The first question:
Osho,
Once you said that Krishna was a brahmin, but really he was a kshatriya. Nobody is ready to accept him as a brahmin. Which is correct?
When I say something there is no need to ask anybody about it. Meditate over it.
When I said that Krishna was a brahmin, I mean that he knew the ultimate truth – brahma is the ultimate truth. By knowing it one becomes a brahmin. When I say Krishna was a brahmin, I mean Mahavira was a brahmin, Buddha was a brahmin – so was Moses, so was Jesus, so was Lao Tzu. I don’t mean the caste brahmin. By birth nobody is a brahmin, nobody can be. I also know that he was a kshatriya by birth. That is meaningless. That is formal, accidental. I don’t talk about accidents.
By accident I was born in India, but I am not an Indian. By accident you may have been born in Germany, but you are not a German. By accident you may be black or white, but you are neither. The accident can only decide the form, not your being. Your being is beyond accident, beyond caste, beyond religion, beyond nation, beyond color. When I am talking I am talking about the innermost core.
So I repeat: Krishna was a brahmin. Even if the whole world says he is not, I don’t care a bit. That knowledge is of no significance at all.

“It is surprising,” said the professor to his wife, “how ignorant we all are. Nearly every man is a specialist in his own particular line and consequently he is as narrow-minded as it is possible to be. He knows nothing of what other men are doing.”
“Yes, dear,” said his wife.
“I, for instance,” he continued, “am ashamed of my failure to keep abreast of modern science. Take electric light, for example. I have not the least idea how it works.”
His wife gave him a patronizing look and smiled, “Why, Herbert, I am ashamed of you too. It is simple. You press a switch, that’s all!”

This wife thinks that by pressing a switch you know all about electricity. That’s all. Simple. And she says she is ashamed of her husband – that he does not even know how electricity works.
You also know how electricity works. You press the switch, that’s all. So simple. But has anybody really any idea of how electricity works? I am not talking about you and I am not talking about this professor. Even the man who worked miracles with electricity, Thomas Alva Edison, had no idea how it worked.

It happened once that Edison went to a summer resort where people did not know anything about him; at least nobody recognized his face. He was very happy: famous people get tired of being recognized all day long, they can never be at ease. So he was very happy, running on the beach, collecting pebbles. He had become a child again.
Somebody invited him to come to a high school exhibition. Looking at his childlikeness on the beach, at how he was running and playing with the foam and the pebbles and the sea-shells, somebody said, “Come to our high school. We are having an exhibition. The children have done many beautiful things.” So he went.
They had made an electric fan and a small boy was explaining how it worked. Edison became interested and he asked, “Do you know how electricity works? What is electricity?”
And the boy said, “That I don’t know. I will call my teacher.”
So the teacher was called to explain – of course, he did not know who was asking the question. He was a graduate in science and he tried to explain the mechanism of the fan. But electricity itself? Electricity in itself is inexpressible. Nobody knows.
And Edison insisted, “Tell me, what is electricity? You are explaining how the fan moves, how the switch works, how the motor works, but I am not asking about the motor and the fan and the switch. I am asking about electricity, the power behind it. What is it?” And the man said, “You are asking a difficult question. I am just a graduate. I will ask my principal to come – he is a DSc, a doctor of science. He will explain!”
The principal came and he tried hard to explain but Edison insisted. The DSc principal was very puzzled about this man asking such a significant question, and he became very embarrassed because he could not explain. So he said, “Sorry, I will ask some higher people who are more in the know.”
Then Edison said, “I don’t think anybody is going to help.”
The principal asked, “What do you mean?”
Edison replied, “I am Thomas Alva Edison and I myself don’t know what electricity is, so who are you going to ask?” He had invented a thousand things which worked through electricity – the radio, the gramophone, the fan and a thousand and one things – he was one of the greatest inventors of the world. But he said, “I myself don’t know what electricity is. I play with it, I manage it; it works. That’s all we know – it works. But what it is, nobody knows. So don’t be puzzled and don’t feel embarrassed.”

You must have asked somebody who had the mind of this wife who says, “Why, Herbert, I am ashamed of you. It is simple. You press a switch. That’s all.” I also know that Krishna is a kshatriya, but that is not what I am saying to you. I am not interested in the accident of his birth, in whose womb he was carried for nine months. I am talking about his innermost experience – that experience makes him a brahman because he has known the brahma. One who knows is a brahman; one who does not know is not a brahman.

