I treat Jesus as a poet. And he is. Van Gogh has said about him that he is the greatest artist that has ever been on this earth. He is. He talks in parables and poetry, and he means many more things than his words can convey. Allow me to give you the feeling of that infinity of meanings.

Poetry is not so clear -- cannot be. It is a mystery. It is just early in the morning: a]l over you see a mist -- fresh, just born, But there are clouds; you cannot see far away. There is no need: poetry is not for the far away. It gives you an insight in looking to the near and the close and the intimate

Science goes on searching for the far away; poetry goes on revealing, in a new way, the intimate the close, that which you had always known, that which is familiar -- the same path that you have been treading all your life. Poetry reveals the same path but with a new hue, a new color, a new light Suddenly you are transported to a new plane.

I treat Jesus as a poet. He is a poet. And this has been very much misunderstood. People go on treating him as a scientist You are fools if you treat him as a scientist. Then he will look absurd, and the whole thing will look miraculous. Then if you want to believe in him, you have to be very superstitious. Or you have to throw him completely: the baby with the bath water.

He's so absurd. You can believe in him, but then you have to believe very blindly. That belief cannot be natural, spontaneous. You have to force it. You have to believe for the sake of belief and you have to force it on yourself. Or, you throw him completely. Both are wrong. Jesus should be loved, not believed. There is no need to think for or against him.

Have you ever watched? -- you never think for or against Shakespeare. Why? You never think for or against Kalidas. Why? You never think for and against Rabindranath. Why? Because you know they are poets. You enjoy them, you don't think for and against.

But with Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, you think for and against because you think they are arguing. Let me tell you: they are not arguing. They have no thesis to prove, they have no dogma. They are great poets -- greater than Rabindranath, greater than Shakespeare, greater than Kalidas, because what has happened to Rabindranath, Kalidas and Shakespeare is just a glimpse. What has happened to Jesus, Krishna and Buddha is a realization.

The same that is a glimpse to a poet is reality to a mystic. They have seen. Not only seen -- they have touched. Not only touched -- they have lived. It is a live experience.

Always look at them as great artists. A painter simply paints a picture; a poet simply writes a poem... a Jesus creates a human being. A poet changes a canvas: it was plain, ordinary; it becomes precious by his touch. But can't you see that Jesus touches very ordinary people -- a fisherman, Simon called Peter -- he touches, and by his very touch this man is transformed into a great apostle, a great human being. A height arises, a depth is opened. This man is no longer ordinary. He was just a fisherman throwing his net in the sea and he would have done that his whole life -- even for many lives -- and would never even have thought, imagined, dreamt, what Jesus transformed into a reality.

In India we have a mythology about a stone called paras. The stone paras is alchemical. You touch iron with the paras and it is transformed into gold. Jesus is a paras. He touches ordinary metal and immediately the metal is transformed, it becomes gold. He transforms ordinary human beings into deities, and you don't see the art in it. Greater art is not possible.

To me, the gospels are poetic. If I speak again on the same gospel, I will not speak the same, remember. I don't know in what mood, in what climate, I will be then. I don't know from which door I will enter then. And my house of God has many mansions. It is not finite.

Come Follow to You, Vol-1
# 8