Osho on Russian Mystic Grigori Rasputin

Grigori Rasputin was a Russian mystic in the 19th century. Born on 21 January 1869, he was a self-acclaimed holy man, influencing various facets of Imperial Russia as a close friend of the royal family. He was born in a peasant family and traveled to several locations in search of a pilgrimage which, in the uncertainty of his display, he may or may not have found. He was introduced to Nicholas II and Alexandra in 1905 in St. Petersburg as a source to heal their hemophiliac son. Subsequently, he gained an undying influence over the family and their rule.

He was given the surname ‘Rasputin’, which is Russian for the ‘debauched one’. Rasputin was infamously a supporter of autocracy. He was a divisive figure at court- seen by some Russians as a mystic, visionary, and prophet, and by others as a religious charlatan. His impression of and over society remained long after he was assassinated in 1916. Rasputin remains a captivating and mysterious figure in Russian history to this date.

Osho talking about freedom of love, says, “All the royal families are suffering. They create the greatest number of idiots, because they go on marrying amongst themselves. Royal blood cannot mix with a commoner’s blood — even in the twentieth-century we think in terms of royal blood. Blood is simply blood. But if just a dozen families go on marrying amongst themselves continually, they create many kinds of diseases. Retardedness is one. Just have a look again at the picture of the Prince of Wales and you will see what I mean by a retarded person. They are fed up, but they cannot go out of their small circle. I have never come across any person belonging to a royal family who has intelligence, and in India I have been acquainted with almost all the royal families. It is not only that their minds remain retarded, their bodies lose many things.

You must have heard the name of Rasputin. Before the Russian revolution he had become the most important man in Russia, for the simple reason that the child of the czar had a disease — if he wounded himself accidentally then the bleeding could not be prevented. No medicine could prevent it, there was no way; the blood would go on flowing out. And that is one of the symptoms of marrying close relatives. Rasputin was a great hypnotist. He was not a saint and he was not a sinner, he was simply a great hypnotist. He managed with hypnosis to prevent the blood from flowing out of the child. What no physician was able to do… and the child was going to be the successor to the greatest empire of those days. Rasputin certainly became very important. Without him the child’s life was in danger.”

Osho Says….

LIEH TZU WAS GOING TO CH’I BUT TURNED BACK HALF WAY. ON THE ROAD HE MET PO-HUN WU-JEN WHO ASKED HIM WHY HE HAD TURNED BACK.

Ch’i was the capital of the kingdom where Lieh Tzu lived, so he was going to the capital of his nation but turned back in midjourney. When he came back, he met Po-hun Wujen. Po-hun Wujen was an old Taoist Master, a man who had really arrived. So the old man asked ‘Why have you come back?’

Lieh Tzu said ‘I WAS ALARMED BY SOMETHING.’

Listen carefully, because nobody has gone so deeply into these phenomena as the Taoists.

‘WHAT WAS IT?’ asked the old man.

‘I ATE AT TEN INNS AND AT FIVE THEY SERVED ME FIRST.’

Now look. He says ‘I ATE AT TEN INNS AND AT FIVE THEY SERVED ME FIRST… that alarmed me.’ Why should it alarm you? In fact it should make you very delighted, that people are recognising that you are extraordinary, that you are exceptional, that you are a V.l.P.; you are being served before others. But Lieh Tzu is a disciple of Tao; he understands that this is dangerous. When people start thinking that you are exceptional, there is danger.

What is the danger? The danger is that you may move again on an ego-trip; the danger is they may again give you an ambition; the danger is that they will not allow you to relax and to be yourself. When people give importance to you, they start dominating you. That’s the whole art of manipulating people. When you want to manipulate a person what do you do? You make him feel very important. You say ‘You are simply great.’ And the moment you have said ‘You are simply great’, you have become powerful over him. Now, if he wants to maintain his greatness, he will have to consider you; now his greatness will depend on you. If you go against him, then what about his greatness? You have made him great — now you have the key. Now, in a subtle way, he will become your slave. So whenever somebody comes and exaggerates about you, beware! He is trying to catch hold of you, and once you allow it, it will be difficult to go back home.

