Finger Pointing to the Moon
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CHAPTER 1
Don't Just Listen, Do
13 October 1972 pm in Mt. Abu, Rajasthan, India
[NOTE: This is a translation of the Hindi series ADHYATMA UPANISHAD. This version is the final
edit pending publication.]
INVOCATION
OM, MAY THE SUN GOD GIVE US HIS BENEDICTION.
MAY VARUNA, THE GOD OF WATER, GIVE US HIS BENEDICTION.
MAY ARYAMA, INDRA, BRAHASPATI AND
VISHNU GIVE US THEIR BENEDICTION.
MY SALUTATIONS TO BRAHMA, THE ABSOLUTE REALITY.
O VAYU, THE GOD OF AIR, SALUTATIONS ESPECIALLY TO YOU, BECAUSE YOU ARE THE
BRAHMA MANIFEST.
I SHALL CALL ONLY YOU THE MANIFEST BRAHMA.
I SHALL ALSO CALL YOU THE TRUTH, CALL YOU RIT - THE LAW.
MAY THEY PROTECT ME. MAY THEY PROTECT THE SPEAKER.
2CHAPTER 1. DON'T JUST LISTEN, DO
PROTECT ME. PROTECT THE SPEAKER.
OM, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE.
I will say only that which I know. I will say only that which you can also know. By knowing I mean
living it. One may know even without living it, but such knowledge is a burden; one may sink because
of it, but one cannot be saved by it. Knowing can be alive also. Such knowing renders us weightless
- light so that we can fly in the sky. Only when living becomes knowing do wings grow, fetters break
and the doors to the infinite become wide open.
But knowing is difficult; accumulating knowledge is easy. Mind chooses the easier and avoids the
difficult. But the one who avoids the difficult will miss religion as well. One who wants to avoid not
only the difficult but the impossible too will never ever come close to religion.
Religion is only for those who are ready to enter into the impossible. Religion is for the gamblers,
not for the shopkeepers. Religion is neither a business deal nor a compromise. Religion is a wager.
A gambler puts his wealth at stake; the religious person puts himself at stake because that is the
ultimate wealth.
One who is not ready to stake his very life will never be able to know the hidden mysteries of
life. Those secrets are not available cheaply. Knowledge is available very cheaply; knowledge
is available from books, from scriptures, in education, with the teachers. Knowledge is available
almost for free; you do not have to pay anything for it. In religion you have to pay heavily. It is not
right even to say "heavily" because only when someone stakes everything do the doors to that life
open. The doors to that life open only for those who put this life at stake. To put this life at stake is
the only key to the door of that life. But knowledge is very cheap, so the mind chooses the easier
