, a man who is religious enjoys here and now. The heaven of a religious man is not somewhere in the sky, in the future. No! That is how a businessman looks at heaven.

The heaven of a religious man is here and now, right this moment. He enjoys it, he does not postpone it, because nobody knows about the future. There is no future, to be exact, only the present exists. The future is a fallacy; it is just somehow to console yourself that some day you will be able to enjoy. And your whole life you are training yourself not to enjoy, and postponing -- even if you enter heaven.

I have heard, once it happened: Four businessmen entered heaven. I don't know how they entered -- they must have been smuggled in, they must have managed it. Then a saint died who knew those four gentlemen. He entered and he saw them in heaven, but he was very much puzzled as to what was the matter, because they were bound in irons, they were not free. He couldn't believe it so he asked the gatekeeper, "What is the matter? ... Because I have heard that in heaven there is total freedom, why have these men been made prisoners here? Why have you bound them?"

The gatekeeper laughed and he said, "These are four businessmen and they want to get back to the world. And that will not be good. Somehow they got in, but now to allow them to go back to the world... the whole prestige of heaven will be destroyed. They want to go back, they say there is no business here. What to do? So we had to put them in chains."

A businessman remains a businessman because the type cannot change so easily -- unless you become aware of the whole fallacy of postponing, future, money, possessions; unless you become so intense in your awareness that the very intensity burns your type. And if you are not a businessman then you become a religious man.

The invitation comes every day, it knocks at your door every day -- every moment to be exactly right, it knocks. But you say, "Excuse me, I have to do many more things and then I will come." Enjoyment, happiness, blissfulness, rest -- no, they are not for the business type; he has to do much before he can rest. That's why the invitation was denied. Now try to penetrate this parable. It is beautiful.

JESUS SAID: A MAN HAD GUEST-FRIENDS, AND WHEN HE HAD PREPARED THE DINNER, HE SENT HIS SERVANT TO INVITE THE GUESTS. HE WENT TO THE FIRST, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER INVITES THEE.' HE SAID: 'I HAVE SOME CLAIMS AGAINST SOME MERCHANTS; THEY WILL COME TO ME IN THE EVENING; I WILL GO AND GIVE THEM MY ORDERS. I PRAY TO BE EXCUSED FROM THE DINNER.'

A dinner is symbolic of enjoying life. And for Christ, dinner was a meditative phenomenon. He always loved his disciples, friends, to come and have a dinner together. Even on the last night, when he was going to be murdered the next day, he had the last supper. He enjoyed eating with people. And Christianity has raised the whole phenomenon to a religious level. Hindus are completely ignorant of this. Try to understand it.

Animals always like to eat alone, never together -- that is part of animality. If a dog gets a piece of bread, he will immediately escape into some corner. He does not like anybody to be there because the danger exists that the other may take the bread from him. He is afraid, he is fearful; he eats, but eats alone. No animal shares; sharing is absolutely human. And if you try to penetrate into your unconscious you will always find the animal hidden there.

You also don't like to eat with people, you would like to be alone. Look at a brahmin traveling in a train; he will keep his back to all others if he is eating. This is animal-like, he will not invite others. A Mohammedan will invite others, a Christian would like to share, but not a Hindu. Hindus have missed one great thing: the feeling of togetherness and sharing. And when you share food, you become brothers. Why are you a brother to somebody? -- because you share the same milk. Otherwise, there is nothing else that makes you a brother to somebody. You share the same breast, you share the same food from the same mother -- the mother is the first food.

When you share food you become brothers, and when you share food you are not afraid of the other: a community arises. Hindus have a society but they have no community feeling. Mohammedans, Christians are more community-oriented, because they can share their food. And food is very basic in life because you depend on food, you will die without it. Sharing food with others means sharing your life. And Jesus raised it to the status of prayer: you should not eat alone, you should be together while eating. This is a transcendence of the animality in you.

The last night, when he had to depart, he collected his friends, disciples, and they had the last supper. Even before death you should go on sharing.

And food is also a symbol of love. Have you observed why you love your mother? Why does so much love exist between the child and the mother? -- because the mother is the first food: the child has eaten her, the mother has gone into him. And the child first becomes aware of the mother, not as a love-source, but as a food-source. Later on, when he grows in consciousness, then by and by he will feel love for the mother.

Food is first, love follows. And food and love become associated because they come from the same source. That's why if you go to a house and they don't offer you food you don't feel good: they rejected you, they didn't give their love to you, they were not hosts to you. If they offer food -- they may be poor, they may not have much to offer, but they offer whatsoever they have -- you have a feeling of wellbeing. You have been received well, they shared food with you -- because food is associated with love.