The second question:
Osho,
“Don't do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you.” Osho, I was meditating about it, but I feel stuck, I can't reach the bottom. Please can you tell me something about it?
The first thing: never meditate on anything negative. “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others to do unto you.” This is a negative message “Don’t do…”
If you don’t want to get stuck, then meditate on something positive. The same thing can be made positive: “Do unto others what you would like others to do unto you.” Then you will not get stuck.
When you go into a negative commandment you cannot move much. How can you function in a negative commandment? A negative commandment is like death. How can you meditate about death? You start and you are stuck from the very start. You can meditate about life, certainly. Life has so many things to meditate about: flowers, birds, rivers, stars, love, people, the beauty of it, the song of it. You can meditate about life infinitely and you will never get stuck because life is vast. Life is infinite because life is the entire universe.
In fact, when you meditate on life – meditating, meditating – one day you will come across death too because death is just a part of life. As other things are part of life – love, birth, joy, sadness, happiness – so is death. Death is not something against life, death is not something beyond life. Death happens in life, death is an intrinsic part of life.
So if you meditate on life you will come to know death too, but if you meditate on death nothing will happen. What will you meditate on? You will simply feel darkness, and get stuck. How can you go into nonbeing? How can you think about nothing? You will go round and round, and sooner or later you will wonder what you are doing. Chasing your own tail? Where are you going? There is nothing much to meditate on.
Meditation must be about the positive. You can ride on the positive; you can go to the very source of existence, but on the positive, with the positive, in the positive. Of course, as you go with the positive, one day you will come across the negative too – but as part of the positive. And then you will know the negative too.
Listen, I would like it this way: “Do unto others what you would like others to do unto you.” Make it that way. Then you have a thousand and one things to think about.
When you do unto others what you would like them to do unto you, naturally the negative part of it – don’t do unto others – follows like a shadow. Remember, the negative is the shadow of the positive. The positive is the figure, the negative is the shadow. If you run, your shadow will run behind you. If you stop, the shadow will stop. But don’t get too involved with the shadow or you will get stuck. If you try to make the shadow run and then you want to follow it, it is impossible. Then you will feel very impotent. You will create a very crazy situation for yourself.
The Ten Commandments are stated in a negative way. If you go deep into Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, you will not find a single negative commandment. Everything is positive. With the positive there is growth. Judaism has not grown at all. It remains stuck. In fact, it has not added anything to Moses. It is where Moses left it.
Hinduism has grown tremendously. It goes on growing. It is not a dead stone. What is the reason; what is the secret of it? The secret is: it works through the positive. If you get stuck with the negative, then from the very beginning you are moving in a wrong direction and that will not allow you much movement. You are heading for trouble.
Judaism has not evolved any subtle religion. The Jews have remained the most irreligious people on the earth, the most worldly – money-minded, prestige-oriented. They have not developed anything deep in meditation or prayer; religion to them is just a formality. Religion is not something tremendous; it is not something that shatters you, uproots you, gives you wings. It is not something that destroys you and recreates you; it is not something that you become possessed with; it is not something that manages you – it is something that you manage.
The Jews did not like Jesus because he became too possessed by religion. The Jews did not like Jesus because he was too otherworldly. The Jews have not liked anyone born to Jewish families who became too possessed by religion. They have always denied and rejected them. They deny and reject all the messiahs because a messiah is a person who is in a passion. Religion is his love, it is not formality; he can stake his life on it. If crucifixion comes through it, he is ready to go to the cross.
The day that Jesus was ready to die on the cross, he said that he was not a Jew in the ordinary sense. The Jews were puzzled. Why was this man so mad? Life is so beautiful, why be worried about things higher than life? Life is enough. Jews have lived in the merry-go-round of eat, drink and be merry – and, of course, sometimes go to the synagogue too. That is part of the social formalities.
Remember, if you start your meditations with a negative you will be stuck. And, another thing, if you think too much on the negative, you will become desert-like, you will not flower, you will become dry, your juice won’t flow. Juice cannot flow in the negative – for that you need some positive passion, something alive, so that it can flower.
If you want to meditate, contemplate – good. But choose something positive. Meditate on a roseflower, it is positive. Meditate on the rising sun, it is positive. Meditate on the moon. Meditate on a child playing, laughing, jumping, dancing. Meditate on something which is flowering, opening, unfolding, which is alive. Meditating on the negative is meditating on the desert – and you become that on which you meditate. You will become that on which you meditate, so meditate on love, meditate on life, meditate on God.
If something sounds very beautiful to you but it is a negative statement, turn it into a positive statement. Each statement can be turned into a positive statement. The change is great. When you want to say no, try to say it in such a way that it has the form of yes. Don’t say no. You can always find a way to say something in such a way that even if it is a no, it comes in the form of yes. And that will be helpful to you.
You must have come across people who are so addicted to the no that even sometimes when they want to say yes they find a negative way of expressing it.

The third question:
Osho,
Will you marry me?
Again? The day you became a sannyasin you got married to me. This question is from Dharma Chetna. To ask again means you have forgotten!

Somebody asked Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher, when he was very old, “Why didn’t you ever get married? Didn’t you ever propose to somebody?”
Kant brooded over it and said, “To think of it, yes, once I did propose to a girl.”
The inquirer became very interested. He said, “Then what happened?”
Kant said, “Something went wrong. I proposed a second time. I proposed one day and the next day I proposed again. And the girl got very mad.”

Kant’s memory was not very good – the girl had accepted him the previous night. Can you marry a person who proposes a second time? This man is not reliable. After marriage he will come one day and he will say, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
Sannyas is a marriage – deeper than any marriage, deeper than the marriage that you know about. In an ordinary marriage two bodies meet. At the most, if you are very fortunate, two minds meet – which is rare. The marriage that is sannyas is not of the body, not of the mind, but of the souls. Two beings meet. To be with a master is to be in deep love with the master, to be surrendered, to be open, to go with him wherever he is going with gratitude, with trust.
You are married, Chetna. Keep alert. Don’t go on forgetting.

