THE WORLD TOUR
The Osho Upanishad 35
ThirtyFifth Discourse from the series of 44 discourses - The Osho Upanishad by Osho.
You can listen, download or read all of these discourses on oshoworld.com.
Osho,
Is this a question, a realization, or a declaration? Something beyond forces me to put this on paper; though I am writing this, the words are not mine.
It is past midnight, about five o'clock on the full moonlight night of the Indian month known as “Bhadra the Thursday,” the Guruvar master's day in Indian language. I am in Vipassana meditation. As my eyes open, a dazzling light brightens the room. I cannot keep my eyes open, as the light is too dazzling.
After a few minutes, I can open my eyes and I become quite aware. Two figures are standing before me: one is beloved Osho with folded hands and that gentle, beautiful smile; and the other is Gautam Buddha in gyan mudra. It is Buddha's third body. He looks at beloved Osho, and after a few moments he touches the feet of Osho and merges with his body, smilingly. I hear him saying: “I have fulfilled my promise. I was to come as Maitreya after two thousand five hundred years, and I have come. If you have eyes, you will see me; if you have ears you will hear me; if you have a heart you will feel and recognize me. My third body I had kept in existence to rebirth, to help whoever wanted my help. With due respect and adoration, I have to state that I could have merged with Krishnamurtiji, but due to his insistence on being original I could not merge and help individuals through him. I was hopeful, as he was especially prepared for my appearance – but he was adamant. His body suffered a lot due to his resistance to accepting me. He preferred and chose ceaseless pain and suffering for this.
My third body now cannot remain in existence if it is not accepted for rebirth or merging. The time I had decided for it is coming close to an end so I cannot wait any longer, and hence I am merging my third body with Osho's energy without disturbing his individuality. He is like an ocean; many small and big rivers merge with it, but still the ocean remains, unperturbed. Its identity remains as an ocean without any change. In him, all enlightenments – past, present and future – have become alive and active; a unique event that has not happened before, nor will it happen again. Osho is total acceptance, total emptiness, total nothingness, and unbounded compassion. He is both purna and shunya incarnated. From my third body, I address him as ‘Osho,' but from now onward he will not be only ‘Osho,' he will be ‘Osho, the Buddha Lord Maitreya' – a buddha, a true friend to all. Thus saying, Buddha's third body merged with our beloved, beautiful Osho. Osho's radiance was increasing and filled the whole universe.
I remember the prophecy of Lama Karmapa, who had predicted this event, but had asked me not to talk about the event till it happened. Now it has happened and flowers have showered. So let it be known to all, let it be shouted from the rooftops that Osho, the Buddha Lord Maitreya, is here; Buddha has fulfilled his promise.
The light was fading, the full moon was setting slowly in the West with its cool, silent fading light; and in the East the new sun was rising with a light orange glow, silently bringing a new day, and with it a new journey. Beloved, beautiful Osho slowly, slowly disappeared with a gentle smile and folded hands, leaving me in that gentle morning light with a heart full of gratitude and eyes full of tears.
Osho, I bow down to you, announcing to the world that Osho, the Buddha Lord Maitreya, is here and the flowers have showered. To date, masters have declared themselves, but today a disciple declares with gratitude that the master, the buddha, a real friend, has come with a new radiance to help all. Osho, I have nothing to offer – not even a flower – and yet I offer everything. Thus, something is given and something is taken.
Oh beloved sannyasins, devotees and friends who are present here, you are the blessed ones – to hear this declaration and witness this unique event. Oh sannyasins, rejoice, celebrate and sing, “Buddham sharanam gachchhami; sangham sharanam gachchhami; dhammam sharanam gachchhami.”
Osho, I was reluctant to write this to you, but something unknown forces me to write to you. I do not know whether this is right to do or not. Will you please comment on the event?
Govind Siddharth, it is not a question. It is a realization, and it is a declaration.
Whatever you have experienced was not a dream. Your whole life may have been a dream, but this experience is absolute reality. That’s why you felt an unknown force compelling you to declare it. You had to declare it – it is impossible to hide the truth.
It has not only happened to you alone; there are two other persons present here to whom the same experience has happened at the same time. They are also hesitating whether to declare it or not. The hesitation is natural, because the declaration is so big and you feel so small, but you cannot keep it within you. It is just like a pregnant woman – how long can she hide that she is pregnant? One day she is going to give birth to a child.
Every truth is a living experience. And the very nature of life is expression, expansion, declaration. Each flower declares it, each morning the sun declares it, each night millions of stars declare it. Of course their language of declaration is different – a flower declares it by its fragrance, the star declares it by its light, the moon declares it by its beauty.
But truth, beauty, good… These three – satyam, shivam, sundram – are the basic, the fundamental trinity of existence. You cannot hide them.
