The Monk VII — Politics Beyond Public Interest

Monk VI ended with one question.

House sells breath. It has big books of meditation but it never says -- you are already free.

Why is house scared to say you are free?

It is because free man does not come back tomorrow.

What is purpose of coming if you are already liberated, if you already got salvation.

Is there any purpose?

If boy understands Vipassana -- it's just breathing technique. He is free. He will not pay to learn names of technique.

If free man is free, he will not clap for Mother/Guru Ji on stage. He will not stand in line for king on road.

So house has fear.

Real liberation makes customer free. And 'Free customer is a bad customer'.

So here enters politics.

Politics Beyond Public Interest also has same fear. King also does not want free man. King wants man who claps. Who stands. Who counts.

So what happens?

House and king do a trade. House says to king -- I will give you my number. My people will clap for you. They will keep house quiet for you. King says to house --- I will give you my protection. If a body is found inside your centre, if a death looks suspicious, I will keep road quiet for you.

No paper is signed. Just smile in front, keys in the back.

This is what you called in V -- "She smiles in the front. And gives keys in the back."

Same smile now. Only keys are bigger.

In V, keys were for rooms.

In VII, keys are for police file, for mic, for channel, for Districts, for States, for Countries.

And what is lost in middle?

Public interest. Yes.

Earlier politics was -- how to make man free from hunger, fear, water. Now politics is -- how to make man busy with name, so he never asks -- why am I not free even after paying?

This is rise of demon, monk says.

Demon is not with horn. Demon is when human is made purposely unfreed so that two shops keep running -- one shop of breath, one shop of chair.

Monk does not fight either shop. It is not his nature.

He keeps one small room clean. No name for sale. Only real eating -- to explore true-self. Only breathing. No Mother on stage. No king on road.

Just Vipassana

Just Aana-apana Yoga.

And that breathing is still free.

The Monk VI — Failure of Spiritual Institutions

Monk V ended with Vipasana meditation and how those who practice it hardly know what it is actually. In the house, big words were perfect, but breath was not real.

Monk sat and thought -- this house is now like many big spiritual centres in India.

What is happening inside these centres now?

Two things monk sees again and again.

First thing — Chair needs chair.

A spiritual centre should be far from king. It should be like an open space, an empty space forcing us to feel the inner vastness of the sky. And it should be open for all.

But now centre needs protection. So centre goes near politicians. Centre says -- we support this party. King of the nation says -- we support this centre.

Big book in morning says -- no politics. All are one.

Evening says -- come, minister is coming. Sit. Clap.

Breath is now for vote. Prasad is now for vote.

When spiritual chair sits near political chair, both chairs forget breath.

Monk saw this from shadow. When house goes near king, house forgets small boy saying Vipasana.

Second thing -- Death inside house.

This is more painful.

We hear news. Inside a centre, a sadhu found dead. Sometimes they say suicide. Sometimes body is found in suspicious condition. Sometimes young sadhu, sometimes old. There are many spiritual centres full of such news. News comes for one day. Then house paints wall. Then big book is opened again.

No one asks -- how can a house where breath is taught, have so much death inside?

If breath was real, why would someone inside want to end breath?

Monk thinks -- because breath became board work. Seva became pressure. Centre became house, not park.

When house needs money and needs king, it needs silence inside. Real questions are not allowed. Small boy who asks real question is told -- go out.

So inside house, some people break. And we hear -- suicide, suspicious body.

Big centre says -- police will see. But monk says -- police can see body, who will see system that broke him?

In Monk V, monk left house because house had no air.

Monk VI is continuation.

Monk understood -- corruption is not just taking money. Corruption is when spiritual centre starts supporting political party to save itself.

And corruption is when death happens inside centre and centre still opens shop next morning like nothing happened.

That is why spiritual institutions fail.

Not because outsiders attack. Because inside, breath is gone.

Monk did nothing big.

He kept one room clean. One room with no politics. No king photo. No death hidden. One room where a small boy can come and say Vipassana twice, wrongly, but breathe freely.

One clean room is enough to ask question to whole big centre --

If there is liberation, why is there so much fear inside you? 