The fourth question:
Osho,
My son has run away from home and is here in the ashram. He is free to have any sort of thought, but first he should complete his graduate studies so that he can understand the world in a better way and make the right decisions.
I can understand the difficulties of a parent. Trying to persuade your son – I am all in favor of it. Try to persuade him but don’t force him, don’t threaten him. Avoid subtle or gross threats. Just open your mind to your son, put your heart before him, tell him how you feel. What you are saying is not very meaningful, so leave the decision to him.
For example, you say: “My son has run away from home and is here in the ashram.” There must have been something wrong in the home, otherwise why should one escape from home and come to this ashram? This ashram is another home again. Think about your home. What is wrong there? Something must be missing – love, aliveness. Something must be missing. Think about it. Your son has given you a signal that something is wrong.
Maybe the father and the mother are not in deep harmony and the house is a chaos. Maybe the children are neglected or maybe given too much care. Either way the child must be feeling suffocated – either by indifference or by too much love and too much care. Balance is missing.
Put your home right. Just taking the child back home will not help much because he will escape again. So think about it. Your child has given you an indication that something is basically wrong. That is the first thing.
The second thing – you say: “He is free to have any sort of thought but first…” That is just talk; you are not giving him freedom. What do you mean by “but”? Parents have that trick of talking. They say, “You are completely free, absolutely free, but…” That “but” is too big. It destroys all freedom.
Parents have an old habit of saying, “First grow up and then you will understand.” Excuse me, I would like to ask: have you grown up? Have you ever seen any grown-up person? Maybe the person is well educated, has graduated from university, was on the merit list, has a good job, is married, has children – everything is going fine. But if you look deep – is he grown-up? Has he really understood what life is? Has he any awareness? Or is he as ignorant of life as any child? Sometimes it happens that children are more alert than grown-ups because children have a fresher consciousness. Less dust has gathered on their mirrors. They have not as yet been poisoned by society.
What do you call your university? It is an institution in the service of society. It poisons. It manipulates people. It forces people into the service of society. It destroys people’s individuality. Out of beautiful people it makes clerks, collectors, commissioners, tahsildari, stationmasters, things like that. Out of beautiful people, out of beautiful children it creates ugly things, dead things. The whole educational system is a way to destroy a person, his freedom; to destroy his consciousness; to destroy his aliveness; to make him usable; to reduce him to a means so that the society can use him in profitable ways, so that he becomes an instrument. Then he becomes a soldier in the army – kills and is killed. Or he becomes a clerk in an office or a collector or a commissioner, and wastes his whole life for something he cares nothing at all about. He goes on doing things which he never wanted to do in the first place.
The closer death comes, the more afraid you become – and fear cripples. Then you cannot change. It is very difficult for a person at the age of forty or forty-five to change, because by then everything has somehow settled. It has been a long struggle, things have settled, and now to change seems very difficult. One simply goes on waiting for death to relieve you.
You say: “But first he should complete his graduate studies so that he can understand the world in a better way.” Do you think educated people understand the world in a better way? I have never come across it. Educated people are the worst because they have such a screen on their eyes. They may understand what is written in books, but they don’t understand what is there in life. An educated person has such a cultivated mind that he does not allow anything from the real to enter him. He looks in books but he never looks in the faces of people, in the eyes of people. He never looks around. Even if God comes he will go on reading his Bible and he may even say to God, “Wait, wait outside, I am doing my religious meditation,” or something like that.

There is a Hindu story about a very great scholar who used to chant every morning for three, four, five hours. For years together, from three o’clock in the morning, he would start chanting and praying. And he was a great scholar, a great Sanskrit scholar, a very learned man.
Finally Krishna had compassion on him and one day he came. He stood behind the man and put his hand on his shoulder. The man looked up and he said, “What are you doing? Can’t you see I am praying? Is this the time to disturb me?”
Krishna shrank back and disappeared.

Now this story looks very absurd. The man had been chanting, “Hare Krishna, hare Krishna, hare Krishna…” for years, but when Krishna came he could not recognize him. He thought some intruder had come – some very foolish man who couldn’t see that the scholar was meditating. This man may not even have taken his morning bath and here he was touching the scholar’s body and spoiling the whole meditation. The scholar had to go and take a bath again in the Ganges and again start his prayer. So he was very happy to get rid of this foolish man. Who was this?
If Jesus comes to a Christian who is pondering his Bible, will the Christian recognize him? If Mahavira comes to a Jaina who is on his fast and doing his mantra namokar, will he be able to recognize him? Impossible. To recognize truth you need naked, nude eyes – uncultured, uncultivated, uneducated.
I can feel you care for your child, that’s true, but what you are saying is not true. I can understand and I would like your boy to go back home, I am all for it. But the reason you are giving is not right. I can feel your love for your child. You are worried about his future. You are worried about what he will do, how he will earn his bread. I can understand, I am in total sympathy with you, but the reason that you are proposing is absolutely false.
You say: “…first he should complete his graduate studies so that he can understand…” Understanding never comes that way. For understanding to come one has to unlearn all that one has learned. For understanding to come one must become a child again, one has to wash off all that society has done, one has to make his heart clean.

Once a man came to Buddha, a very cultured, educated man, a pundit. And he asked a question. Buddha said, “Please. Right now I cannot answer.”
The man asked, “Why can you not answer? Are you busy or something?” He was an important man, well-known all over the country, and, of course, he felt offended that Buddha was so busy that he couldn’t give him a little time.
He said, “I have walked thousands of miles.” In those days there were no trains, nothing, it was really difficult. It was dangerous to travel. He had walked far; he had come from the deep south.
Buddha said, “No, that is not the question. I have enough time, but right now you will not be able to receive the answer.”
The pundit asked, “What do you mean?”
Buddha said, “There are three types of listeners. The first type is like a pot turned upside down. You can go on answering, nothing will enter him. He is not available. The second type of listener is like a pot with holes in the bottom. It is not upside down, it is exactly in the right position, it is as it should be, but it has holes in the bottom. So it looks like it is being filled but that is only momentary. Sooner or later the water flows out and it is empty again. On the surface, only on the surface it looks like something is entering – nothing really enters because the pot cannot hold anything. And then there is a third type of listener who has no holes in the bottom and who is not turned upside down but is full of filth. Water can come into it but the moment water enters it, it becomes poisoned.
“And you are all three together, sir. So it is very difficult right now. You are filthy – filthy because you are so knowledgeable. Knowledge is filth. That which you have not known is filth; only that which you have known purifies, transforms, liberates. All that borrowed knowledge is filth. You have stolen it, how can it purify you? Without knowing it you think you know. You are a pretender. You deceive. You are a hypocrite.”

