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? 

The Rise of Monk I -- The Quiet Path

Society thinks monk is someone who wakes at 4am, goes to temple, chants mala, wears white or orange.

S/he is not that.

And he is also not someone who makes fun of people who go to temple at 4 am. 

That second type is not monk either. That is just ego in reverse.

The monk I am speaking of never goes to temple always. He may sometimes goes just because his family wants to. He knows about Pure Consciousness. And he knows that the real temple of God is within our own mind. But if you go, he will not stop you. He will say — good, you started from A, B, C. Learn. Explore.

Why should he make fun of you? He was also there once. Lighting diya as per Agam Shsatra tradition or reading book, asking God for help or studying his own subconscious mind to know about Consciousness. We all start from A,B, C. What's the problem in it?

The difference is, now he doesn't need temple to find God or he doesn't need heavy books to read or techniques of deep meditation to be done. 

But he doesn't need to prove that temples/or books/techniques of deep meditation are useless either.

That's why society lacks this type of monk. We have two types —

1. One who pleases people to be called religious.

2. One who offends people to be called intelligent.

This monk does neither.

His core philosophy is simple: He can't please people by abandoning reason.

If something is illogical, he will not do it just because 100 people are doing it. Even if they call him arrogant. Even if his family says — just do it, what will you lose?

He will lose himself. That's what he will lose.

And he can't live without reason, but he also can't live only with reason. Because reason can make you analyst, not aware.

So what does he do?

He lives in moments. Very easy to say. Very tough to do.

When he gets angry, he knows he is not angry. Anger is there. He doesn't say "I am peaceful monk, I should not be angry." Peace and anger are just clouds. That which is permanent is the consciousness within. He says — okay, anger came, let me watch it. Let it burn.

When someone prays in front of him, he doesn't correct. He smiles because he knows — that person is not praying to stone. That person is praying to his own Self within which is beyond body and mind. 

Not enlightened. Aware. Enlightenment is a big word. Awareness is small but strong.

Enlightenment occurs when you start living in moments — not when you leave society, but when you stop leaving the moment.

This monk is not in Himalayas but behind his own breath.

He is quiet not because he has no words. He is quiet because he knows most words are just to please others.

He will write. Not to preach but to show path. Because he knows everyone has possibility.

Even the one who goes to temple daily.

Even the one who makes fun of temple.

Even you, reading this, thinking — am I that monk?

If you asked that question, you already started rising.