Question – What is the difference between being a fatalist and just floating, feeling everything is beautiful?

Osho – A vast difference, a lot of difference. And the difference is not of quantity, the difference is of quality. The fatalist is one who has not understood life, but who has felt failure. A fatalist is one who feels helpless, frustrated. In fatalism he seeks consolation. He says, “It was going to be so.” He’s trying so avoid that he has failed. It was going to be so, so what can he do? He is throwing the responsibility on fate, on God, on XYZ. “I’m not responsible, what can I do? It was written in my fate. It was predetermined, predestined.” He is saying, “I’m not responsible.” He has failed. In deep frustration he is trying to find some refuge, some shelter. Fatalism is a consolation.

And the other thing,’just floating, feeling everything is beautiful’, is not a consolation — it is an understanding. It is not fatalism; it is not failure; it is not helplessness. It is simply a deep insight into reality, as things are. It is to understand that you are a very small part of the cosmic whole. And you are not separate. You are one with the continent — you are not an island.

The understanding that the ego is false, the understanding that the separation is false, the understanding that you don’t have a separate destiny than the whole, that a drop in the ocean need not worry about its own destiny — the ocean has to worry about it — is not helplessness. In fact it releases tremendous power. Once you are unburdened by yourself, once you are no more worried about yourself, you become a tremendous energy. Then the energy is no more struggling; now it floats. Now you are not fighting with the whole, now you are with the whole, marching with the whole. Then you are not trying to prove anything against the whole, because that is simply foolish.

It is as if my own hand starts fighting with me and starts trying to have its own destiny, separate from me. I am going to the south, and my head starts going to the north. It is so foolish, it is impossible — foolish, and impossible — and frustration is bound to be there. Sooner or later the hand will see that the hand wanted to go to the north, but it is going to the south. Deep in frustration, the hand will say, “It is fate. I am helpless.”

In fact, the feeling of helplessness arises because of the struggle. When you understand that you are part of the whole, that you are not separate at all, that in fact the whole has been trying to attain some heights through you; you are only a passage, a vehicle — suddenly all frustration disappears. When you don’t have a goal of your own, how can you be frustrated?. When you don’t have to prove anything against anything; when you don’t have to struggle, there is no need for fatalism; you need not have any consolation. You simply dance with the whole; you flow with the whole. You know you are the whole.

That is the meaning when the Upanishads say: AHAM BRAHMASMI — I am God. That is the meaning when Jesus says, “I and my God are one” — not fatalism, not settling in helplessness; rather, knowing the fact that we are one with the whole. Then your atomic tinyness disappears. You become cosmic…. JUST FLOATING,FEELING EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL. Then it happens; then you just float; there is nothing else to do. The same energy that was trying to fight surrenders. Then you are not pushing the river: you simply float on the river, and the river takes you. The river is already going to the ocean. You are unnecessarily worried. You can simply Leave that responsibility to the river. Whether you leave it or not, it is already going.

Don’t fight, because in fight there is going to be frustration — in fight is the seed of frustration, and in frustration you will seek some way to console yourself. Then fatalism is born. If you don’t fight then everything is just beautiful. Why? Because then you don’t have any idea of your own to compare it with. Everything is beautiful for how could it be otherwise? You don’t have any conflict; hence everything is beautiful. If the river turns to the right, you turn to the right — beautiful. If the river turns to the left — perfectly beautiful, you turn to the left. If you have some idea and some goal, if you say, “I am a leftist,” then there is going to be trouble. When the river starts turning towards the right, you will say, “Now this is going too far; now I cannot surrender — I am a leftist.” Then you will start fighting against the river, and then the river will not be beautiful because your notion, your idea, your ideal, has come in.

Whenever ideology comes in, things become ugly. All idealists live in hells. Ideology creates hells. If you don’t have any ideology you have nothing to compare: you don’t have any criterion. Then whatsoever is happening, is happening — you have nothing to compare it with. Then wherever the river is going, that is the only way to go. Then one simply allows existence to have its own way. One never comes in the way; a deep let-go.

Then everything is beautiful. And then you realize that it has never been otherwise. Everything was beautiful, always. Look at the animals; look at the birds; look at the clouds; look at the trees. Ask the trees; ask the stones. Everything is beautiful. The trees must be very much surprised that you look so sad. The trees must be puzzled that man looks so burdened, when everything is so light and so floating. The birds must be laughing at you that you go on carrying such a load — the load seems to be nowhere except in your mind.

So much burdened, you miss life. So much burdened, you miss love. So much burdened, you miss celebration. So much burdened, you miss laughter. You cannot sing; you cannot dance; you cannot laugh. And because of this, you become desperate and you start fighting more. You think you are not fighting as much as you should. That’s why you are not so happy.

Once a man came to me, a very rich man, but very reluctant to accept the fact that he was not happy. People don’t accept that they are not happy. They are unhappy, but they won’t accept it because that is very ego shattering. They, and unhappy? Impossible.

I looked into that rich man. I see thousands of unhappy men, but he was rare — I have not found another so unhappy. And he had everything. And he tried to smile. The smile was absolutely false, painted, just on the lips, not coming from anywhere; not coming from the inner being; just mentally created, a facade, a trick of the mind. I immediately looked at the man and felt that he was so unhappy, but also unable to accept being unhappy. So I said to the man, “You look so happy. What are the reasons for your happiness?”

He looked surprised. He was never expecting that. He said, “What do you say — I, and happy?”
“Yes, I have never seen such a happy man. And that’s why I would like — enlighten me a little — what are the causes of your happiness?”

The man started enumerating, “I have so much money, a beautiful wife, children, palaces, cars, swimming pools, this and that.” But while he was enumerating, deep down, there was only hell and darkness. And he knew it, and he could not believe that he had deceived me. But still he was trying.

Then I asked one question more: “You say that because of these things you are happy; just one question more. You say that you are happy. I would like to know, how much happiness has your happiness given you? How much happiness has your happiness really given you?”

Then he caught the point. He started crying and he said, “I am not happy. And you have caught me. I go on deceiving myself that I am happy. I go on deceiving others. I am desperate to prove that I am happy.”

Remember, only an unhappy man tries to prove that he is happy; only a sad man tries to prove that he is not sad; only a dead man tries to prove that he is alive; only a coward tries to prove that he is brave. Only a man who knows his inferiority tries to prove that he is superior. You go on trying to prove the opposite of what you are, and the possibilities are ninety-nine out of a hundred that you are just the opposite. When you smile, I can see hidden tears. When you try to dance, I can see the rocklike heart within that cannot move. Dancing is impossible.

Why is man in such a plight? The whole world laughs. The trees laugh at you. You may not hear; you may be escaping; you may have become deaf. The birds laugh; the animals laugh. Something has gone wrong with man. What has gone wrong with him? Only one thing: the whole of nature is flowing and man is fighting. In nature the ego does not exist. Trees are there, but without any egos — only man is with the ego. And that ego is the whole hell.