One feels embarrassed – how to say it? And to say it in a world which is skeptical, in a world where people are deaf as far as truth is concerned, where people are blind as far as beauty is concerned, where people don’t have hearts as far as feeling, sensitivity is concerned… One feels alone to declare such a thing.
But it is not out of egoism – you cannot declare such a thing out of egoism because the ego will feel very embarrassed, and ego does not like to feel embarrassed. It is out of humbleness that one declares such experiences.
I was waiting. Who, out of those three persons, is going to declare it first? Govind Siddharth has proved really humble, courageous. Whatever he is saying, he has seen it – not in sleep, not in dream.
It is true that J. Krishnamurti was prepared for exactly this phenomenon.
Gautam Buddha had promised that after twenty-five centuries he would be coming as Lord Maitreya. Maitreya means “the friend.” Of course his own body was burned, and could not be kept for twenty-five centuries; the technology was not yet developed. Now it is possible. There are ten bodies in the world which are being kept. They are dead, it is very expensive to keep them, but those people were very rich people and they have willed that their bodies should be kept – because science is saying that within ten or twelve years, at the most twelve, we will be able to revive dead bodies. These rich people have allowed their bodies to be kept, so that when the technology is ready to revive them, they can be revived back to life again.
Gautam Buddha had to use a totally different kind of technology – not scientific but occult. The physical body died, but there are other bodies within this body which don’t die, and he has lived with his third body. He cannot be born through a womb; that is impossible, that is against the nature of things. Once you are enlightened you cannot be born through the natural process, through a womb.
It is his compassion. No one before him has ever tried. Perhaps no one before him had such compassion.
The story is that Gautam Buddha reaches the door of nirvana – and once you enter the door you disappear into the universe. The doors are opened, the doorkeeper welcomes him. But he refuses to enter the door and says, “I will stay here outside the door, because millions of my fellow-travelers are groping in the dark. I will try in every possible way to help them. Unless every living being has passed through the door, I will wait. I am going to be the last.”
This is not just a parable, not just a fictitious story, but something absolutely factual in the world of mysticism. It is not factual in the world of matter, it is factual in the world of the spirit.
J. Krishnamurti was prepared by very learned scholars who had found in all the scriptures – Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, Indian – the promise of Buddha that after twenty-five centuries he would be coming back: “I will find a way. I cannot come through a womb but I can enter into a living being, can merge my soul with his soul.” When the theosophists found this, they started searching for somebody who could be prepared – in purity, in discipline, in meditation, consciously – so that he can become a vehicle of Lord Maitreya.
They worked really hard on J. Krishnamurti. He was not the only one they worked on. They had chosen at least five children of immense intelligence, and they worked on all five. One of the five was Nityananda, Krishnamurti’s elder brother. He died; he died because of too much arduous discipline. He was immensely intelligent. He would have become a great scientist, a great philosopher, but he was not meant to become a great mystic – and perhaps not a vehicle of Gautam Buddha.
Training those five – and when Nityananda died, the four – slowly it became clear that Krishnamurti was the best out of the four. One was Raj Gopal, who was made personal secretary to J. Krishnamurti. And he betrayed J. Krishnamurti because he carried that resentment for his whole life. He was chosen for the same purpose, and finally he was just made a personal private secretary. He was angry, resentful, but he didn’t show it.
He was the managing trustee of all the properties that belonged to the organization which was created for Krishnamurti – its name was “The Star of the East.” The royalties for all of Krishnamurti’s books were going to Raj Gopal. And just five years ago, he simply betrayed J. Krishnamurti. He simply said, “You have nothing to do with the organization, the money, the books, the royalties.” At the age of eighty-five, Krishnamurti had to begin again from ABC.
This man, Raj Gopal, must have had tremendous patience, because for sixty years he kept the resentment repressed in himself, waiting for the right moment when Krishnamurti was so old that he could not do anything. At that moment he would desert him. He took away all the assets of The Krishnamurti Foundation – he was the head of the foundation – and Krishnamurti was left, at the age of eighty-five, just a beggar.
Another boy who was trained was a German. Seeing that he was not going to be chosen, he behaved just like a German: he created a new organization and revolted against the theosophical movement, created a split in the movement, and the German section of the theosophical society became a separate party. He became the leader of it, hoping that he would compete with J. Krishnamurti, not understanding at all that these matters are not of competition.
Krishnamurti himself, after years of training and discipline, rather than becoming pure, rather than becoming a right vehicle, became so hateful toward all the ringleaders who were torturing him – telling him to fast, telling him to wake up early in the morning at three o’clock, have a cold bath at three o’clock – with all good intentions, but they never realized the fact that you cannot make anybody a Gautam Buddha. It is not a question of training. However good the intentions are, the result is going to be a disaster.
