All judgments, in terms of life, are meaningless and not necessary; but in terms of social wellbeing, some judgments have to be passed, some people have to be put behind bars, some people have to be hanged, unfortunately. We would like to live in a society where these things are not necessary, but it is right now necessary. If you don’t do those things then people who are gentle will suffer.
But individually, where is the need to go about judging anything? You do whatever you want. Every action has a consequence. If you can joyfully accept that consequence, then do whatever you please. Now you do something, tomorrow when the consequence comes, you cry. If that is so, right now look at your action carefully. The question is not about whether it’s right or wrong. The question is: are you willing to face the consequence? Not just face it, are you capable of going through it joyfully? If not, calibrate your actions.
You can truly enjoy something only if you do not judge it. If you allow it to, it will sink into you. Acceptance is the way to experience. If you resist, you cannot experience. If you pre-judge it, you cannot experience. ‘Oh, all peaches are wonderful.’ Not so. Peaches can be terrible too. So you don’t judge, you don’t take a prejudiced conclusion about anything, you experience everything just the way it is.
So nothing is stopping you from enjoying it, but you don’t have to pass a judgment. Whatever you think about that which is not yet, amounts to prejudice, doesn’t it? A prejudiced conclusion will lead to distortion of perception. Let’s say you came from the United States right now. You came to India, landed and met one wonderful person. ‘Oh! Indians are so wonderful&’ We have surprises for you. Or you met one nasty person at the airport ‘these horrible Indians&!’ No, that’s not the reality either, is it? In a moment you enjoyed something, that’s fine—relish that. Where is the need to make a conclusion? Instead of living an experience, you are trying to make knowledge out of it.
Knowledge has taken away your ability to experience and perceive life the way it is. According to a story, God told the first man and woman do what you want, eat what you want, but do not eat from this particular tree—Tree of knowledge. And your teachers, your parents insist you must eat from the tree of knowledge.
By eating the fruit of knowledge, man fell; because the more knowledge you have about something, the less you experience it. Anything that you have mental conclusions about, you cannot experience. This is what has happened to you about everything—because you have forgone conclusions about it, you cannot experience it.
Many years ago, I met a scientist at a food research institute, who had spent over 27 years doing research on apples. He had every kind of apple from everywhere in the world in his laboratory, in different conditions—preserved properly, rotting, and so on. He hadn’t tasted an apple in the last 27 years! Simply because he knew everything about it. But you think, you don’t know an apple till you put it your mouth. That’s the best way to know it, isn’t it? But he knew everything about it. In the same way, you can know about life without knowing anything about it.
So whether it’s a peach or an apple or a person or a tree or any experience, you don’t have to draw a conclusion. Just experience it for what it is. It will go deep inside you. What we are referring to as divine has not touched you because you have too many conclusions in your head. What you call as knowledge is just your conclusion about life. That’s why they said Adam ate the fruit of knowledge and fell, because the moment you eat the fruit of knowledge you fall from the experience and the grace of life. Now acceptance simply means experiencing everything just the way it is. Not making conclusions about it. You need knowledge about material things, but you don’t need knowledge about life, and you cannot have knowledge about life.
See, right now there is somebody here you met 25 years ago, somewhere. That somebody was doing something you did not like. So you thought this person is not nice; but now you find this person sitting right here in front of me. Now the moment you see him, your mind says: ‘Oh my God he is not nice, why is he here?’ In 25 years time this person might have become the most beautiful human being on the planet. Possible? But your mind will say he is not nice, why is he here? Because you have knowledge about him, you have no way of experiencing him right now the way he is. Among all of you, is there anybody here who is 24 hours good or 24 hours bad? You are constantly oscillating, isn’t it? So whatever conclusions I make about you, suppose I conclude that you are bad, I am wrong. Suppose I conclude that you are good, I am bound to be wrong, isn’t it? So don’t make conclusions, just experience everything the way it is. That’s when you know life.