Whenever a woman loves a man, she would like to prepare his food. She would like to serve it, she would like to see him eat. And if a woman is not allowed to do this she will feel uneasy, because love flows through food. Love is invisible, it needs some visible vehicle. And the quality of food changes immediately: if a woman who loves you prepares your food, it has a different quality. That quality cannot be analyzed by chemists, but it has a different quality.

If a man who is angry, or a woman who is against you and hates you prepares your food, it is already poisoned -- because anger, hate, jealousy are poisons in the blood. They have a radiation of their own, and that radiation moves through the hands into the food. If a woman really hates you and prepares your food, she can even kill you, unknowingly -- no court will be able to catch her. It is very dangerous to live with a woman who prepares your food and hates you; it is slow poisoning. But if a woman loves you, she gives her life through the food, she gives her love through the food. She is moving to you through the food.

Food is very basic. It can be shared, and through its sharing you can leave your animality behind, you can become human. Hindus are one of the oldest societies, but one of the most inhuman societies, just because they have never been concerned with sharing. Rather, they have created all types of barriers in order not to share: a brahmin cannot eat with a sudra; a brahmin cannot eat with a vaishya; a brahmin cannot eat with lower castes, and if you cannot eat with the other, you reject the other as human. If you cannot eat with someone, that shows that you think yourself very superior and him very inferior, and a gap exists. That gap is the most inhuman in the world.

Jesus based much of his religion on sharing. He talks many times of God inviting you for a dinner. This man has invited his friends for a dinner -- dinner is an enjoyment, sheer enjoyment of being, of body. Enjoying food and forgetting everything is a gratitude towards God.

The servant went to the first, but he said, "Difficult... I cannot come, I pray to be excused."

HE WENT TO ANOTHER, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER HAS INVITED THEE.' HE SAID TO HIM: 'I HAVE BOUGHT A HOUSE AND THEY REQUEST ME FOR A DAY. I WILL HAVE NO TIME.'

A businessman never has time for himself: no time to enjoy, no time to meditate, no time to love. He is always in a hurry. Ambition makes him so feverish that he cannot have any time. If you are ambitious you will have no time, if you are nonambitious you have eternity at your feet. A nonambitious man has so much time to enjoy and dance and sing that you cannot conceive of it. An ambitious man has no time. Even to love he has no time, because there is always the future, the bank balance, the money that he can get out of this time if this time is used. A businessman even dreams only of business, thinks only of business.

HE CAME TO ANOTHER, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER INVITES THEE.' HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY FRIEND IS TO BE MARRIED AND I AM TO ARRANGE A DINNER; I SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO COME. I PRAY TO BE EXCUSED FROM THE DINNER.'

HE WENT TO ANOTHER, HE SAID TO HIM: 'MY MASTER INVITES THEE.' HE SAID TO HIM: 'I HAVE BOUGHT A FARM, I GO TO COLLECT THE RENT. I SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO COME. I PRAY TO BE EXCUSED.'

They were all busy, they didn't have any time. Are you also busy? Then you are a businessman. Or have you got some time to waste, to meditate, just to be in the here and now, sing and dance; or not to do anything, just lie down under the tree and enjoy existence? Looks foolish?... then you are a businessman, then you are not religious. But if you feel that it is meaningful, significant, just to be, without any business around, not in any way occupied with anything, unoccupied, then you are a religious man.

Remember, mind needs occupation, constant occupation -- because mind cannot exist without occupation.

You must have heard the story: Once it happened, a man revived a ghost, a genie. The genie said, "Only one condition: I will need constant work. If you can supply me with constant work, then I will be a servant to you. But if you stop supplying work for me, then you will be in danger -- I will kill you immediately."

The man must have been a businessman. He said, "This is what I want! I have got hundreds of servants, but all lazy, nobody wants to work. This condition is good, it is in my favor. I will give you as much work as you like, more than you can do!"

He was not aware of what he was saying and what was going to happen. He came home very happy. Many, many ambitions of many, many years he told the genie, but within a minute they all were finished and the genie came back. He said, "Now give me other work." Then the man became afraid, because from where to find so much work? Even he, a businessman, could not find it! He gave some other work, the genie came back.

By the morning the businessman was in danger. He ran away to a Sufi saint and asked, "What to do? That genie will kill me -- he has finished all that I can think of!"