Why?

The Monk V: The House

The Monk went back to the same house. The house was same. The keys were not. Some keys were with people who teach meditation. Some keys were with people who sell. At morning, near the big book, the Mother of the house came. She is nice to see. She talks sweet. She put her hand on two people. Both have shops.

The Monk had a question from a child in his hand. No one saw his hand. The Monk saw -- in this house, the stairs are more loved than the books of meditation.

Thre are two plates.

One plate is yours. Another is of your team.

People show the first plate and get more keys.

In one room, children learn to say the names of different techniques of meditation. They pay money to learn the name. Only names! Strange! They think if they say "food" they will not be hungry.

They write "food" where they should write "I am hungry and this is why."

The monk gives zero. Not because he is bad. Because you cannot eat a name. Names can't be eaten. However, they are indoctrinated that names alone can fill their stomach.

The children think the monk is bad.

The Mother knows who sells the name. She knows they take money. She still gives them more rooms.

Why?

Because people who sell names keep the house quiet.

So she smiles in the front. And gives keys in the back.

No one fights now. The Monk does not fight. He never. It's not his nature.

He knows -- when you give keys to sellers, you cannot call them thieves.

How can you?

He keeps one small room clean. No names for sale. Only real eating to explore their trueself.

At night, a small boy sleeps. He says one word two times. Vipassana, Vipassana.

He does not know about keys. He does not know about plates. He only knows it's a breathing technique.

If you read this and felt hurt, I did not hurt you. Your own key hurt you. And if you don't feel hurt, congratulations, you are dead. But this death, the monk will never appreciate.

Now it's Your Time to Play With the Kid!

Literacy and numeracy

Astha calling Parth cracy

You study not

You fear not

You care not

So dare not

Dare not to touch mobile

Dare not to take a ride

Running, mudding

Shouting out

Escaping, racing 

There is no crowd

Park park, 

I want to go to park

Parth says he wanna go to park

Jumping jumping

friendly fights

I can't be quiet

I can't be quiet

I'm sitting in a corner

Watching all this.

Astha is saying

Now it's your time 

To play with the kid!

The Monk IV -- Between Two Eyes, An Open Invitation to Vanish

In Part III, Shiva was not calling the Monk.

He was calling everyone who breathes.

The temple is not somewhere outside. It sits behind our two eyes. Quiet. Always open. It doesn't shout. It whispers -- Come. Die. Reboot. Become that which is not.

To be one with Him, you have to vanish. Not a glimpse of the ocean. Not a spark of the whole. Rather being one with it via erasing the existence of the drop.

It sounds easy in books. It is not because the moment you step towards that door, the voices inside stop you to move inward.

The Mind says -- Don't go. If you go there, you will become nothing. What will happen to your name, your story?

The Intellect says -- Don't go. You will forget everything you have learnt. All your degrees, your philosophies, your spiritual progress -- all will be erased.

And they are right. You will become nothing. You will forget everything.

That's the price.

Shiva stands there with open arms. No conditions. No judgment. Just Come and see who you actually are, not who they told you what you are.

But no one moves.

He thought the last barrier was the Shadow. The fear buried inside the darkest chamber. 

No.

The last barrier is much more intimate. It is his own ego polishing the chains and calling it identity.

We all carry a painting on our chest. Society painted it -- good boy, bad boy, successful, failure, spiritual, modern.

And we spent our whole life protecting that painting, thinking it is our skin.

That is why we cannot enter the temple. Not because the door is closed.

But because we don't want to leave the painting outside.

We want to enter the temple wearing our masks and Shiva says -- come naked or don't come at all.

And so, every living being -- the ant, the man, the monk -- stands one step before freedom, listening to the voices, guarding a painting that was never theirs. 

The Monk III — The Temple That Calls You to Die

Every seeker has seen it once.

Not in a photo, not outside but inside.

A Shiva temple that appears when naam jap becomes too deep — it is not imagination, it is a call. A call from Shiva Himself. Cosmic Consciousness calling to become nothing again. No body. No mind. No intellect. Not even awareness.

