Deva means divine nratyo means dance. Life is not static - it is a dance; it is dynamic, it is movement. Not even for a single moment does anything remain the same; everything goes on changing. Change is absolute. The mind wants things not to change, and that's how the mind and life are in conflict. The mind wants things to be static, because only that which is unchanging can be controlled; that which remains the same can be controlled because you will be in the know about it.
The mind is very afraid of the new because with the new it is incapable; it is not ready to face the new. With the old it is very efficient. It knows what to do, how to do, but only with the old. The new simply makes it look utterly stupid. The mind can function only within the known; the unknown is beyond it. Hence the tendency of the mind is that everything should remain static. The mind is very orthodox and life is revolution, literally revolution, because it goes on revolving, changing, moving.
The movement is very fast; that's why you cannot see it. Otherwise languages would not have any nouns, only verbs. You cannot say 'The tree is', because the tree is never in a state of isness; it is always growing, becoming. You can only say 'The tree is tree-ing.' There is no state in which it is; it is a river.
Heraclitus is right when he says 'You cannot step in the same river twice.' And I say to you 'You cannot step in the same river even once because the river is changing and you are changing, the sun is changing, the wind is changing, the sky is changing, the earth is changing and all is constant change'. And that is the beauty of life. But the mind is very afraid of this change. Hence wherever the mind suspects change, it kills, dissects, destroys. It transforms love into marriage. Now, love is constantly flowing, changing. Marriage is a static institution - dull, dead, insipid. But the mind is very happy with marriage; with love it is very much afraid, apprehensive.
My approach to life is that whatsoever you do, change cannot be stopped. So the best way is to start loving this change, understanding this change. And it is a beautiful dance once you are not afraid of it. It is aliveness. And because something new is happening each moment life remains an adventure, a constant exploration.
Think of life as dance, as movement, and become more and more in tune with this moving existence.
Never hanker for anything static. Only death is static. The mind is a dead thing and to get out of the mind is to get into the open and under the sky and under the stars, in the rains, in the winds. And then the vastness is available to you - even the sky is not the limit.
Deva means god, guna means quality. God is not a person but a quality. There is no god as such, but godliness. The moment you start thinking about god as a person, you are missing - from the very beginning. Then you will be looking in a wrong direction. That is the fallacy called 'anthropocentrism'. The Bible says 'God created man in his own image', but the truth is just the reverse: man creates god in his own image.
So our concept of god is nothing but the projection of the personality of man. If horses have a god, it will be a horse - the most beautiful horse of course, the strongest horse of course, but a horse.
Horses cannot believe that god is like man, certainly not. Maybe the devil is like man, but not god, because whatsoever man has done to horses cannot be thought of as divine. When the Chinese think of god, the god has a Chinese nose, certainly, obviously. And when Negroes think of god, god is bound to have negroid hair. These are our projections, and because the man has been dominant in the past, god is male.
Once, near about five thousand years back, the world was dominated by women; the society was matriarchal. Then god was a woman. All the concepts of mother-goddess are very ancient, more ancient than god-the-father, but as woman became more and more submissive, mother goddesses disappeared from the world. God became a father. These are our ideas that we go on projecting; they have nothing to do with god as such.
God is really just a quality. It can be in a rose flower, it can be in the morning sun, it can be in the giggle of a girl, it can be in the kiss of lovers, it can be when you are utterly silent. It can be when you are loving, friendly, sharing. It can be when you are dancing in sheer joy... when you are intoxicated by beauty, by poetry, by music. It can be in thousands of ways. There is no end to its experience. It has millions of facets to it. It can be in a green leaf - if you can see it - and it can be in a star.
God is a quality, and we have to imbibe that quality... not to worship god as a person, but to imbibe the quality, to live the quality of beauty, of goodness, of bliss. The perspective changes when you start thinking of god as a quality. Then you need not wait for the judgement day - you will see god.
You can start seeing it right now, because god is the quality of existence, it is all over the place. All that you need is a way to look for it, a way to see it; all that you need is a kind of training, a tuning.
The music is already there being played; all that you need is musical ears so that you can hear the sound. The light is there; all that you need is to open your eyes.
My vision of god is that of quality, and quality can be imbibed. One can start living it from this very moment. Gradually, drop by drop, it can descend in you. The ocean is nothing but an accumulation, drop by drop... and one day, that which starts as a drop finally becomes the ocean.
