No tree is as foolish as man, no animal either is as foolish. Man is the only idiotic animal on the earth, but that idiocy also be transformed into a great blessing – because only man can understand what separation is and what union is. The trees, the birds, the animals, are one with existence – but unaware. They are blissful, but they have no idea of what bliss is, they are not conscious of it. And a bliss which is unconscious is not of much value. You may have a treasure, but if you are not aware of it, what is the point of having it?
The distant call of the cuckoo is beautiful to us, but not to the cuckoo itself. The cuckoo has no idea what beauty is, what music is, what poetry is. It is unaware — blissful, but unaware.
Man is not aware but is miserable. But this misery can be dropped. Awareness has to be increased a little, man has to consciously drop the misery and achieve a reunion — I call it a reunion. The tree and the cuckoo and the other birds and the animals are in a state of union. Man has to reclaim it; he has lost contact with it. Only man can be a Buddha or a Christ. Hence that foolishness is not just a curse; it can also be a blessing.
It all depends on us, on what we do about our misery. We can go on nursing it and we can go on creating more hell for ourselves. We can drop it and we can move toward the whole for the ultimate merger. We can melt ourselves into the ocean of existence and then bliss arises. And when man becomes blissful, his bliss has tremendous value. The cuckoo is blissful, but its bliss has no value.
To be consecrated to godliness means to be ready to merge and melt into the whole. Then bliss comes of its own accord.
