ADI-SHANKARAR

ADI-SHANKARACHARYA – [OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE]

Because you are! To call you anything else will be a lie! When Shankara says: OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, he says this with great love, he says this because of his compassion. He is not cursing you, he is not calling you names, because Shankara just cannot curse or call names; it is impossible for him. He is shaking you, he is waking you up. He is saying "Get up! It is morning and you are still sleeping." He is calling you 'idiot' because until he uses some strong words your sleep is not going to be disturbed and you are not going to wake up. He is calling you 'idiot' because this is true, this is a fact.

Idiocy means unconsciousness. Idiocy means to live in sleep. Idiocy means to be without discretion. Idiocy means not being wakeful, not being conscious when you are angry. Then you become more idiotic because then you lose consciousness even more. But sometimes, when you are conscious, then you are not too idiotic. And you also know that sometimes you are less idiotic and sometimes you are more idiotic.

Idiocy is that energy which is asleep today but will wake up tomorrow. It is hidden today but it will be revealed tomorrow. This idiocy will become your wisdom. Your sleep will become your awakening. So do not be angry with it, do not condemn it, and do not try to hide your idiocy. Most of the people are doing this. They are trying to hide their idiocy -- so they are even bigger idiots! You collect information and you try to cover up your idiocy with this information. You cover up the inner wounds with flowers.

Knowledge borrowed from scriptures is like these flowers, the borrowed information from others is like these flowers with which you cover your idiocy to help you forget it. Idiocy is not to be forgotten. Idiocy is to be remembered because it can be destroyed only if it is remembered. That is why Shankara goes on repeating: SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE, OH IDIOT!

Seeing your unconsciousness, he goes on repeating it out of compassion so that you may not forget that you are an idiot. You try your best to forget it. You make all effort to forget that you are an idiot. You believe that you are a very knowledgeable person. Only a really knowledgeable person knows that he is not knowledgeable. All the ignorant people believe that they are knowledgeable. The ignorant person is not ready to accept that he does not know. Only the most knowledgeable person is ready to question his own knowledge.

Edison has said, "People say that I know a lot. But the reality is that a child on the seashore who has gathered a few seashells.... My knowledge is only that much -- a few seashells in my hands and there is this vast sea which I do not know."

Your little knowledge seems great to you. You have lit a small lamp; its dim light is able to light up a small place and you think it is great knowledge. But you are not aware of the unlimited darkness surrounding you. When you understand your idiocy then you will say, "Is this knowledge, this dim light? I have gathered a few seashells in my hand and I think that I have become knowledgeable. But the journey of knowledge is endless, the search is unlimited." Then you will give up that knowledge also.


The day you become aware of your idiocy, the day you are aware that you are an idiot, your idiocy will start dissolving, because that awareness will bring you out of it. Idiocy is unconsciousness; it will start dissolving with awareness. Psychologists say that a madman will become alright if he realizes that he is mad. A mad person never knows that he is mad, he thinks that the world is mad.

An insane person cannot understand that he is insane. If he had that much understanding he would not have gone insane. If he understands that he is insane, then insanity will disappear. If at night in your sleep you realize that you are dreaming, then the dreaming will stop. To dream it is necessary that you do not remember that you are dreaming. In the morning you will remember it when the dream is over. As long as you are dreaming it will seem real to you. But if right in the middle of the dream you remember that this is a dream, it will be over.

Gurdjieff used to tell his disciples that before breaking big dreams they should learn how to break small dreams. This big world is an illusion, a big dream; you cannot break it till you break the small dreams. How can you stop the day-dream when you cannot stop the night-dream? So Gurdjieff used to tell his disciples that while going to sleep at night they must go on reminding themselves that whenever they start dreaming, at once they must remember that this is a dream. It takes about three years to break the night dreaming. For three years continuously, every night while going to sleep, if you go on thinking, contemplating, meditating on this thought then that moment comes -- that fortunate moment -- when suddenly you remember that this is a dream. And this remembrance breaks the dream and consciousness even enters the sleep. From that moment dreaming stops. Then there is no more dreaming.

Shankara is reminding you again and again that you are an idiot -- so do not get annoyed. If you get annoyed then you are proving that Shankara is right in calling you an idiot. Perhaps you are a big idiot and Shankara is calling you just an idiot, he is hesitant. Do not insist on proving that you are not an idiot, otherwise this insistence will strengthen your idiocy. You must accept it. Your acceptance will dissolve your idiocy.

Not only should you accept it but you should also remind yourself every moment that you are an idiot -- you are unconscious, ignorant and insane. Then your consciousness will move into a new direction, your inner quality will change, your actions will change. If you could only remember that you are not sensible then that will be the beginning of your becoming sensible.

Realization of one's ignorance is the first step towards knowledge. The effort to kindle the fire, the light, starts only after understanding the darkness. If one does not know darkness as darkness and blindness as blindness, he will not try to heal his eyes. When you go to a doctor he does not give you the medicine at once. First of all he tries to diagnose the illness, then he gives the medicine. If the diagnosis is correct then it is easy to give the treatment. That is why all the great doctors take the fee for the diagnosis and not for the treatment, because after the diagnosis anyone can give the medicines. Once the illness is diagnosed, its treatment will be easy.

Shankara is telling you again and again: OH IDIOT! SING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE. He has diagnosed your sickness. Idiocy is your sickness and SINGING THE SONG OF THE DIVINE is the treatment. If you go on protecting your illness, if you go on claiming that your illness is your health, then of course you are incurable, nobody can treat you.