Mind wants to play these games very much. Even when sometimes a person is saying a lie but it is fulfilling to your ego, you accept it. You can try it. Say to an ugly woman ‘You are very beautiful’ and even she will not say i am not. Stop all this nonsense! I am just plain and homely.’ If you say even to an ugly woman that she is the most beautiful woman in the world she will accept it, she will not say ‘No, don’t deceive me.’ Once she accepts it, she is deceived. Now she will be in your power; now she will always have to think about you and concede things to you, because you are the only person who has made her beautiful. You are the only mirror in which she has looked beautiful — all other mirrors were saying that she is ugly, now she cannot afford to lose you. She will cling to you, she will become a servant to you, she will become a slave to you-but she cannot afford to lose you.

Remember, whenever you are being made important there is danger. Danger! If you are not so alert that ego has disappeared from all the layers of your being, there is danger. And Lieh Tzu must have been a disciple when this happened, he was not yet a Master. A Master can afford to be in any situation; a disciple cannot afford to, he has to be very alert because still there are dangers, still he has not arrived. There are tremendous possibilities of getting lost.

‘I ATE AT TEN INNS AND AT FIVE THEY SERVED ME FIRST.’

IF THAT IS ALL, WHY SHOULD YOU BE ALARMED?’ asked the old man.

‘WHEN A MAN’S INNER INTEGRITY IS NOT FIRM, sometimes, SOMETHING OOZES FROM HIS BODY AND BECOMES AN AURA, WHICH, OUTSIDE HIM, PRESSES ON THE HEARTS OF OTHERS; IT MAKES OTHER MEN HONOUR HIM MORE THAN HIS ELDERS AND BETTERS, AND GETS HIM INTO DIFFICULTIES.’

This is a very great insight. Nobody has ever mentioned it — not even Patanjali who has completely covered the map of consciousness, not even he has mentioned it in this way. The credit goes to the Taoists. He is saying,

‘WHEN A MAN’S INNER INTEGRITY IS NOT FIRM..’

Ordinarily you think that a man has an aura when his integrity is very firm. No, it is wrong; the aura comes from some leakage. Your integrity is not absolute yet, so your energy starts leaking and it creates an aura, a subtle magnetism around you. Of course, whenever you come in contact with others they will be impressed. Your aura will function like an intoxicant; they will simply be impressed. You will have a very charismatic effect on them, but Taoists say that it simply shows that you have not yet become really ordinary, you are still hankering for something. Somewhere, the ego is still there, because only through the ego do your inner energies leak out.

‘WHEN A MAN’S INNER INTEGRITY IS NOT FIRM…’

And

what do they mean by ‘inner integrity’? When there is no ego, you are integrated with the whole. When there is ego, you are not integrated with the whole. When there is ego, you are split; when there is ego…. In fact. there are many egos — you are a crowd and there is a constant fight inside. Each ego tries to be more powerful than the others and there is a continuous struggle, and in that struggle your energy starts flowing out: it becomes a sort of aura. Remember, this is not the aura that happens to a Buddha or a Lao Tzu or to Jesus. An aura happens to Buddha, but that aura is not energy coming out — no. His whole being has become so luminous, that even from his body you can see the subtle rays of his luminosity. It is as if a lamp is burning in a house and even through the curtains you can see that there is no darkness inside. It is not a leakage, it has a totally different quality to it. And how will you make out the difference’? When you come in contact with the Buddha, his presence does not press your heart; in fact, his presence makes you more free. His presence does not turn you into slaves, his presence turns you into Masters. His presence does not become a binding on you, but becomes a freedom: he liberates.

When the energy comes out, it becomes a very repressing force. It is almost violent. It is as if somebody has jumped upon you with a sword in his hand and forces you to submit. These words are good. When you come in contact with a Buddha whose energy is not oozing out, who has no leakage left, surrender happens, but there is no submission in surrender. When you come in close contact with a person who is not yet really integrated and he is creating great energy through his SADHANA and the energy is leaking out, submission happens, but there is no surrender. You become a slave, you become an imitator. Your individuality is crushed and destroyed, you become a carbon copy.