That ego needs continuous fight, because it feeds on fight. The more you fight, the stronger your ego becomes. It is a fighter. That’s why surrender is so difficult. But unless you surrender you will remain in misery. Surrender is the door to bliss, to beauty, to truth, to love, to life, to God. Surrender is the door. And when I say ‘surrender’, I don’t mean that surrender has to be towards someone. That is just an excuse; because you cannot surrender unless you have someone to surrender to — that’s why someone is needed. Otherwise there is no need; you can simply surrender, and the door is open.

That’s what Buddha says. He said,”Simply surrender.” But that looks very difficult for the mind. You need some excuse. Jesus says, “Surrender to God.” If you cannot just surrender, then surrender to God. Krishna says, “If you cannot surrender, then surrender to me. Let me be the excuse.” But when you surrender, then you know that Krishna tricked you. When you surrender you will not find Krishna there: you will find the whole cosmos and you floating in it, part of it. Then you are no more separate — not going on your way. Then everything is beautiful, blissful. Without conflict ugliness disappears; without conflict sadness disappears; without conflict sorrow disappears. Then whatsoever is, is beautiful.

And it is so. But it is not fatalism. It is not an ‘ism’ at all. It has nothing to do with a faith or predetermination or any nonsense. It has simply something to do with the insight that I belong to the whole and the whole belongs to me; that I am in my home, I am not a stranger. And there is no need to fight.

With whom are you fighting? All fight is foolish, is stupid. Surrender is wisdom. Fight is stupid. Float; flow with the flow; move with the whole. Don’t have private dreams and don’t have private goals. Don’t have a private ideology. Then this moment you live; and when the next moment comes, you live in it. If life is there, you live life; if death comes, you live death. Whatsoever happens, you are grateful.

I have heard about a Sufi mystic who used to pray and every day thank God. His disciples were worried. Many times they were very much puzzled, because sometimes it was okay to thank God because things were going well. But the man was absolutely unconcerned about things — sometimes when things were going very badly, then too he would give thanks.

One day it was too much: the disciples for three days were hungry and starving, and they were not given refuge in any town. They were thrown out. The people were very orthodox, and the master was a revolutionary, a very unorthodox, non-traditional man, unconventional, nonconformist; so no village would allow them even to have shelter in the night. And they were without food. On the fourth day, in the morning, when the master started praying, the disciples said, “Now it is going too far — he said to God,’How wonderful you are! You always give me whatsoever I need.’ ”

Then one disciple said, “Wait, one minute. Now it is becoming absurd. What are you saying.? Three days we have been hungry. We are dying; no shelter in any town, and you are thanking God that whatsoever you need he always gives!”

And the mystic started laughing, and he said, “Yes, for these three days we needed starvation; for these three days we needed to be rejected. He always gives whatsoever we need. For these three days we needed to be poor, absolutely poor. Whatsoever we need he always gives, and I am thankful.” And he started praying and thanking God and being grateful. If you are not fighting, then an understanding arises that everything is beautiful and whatsoever is needed is happening, whatsoever is needed for your growth. Sometimes poverty is needed; sometimes starvation is needed; sometimes illness is needed. In fact, I have not come across anything which is not a need sometimes to someone. If you understand, you accept. If you accept, you grow. If you reject, your whole energy becomes a wastage in fighting. The same situation could have been a growth — now it is simply a wastage, a leakage. Don’t be a fatalist, because in the first place don’t fight. If you fight and get frustrated, then fatalism enters in. In the first place, don’t fight.

One man came to me and he was in much trouble because he got married and he found a woman, as almost all people find, a very quarrelsome woman, continuously fighting and creating hell for him. He came to me and said, “Have compassion on me.” And he said, “I would like to ask one question. What would you have done in my place?”
I told him, “In the first place I would not have been in your place! Why should I be?”

A man who is floating, accepting, understanding, has no need of fatalism. In the first place he is not fighting, so there is no need to seek some consolation. Fatalism is the end of a wrong life, and the feeling of let-go is the beginning of a right life. They are vastly different, tremendously different, qualitatively different. Remember the difference, because it happens that you would also like to say good things about your failures. When you fail, you start saying, “Now I am in a let-go.” Don’t try to deceive yourself, because you are deceiving only yourself; the existence is not deceived. If you have failed, try to understand why you have failed. In the first place you started fighting, that’s why.

If you understand that, then even your successes will look like failures. They are. Sooner or later each success becomes a failure. It is only a question of time. What you call success is failure on the way. So if every man is given enough time to fight then success and failure will all disappear and everybody will become a fatalist. That’s why in old conditions, ancient conditions, fatalism exists — not in new countries. For example, in America fatalism does not exist. It is a child country, a baby country, just three hundred years of history; it is nothing. In India, fatalism exists:thousands and thousands of years of history, so old and so ancient that it has known all success, all failure; it has known all types of frustration. Now, finding no other way, it seeks consolation in fatalism.

As a country grows old, it becomes fatalist. As a man grows old, he becomes a fatalist. Young people are not fatalists: they believe in themselves. Old people become fatalists, because by that time they have come to know at least one thing, that they have failed. Then they find consolation. The whole basis is wrong. In the first place don’t fight, then there will be no need to fail; there will be no need to succeed; there will be no need to fight and there will be no need to console yourself Each moment is such a blessing if you don’t fight.

Source – Osho Book “Come Follow To You, Vol 3″

[A sannyasin says: I’m afraid of going crazy... Then I get uptight inside... I can’t relax and I can’t find any peace. Osho checks her energy.]

Osho – No, nothing is the problem. You can relax easily but you do not, mm? Just drop the idea that you are holding; you are not holding or anything, just the idea is there. You have great expectations about yourself, that you should relax so much and you should do this and that, and that let-go should be total. don’t ask inhuman things. You are perfectly good; it is just that you have a great idea that that has to happen and then you start feeling, ’I must be holding back, because it is not happening!’

Forget about all these things, these are all ideas. Let-go is also an idea, totality is also an idea. Forget all about these. Just be natural, whatsoever you are. Enjoy small things. Laugh and cry and weep and dance, and sometimes go crazy too because that too is part of life. In fact, if craziness is accepted as part of life then there will be no more crazy people. The crazy people only exist because people are not allowed to be crazy at all. So it is a simple division of labour. A certain amount of craziness is a must in the world, otherwise the world will not run; it will stop, it will be stuck. So a few people have chosen to remain sane, whatsoever happens and a few people have to go crazy because of these people.

