Kashi – Transcend the Filth and Touch the Fabulous

 

We have just been to Kashi, the most glorious place that you can go to – fabulous and filthy at the same time. It is truly fabulous on one level – absolutely, utterly filthy on another level. It is almost like they are testing your endurance, or they are checking if you can transcend the filth and touch the fabulous. I wish they were doing it consciously. If they consciously threw filth all over them, I would bow down to them. But people are unconsciously filthy – that’s not good. Shiva was consciously filthy. When he came to towns, he slew an elephant and wore its un-tanned skin, still dripping with blood, blobs of fat hanging from it. He would come wearing this so that all those who could not handle filth would run away, and only those who were drawn to his fabulous nature would come and sit with him. He did not want to entertain the entertainment seekers, so he intentionally made himself filthy. But today, Kashi, the place that he loved so much, is unconsciously filthy. We are making some small effort to see if we can clean it up.

 

Things like that have happened over and over, because actually being on the spiritual path and just being a spiritual teacher are two different things. There are lots of priests, pandits, and teachers who have no clue of the spiritual process, but they are handling it. If they handle it with sincerity and discipline, it will still work. When a metal board saying “This Way” and pointing towards Velliangiri Hills can direct people to the top of the hill and make them experience all kinds of things, definitely a human being who is flesh and bone can still direct people if he maintains discipline and sincerity about what he is doing. We had a phenomenal display of this in Kashi. We went to the Vishwanath temple, which is the abode of Shiva. This is a city that Shiva loved. This is the oldest city on the planet. When Jerusalem did not yet exist, when Athens was not even thought of, when Cairo did not exist, Kashi was. Anthropological proof dates it back to about 8000 years; but 8000 years ago, it was already a full-fledged city.

 

So Shiva loved the city. And he loved the mountains. He lived in the mountains as an ascetic – but then he got married. He married a princess, so his mother-in-law – even he had problems – put pressure on him. She said, “You can’t take my daughter to the cold mountains out there. You must make her live in a city. She’s a civilized girl; she’s not like you. It is a misfortune that she has fallen in love with you but you have to provide her some basics, some comfort, a home. She can’t sleep in the wild like you.” Shiva compromised, saying, “Okay, in summertime, when temperatures are just over zero, we will stay in the mountains. In wintertime, when temperatures go well below zero, I will bring her down to the plains.” Being who he is, and with the kind of energy space that he lived in, no city or village was conducive for him. But when he came and set his eyes on Kashi, he said, “This is it – this is my abode.” And he himself took the effort to consecrate the space into a powerful field of energy that still lives.

 

The town itself has been razed to the ground three times during the Islamic invasions. It was built back, but not in the same glory. Every time, it became more meager. The Vishwanath temple, which was in the core of Kashi, was moved outside into small premises, filthy as filthy can be, all around the temple. You would not want to go there. I thought let me go and see. We went and felt the place,

and next day, there was something called Sapta Rishi Pooja. Sapta Rishis means “seven sages” – they were the first disciples of Shiva. When they were to leave to spread the message, they asked him, “How should we worship you?” So he taught them a method and said, “If you do it this way, I will be there.” That method was taught to them, they taught it to people, and today it continues in the same tradition. I did not believe the Brahmin priests who are always hounding you for money would know anything of value.

 

Whatever kind they are, whichever religion they are, priests have always put me off because they are hiding behind things that nobody else can hide behind. Only because they are on the pulpit, they can hide. They are hiding behind such ridiculous things. This happened. An Irish priest was driving in the suburbs of London and the car was doing its own act. So an English policeman came and stopped the car. He came close to the priest and said, “You’ve been drinking.” The priest replied, “By the Lord, no! You know I’m a priest.” The policeman looked inside the car. There was an empty wine bottle on the passenger’s seat. “I see a wine bottle. You’ve been drinking!” The Irish priest said, “No, it was just water.” “Well, I can smell wine.” “Oh, good Lord! He has done it again!” Only a priest can hide behind such things. They have gotten away with these things for too long. When you say “priest,” I will put my filters up. I normally have filters for everybody, but when you say you are a priest, I put a lot of filters up because I know there is too much muck to be filtered.

 

So I never expected these Brahmin priests to be doing any miraculous job there. As you go in and out, they are hounding you for money. But when I went there the previous day, I sensed something there and wanted to be there the next day for the Sapta Rishi Pooja. And these guys started off this whole process, the way Shiva taught it to the seven sages. I couldn’t believe it. As I watched, they built stacks and stacks of energy just like that, like a multi-storied structure. These people are ignorant, they cannot do it with their own energy, but they are just following the procedure and doing the right thing. So even if the most idiotic and the corrupt do the right thing, it still works. And it was amazing. I have never seen anything like this in any temple. It just built itself up like a multi-storied building, right in front of my eyes. I was dazed, but then they all came, poked me and prodded me, “Give me something, give me something.”

 

I thought, “Oh, my God. If only they could see the impact of what they are doing, if only they could experience and use it for their transformation, they would not be going around literally harassing everybody for money. But that is what life is. I keep reminding our teachers all the time, “When you stand in the class and teach, things are happening there which you cannot understand, which you do not know, which you have never experienced, but it is happening to other people because you are doing the procedure right. Don’t get carried away. Don’t think it is you. It is a privilege that it is happening through you. The moment you think it is you, you will fall and crack your head.”

 

Kashi was a brilliant experience. I am suddenly looking at the priests with new respect. At least they are keeping the procedure and still making it happen. If you know it and make it happen, it is one thing. This is my life – I can build energy structures like that because I know how it works. But if somebody does not know it and they can still build it, this is quite fantastic. And it was absolutely incredible what they did. This is what the city is – they built a tower of light, and it is still on. The town was razed to the ground so many times and this energy structure may not be as gloriously on as it was, but it is still on. If they hand over Kashi to me, I would like to rebuild the whole place. Not the physical structure – we can build the energy structures once again. But they are never going to give it to me – it is in U.P.1! For those of you who are from outside the country – those two letters, “U.P.,” mean it is a different world.

 

The process of life and death happens very liberally in Kashi. I am saying “life and death” because they are both happening at the same time. If you watch it carefully enough, it is not that life happens now, death happens later. Life and death are happening at the same time. If one does not choose between the two, if one embraces both, one will be realized. But the nature of the mind is to choose one against the other. It is because of this minor flaw that lifetimes roll. Yesterday, somebody asked me, “Sadhguru, what should I wish you today?” I said, “If I really matter to you, wish that I never come back again.” “But you said, ‘That’s guaranteed.’” I said, “That’s guaranteed, but it was also guaranteed that I should have left almost 13 years ago. But because of people’s love and longing, I’m still on. So don’t show any love and longing. Just say, ‘Don’t ever come back again.’ That’s the best wish you can make, and that is my wish for you too.” Let’s make space for insects to evolve. Don’t just sit there in the same place for too long – clear the space.