As you move up, playfully, exhausting the biological sources, fulfilling what biology wants you to do, it relieves you; you are freed, you become conscious. And conscious love is a totally different thing. It is just friendliness.
You don't fall in love -- no more fall -- you rise in love. The more you love, the more you feel you are going higher in your consciousness. And the same is true about other values: authenticity, religiousness, happiness.
Happiness on the instinctive level is only pleasure; happiness on the level of intellect is joy. When you listen to great music, or you see a beautiful painting -- a sudden upsurge of joy. No animal can enjoy a painting. He can eat it, but he cannot enjoy it.
No animal is capable of enjoying anything that belongs to the second level -- your consciousness -- because no animal rises to that level; only man... and not all men either. Few men are capable of enjoying things which have no biological purpose. What biological purpose does a painting serve? -- or music? or poetry? There is no biological purpose. That's why no parent wants you to become an artist.
All the painters, all the poets, all the musicians have faced a world which is against them. Why? -- because what they are doing is something which has no relationship with the whole world and its life. The love they are talking about is not the love that people are living. They are talking about love which is something airy-fairy, not of the earth. They are doing some great creative work. To paint a Picasso you need a certain quality of consciousness; to be a Leonardo da Vinci you need something that is missing in ordinary mortals.
What has he got? The whole grip of biology is not on him. That's why he can devote his whole energy to a new kind of creation -- not children, but paintings, poetry, songs, dances, statues. This is non-biological creation. This is conscious creation; he is the master of it. It serves no purpose as far as nature is concerned, but it certainly serves some purpose as far as human consciousness is concerned.
Just watching Mahavira's statue you may fall into a meditative state. That was their original function. They were not made to be worshipped, they were made to make you aware of a certain state. The statue is of a certain state, not of a certain man; that man is irrelevant.
It happened that some photographer took a picture of Ramakrishna. That was his first picture and the photographer was very happy. He brought the large framed picture to present to Ramakrishna who was sitting with his disciples. He took the picture in his hand and kissed the feet in the picture. The photographer could not believe it! Is this man sane or insane? His own picture, and he is kissing the feet!
Vivekananda, his chief disciple, was sitting by the side. He said, "Paramahansadeva, what are you doing? This is your own picture. Have you seen it or not?" He thought he had not looked at the picture -- Just that the man had given it to him, and he must have thought it was some god's picture, so he had kissed it.
Ramakrishna said, "Is it so? Let me look." He looked and he said, "Yes, it is my picture," and he kissed the feet again!
Vivekananda said, "Now this is too much."
Ramakrishna said, "I am not kissing my own feet. This is a picture of a state, it has nothing to do with me. Just look at the picture," he said, "It is a picture of a certain state. The body is just the outer lines, but look into the eyes, look into the face. And I remember perfectly where I was when this picture was taken: I was in samadhi, so it is a picture of samadhi. And I say to you that only this picture should be distributed, no other picture."
So only that picture hangs in the houses of people who worship Ramakrishna, because that picture was worshipped by Ramakrishna himself. It is absurd logically, but just a little bit of patience and you can see the point. It is a picture of a state. It is immaterial whether Ramakrishna was in that state or Mahavira was in that state or Buddha was in that state. It is immaterial -- what matters is that consciousness.
You don't fall in love -- no more fall -- you rise in love. The more you love, the more you feel you are going higher in your consciousness. And the same is true about other values: authenticity, religiousness, happiness.
Happiness on the instinctive level is only pleasure; happiness on the level of intellect is joy. When you listen to great music, or you see a beautiful painting -- a sudden upsurge of joy. No animal can enjoy a painting. He can eat it, but he cannot enjoy it.
No animal is capable of enjoying anything that belongs to the second level -- your consciousness -- because no animal rises to that level; only man... and not all men either. Few men are capable of enjoying things which have no biological purpose. What biological purpose does a painting serve? -- or music? or poetry? There is no biological purpose. That's why no parent wants you to become an artist.
All the painters, all the poets, all the musicians have faced a world which is against them. Why? -- because what they are doing is something which has no relationship with the whole world and its life. The love they are talking about is not the love that people are living. They are talking about love which is something airy-fairy, not of the earth. They are doing some great creative work. To paint a Picasso you need a certain quality of consciousness; to be a Leonardo da Vinci you need something that is missing in ordinary mortals.
What has he got? The whole grip of biology is not on him. That's why he can devote his whole energy to a new kind of creation -- not children, but paintings, poetry, songs, dances, statues. This is non-biological creation. This is conscious creation; he is the master of it. It serves no purpose as far as nature is concerned, but it certainly serves some purpose as far as human consciousness is concerned.
Just watching Mahavira's statue you may fall into a meditative state. That was their original function. They were not made to be worshipped, they were made to make you aware of a certain state. The statue is of a certain state, not of a certain man; that man is irrelevant.
It happened that some photographer took a picture of Ramakrishna. That was his first picture and the photographer was very happy. He brought the large framed picture to present to Ramakrishna who was sitting with his disciples. He took the picture in his hand and kissed the feet in the picture. The photographer could not believe it! Is this man sane or insane? His own picture, and he is kissing the feet!
Vivekananda, his chief disciple, was sitting by the side. He said, "Paramahansadeva, what are you doing? This is your own picture. Have you seen it or not?" He thought he had not looked at the picture -- Just that the man had given it to him, and he must have thought it was some god's picture, so he had kissed it.
Ramakrishna said, "Is it so? Let me look." He looked and he said, "Yes, it is my picture," and he kissed the feet again!
Vivekananda said, "Now this is too much."
Ramakrishna said, "I am not kissing my own feet. This is a picture of a state, it has nothing to do with me. Just look at the picture," he said, "It is a picture of a certain state. The body is just the outer lines, but look into the eyes, look into the face. And I remember perfectly where I was when this picture was taken: I was in samadhi, so it is a picture of samadhi. And I say to you that only this picture should be distributed, no other picture."
So only that picture hangs in the houses of people who worship Ramakrishna, because that picture was worshipped by Ramakrishna himself. It is absurd logically, but just a little bit of patience and you can see the point. It is a picture of a state. It is immaterial whether Ramakrishna was in that state or Mahavira was in that state or Buddha was in that state. It is immaterial -- what matters is that consciousness.
hans-wolfgang - am Montag, 25. Oktober 2004, 22:00