The Sufi saint was a mathematician. He said, "Go and tell him to make the circle square. Give him something impossible which cannot be done, otherwise he will kill you."

And the businessman has died since then, but the genie is still trying, he is still occupied.

A businessman has a genie inside, and all desires are impossible. Not only can a circle not be squared, no desire can be squared either. All desires are impossible. But the same is the condition of the mind: "Give me work, don't leave me empty." Not that the mind will kill you, but the mind can kill your ego if you don't give it any work. Whenever you have work you are doing something, you feel very good, you are somebody. Whenever you have no work, when you are not doing anything, your identity is lost, you are nobody.

Just the other day I was reading a book, a book on the Hare Krishna movement. The name of the book was The World of Hare Krishna. The woman who has written the book writes in it about Dr.S.Radhakrishna, former president of India, as the late Dr. Radhakrishna -- because whenever a politician is out of work he is already 'late'. She may not know that he is alive, because the newspapers suddenly forget about a man who is out of office. Now where is Nixon? Forgotten! Where is Giri? Forgotten, thrown into the dustbin, nobody bothers. Only when they die will there be a small piece in the newspapers. That's why everybody clings to the post, the work, nobody wants to retire, because once you retire where is your identity? You were somebody, now you become nobody.

The genie of the mind has a condition: "If you give me work I will give you the ego, you will be somebody. If you stop giving me work, you will be nobody. Remember, if I am empty you are empty -- you exist with me." A businessman is a follower of the mind. He goes on giving work, the ego is strengthened but the soul is lost. It is a suicide, but very subtle.

If you can exist for a few moments without work and still feel grateful to God, if you can be a nobody and still feel grateful and thankful to existence, then you are a religious man. Then your worth does not come from what you are doing, not from there; your worth does not come from your doing, your worth comes from your being; then your worth is not in the bank, it is in you. Then you are worthy. The world may not recognize it, because the world recognizes the businessman. The world may forget you completely. You may pass along the street and nobody may wish you good-day. Nobody may look at you, that's possible, that happens, because nobody ever looked at you. It was your work that you were doing which was important. Now the work is gone, you are no more there -- you have become a nonentity.

But if you can be happy becoming a nonentity, you have become a sannyasin, you have entered the other world of the divine. Now you can enjoy beauty and the full moon, now you can enjoy the greenery of the trees and the ripples in the lake. Now you can enjoy everything, and the whole is open and inviting you. The invitation is always there but you have no time to look at it. You are always busy and you want to be excused.

For many, many lives you have been saying, "Please excuse me, I cannot come. Somebody is getting married and I have to go there. I cannot come because I have to purchase a house." What are you saying? Life invites you to be ecstatic and you reject the invitation, and then you say, "I am suffering"; then you say, "I have been rejected"; then you say, "Why is there so much pain in life?" You reject all invitations to be happy.

The trees invite you, the moon invites you, the clouds invite you, the river invites you. The whole existence invites you from everywhere, but you say, "Excuse me." The rose invites you and you pass by the side and you say, "Excuse me, I cannot come because I am going to a friend's marriage."

THE SERVANT CAME, HE SAID TO HIS MASTER: 'THOSE WHOM THOU HAST INVITED TO THE DINNER HAVE EXCUSED THEMSELVES'... they are not coming. THE MASTER SAID TO HIS SERVANT: 'GO OUT TO THE ROADS, BRING THOSE WHOM THOU SHALT FIND SO THAT THEY MAY DINE....'

This has to be understood: the invitation was first sent to respectable people, to people who were 'somebodies', people who had attained some identity with the ego -- the president, the prime minister; the invitation was sent to 'somebodies', the VIP's. They have refused because they are too busy and they cannot come. Now the invitation is sent to the beggars, to the hippies, to those who are just on the road. This is a very significant thing to be understood: those who think they are very respectable, they miss the divine.

Even beggars reach and emperors miss, because beggars are always on the road. You invite them and they are ready. They will never say, "Excuse me," they have nothing to be excused from; they are just waiting. You call and they will come, they are just on the road.

So the master said: 'GO OUT TO THE ROADS, BRING THOSE WHOM THOU SHALT FIND....' You will not find respectable people there: the mayor and the president and the millionaire. No, you will not find them on the roads, they are never there. You will find beggars, people who have gone astray, people who have nothing to do, just wandering vagabonds -- you will find them.

It is very meaningful. Buddha left his palace and became a beggar; Mahavira left his kingdom and became a naked fakir, just on the roads -- paribrajaka, always on the road. What does it mean? Now these people will get the invitation. And they are always ready, they have nothing to make them say, "I cannot come." There is no marriage which they have to attend, they have no house to sell or purchase; they have nothing to do, they are always at rest and at home.