So drop all concepts of god as a person, and start thinking of god more in terms of beauty, bliss, goodness, virtue, love - all the qualities. Then it becomes very easy to approach god. Then the temple is very close by. Because you can love, and whenever you love, you are in god. Because you can be joyous, and whenever you are joyous you are in god. You need not wait - god need not be postponed to tomorrow.
[A new sannyasin asks about his soulmate, a non-sannyasin, who is sitting a few rows away. "I wish that she could also look into your eyes for just a few seconds, to receive your energy..."] That is not possible without becoming a sannyasin... for certain reasons. Because unless you are a sannyasin you will not be able to receive it. Sannyas is not just a formality. From your side it is a readiness to receive, a gesture that you are open. A disciple has to be as open as a womb - a disciple has to be a womb. Only then can the energy be received. It is not only a question of my giving; it is more a question of your taking. And one who is not ready to be a sannyasin will not be able to take it. Then I am helpless. I would like to give...
To be a sannyasin simply means: it is raining - you just put your pot under the rain in the right position. It you put it upside-down, it will go on raining but you will not collect a single drop of water.
To be a disciple is to be in the right position: surrender is just a certain posture of receptivity, of trust, of love. And the orange and the mala are just outer expressions of it. Just as when you say to somebody 'I love you' and you hold his hand. Holding hands is not love; saying 'I love you' is not love. But saying 'I love you', holding hands or hugging the person are ways, outer ways to express it. So is sannyas. It is just an outer way to express the inner, and if the inner is there, one is ready to express it outside.
There are cunning people who say 'Inwardly we are sannyasins.' That is just cunningness, rationalization. If you are inwardly ready then you will be outwardly ready too. Then why worry?
People will laugh at the orange or people will think you have gone crazy or something... so let them!
Love always knows how to sacrifice lovingly, how to sacrifice blissfully. Love is the way of the moth.
It knows how to jump into the flame and die.
So tell her: whenever she is ready to be a sannyasin... I am here for my sannyasins, my whole energy is for them. But she will have to gather courage to be a sannyasin; otherwise it will not be possible.
I have been working for years with many kinds of people. Finally I decided: unless somebody is really ready it is a wastage. Unless somebody is ready to pay for it, it will not be received. You can give but it will not be received. People receive only when they pay for it, and the higher the price, the deeper it goes.
George Gurdjieff used to ask fantastic prices for his books. He would not sell them at bookstalls.
Anything that came to his mind he would ask... and fantastic prices for his lectures. Those lectures would only be announced one hour before, and the person might be twenty miles away. He would be informed by phone 'The lecture is going to happen at eight o'clock - rush!' It would happen that people would come from faraway places immediately, and when they arrived it would be announced that it was cancelled - tomorrow.
Once he did it for eight days continuously. At the eleventh hour people would be informed. They would come - and they had paid for it - and then it would be cancelled. On the first day four hundred people came; by the eighth day there were only four. He looked and he said 'Now, the right people are left. Now I can speak. These are the people,' he said, 'who will understand. They are ready to pay: eight days continuously without complaining, "What nonsense this is! Why do you harass us?"
Not even a single grudge, no complaint.' This is surrender, this is trust: If he is doing this then there must be something in it.
I travelled all over India for years, and slowly slowly I saw the point - that I can go on giving but it only reaches people who pay for it.
So tell her that I would love to help her and she needs it, she is worthy to receive, and she is ready, on the verge of something, but then she has to gather courage. And if she is really on the Tantra path - and she is - then there is no other place than this. Tantra has disappeared from the world, hence I am in such a difficulty - because all religions are anti-Tantra. The whole Indian mind is anti-Tantra.
Tantra was born in India, flourished, attained to the highest peaks possible, but was destroyed by the tradition, by the orthodoxy. People were butchered in millions - those who were following the Tantra path. Their temples were destroyed. Only rare pieces are left - Khajuraho, Konarak... rare pieces. They were all over the country and they had developed tremendously significant techniques.
There was a Tantra sect... something like that has never happened before, and never since. The couple used to live in one robe - not even two robes but one robe. They would walk together in a single robe so the energies were meeting and merging continuously in every possible way. They would sing and dance and sit and walk together. One hundred thousand couples were killed by one single king, and their whole tradition destroyed, their scriptures burnt.
I am in a difficulty.... This is the only place for people who really want to move on the path of Tantra.
So tell her that I am ready. Just a little bit of courage and much is possible. She should not miss this opportunity, otherwise she will repent. Help her - and that is your duty, to help her!