So when a man’s head is like a pot which is full of filth, even if God comes and says something to him, the moment it enters him it will become poisoned. It will not be heard the way it was said. It will be misinterpreted. It is very difficult to change a learned man because he has already got fixed ideas. He is hiding behind those ideas.

I have heard about a very shy man – a young man, very shy – who had never asked a girl for a date. His mother was naturally very worried. One day the mother and father were both surprised because the boy said, “I am going on a date tonight.” They were very happy.
They helped him. They gave him money and they said, “Go and enjoy yourself.”
He went out but came back within half an hour. They were again surprised and said, “So soon? Did you see the girl?”
He said, “Yes, I did see her. And if I had not been hiding behind the hedge, she would have seen me.”

A man of knowledge is hiding behind hedges and more hedges. His understanding is less than it ever was even if his knowledge is more.
Now what type of date is this? Hiding behind the hedge! He says, “I have seen the girl and if I had not been hiding behind the hedge, she would have seen me.”
What do you mean, sir, when you say: “He will understand more?” He will be more knowledgeable, true, but he will not understand more. Right now he can already understand more, although even now it may be too late. Had he come a little earlier he would have understood even more.
Society can be transformed totally if small children start meditating. They are not serious so they are very ready for meditation. They are joyful, playful. They take everything in fun. Sometimes it happens that when a small child comes to take sannyas and I tell him, “Close your eyes,” he closes his eyes and he enjoys it as nobody else enjoys it. The very idea that he has been taken so seriously rejoices him. He sits silently. Sometimes I have seen grown-up people looking, just opening their eyes a little to see what is happening.
But small children, when they close their eyes, they really close them. They close them very hard because they are afraid they will open them if they don’t do it hard. They really do it hard. They bring their total energy to it because they know that if they are not doing it totally then their eyes will open and they will start looking to see what the matter is, what is going on. I have seen them really closing their eyes. And to see a child sitting silently is one of the most beautiful things you can come across.
Children can be taught meditation more easily because they are not spoiled yet. When you have been spoiled the hard work is to help you to unlearn.
I have heard about Mozart, the great composer and musician:

Whenever anybody came to him he would ask, “Have you learned music anywhere else before?” If the man had, then he would ask double fees. If he had not learned music at all, then he would say, “That is okay. Half the fee will do.”
People were very puzzled because this was illogical: “When a fresh man comes, who has not known anything about music, you say half the fee, and when somebody who has been working for ten years comes, you say double the fee!”
Mozart said, “There is a reason. First I have to clean the slate. That is the harder work. To destroy all that the person is carrying is harder than to teach.”

Teaching is very easy if you are available. With a virgin heart, teaching is very simple – and a child is a virgin heart.
So I will not agree that your child will become more understanding of the world. He may simply become worldlier, as worldly as you are. Right now he is not so worldly, that’s why he has come to the ashram and has become a sannyasin. He is otherworldly. He does not care a bit about money, power, prestige – all those trips. He is very otherworldly. You can see.
You can see many young people here – ninety-nine percent of my sannyasins are young people. Why? Why should young people be so interested in sannyas, and not the old people? Old people become cunning, calculating. Old people become clever. They think in terms of profit and loss. They think of what is going to give them more profit, and they think of a thousand and one things. They think about everything but life; they think about everything but love. They take care of all that is nonessential; they don’t take care of the essential. They are worldly. What do I mean by worldly? I mean a man who thinks about the nonessential.

Mulla Nasruddin went to his boss one day and said, “Sir, can I have your car on the twenty-fifth of this month?”
The boss asked, “For what? Why do you need the car, Nasruddin? You have never asked for it before.”
He said, “I am going to get married on that day.”
The boss said, “Certainly you can have it. One does not get married every day. You can have not only one car. You can have all three of my cars.”
Nasruddin was very happy. And then the boss asked, “Please tell me. Who is the fortunate girl?”
Nasruddin answered, “I have not decided that yet. I thought I should first inquire about the car. If I can have the car, I can find a girl. That is not a big problem.”

This is the worldly man. He thinks first about the nonessentials: money, power, prestige, influence, car, house, bank, insurance. He thinks about these things first; security comes first. He is not worried at all about who you are. Who is this security for? Who is this bank balance for? Who is this house and this car for? For whom? You are disappearing, your life is slipping out of your hands – and you are worried about the nonessentials!
The otherworldly man is one who thinks about the essentials first. Your child is still other-worldly, nonworldly, hence he is here. Whatsoever you are saying is not very relevant, it is just an argument. If you have become more understanding, then give proof of it. Then tell your son, “Go home and study and I am going to become a sannyasin.” That will be proof. And then, I think, your son will have to go because now he knows his father means it. That will be something.
I am ready to exchange. You stay here and let your son go – and he will go happily because then his father really cares and understands. Then whatsoever you say is meaningful.
One day an old Indian man came to me…

