Mary Magdalene and the priceless perfume

Society goes on telling you, "This is right, and that is wrong"--that is conscience. It becomes ingrained,

implanted in you. You go on repeating it. That is worthless; that is not the real thing. The real thing is your own consciousness. It carries no ready-made answers about what is wrong and what is right, no. But immediately, in what-ever situation arises, it gives you light --you know immediately what to do.

Jesus went to visit the home of Mary Magdalene. Mary was deeply in love. She poured very precious perfume on his feet--the whole bottle. It was rare perfume; it could have been sold. Judas immediately objected. He said, "You should prohibit people from doing such nonsense. The whole thing is wasted, and there are people who are poor and who don't have anything to eat. We could have distributed the money to poor people."

What did Jesus say? He said, "You don't be worried about it. The poor and the hungry will always be here, but I will be gone. You can serve them always and always--there is no hurry--but I will be gone. Look at the love, not at the precious perfume. Look at Mary's love, her heart."

With whom will you agree? Jesus seems to be very bourgeois and Judas seems to be perfectly economical. Judas is talking about the poor, and Jesus simply says, "I will be gone soon, so let her heart do whatsoever she wants and don't bring your philosophy in."

Ordinarily your mind will agree with Judas. He was a very cultured man--sophisticated, a thinker. And he betrayed--he sold Jesus for thirty silver pieces. But when Jesus was crucified, he started feeling guilty. That's how a good man functions--he started feeling very guilty, his conscience started pricking him. He committed suicide.

He was a good man, he had a conscience. But he had no consciousness. This distinction has to be felt deeply. Conscience is borrowed, given by the society; consciousness is your attainment. The society teaches you what is right and what is wrong: do this and don't do that. It gives you the morality, the code, the rules of the game--that is your conscience. Outside, the constable; inside, the conscience --that is how the society controls you.

Judas had a conscience, but Jesus had consciousness. Jesus was more concerned with the love of the woman, Mary Magdalene. It was such a deep thing that to prevent her would be wounding her love; she would shrink within herself. Pouring the perfume on Jesus' feet was just a gesture. Behind it, she was saying. "This is all that I have--the most precious thing I have. To pour water won't be enough; it is too cheap. I would like to pour my heart, I would like to pour my whole being...."

But Judas was a man of conscience: he looked at the perfume and he said, "It is costly." He was completely blind to the woman and her heart. The material is the perfume, the immaterial is the love. But the immaterial Judas could not see. For that, you need eyes of consciousness.