When Krishnamurti reached the age of twenty-five, they gathered the chief leaders of the theosophical movement in Holland, where Krishnamurti was going to declare that Gautam Buddha had entered into him and he has become the world teacher.
But he was a sincere man. Gautam Buddha did not enter. If he had been a man like the pope or Ayatollah Khomeini he could have said, “Yes, Gautam Buddha has entered in me and I am the world teacher.” But he refused. He said, “No Gautam Buddha has entered in me, and I am not the world teacher. Not only that, I am not going to be a teacher at all.”
It was such a shock to the six thousand leaders of the movement who had come from all over the world, they could not believe it. They had prepared this man, they had fought for this man in the courts, they had done everything that was possible to give him the best education. He never gave an indication that he was unwilling. And at the last moment, when he stood up, he declared, “I dissolve the organization: The Star of the East. I am not the world teacher.” It was a reaction. You cannot force anybody into paradise. A forced paradise will become hell, because the basic element of freedom is missing.
Gautam Buddha’s third body has been hovering around the world to find someone to become a vehicle, so that whatever he said twenty-five centuries ago can be updated, resurrected, made fit for the modern man – for the new man who is going to be born. In twenty-five centuries so much dust has gathered that unless something absolutely fresh begins…
There are millions of Buddhists, there are thousands of great Buddhist monks; it looks simply absurd that he should not choose a vehicle from these people. It will be just natural and logical to choose a Dalai Lama or a great Buddhist monk, learned.
But you have to remember – that is one of my basic emphases – that these people cannot be chosen, because they are still hanging onto the Buddha that was twenty-five centuries ago. To choose them as vehicles is just meaningless; they will be repeating the same.
I love Gautam Buddha as I have not loved any other master, but my love is not blind. I have criticized him as severely as possible. I have praised him when I have found him right – right for today, right for tomorrow, right for the new humanity to come. And I have criticized him severely whenever I have found that he is twenty-five centuries old, still carrying conditionings, rotten ideas which are of no use to the new man, but will be a great hindrance.
Govind Siddharth must have been puzzled seeing what he has seen, because I would appear to be the last man that Gautam Buddha would choose to be a vehicle. But this is the beauty of Gautam Buddha: he understands that the message has to be for the present and for the future, that he needs an absolutely fresh being – unattached to any old tradition, his tradition included – a man absolutely untraditional, unorthodox. A man of today, as fresh as today’s rose – even if the man goes many times against the teachings of the old Buddha.
I was not going to declare it for the simple reason that then it would become difficult for me to criticize the old man. So I was keeping completely aloof, so that my freedom and my independence are not in any way curtailed.
I have my own message. If Gautam Buddha finds that my message has the essentials of his message too, then it is his choice. It is not a burden on me. I will go on criticizing him whenever I find anything that is not right for human growth in the future.
But Govind Siddharth’s difficulty was that he could not keep it a secret. One of the most difficult things in the world is to keep a secret – and such a secret!
But I will remain exactly as I am – no compromise. Gautam Buddha and all the masters of the past can choose me as their vehicles, but I will not allow any pollution. My message will remain my message.
Yes, they can. But Govind Siddharth says it rightly: the river can fall into the ocean; thousands of rivers can fall into the ocean – they don’t make the ocean sweet. They themselves become salty.
Gautam Buddha chose me as his vehicle because now it was difficult to keep hanging around in his third body any longer. Twenty-five centuries have passed; in fact a few more years have passed. He had to choose, but he has chosen a person who has his own message. It will surely be beautiful if it coincides with his essentials, but if it does not coincide, then I am going to be as hard on him as I have been before. It will not make any difference. I am not going to be his voice, I am going to remain my voice.
But what Govind Siddharth has seen is a tremendous experience, a great realization.
There are two more persons present here – if they gather courage, then their questions will be coming. If they cannot gather courage, then they will always remain burdened with a secret. It is better to bring it in the open and be free of it – and anyway, it is in the open; Govind Siddharth has done almost ninety-nine point nine percent of the work. Nothing is left for you.
Anybody who has been close to me has felt it many times, that I bring Gautam Buddha, his life, his stories, more than those of anybody else to illustrate some of my ideas. Gautam Buddha comes very close to me. The difference is not of twenty-five centuries – maybe only twenty-five centimeters – but the difference is there.
I am not a person who compromises. I will not be compromising with Gautam Buddha either, but whatever is ultimate truth is nobody’s possession, neither Gautam Buddha’s nor mine. Only the nonessentials are different; the essential is always the same. And my effort is to cut all nonessentials and give you only the pure, essential message, because only the essential religion is going to survive in the future. The nonessential rituals are all going to be dead. With this century ending, there will be a religiousness in the world but no religions.