The man was seventy-five years old. Of course, in India, people are very much against me – bound to be, naturally – because they think that giving sannyas to young people is destroying their lives. This man’s young son had taken sannyas and he was very worried. He said, “What are you doing? This is against the scriptures. Only after seventy-five years of age can a person become a sannyasin. Give my son back. This is not the right time. First he has to get married.” Just as you say your son has first to graduate, he said that first his son had to get married, experience life, have children, do the work of the householder and then one day he could become a sannyasin.
The son was sitting beside me. “Okay, I can understand,” I said to the old man. “Your son can go back but you come sit in his place!”
He asked, “Why?”
I said, “You are seventy-five, now the time has come. You have lived in the world. The scriptures say that after seventy-five one must become a sannyasin. What do you say?”
He said, “This is difficult.”
So I said, “Then what is the guarantee that your boy, if he ever becomes seventy-five – and who knows, he may never become seventy-five – will be able to take sannyas if you cannot take it? Give me some proof. You take sannyas and I will release your son. I will say, ‘Go and get married.’” Since then that old man has never turned up and I don’t think he will ever come again.

Just look at life. So many people are educated, particularly in the West. Everybody is educated now. Education is no longer a value. In fact, the great thinkers of the West are thinking about how to de-school society. Ivan Illich has proposed a whole program of how to de-school society. D. H. Lawrence used to say again and again that if mankind is to be saved, all universities should be closed for one hundred years.
All those dreams and ideas that when humanity becomes educated, when everybody is educated, there will be paradise. That paradise has not happened. In fact, paradise has disappeared because of education. Uneducated people are far more innocent, far more loving, far more beautiful than the educated.
The man of education becomes cunning, clever, exploitive. That’s all that education is about – how to make you more efficient in exploiting people, how to make you capable of doing less and getting more. That is the whole point of education. What else is it? What else is education but how to do nothing and get everything? Then you are the most educated person. The higher the education, the less the work and the more profit. The real man of education does not work at all. He simply exploits, he simply robs people.
No, education is not going to give him understanding or anything. Don’t force anything on him; just speak your mind to him and tell him that this is how you feel. Certainly tell him how you feel; it is your responsibility to tell him, but then your responsibility is finished. You told him, you made him aware of the situation, but if he decides to remain a beggar, let it be so. If he decides to remain a sannyasin and wants to live a dangerous life, let it be so. You have lived a very sheltered life; what have you gained?

When I came back from my university graduation, my parents were very worried about my marriage. That is one of the most worrying problems in India – particularly for a person like me. My parents were very worried. It was time to get married and they were worried that I might say no.
One night when I was going to sleep, my mother came to me. She sat on my bed and told me that they were very worried. I said, “There is no need to worry. Tell me, what is the problem?”
She said, “We are afraid you may say no.”
I said, “I can say yes without asking what it is. Just tell me.”
She became very happy. She said, “We would like you to get married. Choose any girl. You choose, we are not concerned about that – but get married.”
I said, “Okay, I have said yes so I will follow it. There is just one thing – I will give you two weeks to think about it. Have you gained anything by marriage? After two weeks you simply tell me. You are my mother and I hope that you will not deceive me. Mediate over the matter for two weeks: if the chance were given to you again, would you marry or would you remain unmarried?”
My mother is a simple woman. Those two weeks were really hard on her. I saw her sitting and crying and weeping because the truth was coming to her again and again that it was simply meaningless. She had suffered her whole life. Marriage, twelve children, continuously taking care, this child is ill, that child is ill, a poor family, twelve children, and all worries and worries.
After two weeks I asked, “What do you say?”
She said, “You have given me so such trouble. No, I will not suggest that you get married but don’t tell your father that I have said so.”
I told her, “I will take care of him separately, don’t be worried. He is my father; he will also feel for me. What has he gained?”

He never asked me, never. He simply avoided the subject because he knew what had happened.
You have lived in the world, you are educated, you have lived a sheltered family life – what have you gained? Anything really? Anything really substantial? Can you really show that substance to your child? Can you say that you have lived wisely? Can you say that you are happy and that if God gave you another life you would like to live the same way you have lived? Just think, ponder over these things.
I can understand your love for your child. It is perfectly good. I am happy that you have come so far to take your child back. You must be in deep love with him. But become a little more alert. Speak your heart. Say what you have experienced in your life. Doesn’t your heart desire that, if you were born again and life was again given to you, you would like to start it as a sannyasin? Wouldn’t it be good for a change, at least? Just think it over. If you convince your boy, take him with all my blessings. But if he is not convinced, don’t leave in anger. Go on loving him. Let him do what he wants to do. Let him have his own life experience in his own way. Who knows?

When Buddha left his palace his father was worried. Twelve years later, when he became enlightened and came back, his father was naturally very angry. This was his only son, born when the father was very old. He was God’s gift. He was the only heir to the kingdom and he had left the old man. To whom was this kingdom going to belong? There was nobody to look after it – and the old man was eighty years old.
When Buddha went back, of course the father was angry. He went to the door and said, “I am your father. I still feel for you although I know you have done a foolish thing. But you are not meant to be a beggar, a sannyasin, you are an emperor’s son and you are meant to be an emperor. Come back. I am angry, but I am your father, I can forgive you. Come back. Drop all this nonsense and disperse all these sannyasins, these mad people, who are following you. Their mothers and fathers must be suffering like me. I have not slept for twelve years. I could not sleep. It has been a nightmare. You have hurt me very deeply.”
Buddha was standing there. The father was very angry and went on shouting at him until finally he cooled down a little. Then Buddha said, “Sir, you don’t see that I am not the same person who left the palace. Look at me. I am a totally new being. I am not the same person who left the palace, who used to be your son. My body may look the same but look deep into me. Something has happened. I have come just to show my gratitude to you, to show I am happy that I was born to you, that you gave me birth. I have attained and I have come to share my experience with you. In your old age I would like you also to attain because death is coming. I can see your legs are shaking, you cannot stand up straight. Death is coming. Before death comes, know what truth is, know what life is. Before death comes, realize yourself.”
The father looked at his son. Certainly he was not the same man although he looked the same. This figure was luminous, a great light had happened to him. The father cooled down, he meditated over it, he thought about it again and again and he found that his son was right. His reaction was just a reaction, an unconscious reaction. Finally he himself became a meditator. Eventually, before he died, he became a bhikku, he became a sannyasin.