THE MASTER SAID: Now '... GO OUT TO THE ROADS, BRING THOSE WHOM THOU SHALT FIND SO THAT THEY MAY DINE.'

Those who are somebody in the world of the ego will always refuse the invitation, because the ego needs constant occupation and it cannot enjoy. It is like a wound: it can suffer but it cannot enjoy; it is not like a flower, it is like a wound. Then those who are like flowers, those who are already enjoying, even if they have not received the invitation, they are at dinner; those who have already entered into existence and who are enjoying; those who have no worries and burdens to carry with them -- those who are on the road....

It may have been a fullmoon night.... "Now go and bring nobodies"... because God has to share. If the VIP's were not coming, then nobodies -- but God had to share. And beggars have enjoyed God more than emperors, because they have a quality of being unoccupied. They are not businessmen, they are not utilitarians; they live in the moment, they don't postpone for the future.

I  have heard about one beggar.... A businessman was passing and the beggar asked just for two or three annas for a cup of tea. The businessman was in a hurry, as businessmen always are. He said, "Next time when I pass I will give it to you. Now I am in a hurry."

The beggar said, "Please, I am not a businessman and I cannot live on promises. Either you give or not, either you say yes or no, but no future.... I am a beggar, I cannot live on promises -- there is no future for me."

A businessman lives on promises; his whole life is invested in promissory notes. He has sold his present for some future dream.

And then Jesus says:

TRADESMEN AND MERCHANTS SHALL NOT ENTER THE PLACES OF MY FATHER.'

The situation is the same as far as God the father is concerned, and his place, his palace, is concerned. If you say, "I will come sometime in the future," you will miss. If you can say, "Right now I am ready, there is nothing to withhold me. I was just waiting for your invitation and I will start coming towards you," only then will you be able to enter into the kingdom of God.

How can you reject life's invitations? But you have been rejecting them. What is the mechanism of this rejection? People think that sannyasins renounce life. I tell you that is absolutely wrong: only the businessman renounces life; sannyasins enjoy it, they don't renounce it. It looks like a renunciation in the eyes of a tradesman and a businessman, but otherwise, sannyasins simply enjoy it; they are not renouncing anything. They enjoy more intensely, that's all. They enjoy so totally that if they die this very moment there will be no complaint. They will say, "We lived, we enjoyed. Enough!" Even a single moment of the life of a sannyasin is a fulfillment. If he dies, he is happy. But a businessman -- even millions of lives and he has not finished his work; the work is such that it cannot be finished.

There is an old story in the Upanishads: One king, Yayati, was dying and he was already a hundred years old. Death came and Yayati said, "Is it not possible that you take one of my sons?... because I have not lived yet. I was so much engaged in the works of the kingdom, I completely forgot that I have to leave this body. I have not lived -- this is too cruel to take me away, because the whole opportunity is lost. I was serving the people and the kingdom and I couldn't live. So be kind!"

Death said, "Okay, you ask your children."

Yayati had a hundred sons. He asked, but the older ones had already become cunning. Experience makes people cunning, calculating. They listened, but they would not budge from their places. The youngest -- he was so young, just sixteen -- came near and he said, "Okay."

Even Death felt sorry for the boy, because if an old man of one hundred had not lived, how could this boy of sixteen have lived? He had not even started! Death said, "You don't know, you are innocent. Your ninety-nine brothers, on the other hand, are silent. Some of them have already reached seventy, seventy-five. They are old, and their death is coming sooner or later, it is a question of a few years. But why you?"

The young boy said, "If my father could not live in a hundred years, how can I hope to live? The whole thing is useless! It is enough for me to understand that if my father could not live in a hundred years, even if I live a hundred years there is no possibility to live. There must be some other way to live. Through life it seems that life cannot be lived, so I will try through death. Allow me, and don't create a hindrance."

This is what a sannyasin is saying: "If I couldn't live through the life of the ego, I will live through the death of the ego. So take me!"

The son was taken and the father lived a hundred years more. Then Death came again. The father was again surprised. He said, "So soon? ... Because I was thinking a hundred years is too long a period, there is no need to be worried. I have not lived yet. I tried, I planned, but now everything is ready and I was just starting to live, and you have come again. This is too much!"

And this happened ten times: each time a son donated his life and the father lived.

When he was one thousand, Death came and asked Yayati, "What is your idea now? Should I take another son again?"

