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Chapter 15: A Poet of the Ultimate

India has been the source of all religions. India has been the basic source of even those religions which are against Hinduism. Why has it happened that India has been the basic source of all religions? India is the oldest civilization, and the whole mind of India has been working and working and working in the dimension of religion. It has come upon all the secrets of religion; no secret is unknown. In fact, for thousands of years you have not been able to teach any secret to India about religion, because they know all. They have discovered all, they have completed the whole journey in a way. So you can be certain that all that is beautiful in religion, wherever it is, that somehow it comes from the source. Just as the Greek mind is the source of science - the whole scientific development comes from the Greek mind, the logical mind, the Aristotelian mind - all mysticism comes from India. And only two types of mind exist in the world: one is Greek, the other is Indian.

If you are basically a Greek mind, it is impossible to understand India at all because it looks absurd. Whatsoever they say looks unproven, whatever statements they make look meaningless. Aristotle will be an absolute foreigner in India because he believes in definitions, clear-cut demarcations, distinctions. And he believes in the law of contradiction, that two contradictory things cannot be together: A cannot be A and not A simultaneously, that is impossible; a man cannot be alive and dead simultaneously, that is impossible. Apparently he is right.

Hindus believe in contradiction. They say man is alive and dead, both simultaneously, because life and death are not two things, you cannot demarcate them. The Greek mind is mathematical, the Hindu mind is mystical. All mysticism comes from India; just as the sun rises in the East, all mysticism rises in the East, and India is the heart. For this sutra to be understood you have to go to the Upanishads, the roots are there. You cannot find anything in the Old Testament or in other Jewish records from where this saying can come. That’s why the Jews could not believe what Jesus was saying.

Jesus says again and again, “I have come not to contradict the old scriptures but to fulfill them.” But what scriptures, which scriptures? That he never says. If he has come to fulfill the Old Testament then his statement is wrong, because he almost always contradicts the Old Testament. The Old Testament depends on revenge: God the father is very revengeful. Fear is the basis of the Old Testament and its religion: you should be God-fearing. And Jesus says, “God is love.” You cannot fear love, and if there is love there cannot be any fear. And if you have fear how can you love? Fear is poison to love, fear is death to love. How can you love a person if you are afraid? Fear can create hate, but fear cannot create love.

So a religious man in the Old Testament is God-fearing, and in the New Testament a religious man is God-loving. And love and fear are totally different dimensions. Jesus has said, “It is said that if somebody harms one of your eyes, pull out both his eyes. But I tell you, if somebody hits you on one cheek, give him your other cheek also.” This is absolutely non-Jewish, it was not there in the tradition. So when Jesus says, “I have come to fulfill the scriptures,” which scriptures does he mean? If he had been in India and he had said, “I have come to fulfill the scriptures,” we would have understood, because the Upanishads are the scriptures he has come to fulfill; Dhammapada, Buddha’s sayings, are the scriptures he has come to fulfill. These scriptures depend on love, compassion.

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