CHENNAI: To find out life is all about and not just the superficial layers which we call living, to be aware of its joy, its extraordinary depths, its width and beauty, which includes the squalor, the misery, the strife, the degradation — your mind must obviously be free. If that is clearly understood, then your relationship with others is not based on authority. I cannot lead you to truth, nor can anyone else; you have to discover it every moment of the day as you are living. When you know what is right meditation, then you will find out what is truth; but a mind that is prepared, so-called educated, that is conditioned to believe or not to believe, that calls itself a Hindu, a Christian, a communist, a Buddhist — such a mind will never discover what is true, though it may search for a thousand years. So, the important thing is for the mind to be free.
If we want to find out what is this extraordinary state that lies beyond the vagaries of the mind — really experience it, live with it, and know its full meaning — surely there must be freedom. And freedom implies hard work than most of us are willing to undertake. We would rather be led than discover, but one cannot be led to truth. No swami, no system of yoga, no religious group, no doctrine or belief can lead you to the discovery of truth. Only the free mind can discover. You cannot discover the truth of anything by merely being told what it is because then the discovery is not yours. If you are merely told what happiness is, is that happiness?
Truth is not something far away. It is the truth of the mind, truth of its activities from moment to moment. As long as the mind uses consciousness as the self-activity, time comes into being with all its miseries, conflicts, mischiefs and purposive deceptions. It is only when the mind, understanding this process, ceases, that love will be. You may call it love or give it some other names; what name you give is of no consequence.