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Hindustan Times
27 November 2003

Self-realisation is the path to bliss
Swami Chaitanya Keerti
 
We seem to pay too much importance to the opinions of other people because we don't know ourselves too well. This is because we don't have self-realisation. This is our main insecurity in psychological terms. We become extra touchy, sensitive and always defensive when we are attacked by other people with their opinions about us. Our whole identity and image is made by others. We remain in constant anxiety because others go on changing their opinions. 

Osho says: Opinions are like the climate: it is never the same. In the morning it was cloudy and now the clouds have gone. Now it is sunny, and the next moment it is raining. Opinions are just like clouds, just like the climate. 
This situation creates a vicious circle of misery. And the only way out is the self-realisation. How does man of self-realisation act or behave in such situations? 
There's a very significant Zen story : A famous Zen Master Hakuin was considered by his neighbours as one who led a pure life of a monk. One day it was discovered that a beautiful girl who lived near Hakuin's hut was pregnant. The parents of the girl were very angry. At first the girl would not say who the father was, but after much harassment she named Hakuin. 
In great anger the parents went to Hakuin, but all he would say was, "Is that so?" After the child was born it was taken to Hakuin - who had lost his reputation by this time, although he didn't seem much disturbed by the fact. Hakuin took great care of the child. He obtained milk, food, and everything else the child needed from his neighbours. 
A year later the young mother could not stand it any longer, so she told her parents the truth - the real father was a young man who worked in the fish market. The girl's parents went to Hakuin and told him the story, apologized at great length, asked his forgiveness and wanted to take the child back. The master willingly gave the child and said, "Is that so?" 
In his discourses on No water, No Moon, Osho explains: What must have happened inside Hakuin? Nothing! He simply listened to the fact that people had come to believe that he was the father, so he asked, "Is that so?" That was all, that is all! He didn't react in any way -- this way or that. He would not say yes, he would not say no. He was not defensive, he was open and vulnerable. Innocence is vulnerable; it is absolute vulnerability, openness. Whenever you defend, whenever you say that this is not so, you are afraid. Only fear is defensive. Fearlessness cannot be defensive. Fear always armors itself. One who knows himself is never disturbed by what you think about him.