Just become like a drop — an evaporated drop.

The monk has been seeing it since the Himalayan dream. After the cyborg dream, after the disciples tried to make him immortal with wires and legacy.

The temple does not call to live. It calls to die. Let there be no more burden of ego. Let's be like Jad Bharat.

This confuses the mind — the mind which is not ready to vanish. Every other temple promises — come, live better. More money, more health, more success. This one promises nothing. It says — come, leave everything, even the one who came. Let there be nothing. Become nothing and experience That Which Is Not.

That is why most people never enter, even when they see it inside. They circle. They take photos from outside. They pray from distance. They say — later, when responsibilities end, when book is finished, when child grows up.

But temple does not wait for later. Temple calls now.

What does it mean — to die inside temple?

It does not mean real death. Body continues to drink tea and coffee. Coffee. How can one forget coffee? But let the tea disappear. Let the coffee disappear. Let the drinker disappear.

1. A layman dies — the one who waits for permission.

2. A Family man dies — the one who lives only for appreciation.

3. A man of system dies — the one who lives only for target.

Architect dies. Architect dies? No, it's not that easy because he can rise again. He is like Avatar. He may return and may not. Sometimes as monk, sometimes as family man again. But there is a subtle difference. Now he shifts from monk to family man, family man to layman. He can change forms, however, remains nothing from inside.

Now, he is already dead. Already nothing. Already That Which Is Not.

For him, death does not feel like end. It feels like fulfillment. Like keeping a heavy bag down after a 20 km journey. Bags are like body, like mind full of thoughts, like intellect full of experiences.

And then — tea tastes better. Coffee? Come on, it's always better. Child's laugh becomes temple bell.

The temple that calls you to die is actually the only place that lets you live.

It is still there. Behind closed eyes. Between two breaths. After the blank smile or no smile.

The Rise of Monk II — The Cyborg Monk

Monk meditates in Himalayas. Not just because Himalayas are holy, but because silence is cheaper there. Many disciples sit around him. Behind them, a Shiva temple — the same temple that appears again and again whenever naam jap deepens.

One night, the monk dreams himself doing meditation.

In that dream, disciples are no longer listening. They are engineering. They bring wires, steel, batteries, code. They want to make the monk immortal. A cyborg monk — half breath, half machine, half prayer, half program that never crashes. A master who never dies, never forgets, never decays.

The monk whispers — let me die.

Disciples refuse. Their love is too possessive. "How can you die? Your teachings will die. Your name will die. We need you forever."

So the monk lies there, caught between temple and technology. Behind him, Shiva calls — come, burn, become ash. In front of Him, disciples call — stay, remain, become forever.

This is not fantasy. This is daily life of every seeker.

The world no longer wants humans. The world wants cyborgs. An identity that never dies — profile immortal, book immortal, good-person certificate immortal. Keep updating, keep posting, keep proving.

Mortality has become failure. Legacy has become worship.

But the Shiva temple does not give legacy. The temple gives death. Not punishment, permission. Permission to let identity die before body dies.

Disciples inside head — thoughts — do the same. Each thought wants to preserve the monk.

One says — if this self dies, who will protect this family?

Second says — if this self dies now, what about the unfinished book?

Third says — if this self disappears unknown, what will history say?

All three sound like love. All three function like wires. They keep the machine running.

A cyborg can live 200 years. Yet a cyborg can never drink tea. Processing is possible, tasting is not. Tasting needs a mortal tongue, a momentary tongue, a tongue that knows — this sip will end.

The quiet monk from Part I understood quietness outside. The cyborg monk must understand death inside.

Rise does not mean addition. Rise means subtraction. A layman dies. Family man dies. Architect dies — hardest, because Architect is the one who built the monk in the first place.

What remains after that cannot be named person. What remains can only be called moment. Awareness. Ash that still breathes. And then awareness dies too because it too has ego. Ego that I am aware. 

Temple still stands. Behind traffic, behind work place politics, behind the noise.

Question is no longer how to become immortal?

Question is — which part today is trying to become cyborg? And can that part be allowed to die?