You will be surprised: if a family is very sane then one person will have to become crazy. Now psychologists have stumbled upon the fact that the person who goes crazy is simply carrying the burden of the whole family. The whole family has dumped its craziness on this poor fellow, he is a victim. The mother cannot be crazy, the father cannot be crazy, the brother cannot be crazy; nobody can be crazy. Then somebody has to take that craziness. Everybody is trying to be sane and this poor fellow is vulnerable: all the crazinesses that others have left have been dumped upon him, he is suffering from all their craziness. If everybody were a little bit crazy once in a while this person would not be crazy at all. People in the madhouses are victims, victims of those people who think they are sane. We have forced them to be crazy. They are carrying our crosses and we are enjoying at their cost.

Always keep it in mind that once in a while a little bit of craziness is just beautiful. It gives salt to your life, a little taste, a flavour. And in twenty-four hours one should go crazy at least once. Then nobody will be crazy in the world, craziness will be spread; there will be no concentration of it. So you need not be worried. If craziness happens, just go crazy. For one hour every day, it is perfectly healthy to be crazy. That’s what I mean when I say, ’Do Dynamic meditation!’ I have just given it a good name, that’s all, because people will not like ’Go crazy for one hour’; I say ’Dynamic meditation’,’Kundalini’, but it is all craziness! But it helps sanity; it brings health, it brings wholeness.

Source – Osho Book “Don’t Bite My Finger, Look Where I’m Pointing”

[A sannyasin has asked about his negativity.]

Osho – Remember one thing: when the negative moments come, just remain watchful; don’t get identified with them. They come, and they come with a great force… and when they are coming with great force it is an indication that soon they will die. Before they die, they come with great force; it is their last effort to catch hold of you.

It is just as the night becomes very dark just before it is going to end, just before the dawn is going to happen…. Or just as a dying man becomes very alive in the last moments. For months or years he may have been ill and weak but in the moment of death, for a few moments before, he becomes bright, alert, alive, as if all disease has disappeared. It is the last effort, the last bout of life energy, the last effort to catch hold, mm?

That’s what is happening to you. Your negative moods will become deeper and deeper; now you have to be very very alert not to get distracted by them. Let them come – watch. A cloud comes and goes; you are the witness. Don’t repress, and don’t be dragged down by it; don’t be overpowered by it either… and soon it will disappear.

Source – Osho Book “The Madman’s Guide to Enlightenment”

Osho – The secret of immortality is to die as an ego. Be just a zero and you have attained to the eternal, because the zero cannot be killed by death. The ego can be killed by death, it is bound to be because it is our invention, it is man-made — and whatsoever is man-made cannot last forever. Even if we make castles of rocks, sooner or later they will disappear, they will become sand. It is only a question of time but nothing which is made by man can
remain.

Once I was staying in a small village, one of the smallest villages I have ever visited. Only ninety people lived there, but just seven hundred years before it was one of the greatest cities of this country; nine hundred thousand people lived there. The whole place is full of palaces and there is nobody to live in them; all are falling down, all are ruins.

There is only one small hotel for the tourists, with only five rooms because nobody ever comes. I was staying with a very rich man and he was planning to make a beautiful house in his own city and he was continuously talking about it. I listened to him; again and again he was obsessed with the idea of how to make that house the most beautiful in the whole of the city — and he lived in a big city, he lived in Calcutta. To make a house in Calcutta which surpasses all the houses is not easy; it is one of the most populated cities of the world and has beautiful palaces. But he had money and he could manage it, so he was asking my advice,

Rather than giving him advice I took him out and I told him ‘Just look around — for miles there are ruins.’ I said ‘Think how much these people must have planned. For hundred of years this city was being built… great palaces. There are mosques where ten thou and people can pray together. There are caravanserais, ruins, where ten thousand camels can stay together. It was one of the greatest cities, but now there are only ruins, And what are you planning for? I asked him, ‘Even if you make a beautiful house, you will be gone, your house will be gone. Nothing man-made is going to stay forever — why waste your energy? Rather than wasting energy in something man-made, why not discover that which god has made within you?’

It was very shocking to him, he was not expecting this. But the shock was of immense value — the man changed. For the throe days we stayed together he never talked about the house. Many times I asked ‘What about the house?’ He said ‘Forget all about it. You destroyed it before I made it.’ And he never made it. When I last visited him he was just on his deathbed and he said, ‘You saved my energy, because once that idea was dropped I had all the energy to discover myself.’

Amrit Shunyo means become a zero, drop the ego and all the projections of the ego so that you can discover the eternal within you. We belong to eternity, we are part of eternity. We should not waste ourselves in small creations which are just soap bubbles, nothing much, not more than that.

These are the only two possible ways for a person to live: either as an ego or as a zero. A sannyasin lives as a zero, a nobody, a nothingness. And immense is his joy, great is his bliss, infinite is his beauty, because god starts pouring through him. Just because he is a zero he becomes a vehicle, a passage; there is no obstruction in him. The ego is the greatest obstruction. The ego means your flute is blocked, stuffed, no song can flow through it. To be a zero means you are just a hollow bamboo and god can make a flute out of you.

Source – Osho Book “Going All the Way”

Question – Osho, Why is it so difficult to forgive, to stop clinging to hurts long since past?

Osho – The ego exists on misery – the more misery the more nourishment for it. In blissful moments the ego totally disappears, and vice versa: if the ego disappears, bliss starts showering on you. If you want the ego, you cannot forgive, you cannot forget – particularly the hurts, the wounds, the insults, the humiliations, the nightmares. Not only that you cannot forget, you will go on exaggerating them, you will emphasize them. You will tend to forget all that has been beautiful in your life, you will not remember joyous moments; they serve no purpose as far as the ego is concerned. Joy is like poison to the ego, and misery is like vitamins.

You will have to understand the whole mechanism of the ego. If you try to forgive, that is not real forgiveness. With effort, you will only repress. You can forgive only when you understand the stupidity of the whole game that goes on within your mind. The total absurdity of it all has to be seen through and through, otherwise you will repress from one side and it will start coming from another side. You will repress in one form; it will assert in another form – sometimes so subtle that it is almost impossible to recognize it, that it is the same old structure, so renovated, refurnished, redecorated, that it looks almost new.

The ego lives on the negative, because the ego is basically a negative phenomenon; it exists on saying no. No is the soul of the ego. And how can you say no to bliss? You can say no to misery, you can say no to the agony of life. How can you say no to the flowers and the stars and the sunsets and all that is beautiful, divine? And the whole existence is full of it – it is full of roses – but you go on picking the thorns; you have a great investment in those thorns. On the one hand you go on saying, ”No, I don’t want this misery,” and on the other hand you go on clinging to it. And for centuries you have been told to forgive.

But the ego can live through forgiving, it can start having a new nourishment through the idea that, ”I have forgiven. I have even forgiven my enemies. I am no ordinary person.” And, remember perfectly well, one of the fundamentals of life is that the ordinary person is one who thinks that he is not; the average person is one who thinks that he is not. The moment you accept your ordinariness, you become extraordinary. The moment you accept your ignorance, the first ray of light has entered in your being, the first flower has bloomed. The spring is not far away.