Your responsibility is great, but don’t just react out of unawareness. Give the boy a chance also. He may be right. See his side too. Always remember that truth is nobody’s monopoly and truth has nothing to do with age. Sometimes a small child has it, and sometimes an old man has it not. Whenever you say something, remember not to judge.
Just a few days ago, something happened. Old Paritosh had written a journal, a beautiful journal. I have looked at it and many other sannyasins have looked at it – we have many talented people around here, authors, poets, published novelists. They have all looked at it and they liked it. So he sent it to a friend who is a publisher in England.
A few days ago he received the journal back. By mistake, by some unconscious mistake, the letter that he had written to the publisher came back with the manuscript. The publisher must have given the manuscript to a reader – and on the letter the reader had written: “This man is boring.”
First this letter should not have come with the manuscript. People go on doing things in a very deep sleep. Secondly, you cannot say, “This man is very boring,” because the reader is supposed to talk about the book not about the author. The book may be boring, but what do you know about the man? Thirdly, the reader was supposed to show his reaction, not to judge it. He should have said, “I am bored with this book,” not, “the book is boring.” These are two different things. “I am bored with this book” – this is perfectly okay. This is his response – if I feel I am bored, I am bored.
But somebody else may be intrigued. When Vivek was reading the journal she was so interested she could not put it down until she finished it, she had to finish it. She became very involved.
It depends on you. The person may be saying something about the journal but really he is saying something about himself. He may have felt bored. He may have no understanding of meditation, he may never have heard about sannyas. He may not know what is going on here. He may have felt completely disconnected. That is his response. But people work in deep sleep.
When I was looking at this letter and the reader’s comment, I remembered when Bertrand Russell was traveling in America…

He could not sleep the whole night because the train compartment had so many mosquitoes in it. In the morning he was very angry. You pay for a first class carriage, air-conditioned, but what is the point if there are so many mosquitoes in it?
So he wrote a very angry letter to the director of the company. Promptly the reply came by the next post. Bertrand Russell was very happy because the reply was very gratifying. The director said: “Sir, nobody has ever complained so we never knew about this. We are tremendously grateful to you that you took the trouble to inform us. Things will be put right. Next time you travel in our train this will not happen.” He was very happy. Again and again the director had said: “We are grateful, grateful, very grateful, blah, blah, blah…”
Then suddenly Bertrand Russell became aware of a small slip in the envelope. He took the slip out. On the slip was a hand-written message: “Send this fool the bug letter.” The director must have written that message to the clerk concerned: “Send this fool the bug letter.” He was very shocked. Then he became aware that the letter was printed. It was being sent to everybody.

This is how things go. People are very unaware. You don’t know what you are doing, you don’t know why you are doing it, you don’t know what will be the consequence, you don’t know what the source of it is.
This is my suggestion to this father. Please meditate here; be here for a few days, see what your son is doing, try to understand from his side. Stand in his shoes for a little while. Then explain your heart to him. But you can explain only if you have understood him, understand what he is doing. Otherwise your understanding will be prejudiced, you will be a stranger. You will say something which may not fit. Try to see his viewpoint, what he is doing.
Who knows, you may be convinced this is right rather than trying to take him back. You may start thinking about becoming a sannyasin or you may at least start thinking about meditating. Your son may have opened a door for you. Sometimes it happens that when old people have no courage, young people open the door. Young people are certainly daredevils. They can do things old people can’t do.
In the whole history of humanity it has always been because of young people that new things have happened – never because of old people. They cannot do new things because they are too efficient with the old.
Have you heard the beautiful parable about the clothes of the emperor?