Remember, this will help you always. Only keep company with a Master with whom you don’t become a carbon copy, with whom freedom is possible, with whom even surrender gives you individuality, following whom you don’t become a follower, with whom you earn more and more freedom. He makes you so free, he gives you tremendous freedom — more than you can give to yourself. He does not give you a discipline, he gives you awareness, and through awareness you flower. You are not repressed, you are not forced; great things happen, but they happen naturally, spontaneously.

You must have seen auras around the pictures of Buddha and Jesus and Krishna. They are not the aura Lieh Tzu is talking about. If you want to see this type of aura, then you have to come in contact with a man like Rasputin. Then you will find an aura, a great aura. Whoever came in contact with Rasputin immediately submitted to him and became a slave, even the Tsar and the Tsarina. In fact, for a few years, Rasputin had become the real ruler of Russia. Whoever came in contact with him, would simply lose his individuality, lose his freedom and would become just an aye-sayer, would become more unconscious than he was before and would start doing things which he could never do in his right senses. Around Rasputin such things were an everyday affair. He could tell people to do foolish things, but his order was an order which they would do and not even for a single moment feel that they were being stupid. When they would go back home, then they would suddenly recognize the fact of what they had done. It was ridiculous.

Rasputin was killed by people who became more and more aware of this phenomenon; he was murdered… and he was really a man of great energy. The people who murdered him were his victims. By and by, many people became aware that whenever they were around him, something simply went off within their being and they became just puppets; and whenever they were far away from him they would again regain themselves. They started feeling this phenomenon so deeply that they conspired against him — his own disciples — and they killed him. And it was very difficult to kill him. He was a man of energy, of great energy — disintegrated, but still of great energy. And the energy was oozing so much…. First they persuaded him to drink, and he drank too much, but nothing affected him. He was perfectly alert. Then they poisoned him, they gave him poison in food, but nothing affected him. Then they became afraid: they shot him — eighteen bullets — but he was still alive! And then they were very afraid… if he survived, what would happen to them? So they tied him in a bag with rocks and threw him into the river. After forty-eight hours his body was found, and the post mortem report says that he was not dead when he was thrown in the water, that even underwater he remained alive for at least four hours.

A man of tremendous energy — but the impact was evil, the impact was not good.

Let this be your definition: Whenever you are in close contact with a man whose energy makes you a slave, escape from him. Escape from him like the plague. Never look back. You are in danger: that man has an oozing energy. It is dangerous for him because he is losing the energy which can become integration, and it is dangerous for you.

‘WHEN A MAN’S INNER INTEGRITY IS NOT FIRM, SOMETHING OOZES FROM HIS BODY AND BECOMES AN AURA, WHICH, OUTSIDE HIM, PRESSES ON THE HEARTS OF OTHERS…’

It is a pressure. These are things to be felt. If in contact with somebody you feel a pressure on the heart, a crushing pressure, then that man has more energy than you; but that energy will prove evil: it is aggressive energy. When, in the presence of somebody, you feel that you are uplifted, that you are taken to a higher altitude, that you start floating upwards, that gravitation is less; that the presence is soothing, gives you silence, awareness: makes you more conscious and there is no pressure in it…. In fact, the ordinary pressures of your life dissolve in the presence of a man who has become integrated.

‘… IT MAKES OTHER MEN HONOUR HIM MORE THAN HIS ELDERS AND BETTERS, AND GETS HIM INTO DIFFICULTIES.’

And Lieh Tzu said ‘It is bad for others, but that is not the point: it is bad for the person himself.’ It is bound to get him into difficulties. That’s how Rasputin got into difficulties. He could have become a Buddha — he had the possibility. He was a man of great energy, he was really very rare, but others got into difficulty, he got into difficulty. He got into many difficulties and he went astray. The more and more he became powerful over people, the more and more he forgo. his own training, his own inner discipline. He had worked hard upon himself: for years he had meditated and prayed and his prayer was going deep. Then he became aware that he had great influence over people. The moment he became aware that he had great influence over people, he forgot about his prayers. He became ambitious. The ego asserted itself on the last layer, the self — not on the body, not on the mind, but on the self. And when the ego asserts itself on the third, the deepest, layer, many people are deceived because it is very difficult to make distinctions, sometimes the energy feels really helpful.