Jesus says: Forgive your enemies, love your enemies. And he is right, because if you can forgive your enemies you will be free of them, otherwise they will go on haunting you. Enmity is a kind of relationship; it goes deeper than your so-called love.

Savita has asked a question that, ”Osho, why a harmonious love affair seems to be dull and dying?” For the simple reason because it is harmonious; it loses all attraction for the ego; it seems as if it is not. If it is absolutely harmonious you will completely forget about it. Some conflict is needed, some struggle is needed, some violence is needed, some hatred is needed. Love – your so-called love – does not go very deep; it is only skin-deep, or maybe not even so deep. But your hate goes very deep; it goes as deep as your ego.

Jesus is right when he says, ”Forgive,” but he has been misunderstood for centuries. Buddha says the same thing – all the awakened ones are bound to say the same thing. Their languages can differ, naturally – different ages, different times, different people – they have to speak different languages, but the essential core cannot be different. If you cannot forgive, that means you will live with your enemies, with your hurts, with your pains.

So on the one hand you want to forget and forgive, because the only way to forget is to forgive – if you do not forgive you cannot forget – but on the other hand there is a deeper involvement. Unless you see that involvement, Jesus and Buddha is not going to help. Their beautiful statements will be remembered by you, but they will not become part of your lifestyle, they will not circulate in your blood, in your bones, in your marrow. They will not be part of your spiritual climate; they will remain alien, something imposed from the outside; beautiful, at least it appeals intellectually, but existentially you will go on living the same old way.

The first thing to remember is: ego is the most negative phenomenon in existence. It is like darkness. Darkness has no positive existence; it is simply absence of light. Light has a positive existence; that’s why you cannot do anything directly with darkness. If your room is full of darkness, you cannot put the darkness out of the room, you cannot throw it out, you cannot destroy it by any means directly.

If you try to fight with it, you will be defeated. Darkness cannot be defeated by fighting. You may be a great wrestler but you will be surprised to know that you cannot defeat darkness. It is impossible, for the simple reason that darkness does not exist. If you want to do anything with darkness you will have to go via light. If you don’t want darkness, bring light in. If you want darkness, then put the light off. But do something with light; nothing can be done with darkness directly. The negative does not exist – so is the ego.

That’s why I don’t say to you: Forgive. I don’t say to you: Don’t hate; love. I don’t say to you that drop all your sins and become virtuous. Man has tried all that and it has failed completely. My work is totally different. I say: Bring light into your being. Don’t be bothered by all these fragments of darkness.

And at the very center of darkness is ego. Ego is the center of darkness. You bring light – the method is meditation – you become more aware, you become more alert. Otherwise you will go on repressing, and whatsoever is repressed has to be repressed again and again and again. And it is an exercise in futility, utter futility. It will start coming up from somewhere else. It will find some other, weaker point in you.

I come across every day so many questions which show how negativity asserts, in how many subtle ways. Just the other day I was joking that Mukta has asked me: Can she bring a 1939 model Rolls Royce for me? I said, ”I am no more interested in anything old and rotten. You can call it a vintage car, you can call it antique, and you can call it beautiful names, but the truth is: for forty years so many rotten people have used it… I don’t want to use it any more.”

Yatra immediately wrote a question to me: ”Osho, don’t you have any taste? Old things also have their beauty.” Yatra may not be knowing, may not be aware that this is a form of negativity. I was simply joking, otherwise why I should be speaking on Ko Hsuan? Twenty-five centuries old… But immediately… A chance cannot be missed. If you can say something against me, you will not miss the chance.

Just today I have received another question from Atta, that ”You use so many times the word ’I’, ’me’, ’my’, ’my sannyasins’. You seem to be the greatest ego around.”

I can stop using ”I”, ”me”, ”my”, ”my sannyasins” – that won’t help. These are just words, and perfectly utilitarian. I also use the word ”darkness”, although it does not exist. It has never existed, it cannot exist. Just by using the word ”darkness”, darkness does not start existing. But Atta must be waiting for some opportunity to say something aggressive to me, to be in some way violent to me. This is natural, because sannyas means surrender, and when you surrender then more often than not you are repressing your ego. It will find its way from somewhere to assert.

It is not just a coincidence that Buddha’s own brother, Devadatta, tried many times to kill him. His own cousin-brother… Why? Why he was so antagonistic to him? And he was also his disciple. But they were contemporaries, of the same age. They were brought up in the same palace, educated by the same teachers in the same academy, played together. And then Buddha became enlightened, and there was deep jealousy in Devadatta. First he tried on his own to become enlightened; he could not. So, unwillingly, reluctantly, he surrendered to Buddha. He must have said with deep resistance, ”BUDDHAM SHARANAM GACHCHHAMI; I take shelter into the Buddha, into your feet.”

But deep down somewhere he must be thinking that, ”We belong to the same royal family, the same blood, the same education. We have played together. So why I should surrender to this man?” And then, once he started going a little into meditation, just a little, few experiences of meditation, and he started gathering a following around himself He started to spread the rumor that he has also become enlightened.

Buddha called him, that ”You WILL become enlightened; there is no problem about it. But right now you are just on the way. Don’t miss this opportunity.” This offended him very much. Immediately all repressed resistance asserted – he revolted. He took away few people those who had become his friends and followers, away from Buddha. And their whole effort was: How to kill this man?

Judas was the cause of Jesus’ death, and Judas was the most intellectual disciple of Jesus. Remember it. Never forget it, that he was the most sophisticated disciple of Jesus. All others were very unsophisticated, simple people, almost primitive people: villagers, fishermen, carpenters, potters, weavers; except Judas nobody was educated. Judas was really far more educated than Jesus himself, far more informed. And he was waiting that sooner or later, he will be the head. Once Jesus is removed from the scene, he will be the head of the whole commune. And there seemed to be no possibility of Jesus ever dying before him. Finally he decided that it is time that this man should be removed forcibly.

Judas was the culprit, the real murderer. He sold Jesus only in thirty silver coins. He was thinking that this is the only way to remove Jesus from the scene, then he can take over the leadership of the group, of the commune. There must have been deep down a hurt ego.

It has always happened that way. Mahavira’s own disciple, Makkhali Ghosal, revolted against him and he started spreading the rumor that ”Mahavira is not the true enlightened person, I am the true enlightened person.” When Mahavira heard it he laughed. When Mahavira came to the place where Ghosal was staying, he went to see him and he said, ”Makkhali Ghosal, have you gone mad? What are you doing?”

And the man must have been immensely cunning. He said, ”I am not your disciple, remember; the man who used to be your disciple is dead. The body is of Makkhali Ghosal, but a great spirit has entered into the body. The spirit of Makkhali Ghosal has left. I am a totally different person, can’t you see?”

