THE AUTHENTIC MAN

CHAPTER 2

We can live our life in two ways. Either we can become a man of being, or

we can become a man of doing/having. Either we can have ourselves or we

can have many worldly things instead. Either we can possess many things

and be possessed by them, or we can possess our self and be not possessed

by anything. The man of having has a totally different direction. We call

them 'the worldly man'. They think in terms of things and thinks that the

more he has, the more he is. We can have the whole world and we can

remain a beggar. We can have all that the world can give and yet remain

empty. The great Alexander is the very symbol of the worldly man. He

wanted to conquer the whole world, and he had done it, almost but on his

deathbed said "I came with empty hands, I am going with empty hands, and

my whole life has been a waste." He must have been very perceptive,

because everyone even today dies, still clinging, still not aware that their

hands are empty, their hearts are empty, still not aware that they have

wasted their whole lives, that it has been just a nightmare. The man of

having continues to accumulate more and more. His soul exists in his

accumulations. He may accumulate money, knowledge, ego, humility; he

may accumulate things of this world, or he may start accumulating virtues,

things of the other world, but he accumulates. He exists through things. He

feels good when he has much, when he feels his hands are full, at least

apparently full. He feels good, he feels he is achieving, he is being

successful. It has always existed. This is the rotten man, this is the diseased

man. It is a sort of illness, this very idea of having too many things, wasting

our time and energy and not knowing at all who we are. The whole purpose

of our life rather should be in thinking in terms of being, of a certain inner

solidity, of a certain inner consciousness, of a certain rootedness, centering,

of a certain realization of who we are. There is a center of our being, hidden

within us, where EXISTENCE/GOD is known, where we get a glimpse of truth

and where we relate with the primordial energy of life. It is this center from

where the celestial music is heard, a music that is created without the help

of any instruments, and from where such fragrance becomes available which

is not of this earth. It is again this very center which knows no bondage

whatsoever and which is the door to freedom, absolute freedom. And it is

this center that leads us to the beyond which has no frontiers, which is a

limitless and infinite expanse, which knows no sorrow and which is nothing

but bliss and more bliss; nothing but abounding bliss. Sometimes we come

across a mystic, a sage or even a ordinary person who may not have

anything visible, but still we feel a tremendous energy surrounding him? His

impact is almost magnetic, mesmeric. He looks into our eyes with a great

power. It is not the power of things; he may not have any. I personally have

come across sages and enlightened beings whose power is not derived from

the outside, whose power comes from some inner spring, some inner source.