The Tsar had only one son and the son used to suffer from a disease for which there was no cure. The disease was that if he would get any wound, the wound would not heal and the blood would start oozing out of his body and not stop. His life was always in danger — a small wound and… a child is a child. Playing, he would fall and… a small wound and a little blood would come, and then it was impossible to prevent the blood: that was the problem. And when too much blood would go out, the child would become unconscious, would fall into a coma, and there was no medicine and there was no cure. And then came Rasputin, and he simply touched him and the blood stopped. He would simply touch the child and he would become conscious — and that was the Tsar’s only child. Now Rasputin became a must. They would not even allow him to go far away from Moscow, from the capital, because it was dangerous: if he could not come in time…. So his presence had to be there in the palace. The Tsarina became too impressed, then the Tsar became too impressed, then the whole court. And he started ordering: he became the real emperor. And his orders had to be listened to, otherwise he used to threaten ‘I will go’ and the life of the child was in danger. The doctors had said ‘He has to be kept here, otherwise we cannot help at all. Any moment the child can die.’

But he forgot his prayers, he forgot his own inner discipline; he created many difficulties for others, created much difficulty for himself. In fact, if some day the real history will be written, then he was the cause for the Russian revolution, not Lenin, not Stalin, not Trotsky. He was the cause: he created such a ridiculous state that the people rebelled. The revolution came because of Rasputin; and because of Rasputin. Russia has suffered for almost half a century. The whole of Russia has become a great prison — all freedom lost; millions of people have been killed. And if you look, deep down you will find Rasputin at the beginning of this whole communist myth — the myth of revolution, the myth of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Nobody talks about him, but he was the provocation. His presence was so ugly, so repressive, so oppressive, that not only he was killed, the Tsar and the Tsarina and the child were all killed, and the whole empire disappeared into disorder and chaos.

Lieh Tzu says it

… GETS HIM INTO DIFFICULTIES. THE ONLY MOTIVE OF AN INNKEEPER IS TO SELL HIS RICE AND SOUP, AND INCREASE HIS EARNINGS. HIS PROFITS ARE MEAGRE, AND THE CONSIDERATIONS WHICH SWAY HIM HAVE LITTLE WEIGHT. IF MEN WITH SO LITTLE TO GAIN FROM ME VALUE ME SO HIGHLY AS A CUSTOMER, WILL IT NOT BE EVEN WORSE WITH THE LORD OF TEN THOUSAND CHARIOTS WHO HAS WORN OUT HIS BODY AND DRAINED HIS KNOWLEDGE IN STATE AFFAIRS? THE PRINCE OF CH’I WILL APPOINT ME TO SOME OFFICE AND INSIST THAT I FILL IT EFFICIENTLY. THIS IS WHAT ALARMED ME.’

… Really a man of understanding. He says ‘If I go to the capital and the king comes to know about me, I am bound to be in trouble. He will appoint me; he may make me a prime minister, a minister. He will certainly get hold of me. If ordinary people like an innkeeper, who has nothing much to gain from me, become so much impressed, then what about the great king, the lord of ten thousand chariots, who has wasted his energy in state affairs, who has lost his soul in the world, who is really poor as far as the inner integrity is concerned? If I come in contact with him, he will immediately take hold of me; he will say “You come here. You serve the kingdom, you serve the state.” And I will be in difficulty. That’s why I became alarmed.’

Look at the beautiful understanding of Lieh Tzu. He is still a disciple, but has great insight. One should avoid ambition, one should avoid any possibilities where one can get into unnecessary troubles.

‘AN EXCELLENT WAY TO LOOK AT IT! BUT EVEN IF YOU STAY, OTHER MEN WILL LAY RESPONSIBILITIES ON YOU’ said the old man.