Mahavira laughed and he said, ”I can see perfectly well. You are the same stupid fellow, and you are still doing stupid things. Don’t waste time! Put your energies in becoming enlightened yourself Why be worried about me – whether I am truly enlightened or not. If you are not my disciple, Makkhali Ghosal, if you are a totally different spirit who has entered, I accept. If you say, I accept it. But then why you are concerned with me? Twenty-four hours you are speaking against me. That simply shows that you are still carrying some grudge against me.”

It is very essential to understand because you are all disciples here, and you all will be carrying some grudge or other against me, for the simple reason because I am trying to destroy your ego. That I have to do; that’s the function of the Master, to destroy your ego. And you can become very revengeful, and you can carry deep wounds through it.

Katyayani, you ask me: WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO FORGIVE, TO STOP CLINGING TO HURTS LONG SINCE PAST?

For the simple reason that they are all that you have got. And you go on playing with your old wounds so that they keep fresh in your memory. You never allow them to heal. A man was sitting in a compartment in a train. Across from him was sitting a Catholic priest who had a picnic basket beside him. The man had nothing else to do so he just watched the priest. After a while the priest opened the picnic basket and took out a small cloth which he placed carefully on his knees. Then he took out a glass bowl and placed it on the cloth.

Then he took out a knife and an apple, peeled the apple, cut it up, put the pieces of apple in the bowl. Then he picked up the bowl, leaned over and tipped the apple out of the window. Then he took out a banana, peeled it, cut it up, put it in the bowl, and tipped it out of the window. The same with a pear and a little tin of cherries and a pineapple, and a pot of cream – he tipped them all out of the window after carefully preparing them. Then he cleaned the bowl dusted off the cloth, and put them back in the picnic basket.

The man who had been watching the priest in amazement, finally asked, ”Excuse me, Father, but what are you doing there?”
To which the priest replied coolly making fruit salad.”
”But you are tipping it all out of the window,” said the man.
”Yes,” said the priest. ”I hate fruit salad.”

People go on carrying things that they hate. They live in their hatred. They go on fingering their wounds so they don’t heal; they don’t ALLOW them to heal – their whole life depends on their past. Unless you start living in the present, you will not be able, Katyayani, to forget and forgive the past.

I don’t say to you: Forget and forgive all that has happened in the past; that is not my approach. I say: Live in the present that is the positive way to approach existence. Live in the present. That is another way of saying: Be more meditative, more aware, more alert, because when you are alert, aware, you are in the present.

Awareness cannot be in the past and cannot be in the future. Awareness knows only the present. Awareness knows no past, no future; it has only one tense, the present. Be aware, and as you will start enjoying the present more and more, as you will feel the bliss of being in the present, you will stop doing this stupid thing that everybody goes on doing. You will stop going into the past. You will not have to forget and forgive, it will simply disappear on its own accord. You will be surprised – where it has gone? And once the past is no more there, future also disappears because future is only a projection of the past. To be free from past and future is to taste freedom for the first time, is to taste God. And in that experience one becomes whole, healthy; all wounds are healed. Suddenly there are no more any wounds; you start feeling a deep well-being arising in you. That well-being is the beginning of transformation.

Source – Osho Book “Tao: The Golden Gate, Vol 2″

Osho – Just see the ordinary people. But it is very difficult to find ordinary people, very difficult, because everybody has become extraordinary. It is very difficult to find a sane person, because everybody has become insane. Centuries of priests, mahatmas and saints have driven everybody out of his soul, out of his home.

There are only neurotic people on the earth. Friedrich Nietzsche is reported to have said that everybody is neurotic — and if you think you are not, then that must be another kind of neurosis. But everybody is neurotic.

What is neurosis? Not being happy with yourself is neurosis, not being contented with yourself is neurosis. And then you get into turmoil and trouble. Then you lose all peace of mind, all joy of life. Then you exist in anguish, then you create hell for yourself.

Become ordinary. That’s my teaching too, if it can be called a teaching — because up to now, teachings have been to drive you towards some extraordinary goal. But if you ask the awakened, they have always been saying: Just be ordinary.

Don’t strive. Live effortlessly, live in a let-go. And then nature takes possession of you. Your life becomes spontaneous, you live moment-to-moment — with no ideology to follow, with no conclusions. You live without conclusions; each moment brings its own reality and you respond to it. And you respond out of your total being — every cell of your body and mind and soul is involved in it.

Then you never repent — because how can you repent? You responded totally, so whatsoever happens is okay, because nothing else was possible. You had done ALL — you responded totally, you took the challenge. You can’t repent if you live spontaneously. The people who repent are the people who live through conclusions. Then one mind says “Do this”, another mind says “Do that” — because they have heard so many mahatmas and they have read so many books and they have listened to so many ideologies and so many teachers, and all those things are roaming around their minds, trying to impose themselves on the mind.

You choose one thing against something else. If you fail, then that something else which you had denied will take revenge with a vengeance. It will come back to the mind and will make you repent. It will say, “I have been telling you, choose me. And you were a fool to have chosen the other. Now remember in future.” And you take a vow: “Then now I will listen to you.” You repent.

But you have not understood yet. Repentance will always come if your decision is partial. And no decision lived out of conclusions can ever be total, because the conclusion has been carried from the past, and the situation is new — how can it fit totally? You have to respond again out of your newness of this moment, then the response is total. And total response is joy — whether it fails or succeeds, is irrelevant. In its totality it has succeeded already, and there will be no repentance.

Walt Whitman says, “Only what nobody denies is true.” Just listen to your innermost core, your ordinary nature, and you will know what truth is. The Christian denies the Hindu, the Hindu denies the Mohammedan, the Mohammedan denies the Christian, and they go on fighting and arguing. But look at the ordinary natural man, he is neither Christian nor Hindu. When he feels hungry he eats — and that is true for a Christian and that is true for a Hindu and that is true for a Mohammedan. Nobody denies it: this is truth.

When you feel tired you fall asleep — nobody denies it. This is truth. Truth is simple. Theories are complex and complicated. Theoreticians go on arguing, truth remains unargued.

Don’t listen to what people say, listen to what they are. And you will be surprised — there is no difference between a Hindu and a Mohammedan and a Christian and a Jew, no difference at all. They go to different churches, obviously, and they read different books, certainly — but look into their nature. When it is hot the Hindu perspires as much as the Mohammedan; that is natural. The Mohammedan cannot say, “I am not a Hindu, and Hindus are perspiring. I cannot perspire, not at least now; that will be agreeing with the Hindus.” When it is cold the body shivers — the body knows not whether it is a Christian or a Jew or a Jain; it shivers. Just watch natural things, look into nature. And slowly slowly, you will understand Dhamma — the real religion, the Law of Buddhas.

Source – Osho Book “Take it Easy, Vol 2″

Question – Osho, I know I should be unattached. Now I judge myself for having bought beautiful orange material rather than having the courage to run around like some do in some dirty rag.