Yayati said, "No, because now I know even a thousand years is useless. It is my mind, not a question of time. I again and again get involved in the same nonsense, I have become habituated to wasting existence and being. So now it is not going to help."

Yayati has written for the generations to come so that you may remember. He has written: "Even though I lived one thousand years, I couldn't live because of my mind. It is always concerned with the future and I always miss the present. And life is the present."

If you are not here and now you will go on missing it. The invitation has always been given to you but you were never there, you were never found at home, you were engaged somewhere else. And then you say you suffer, and then you say, "Why so much misery?" And everybody seems to be miserable: those who have lived long, they seem miserable; those who have not lived, they seem miserable. Young people, old people, everybody seems miserable -- because the mind is the same.

I once read a sign on a restaurant window. It was written on the window glass: "Don't stand outside and look miserable -- come in and be fed up!" So if you stand outside you are miserable, and if you come in you get fed up and you become miserable.

Mind is the misery. 'In' or 'out' won't help; one hundred years, one thousand years won't help; one life, many lives won't help -- unless you become aware that this very mind that you are carrying, the mind of a businessman, is the barrier. You drop this mind, and sannyas happens.

And Jesus says: 'TRADESMEN AND MERCHANTS SHALL NOT ENTER THE PLACES OF MY FATHER.'

They will miss by themselves -- not that the doors are not open. They will miss by themselves -- not that the invitation is not given. The invitation is eternally standing; it is a standing invitation, forever and forever. And the messenger comes every day. Jesus was a messenger, but the Jews rejected him. Buddha was a messenger, the Hindus rejected him. The messenger comes every day, knocks at your door, but you say, "We are engaged."

It happened in Buddha's life: he passed through a village many, many times, almost thirty times. And one man was always thinking of going to listen to him but there was always something or other: the wife was ill, or the wife was pregnant, or there were many people, guests in the house, or there was some business trouble, or something or other. Buddha came and went; the man could not go to see him.

Thirty times in thirty years Buddha passed through that village. And then one day suddenly in the morning, when the man was going to open his shop, he heard that Buddha was going to die that day. Then he became aware of what he had been missing, but now it was too late. He ran -- Buddha was ten, fifteen miles away -- he arrived by the evening.

Buddha had retired. He asked his disciples, "Do you have anything to ask?"

But they were weeping and crying, and they said, "You have told enough and we have not understood even that. We have nothing to ask."

So Buddha asked thrice, as was his habit, because he said, "You are so deaf, you may miss again and again." He used to say every sentence thrice so that you might hear. Then he went behind a tree. He sat restfully, closed his eyes, and started dissolving into the universe.

Then came this man, running, perspiring, and he said, "Where is Buddha? I have to ask something, and I have waited long."

The disciples said, "You are too late. Buddha passed through your village and we know that he always asked about you, and you never came. Thirty times he passed through your village. He was always near your house; the village is small -- just one minute's walk and you would have reached him. And he always asked whether that businessman had come or not, and we had to say no. Sometimes bhikkhus even went to you and asked, and you said, 'This time it is impossible because it is a season; this time it is impossible because my wife is pregnant; this time it is impossible because guests have come to my house.' And now you have come but it is too late."

It is one of the most compassionate stories: Buddha came out of his meditation, and he said, "He may have erred, but my invitation stands. He may have been late, but I am still alive. So let him ask. I was waiting for him, I was delaying my dissolution because I was hoping he might come now, hearing that I am going to die."

Drop the businessman's mind! Otherwise, you have missed many buddhas before, you may miss again and again. And it becomes a routine for you to miss, it becomes habitual. Jesus is right:

'TRADESMEN AND MERCHANTS SHALL NOT ENTER THE PLACES OF MY FATHER.'

That kingdom is not for them, because they are not interested in that kingdom at all, their interest is in the kingdom of this world. Their eyes are focused downwards, they look downwards, they look at the material, at the world. Because of the way their look is focused they cannot look above. Then the invitation goes flat -- they hear, but they excuse themselves.

You have chosen the nonessential and you have rejected the essential. You have chosen the worthless, you have chosen that which intrinsically is going to die and you have rejected the immortal. You have chosen the body and rejected the internal, the inner, the consciousness. And whatsoever you choose, you move in that direction.

Be mindful about it. Look at the situation, and don't start thinking about others: "That man is a businessman." Look at yourself, because out of one hundred persons, ninety-nine are businessmen; there is every possibility that you will be a businessman. Don't think that you are the exception, because that exception is always totally different. That exception has already entered, he is already dining with God.