It happened once that a cheat convinced an emperor that he could bring clothing for him from heaven. Of course, the king became greedy. He said, “I am ready to pay. Whatsoever the cost, bring them but don’t try to deceive me!”
The man said, “I won’t leave the palace because the way to heaven is not outside, it is an inner way. I have to go into my consciousness – from there I enter heaven. I know the key so I will bring the clothes for you. And remember, never before have God’s clothes ever come to earth. This is the first time. You will be the first and unique person to have them. Only million rupees will be needed.”
The king said, “Everything will be supplied.”
The king increased the guards in the palace and the man was given a big room. Every day he asked for more money, more money, more money. The king became a little troubled: “What are you doing with so much money?”
He said, “Bribery. The guards there in heaven and the ministers and the court people – it is a difficult thing to gain access to God’s clothes. But I am coming closer, so just go on supplying the money.”
He took millions of rupees. Then the date, the cherished date came, and the man came out with a very beautiful box. He said, “These clothes should be received in a celebration.” So a great celebration was arranged. The whole capital gathered. The court, the palace, everything was decorated. It was a rare thing. Never before had it happened. It was historical.
Then the cheat came to the king and said, “Come here, close to the box.” He opened the box and he said, “There is one condition. These are invisible clothes.”
Certainly – God is invisible so his clothes cannot be visible, otherwise it would look very awkward, just shirts walking, coats walking. The clothes are invisible.
“But,” said the cheat, “one thing I inquired about when I was getting these clothes. They said that they are invisible, but that people who are born, really born, from their own fathers, will be able to see them. Those whose birth is suspicious, doubtful, they will not be able to see them.” He opened the box and he showed the king, “Look! How beautiful they are!”
Now the king thought, “If I say that there is nothing there, people will think that I am not born of my own father. This is tricky.” And he called his court people and said, “Look, come here! See these beautiful clothes.”
They all looked and they all said, “We have never seen such beautiful clothes.” And they started praising the clothes like anything; they started competing with each other in praise.
And the king thought, “It was good I didn’t say anything because everybody can see them.”
But everybody was thinking, “Everybody else sees the clothes, only I am suspicious, but it is better to keep the secret. What is the point?”
The cheat took up an invisible cap, gave it to the king and took the cap of the king and put it in the box. By and by the king’s clothes started disappearing. He became afraid. When the last piece was going there was a moment when he started thinking, “Should I say the truth?” But now it was too late. All his prestige was at stake – not only his, his father’s, his mother’s, his whole heritage. And everybody saw and the crowd was shouting and became very excited. Nobody saw and yet everybody saw the clothes. So the king said to himself, “It is better this way. When everybody can see the clothes, why be worried? Only I see myself as naked, everybody else sees me as dressed.”
So he took the last jump – his underwear also went. He was standing nude. And people were shouting and clapping and everybody saw that he was nude.
Then a small child, who had come with his father and was sitting on his shoulders, said to his father, “But the king is naked.”
The father said, “Stupid! Keep quiet. You are not grown up yet. When you are grown up you will also see the clothes. Can’t you see? Everybody sees the clothes.”

Only that small child had seen the truth and was able to tell it. It has always been so. Only young people have been able to see the truth first because they don’t worry, they don’t have anything to be worried about, they have nothing at stake. They can be courageous and daring.
So who knows? Your son may have seen the truth. Don’t drag him back. Put your heart before him, talk to him, but in no way, subtle or gross, enforce anything. Just show how you are feeling, and feel what he is feeling here. Don’t say, “When you are grown up and well educated you will be able to understand more.”
The same thing was said by the father to the young child and the boy was the only one in that big crowd who was man enough to see the truth, to recognize the truth and to say it. But the father immediately hushed him. That’s what fathers have been doing down the ages.

The fifth question:
Osho,
Why don't you hit me? I feel ready.
I don’t accept your recommendation. If you feel ready that means you are not ready. This is your ego assertion that you are ready. One who is ready will never assert because readiness comes through non-ego. One who is ready will be humble and meek; one who is ready will stand at the back of the queue. He will not try to come first. Remember, those who are the last will be the first and those who are trying hard to be the first will be the last.
There is no need to come and propagate that you are ready. If you are ready, I will know first, you will not know first. So leave it to me.
In fact, this is greed – and a very strange human mind. When I hit people, they don’t feel good. Ananda Prem felt terrible, so did fat Veena – so-called fat Veena – she is not so fat. She cried the whole morning. And so did Amida. When I was talking here she was feeling terrible. When I hit you, you feel terrible.
When I don’t hit you, you ask for it because sometimes the mind is so cunning that it starts thinking that by being hit you will become special. That will be proof that you are ready, ripe. That will be proof that now you deserve to be hit.
This is ego. And ego is the only barrier. It is the ego that doesn’t allow you to change. I am not interested in little changes here; I am not interested in reforming you. I am interested in destroying you utterly so that something utterly new is born. Less than that won’t do.
What you want is for your ego to be decorated with a few medals so that you can go out and say, “See, Osho has hit me harder than anybody has ever been hit before. I am special.”
This desire to be special is a disease. Sometimes it happens that this desire to be special can lead you to become humble too. I say that those who are the last will be the first, then you can start competing for the last place. Again you are competing for the first. Watch out. Mind is really cunning. It can play game upon game upon game. It is like a Chinese box: you open one, there is another; you open that, there is still another. And they fit into each other so perfectly. There is just a slightly smaller box inside and again a smaller one, and again a smaller one. Ego is a Chinese box. Watch it carefully, otherwise you will never get rid of it.
Let me repeat again: I am not here to reform you. Reform is an ugly word. Reform means that you remain the same with a few touches here and there – I paint you here and there. You remain the same, basically the same structure, the same gestalt, although made a little more beautiful. No, I am not interested in that, I am interested in your utter disappearance – so you are no more.
When you are not, for the first time you will be virgin, innocent, as fresh as the dewdrop in the morning. That’s what godliness is. That freshness is godliness. That original happening is godliness. That entry of the new into the old is godliness. When that new enters, the old simply disappears, or, when the old disappears, only then the new enters. Then entry of the new and the disappearance of the old are simultaneous. In a single moment they happen.
But I understand your trouble.

In a New England resort town there was a man so homely that he was the butt of every practical joke that his townsfolk could think up. A plastic surgeon who visited the resort on vacation was so touched by his ugliness that he offered to change the man’s face without charge. “In fact,” he said, “just for the heck of it, I will do some plastic surgery that will make you the handsomest man in New England.”
Just before he put the man under the knife, the surgeon asked, “Do you want me to change your face completely, totally?”
“No,” answered the man, “not too much. I want the fellows to know who it is who is so handsome.”