Osho – Now at least have the courage to wear those beautiful orange things. I’m not against beauty and I’m not for rags – but I’m not against rags either. If you enjoy rags it is for you to decide, if you enjoy beautiful things it is for you to decide – one should be left totally free about it.

For these small things also society does not allow you freedom. If I were to decide, I would give you total freedom – if you want to move naked you should. If I had the decision in my hand I would make only one rule – you should not interfere in anybody else’s freedom. That’s all. When you interfere in anybody’s freedom, then only do you commit a crime. If you are doing a thing by your own self and it is nobody else’s business, you should be completely free.

The state should only be there to guarantee everybody his own freedom – freedom to do his own thing. The state should not be a positive phenomenon, it should be just a negative phenomenon – negative in the sense that you should enjoy your life but there are others also and they have to enjoy their life. You should not interfere in their life and they should not interfere in your life. That’s all the state is meant to do. It is not to create order, it is only to create a situation in which the disorder is to be prevented. That’s all.

So if somebody is enjoying rags, and rags are beautiful for him, nobody should interfere. And if you enjoy beautiful clothes, why not? Why do you feel afraid to enjoy beautiful clothes? It is for you to decide. Be courageous. There is only one courage I support and that is the courage to be oneself. Be courageous, have the courage to be oneself; and don’t bother about anybody else unless you are interfering in their life and freedom – only then prevent yourself.

Now, if you are wearing beautiful clothes you are not interfering in anybody’s life. It is for you to decide. But the mind has become such a conditioned phenomenon that it always looks at society, at what others are doing. If you live in the world of the establishment, the square world you have to follow certain rules.

In fact nobody ever tells you to follow them but you follow, just because of tradition, a certain conformity. You have to use a certain type of dress, you have to cut your hair in a certain way, you have to use this and that. You follow a pattern. Then if you become a hippy, again the mind starts following another pattern. Now you have to have long hair. If you don’t, people will laugh, they will say you are a square. Then you have to wear rags. If you don’t, they will say: What are you doing here? You belong to us no more, you are an outsider, an intruder.

So there are two types of conformity: the conformity of the establishment and the conformity of the rebel – but both are conformities. Some have short hair, some have long hair but both are the same, not a bit of difference exists.

If you live in a hippy world and don’t smell like hell you are not a hippy, not a true hippy. You will be rejected. You have to be dirty, you have to be unclean, otherwise you are not rebellious. If you move in the established world, the establishment, then you have to use perfume and shaving lotion and this and that. If you go there unclean you will not be accepted.

The mind is a conformist. So I know of only one rebellion and that is the rebellion of a meditative mind, the rebellion in which you drop the mind and move on your own. But always remember that you should not interfere in anybody else’s life.

For example, if you want to be dirty then go to the Himalayas, because to be dirty can interfere in other people’s life. When you are dirty and smelling bad you may not be attacking with your hands but you are attacking with your smell, it is aggression. If the other feels that this is a disturbance to him, then you are aggressive. If you want to be dirty – and nothing is wrong in being dirty – then you move to the Himalayas, to the farthest end, so nobody comes in contact with you. Then you can enjoy your bad odor, and enjoy it blissfully. You have no right to throw your smell and dirt on others, no, that’s not good.

Nobody should in any way interfere in anybody else’s life and nobody should allow anybody else to interfere in his life. This is how a man should be: not trying to enslave others and not allowing anybody to enslave him. One should live a life of freedom and one should allow others to live freely. Don’t be afraid, if you love beautiful orange material, use it, it is good. Whatsoever you love is good. There is only one condition: if it doesn’t interfere it is beautiful, it is moral.

Source – Osho Book “Tao The Three Treasures Vol 2″

Osho – Attachment, clinging, possessiveness are like rocks, hindering the path of your inner spring. But these are big rocks and they go on becoming bigger with every day. As time passes, the rocks go on becoming heavier and heavier.

The child knows, without knowing, what love is. Without being aware of what love is he knows, he knows love. Of course he does not know that he knows. That’s the difference between a sage and a child. The child knows love but knows not what love is; the sage knows love and also knows that he knows. That is the only difference, otherwise the sage has become a child again.

Sannyas has to be a second birth. And all that you have accumulated around the idea of attachment, clinging, possessiveness, domination, has to be dropped. These are the poisons. Love people but love unconditionally. Love people but don’t expect anything in return. Love people for the sheer joy of loving. And don’t bother about whether tomorrow the same is going to continue or not.

Don’t sacrifice today for any tomorrow because tomorrow exists not. Don’t try to make your love permanent in any way because love is not plastic, it cannot be permanent. It is like a rose flower: it opens in the morning and in the evening the petals disappear. Tomorrow there will be another rose and the day after tomorrow, another rose. Roses will go on coming, but there is no need to cling to this rose. That is stupidity.

If you cling to this rose you may destroy even the possibility of another rose coming on your rose bush tomorrow, because you will be constantly pouring your energy around that which is no more. It is really sad to see people when their love dies and they go on clinging — very sad — because now nothing can come out of it any more, but they go on hoping against all hope. It is a sheer wastage of energy. But we have been taught for centuries that love is permanent if it is real — and that is nonsense.

If it is real it cannot be permanent. If it is unreal maybe it can be permanent. Reality is momentary, it changes, it is a constant flux. You cannot step in the same river twice. It is a river, constantly moving. A lover has to be aware of this dynamic process of life, so he loves but he is not worried about the past or the future. If the next moment the flower is still flowering, the perfume is still there, good. If it has gone, then say goodbye and move, with no complaint, with no grudge, with no anger, with no sadness, because once you understand the nature of life you will not have any of these problems.

And then love goes on growing in you. Lovers may change but the river of love goes on becoming bigger and bigger. Or they may not change. I am not saying to change them, I am simply saying if it changes, accept it with joy. If it does not change, accept that too with joy. That is non-attachment, that is love without attachment. Whatsoever happens one is blissful about it, one is thankful for it, one is always grateful for it. Then slowly slowly love is no more a relationship, it becomes a state of your being — you are simply love. And that is how it should be. When one is love, one is god.

Source – Osho Book “Just Is It”

Question – Seeing the way the media works, One gets the impression that man loves to be manipulated. Why does man want to be cheated?

Osho – Man is sick, and out of his sickness many problems arise. Because he is sick he would not like to be ignored; he would like to be exploited, to be cheated, to be deceived — but not ignored. He would like to be manipulated so that he can feel, “People need me.”

There is a great need in everybody to be needed. That disappears only when your sickness disappears. When you are really enlightened, completely conscious, then there is no need to be needed; otherwise man will accept anything.

I was a professor in a university. I was sitting with the vice-chancellor one day and a girl came in, a postgraduate girl. She complained to the vice-chancellor that there was a student who was constantly harassing her, writing letters to her, standing in the middle of the way when she came to the university or went to her home.