One thing more before we go deeper into this parable: When your energies ooze out and you are not yet centred, you will certainly become a man of great influence, but your presence will be a violence to others, an aggression. Even if you are non-violent you will do violence to people…

‘Remember, Tao says: IN ANY WAY, the desire to impress the other, the desire to change the other, the desire to do good to the other, is violence. There should be no desire. And this is the beauty — when you don’t desire to help the other, others are helped. And when you don’t desire to impress them, they learn out of their own insight. They are never pressed. They are transformed, but not because you want to transform them. Your simple presence with no pressure is a great transforming force.

The old man said, ‘AN EXCELLENT WAY TO LOOK AT IT! BUT EVEN IF YOU STAY, OTHER MEN WILL LAY RESPONSIBILITIES ON YOU.’

‘Beware of it! If you don’t go to the capital it doesn’t make much difference. Even if you stay home, other people are going to lay their responsibilities on you.’

NOT LONG AFTERWARDS, WHEN PO-HUN WU-JEN WENT TO CALL ON HIM, LIEH TZU’S PORCH WAS FULL OF THE SHOES OF VISITORS. PO-HUN WU-JEN STOOD FACING NORTH; HE LEANED ON HIS UPRIGHT STAFF AND WRINKLED HIS CHEEK AGAINST IT. AFTER STANDING THERE FOR A WHILE, HE LEFT WITHOUT SPEAKING. THE DOORKEEPER TOLD LIEH TZU. LIEH TZU RAN OUT BAREFOOT HOLDING HIS SHOES IN HIS HANDS AND CAUGHT UP WITH HIM AT THE GATE.

‘NOW THAT YOU HAVE COME, MASTER’ HE SAID ‘AREN’T YOU EVEN GOING TO GIVE ME MY MEDICINE?’

This is called ‘medicine’ in the Taoist circles — when a Master gives his presence to you. It is medicinal; his presence is therapeutic, his presence is a healing force. Just by being in close contact with him, just being in front of him, a great healing happens. This is called ‘The medicine the Master gives’. The word ‘medicine’ comes from the same root as ‘meditation’. Both come from the same root — that’s very good; both have something in common. ‘Medicine’, ‘meditation’, both come from a root which means to take care — a caring, loving care. Medicine takes care of your body, meditation takes care of your soul. Certainly the Master is a physician, Buddha used to call himself ‘the physician’. When people would come and ask him great philosophical questions he would simply put them aside and he would say ‘Don’t talk nonsense. I am not a philosopher, I am a physician.’ Nanak also used to say ‘I am a VAIDYA, I am a physician. I don’t answer questions, I treat people. I am not concerned about their questions, I am concerned with their illnesses, with their disease.’

In Taoist circles the presence of the Master is called ‘medicine’, ‘the medicine’. You cannot find a more medicinal energy anywhere else. Whenever a man becomes enlightened his surrounding is therapeutic. Just being in close contact with him you will be healed. Not that he will do something — no, a Master never does anything: he has forgotten all doing. But because he is a non-doer healing happens, because he is a nobody he gives you space: in that very space you become integrated, you become centred.

Source:

This is an excerpt from the transcript of a public discourse by Osho in Buddha Hall, Shree Rajneesh Ashram, Pune. 

Discourse Series: Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol 1

Chapter #13

Chapter title: Inner integrity

23 February 1977 am in Buddha Hall

References:

Osho has spoken on many Western Mystics like Jesus, Gurdjieff, Magdalen, Rumi, Socrates, Theresa, Zarathustra, St. Francis, Dionysius, Boehme, Eckhart, Baal Shem and many more in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. Sermons in Stones
2. Come Come Yet Again Come
3. Come Follow To You
4. Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries
5. The New Dawn
6. The Sword and The Lotus
7. Beyond Psychology
8. The Empty Boat
9. I Celebrate Myself: God Is No Where, Life Is Now Here
10. Zarathustra: A God That Can Dance
11. The Perfect Master
12. Sufis: The People of the Path
13. The Diamond Sutra