A Hand Beckoning
11 February 1978 am in Buddha Hall
THERE IS NOTHING BUT WATER IN THE HOLY POOLS,
I KNOW, I HAVE BEEN SWIMMING IN THEM.
ALL THE GODS SCULPTED OF WOOD AND IVORY
CAN’T SAY A WORD.
I KNOW, I HAVE BEEN CRYING OUT TO THEM.
THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST ARE NOTHING BUT WORDS.
I LOOKED THROUGH THEIR COVERS ONE DAY SIDEWAYS.
WHAT KABIR TALKS ABOUT
IS ONLY WHAT HE HAS LIVED THROUGH.
IF YOU HAVE NOT LIVED THROUGH SOMETHING,
IT IS NOT TRUE.
I HAVE BEEN THINKING OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WATER
AND THE WAVES ON IT. RISING,
WATER’S STILL WATER, FALLING BACK,
IT IS WATER. WILL YOU GIVE ME A HINT
HOW TO TELL THEM APART?
BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS MADE UP THE WORD ’WAVE’,
DO I HAVE TO DISTINGUISH IT FROM ’WATER’?
THERE IS A SECRET ONE INSIDE US.
THE PLANETS IN ALL THE GALAXIES
PASS THROUGH HIS HANDS LIKE BEADS.
THAT IS A STRING OF BEADS ONE SHOULD LOOK AT
WITH LUMINOUS EYES.
THE gods of the past are dead. And they cannot be revived again. They have become irrelevant
to human consciousness; they were created by a very immature mind. Man has come of age. He
needs a different vision of the gods, he needs a different kind of religion. He needs to be freed from
his yesterdays, because only then can the tomorrow become possible. The old has to die for the
new to be.
It is good that the old gods are gone – but it is difficult for humanity to say goodbye to them.
Humanity has become too familiar with them. They have been a great consolation and comfort
and convenience, they have been a sort of security. propping them one feels frightened, scared.
Mind wants to remain with the known because the known is the familiar, the trodden. Mind is always
afraid to move into the unknown. The unknown on the one hand challenges, attracts, on the other
hand creates fear. It is unpredictable, one cannot know beforehand what will be the outcome. And
mind is always orthodox, it is conventional. Mind is a convention, mind is traditional, mind is tradition.
So the problem is always there – mind clings with the past and life wants to go into the future, and
there is a constant tug of war between mind and life.
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