The vice-chancellor said, “I will call him and put him right, don’t be worried.”
I said “Wait. Before you put him right I would like to ask this girl a few things, and then I would like to ask you a few things.”
He said, “Me?”

I said, “Yes. You just wait. First listen to what transpires between me and the girl.” I said to the girl, “Be sincere, are you not enjoying this?”
She looked embarrassed, but she was really a sincere girl and she said, “Perhaps you are right. I am sorry that I complained. I am enjoying it.”

The vice-chancellor said, “What?”
I said, “You keep quiet. Your number is going to come.”

I asked the girl, “Just think: if nobody throws pebbles at you, nobody writes letters to you, nobody writes your name on the blackboard, nobody prevents you on the way, nobody punctures your cycle, nobody takes any note of you… would you be happy? I can make that arrangement.”

She said, “No, I would not be happy. I know there are girls who are utterly miserable for the simple reason that nothing is happening in their life, nobody takes any note of them. They are dying. I even know a girl who writes letters to herself, just to show people that somebody has written a letter to her.”
The vice-chancellor said, “What am I listening to?”

I said, “You keep quiet; your number has not come yet.” So I asked the girl, “Do you want that boy to be called or not?”
She said, “No.”
Then I said, “Be human, be understanding. That boy loves you; do you love him or not?”
She said, “I have never thought about it, but I like him.”

Then I said, “You can go and like him a little better so he need not do anything nasty. And be courageous… liking is not enough, love him.”
And the vice-chancellor again was going to say something. I said, “You keep quiet.”

He said, “But I cannot. You are teaching students to love each other.”
I said, “Do you want me to teach them that they should hate each other?” I told the girl, “Now you can go because I have to talk with the vice-chancellor.”

And when she left I asked the vice-chancellor, “Just remember when you were young and you were in the university, what was the situation? Did you love any girl or not? Now you are sixty-five, be sincere and honest. Do you still feel for some woman or not?”
He said, “My God! I never thought that I would have to be interrogated by one of my professors.”

I said, “You have to answer me; otherwise I will call a meeting of the whole university — all the professors, all the students — and you will have to answer before everybody. So just finish it before me; otherwise you will be in trouble.”

He said, “I am already in trouble. You have sent that girl with the message to love the boy — and you don’t know that the boy is my boy! And now you are teaching me, corrupting the whole family. I have a wife, I have children… I did not say it before the girl that the boy is my boy — and I could not say it because you would not allow me to speak!”

I said, “Just remember your own youth. Just remember right now, even though you are sixty-five; love never becomes old. And don’t be afraid: I am not going to tell anybody about you.”

He said, “It is true. Love never gets old. I still feel sometimes when I see a woman that perhaps if I was not married I would have chosen this woman. And as far as my wife is concerned, you know, she is just a kind of lifelong punishment. I console myself according to the Indian philosophy that it must be because of my bad actions in my past life that I have got this woman. Now somehow I have to patiently suffer.”

I said, “You got this woman because you had not guts enough to say to your father that you wanted another woman with whom you were in love.”
He said, “How did you come to know?”

I said, “I have been talking to your father also. We are great friends; we meet every day on the morning walk. He has nothing to do and he enjoys talking. So he was talking to me one day and he said, `He has become vice-chancellor but he has no guts. He was in love with a girl and still he didn’t say it. We arranged his marriage with another woman because she was bringing much money, diamonds, ornaments, gold, a bungalow, and a car as her dowry.’

“So it is not the past life actions that you are suffering from; you are suffering from cowardice — and not only are you suffering from cowardice… The other woman that you loved has remained unmarried just because she could not love anybody other than you. I know her too.”

He said, “You are dangerous, you know too much about me. Just keep quiet. Be kind to me and don’t tell anything to anybody.”
I said, “I never tell anything to anybody, but as far as public speeches are concerned I cannot promise. I will not use your name, but I am going to speak of it.”

Man wants to be needed, to be loved, to be respected, to be attended, to be praised. A thousand desires… and when these are not fulfilled he is ready for anything. Even manipulation will do; at least that makes him feel that he is alive. Even cheating will do; at least he feels that somebody takes note of him. It is a very strange world. When people cannot get the real thing, then they will be ready for anything as substitutes. When you cannot get love, you are ready to accept sympathy as a substitute. Sympathy is not a substitute.

In India there is an old story…
A woman, a poor woman, purchased a beautiful bangle — it was her whole life’s earnings — a gold bangle. And she went around the town making much noise: somebody must take note of the bangle, somebody must ask, “Aha! What a beautiful bangle you have got. From where did you get it?” Just a poor woman… you cannot be hard on her. But nobody asked her — because who takes care of beggars, poor people. People don’t even take note of them. When the servant passes through your room, you don’t even think that somebody has passed.

After the whole day’s effort she failed and she put fire to the small hut where she used to live. The whole village gathered and she was beating her breast saying, “I am finished, my house is finished.”

At that time another woman asked, “My God, where did you get such a beautiful bangle?”

And the poor woman said, “If you had asked this before you could have saved my house.”

She burned the house just to get attention. People would gather, they would sympathize, and perhaps someone would take note of her bangle. It looks strange that people would like to be oppressed, people would like to be manipulated, people would like to be cheated, deceived; but it is all human. It is because they have not been receiving what they wanted that they have agreed even to these ugly things.

It is a sad and tragic commentary on our society: we are not taking care of people, we are not respectful of people, we are not loving with people. Although there is a big crowd, the biggest that has ever been on the earth — five billion people — everybody is still alone, alone in the crowd.

Source – Osho Book “Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries”

Question – Beloved Master, What is the definition of a Pessimist?

Osho – Shivananda, a pessimist is an optimist who has become frustrated with his optimism. He hoped too much and failed, he dreamed too much and could not achieve anything substantial. The pessimist is an optimist standing on his head; they are not different fellows — that’s what I want to make clear to you. Unless you have been an optimist you can never be a pessimist. First you have to become an optimist.

And each child is brought up with great optimism. All parents think that they have great children. Ask any mother: she thinks she has the unique child; the most superior, rare, incomparable. Each mother brags about the child. Parents bring up children with great optimism that they are going to be Alexander the Greats or Jesus Christs or Gautam Buddhas.

But slowly slowly life proves just the contrary. Slowly slowly, the child becomes aware of his ordinariness. He becomes aware that these great dreams, that these great ambitions, cannot be fulfilled. And by the time one is coming closer to forty, forty-two, pessimism starts settling — gloom, darkness….

Now medical science is aware that most heart attacks happen nearabout forty to forty-four, between those four years. Most people go mad between those four years, forty to forty-four. Psychologists, psychoanalysts, are aware that that is the most dangerous time. If you can remain sane beyond forty-four, that means you will remain sane. But many people fall flat.

And don’t think that if you are sane even beyond forty-four… that does not mean that you are very intelligent. It may only be that you are very dull and it takes a long time for you to understand. It may only be that you are very insensitive. It may only be that you are foolhardy, that you don’t listen to life, what life is saying, that you go on hoping.

