Meera danced to abandon
Christians don't have any idea that enlightened people have been of all kinds. It is a spectrum, the whole rainbow. There has been Krishna -- the dancer, the flute-player, the singer. There has been Chaitanya -- a mad dancer, he will dance and dance for hours, until he will fall in ecstasy; the joy will be so overflowing, uncontainable. There has been Jalaluddin Rumi who twirled -- he became enlightened while twirling. He whirled for thirty-six hours continuously, non-stop; then he fell, exhausted by the ecstasy, and when he opened his eyes the old man was gone and the new has arrived. It is Jalaluddin Rumi who founded the whirling dervishes and their whole beautiful tradition. There has been Meera in India, who danced to abandon, who danced from one village to another village, almost covering the whole north of India. But the Christians have only one idea -- that of Christ. And they say Christ did not laugh either, what to say about dance? But that is not true. He was a man of immense joy. He loved to eat, to drink even; he's the only enlightened one who was not against wine. And in fact no enlightened person should be against wine, because it is pure vegetarian. He loved to eat and stay late in the night eating, talking, gossiping. Christians have the idea that he was only delivering gospels; they have dropped all the gossips. In fact, those gossips contained more truth than the gospels that they have chosen, because in his gossips he was more really human. In gospels you become a little inhuman, you become dry. And he was a wet man, not a dry man at all. And can you think a man who drinks wine and moves with gamblers and prostitutes not gossiping? Impossible! Narada was one of the great enlightened persons in India who loved his, and played continuously his veena. Kabir loved to dance, sing; Dadu, Nanak all were lovers of singing. Nanak always used to have a companion because any time he would start singing, and he needed somebody to play... so he had one companion continuously. His name was Mardana; because he was always ready with his instrument to accompany Nanak. In all his travels he was a master player. Nanak at any moment will start singing, in the middle of the night, anywhere. Whenever the divine possessed him he will sing, and immediately Mardana will have to play. There have been people like Buddha who never danced, Lao Tzu, who never danced, Bodhidharma, who never danced.
