Authentically Good I am reminded of a beautiful incident that happened in the life of Edmund Burke, an English philosopher. He had a great friendship with the archbishop of England – and the archbishop of England is equal to the pope. As far as the church of England is concerned, the archbishop is the representative of Jesus Christ. Edmund Burke and the archbishop were great friends because they had studied together in the university. And the archbishop used to come to listen to Edmund Burke’s lectures, whenever he announced lectures. But Edmund Burke never went to the archbishop’s sermons – not even once. And naturally, the archbishop was waiting someday… Finally, he himself invited him: “This Sunday you have to come. No excuses.” And he prepared his life’s best sermon. He wanted to impress Edmund Burke…and he constantly looked at him, because he was sitting in the front row. And the archbishop was feeling great fear, because he did not see even a sign on the face of Edmund Burke that he was impressed or moved. Although he was shouting and beating the table and doing every kind of gymnastic that Christian missionaries are trained to do, Edmund Burke remained silent, without saying a word. The sermon finished, and they both left in the same car. Edmund Burke was still silent…the archbishop was thinking perhaps he would say something now. And they came to his house and he was getting out of the car, and the archbishop could not contain his temptation to ask – “You have not said anything about my sermon. Say anything. Even if it was not good, at least say it; otherwise I will continuously think about it, about what your impression was.” Edmund Burke said, “It was neither good nor bad, it was simply stupid. You made such idiotic statements that I would have never thought a man of your intelligence could make.” He said, “What idiotic statements?” Edmund Burke said, “You said that those who believe in Jesus Christ and do good works will go to heaven. And those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ and do evil acts will go to hell. Can’t you see the idiocy in it, the stupidity?” The archbishop said, “I can’t see it yet.” Edmund Burke said, “Then I will show it to you: If a man does not believes in Jesus Christ and does good works, where is he going? And if a man believes in Jesus Christ and does evil acts, where is he going? Are good works and evil acts to be decisive? Then the belief in Jesus Christ is superfluous. Or if the belief in Jesus Christ is the criterion, then the question of good acts or evil acts is irrelevant.” The archbishop had never thought about it. Perhaps no religious person ever thinks about it, that a man can be absolutely religious without believing in any religion, that a man’s life can be absolutely the life of wisdom and goodness without believing in any God, without believing in any prophet, without believing in any savior. And vice versa: A man may believe in God, in Jesus, and still his life will be nothing but the life of an animal. The archbishop said, “The question is very difficult and I have never thought about it. You will have to give me seven days. Next Sunday in my sermon, I will answer it. You will have to come once more, because I would like to make my statement before my whole congregation.” Edmund Burke gave him seven days, and those seven days were of great torture to the archbishop. He worked from this way and that way, but he could not find solution. Either he has to insist that belief in Jesus Christ is the criterion – then virtue and sin, good and evil don’t matter. Then the whole mortality goes down the drain. If he says mortality is decisive, then why bother about Jesus Christ? Then Jesus Christ goes down the drain. And he was trying to keep both together. He could not sleep for seven days. The whole night the same question was going round and round in his mind. On the seventh day, he reached the church a little early, because he had not found the answer yet and he thought, “It will be better: I should go before the time people start coming – early, in darkness – to pray to Jesus Christ himself: ‘You show me the way. I cannot find any way out of the puzzle. Whatever I decide seems to be wrong, and I have never been in such anguish. Help me.’” But he was so tired, and he had not slept for seven days, so just putting his head at the feet of Jesus Christ’s statue, he fell asleep and he dreamt a beautiful dream: He was sitting in a train which was going very fast, he asked, “Where are we going?” The people said, “You don’t know? This train is going to heaven.” He said, “My God, perhaps this is the answer from Jesus Christ – ‘look with your own eyes!’” And the train stopped at the station where, in very faded words, hardly visible, was written “heaven” and all over, it looked like a desert, a wasteland. He could not think that heaven should be like this. He asked again, but people were getting down. They said, “It is heaven.” He entered the streets…they were so rotten and so dirty. He saw a few saints, so dry and so dead, sitting under their trees, repeating continuously, “Hallelujah, hallelujah.” He asked them, “Is it truly heaven?” And they said, “What do you think we are doing here? We are great saints and with great austerity we have attained heaven.” He said, “A strange heaven…not a single flower.” He asked a saint, “Can I know – is Gautam Buddha in heaven? Is Socrates here? Is Epicurus here?”, because all these people did not believe in God, and obviously there was no question of believing in Jesus Christ; they had been born before Jesus Christ. And the saint said, “Never heard of any such people here.” But they were the people who were absolutely good, the very essence of goodness. He rushed to the station and asked, “Is there a train going to hell too?” They said, “It is leaving right now, standing at the platform.” So he went on the train towards hell. And as the train entered the station of hell, he could not believe – this should have been heaven! So green, so many flowers and everybody so radiant, so joyous, so much music…as if it were some celebration day. He enquired, “Is there some celebration going on?” They said, “No, this is our usual everyday life. Celebration is our life.” He said, “Can I ask, is Gautam Buddha here? Is Socrates here? Is Epicurus here?” They said, “They are all here. Just look in the garden by the road – Gautam Buddha is working as a gardener. Since these people came, everything changed. Otherwise, hell used to be just like heaven, but since Gautam Buddha, Socrates, Heraclitus, Epicurus, Mahavira, those godless people came into hell, they transformed the whole situation. “Now, hell is really heaven. The old names remained, but everything has changed and life is just a continuous dance. Everything has become a blissfulness. They have brought poetry and music and art and they have transformed the whole place.” Seeing the situation – it was so shocking – he woke up. People had started coming; Edmund Burke was already sitting in the first row. The archbishop must have been a sincere man at least. He said, “I have not been able to find any answer. I prayed to Jesus – I don’t know whether this dream is given by Jesus or I dreamt it myself, but this is the only answer I can give to you.” He simply told his dream, and he said, “Please forgive me for making a stupid statement. I want to correct it: Wherever people are who are authentically good, there is heaven. And wherever people are who are basically evil, there is hell. These are psychological, spiritual space.” A Buddha transforms everything.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 07:48:04 +0000
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