He is a reservoir of power. His eyes are turned within. He is no longer

dependent on the outside world. His glory is not a reflected glory; it is his

own, authentic self. The man of being is as old as humanity; but he is so

rare that whenever he comes he is always new -- rarely a Buddha, a Jesus,

a Krishna -- very rarely. In this rotten mass of humanity, very rarely does

somebody arise with an authentic being and declare that his kingdom is of

the within. The man who is after having more and more will go on losing his

being -- because the only way to have more is to pay with being. Then we

have to cut our being and throw it away. Everything has to be paid for,

nothing is free. Even futile things have to be paid for. One day the man of

having is almost gone. He has much but he is no more. He has bargained

with his soul. Just a negative emptiness exists. We should never be deceived

by appearances. They may have achieved much which can be counted,

which can be shown and exhibited, but they have lost something of the

invisible, something of their being. Have we not observed it? The inner

kingdom knows no competition. We can simply delight in it this very

moment. It needs no future; it needs no achievement on our part. Nothing is

missing. Everything is absolutely available; as it should be, it is. We just

have to drop our ambitious mind, and the celebration starts. "The man who

has understood the futility of things becomes spiritual." If we are running

after having, we will constantly be in conflict with others, trying to crush

others, by any way and any means to reach to the top. We will lose all

spontaneity. The man of being is spontaneous. He lives in the moment, he

lives here now. He knows no other way to live. The mind of one who is

moving inwards, the man of being is almost dissolving – he simply lives in

the moment, he responds to the moment. The man of having has a

destination, very clear, cut. The man of being has a direction, but no

destination. He has a quality: he has a light inside, and wherever he moves

that light falls on his path. He has eyes to see, a direction, but no

destination. A destination is a very clear-cut thing; whereas a direction is

very intuitive. A destination is something outside us. A direction is an inner

feeling; not an object, but our very subjectivity. We can feel direction, we

cannot know it. We can know the destination, we cannot feel it. Destination

is in the future. Once decided, we start manipulating and steering our life

towards it. A man of being does not decide the future because he knows that

the future is an open possibility and by fixing a destination his future is no

more a future, because it is no more open. A man of having chooses one

alternative out of many, because when all the alternatives were open it was

future but when all alternatives have been dropped and only one alternative

has been chosen, it is no longer future, it is our past. The past decides when

we decide a destination. Our experience and knowledge of the past decides

and then we kill the future and we go on repeating our own past - - maybe a

little modified, a little changed here and there according to our comfort,

convenience; repainted, renovated -- but still it comes out of the past. This

is the way one loses track of future: by deciding a destination one loses

track of future. One becomes dead. One starts functioning like a mechanism.

Direction is something alive, in the moment. It knows nothing of the future,

it knows nothing of the past, but it throbs, pulsates here and now. And out

of this pulsating moment, the next moment is created. Not by any decision

on our part -- but just because we live this moment and we live it so totally,

and we love this moment so wholly, out of this wholeness the next moment

is born. It is going to have a direction. That direction is not given by us, it is

not imposed by us; it is spontaneous. That's whom we call a man of being,

the spontaneous man. The spontaneous man is the way to the spiritual man,

the real man, to the essential man, to the consciousness within us. We

cannot decide direction, we can only live this moment that is available to us.

By living it, direction arises. If we dance, the next moment is going to be of

a deeper dance. Not that we decide but we simply dance this moment. We

have created a direction: we are not manipulating it. The next moment will

be fuller of dancing, and still more will be following. Destination is fixed by

the mind; direction is earned by living. Destination is logical while in

direction one simply lives the moment in deep trust that life will decide. One

lives this moment so totally that out of this totality freshness is born. Out of

this totality the past dissolves and the future starts taking shape. But this

shape is not given by us; this shape is earned by us. Direction comes out of

living this moment. It is not something that we manage and plan. It

happens, it is very subtle, and we will never be certain about it. We can only

feel it. That's why it is more like poetry, not like prose; more like love, not

like logic; more like art than like science. Direction is very subtle, delicate,

and fragile. That's why everybody has chosen destination. Future should be

a direction, not a destination. The mediocre mind demands clear-cut goals

because he is so insecure -- he cannot trust his own awareness, and he

cannot trust life. The mediocre mind is very afraid of discovery, and

discovery is the greatest secret in life. A man of being is ready to be

surprised because he is innocent and trying to discover. And life is such that

we can go on discovering. The more we discover it, the more we come to

know that much more is still left. It is a non-ending process. Direction is a

non-ending process, it is a process, movement; destination is a dead thing.

Destination belongs to the ego; direction belongs to life, to being. To move

in the world of direction one needs tremendous trust, because one is moving

in insecurity, one is moving in darkness. But the darkness has a thrill in it:

without any map, without any guide we are moving into the unknown. Each

step is a discovery, and it is not only a discovery of the outside world.

Simultaneously, something is discovered in us also. A discoverer not only

discovers things. As he goes on discovering more and more unknown worlds,

he goes on discovering himself also, simultaneously. Each discovery is an

inner discovery also. The more we know, the more we know about the

knower. The more we love, the more we know about the lover. We don't

need a destination in life but only a direction -- awake, throbbing with life;

unknown, always surprising, unpredictable. We need no map but only a

great passion and desire to discover.