This is how the ego functions. You want the fellows to know who it is who is so handsome. You want the fellows to know who it is who is so meek, so humble, who it is standing at the back of the queue. If even that much desire is there, the ego is completely alive, thriving. Nothing has changed. Only a total change is a change.
You need not suggest to me what I should do. Leave it to me. When the time is ripe and I feel you need a hit on the head I will do it. I will never do it because you ask; I will do it when it is needed.
You cannot understand what is needed. Again and again you misunderstand your want for your need. Your want is not a need. I understand that you want it, but you want it for the wrong reasons. I will give the hit when you need it, not because you want it. When all your wanting has disappeared you will need it – when you are not at all aware of it, then it comes suddenly, it comes abruptly. Only then is it meaningful.
You have asked a question. If you are waiting and I come there and hit you on your head, it will be meaningless. You were waiting for it, you were expecting it, you will be thrilled, your ego will become a big balloon. You will go around with a big chest saying, “See what happened? I am ready.”
God comes to you only when you are not expecting him at all. He comes in moments when you are completely oblivious of desire. He comes only in moments when there is no desire, when there is desirelessness. He comes abruptly, suddenly. When you expect it is exactly when you remain closed. When you don’t expect it, you open.
Haven’t you seen it again and again in life? All that is beautiful happens only when you are not expecting it. When you expect it, things don’t happen. Even if they happen, you don’t get any blissfulness through them. All bliss is abrupt, unconnected with the past, discontinuous with the past.
So please wait. Wait without expecting. Wait oblivious of all desires. Whenever anything is needed, it is my business to do it – that is my responsibility. When you become a sannyasin, it is your commitment and my responsibility.

The last question:
Osho,
It seems to me that I am becoming really mad.
You have always been mad; it is not that you are becoming mad. You are simply becoming a little bit more alert about it.
Mind is madness. That’s why you don’t look within. If you look within, you will find a mad rush. Not only one mad person is there, there is a mad crowd. And the whole crowd is at each other’s throats. That’s why I go on saying, “Look within.” So says Socrates, so says Buddha, so says Jesus: “Look within. The Kingdom of God is within.”
Nobody is willing to look within. They listen, they say, “Okay, sometime we will look.” But nobody is ready to look. Why? Because when you look within, you don’t see the kingdom of God, you see a madhouse. When you look within, you don’t see the blissfulness of Buddha, you just see neurosis. You see the same thoughts repeating, repeating, as if a gramophone record has got stuck and goes on repeating the same, the same, the same. When you meditate you start becoming aware. When you become aware, you feel that you are going mad. No! If you are becoming aware that you are going mad, you are getting away from it, you are going beyond it.
A person who is aware that he is mad is already on the threshold of sanity. A mad person is never aware that he is mad. You can go to the madhouse and ask mad people. They will laugh. Nobody will be ready to say that he is mad. They think the whole world is mad except themselves. This is a criterion of a mad person – he thinks the whole world is mad except himself.
What about a sane person? Lao Tzu says, “The whole world seems to be very intelligent except me. The whole world seems to be very clear except me – I am confused. The world seems to have clarity, transparency of mind, I am muddle-headed. The whole world is clever and wise, I am an idiot.” Look what Lao Tzu is saying. This is the indication of a sane man – the sanest ever.
So, Satisha – this is a question from Satisha – you are coming closer to sanity because you are becoming aware of your madness. Watch it. Don’t get scared and don’t rush out. Go into it. Look into it. Go into it and look into it. Persistent perseverance is needed.
Just remember one thing: the one who is aware is not the one you are aware of. The observer is separate from the observed. If you see a mad thought running, humming inside, you are not that thought. You are the witness who knows that it is there.
You say: “It seems to me that I am becoming really mad.” Then there are two things: something is going mad and something is watching. That watcher is you. Mind is always mad, that’s why we don’t watch the mind. Watch the mind and you will start feeling what is happening. You never thought that you were mad, now you feel as if you are. It is a good sign, a good indication. You are coming closer to home.
An anecdote…

A man in a double-decker bus was charged with striking a woman, a fellow passenger. The magistrate asked him what excuse he could offer.
“Well, sir, it was like this,” replied the culprit. “She sat on the seat beside me on the lower deck of the bus. Then she opened her bag, took out her purse, closed her bag, opened her purse, took out a tuppence, closed her purse, opened her bag, put back the purse and closed her bag. Then she noticed the conductor was going upstairs, so she opened her bag, took out her purse, closed her bag, opened her purse, put in her tuppence, closed her purse, opened her bag, put in her purse and closed her bag. Then she saw the conductor coming down the stairs so she opened her bag, took out her purse, closed her bag, opened her purse, took out a tuppence and closed her…”
The magistrate could not bear it any longer. “Stop!” he cried. “You will drive me crazy.”
“That’s just what happened to me, sir,” said the man.

That is what is continuously happening to your mind. If you watch, it feels as if it will drive you crazy, but watching is the only way to go beyond it. Otherwise whether you know it or not, you are crazy. You don’t become a sane person just by not knowing it.
Watch it, go into it, Satisha. I know Satisha must be getting crazy. Today she asked almost three dozen questions. She must be going crazy! But it is good. You are blessed that you are becoming alert. Hold on to this alertness. Get more centered in this alertness. The more alert you become, the farther away the noise of the mind will go. When you are really centered the mind disappears – because it is the same energy that is involved in thoughts that is used in centering. When the energy becomes centering, thoughts simply flop dead. They don’t have any energy. They disappear.
Enough for today.

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