But sooner or later, a person starts feeling that life has gone down the drain. Optimism turns sour and becomes pessimism. Optimism, that hopefulness, turns upside-down; a hopelessness settles in. Then everything looks dark and dismal. First you used to count the roses, now you start counting the thorns. First you used to say, “How beautiful this roseflower and what a miracle! It grows amongst thousands of thorns.” You were poetic, you had some aesthetic sense; you still believed that life is going to be a fulfillment.

But soon the day comes when the roses start fading away and you start counting the thorns, and you cannot believe in the roses anymore. You start saying, “It is impossible! The rose must be a dream, the rose must be MAYA, illusion, hallucination. How is it possible amongst thousands of thorns, how is a rose possible?” It looks contradictory, it looks illogical, it cannot happen in the nature of things. You start counting nights; before, you used to count days.

The optimist says, “There are two days, and between two days just a small night to rest.” And the pessimist counts the nights; he says, “There are two long nights — nightmares, ugly dreams, tortures — and just a small day sandwiched between the two.” Life is the same: you can count the days or you can count the nights. If you count the days you are an optimist, if you count the nights you are a pessimist, but there is really no difference. The optimist can become a pessimist, the pessimist can become an optimist. They are not contraries; they are two points on the same spectrum.

One has to go beyond both, Shivananda. A sannyasin has to go beyond both — neither hope nor hopelessness. No need to count days, no need to count nights. Be a watcher! No need to count thorns, no need to count roses. Be a watcher….

I don’t teach you optimism. In the West it is very fashionable nowadays; it is called “positive thinking.” That is a new name for optimism; the old name has become a little too out of fashion, out-of-date. The new name is positive thinking. I don’t teach you positive thinking, because positive thinking carries the negative in its wake.

I teach you transcendence — neither positive nor negative. Be a watcher: witness both. When there is day, witness the day, and when there is night, witness the night — and don’t get identified with either. You are neither the day nor the night; you are the transcendental consciousness. Become more and more centered there in that transcendence. True religion is not positive, nor is it negative. It is neither via negativa nor via positiva; it is via transcendence.

One September morning after Labor Day, Levin and Ostrow met for lunch. They had not seen each other for several months.
“I have just lived through a summer I never thought I would see,” said Levin. “June was a disaster — never have I seen a June like that. When July came, I realized that June was terrific, because with July I went right into the cellar. July was so bad….”
“For heaven’s sake!” interrupted Ostrow. “Why are you coming to me with these piddling matters? You wanna hear real trouble? I got it. Yesterday my only son came home, told me he is gonna marry another fella. My boy is a homosexual! What could be worse than that?”
“I will tell you,” said Levin, “August!”

Just wait! There are people who are continuously looking for the negative — and if you look for the negative you will find it, because the negative is there in the same proportion as the positive. If you look for the positive, you will find the positive. But by finding the positive you cannot destroy the negative; the negative is there, side by side. They are always together like negative and positive poles of electricity. You can’t have electricity with one pole, you will need both.

Life needs both: thorns and roses, days and nights, happiness/unhappiness, birth/death. Be a witness to it all and you will know something that is beyond birth, beyond death; something that is beyond darkness and beyond light; something that is beyond happiness, beyond unhappiness. Buddha has called it peace, nirvana.

Source – Osho Book “The Dhammapada, Vol4″

Question – Beloved Osho, How can we Avoid being Authoritative?

Osho – It is very simple. The people who are authoritarian are the people who are suffering from an inferiority complex. To hide their inferiority they impose their superiority. They want to prove that they are somebody, that their word is truth, that their word is law. But deep down they are very inferior beings.

This is one of the reasons that all of the politicians suffer from an inferiority complex. Anybody who does not suffer from an inferiority complex will not go into politics at all. There are so many beautiful things in the world to do — to paint, to sing, to dance, to create literature, to make beautiful statues, to create a Khajuraho. There is so much creativity available, but that is available only to a person who does not suffer from inferiority.

So we have to make clear to all our sannyasins that nobody in the world is inferior and nobody in the world is superior. The whole idea is artificial and created by people who have a vested interest in it. They have created the same idea in many ways… man is superior, woman is inferior — on what criterion?

The woman lives longer than man, five years longer. The woman falls sick less than man. For one hundred boys born, only ninety girls are born, because by the time the boys will be marriageable, ten will have gone down the drain. At the time of marriage they will be equal, ninety of both. The girl has more stamina, more resistance to disease. She talks about committing suicide but she never does. Men commit suicide almost twice as much as women.

In what way is man superior? But the idea had to be created because it helped man to keep woman a slave. She is inferior, so inferior that in countries like China, woman has no soul. A husband can kill his wife — it is not a crime. It is just like you destroy your chair. It is your chair, you have paid for it: what crime is there? And men have convinced women that they don’t have any soul because they never allowed them to be educated, they never allowed them to move in society. Naturally, they could not argue.

Why is it so difficult to argue with a woman? Nobody thinks about it. If you argue with a woman she will start screaming, crying, throwing things; but she will not argue. And you, seeing this whole scene, will feel it is better to accept whatever she is saying; otherwise she will put the whole house on fire. And neighbors are watching, people in the street are gathering around your house. So it is better — whether you are right or wrong does not matter — to say she is right.

But who has put her in this condition? It is because you never gave her education, you never taught her logic. You never allowed her to be as intelligent as you are because you were always afraid. And you can see the fear in the universities. Women are always ahead of men, they top the list more than men. They always achieve more first class honors than the man. We have created this idea of superiority and inferiority for some vested interests.

The sudras are inferior. Nobody has proved why. There seems to be no reason that the brahmin should be superior and the sudra should be inferior, but you have managed for thousands of years to keep them uneducated. You have kept them doing things which need no intelligence, and you have not allowed them to do anything else.

A man who has been making your shoes — his family has been making shoes for thousands of years, generation after generation. Now there is no need of intelligence. There is no challenge — he has only to make shoes. These are all strategies of exploitation.

We have to explain to our sannyasins that nobody is superior, nobody is inferior, and nobody is equal either. Everybody is unique. That point has to be remembered, because if you say nobody is superior and nobody is inferior, people are certain to conclude that everybody is equal — which is not true.

Equality is psychologically wrong. Everybody cannot be an Albert Einstein and everybody cannot be a Rabindranath Tagore. But that does not mean that Rabindranath Tagore is superior because you cannot be him. Rabindranath cannot be you either.

My whole point is that everybody is a unique manifestation. So we destroy the whole idea of superiority and inferiority, equality and inequality, and we replace it with a new concept of uniqueness. And every individual is unique.

Just look lovingly and you will see that every individual has something which nobody else has. Once the idea of uniqueness spreads in the commune, there will be nobody who will try to enforce authority.

Source – Osho Book “Light on the Path”