Perhaps he has chosen a right man. And he has also chosen a right man in Govind Siddharth to declare the fact. I was not going to declare it, because declaration from my side brings a certain compromise, as if I have become a vehicle of somebody else’s message.
I am nobody’s vehicle. In fact my message and Gautam Buddha’s message are almost parallel – so parallel, so similar, that it can be said that he was my vehicle or it can be said that I am his vehicle. But it is not going to change my approach in any way. Now I will be even harder on Gautam Buddha, so that only the most essential and the purest part of him reaches to humanity in the future.
Osho,
How can the master help the disciple to live religiousness without religion?
It is the most simple thing in the world.
Vice versa is the most difficult – to be religious and to be part of an organized religion is almost impossible. But just to be religious, without being part of any religion, is the simplest thing.
You have to understand what I mean by religiousness: by religiousness I mean gratitude toward existence. It has given so much to you, and you cannot pay it back.
I have heard…
A man was going to commit suicide and a master was sitting on the riverbank from where this man was going to take the jump. He said, “Wait just a moment! Wait! Are you going to commit suicide?”
The man said, “But who are you to prevent me?”
The master said, “I am not preventing you. In fact I would love for you to commit suicide, but before committing it, if you can give both your eyes – because the king of this country has gone blind. And the doctors say if somebody can donate their eyes – not the eyes of a dead person, but a living person – then those eyes can be transplanted and the king will be able to see again. And whatever you want as a reward, as a prize, you say it and it is yours. So just before committing suicide, why not do a little business?”
The man said, “How much will he give?” He forgot about his suicide.
People are so business-minded.
The master said, “Whatever you want, just say.”
He said, “I am a poor man, I cannot ask much – you suggest something. And I am going to commit suicide…”
So the master said, “You think it over – twenty thousand rupees.”
The man said, “Twenty thousand? My God, I never thought that I would have twenty thousand rupees.”
But the master said, “You can still think… I can even tell the king, ‘He needs twenty million.’ It all depends on you. The king wants the eyes at any price.”
The man said, “Twenty million? But then why should I commit suicide?”
The master said, “That is up to you, but living a life without eyes, even having twenty million rupees will not be so much joy.”
Just on the way toward the palace, the man started saying to the master, “I am having second thoughts.”
He said, “What second thoughts? Have you raised your price again?”
He said, “The price is not the question. I am thinking that twenty million just for two eyes – what about the ears, the nose, the teeth, my whole body? How much is the price of my whole body?”
The master said, “You can calculate; just for two eyes, twenty million…”
The man said, “I am not going to sell. I am going home.”
The master said, “What about suicide?”
He said, “I used to think you are a religious man. You are a murderer! You want me to commit suicide? Now for the first time I have recognized what existence has given to me – and I have not paid a single pai. These two eyes which have seen all kinds of beauty, these two ears which have heard all kinds of music, this life which has experienced so much – and I have not paid anything and I have not even said a thank-you.
“And suicide is nothing but the last complaint, the ugliest complaint against existence; you have given me so much and I am destroying it. Rather than being grateful, I am betraying. No, I cannot commit suicide and I cannot sell my eyes; they are priceless. You can tell the king that I cannot give my eyes even for the whole kingdom, although I am a beggar.”
Have you ever realized how much existence has given to you? No, you simply take it for granted, as if you deserve it, as if you have earned it.
You don’t deserve it. You have not earned it; it is a gift. It is a blessing; it is simply out of love that the existence has given you so much. And it is ready to give you much more. You are just not ready to take it.
Religion prevents you from being religious – sends you to the mosque, to the temple, to the church. It teaches you to pray to a hypothetical God that you have never met, that nobody has ever met. And the real temple is all around you – under the stars, under the green foliage of a tree, by the side of the ocean. The real temple is all around, and the real truth is nothing but the living, the alive, the conscious phenomenon in you.
Wherever there is life, wherever there is consciousness, there is godliness. And when you come to the ultimate experience of consciousness you become a god. Everybody’s birthright is to become a god – not to worship “God” but to become a god.
All the religions are preventing you. They don’t teach you non-ambitiousness, they teach you ambition, they teach you how to be virtuous so that you can reach paradise. They don’t teach you fearlessness, they teach you fear – that if you do certain things you will be thrown into hell and you will suffer for eternity. All the religions are basically an exploitation of humanity; they enslave you, they humiliate you, they call you sinners, they destroy your self-respect.
Religiousness is a humble gratefulness toward existence. And because existence has given so much to you there is a humble self-respect – but humble; it is not egoistic, you are not bragging about it.
It teaches you to love, it teaches you to be more alive, more playful, more celebrating. Your life should be a song and a dance and a festivity.
What is the need to belong to a crowd? All these things are your individual experiences; they don’t have anything to do with any crowd. You need not go to a church, you need not worship a God, you need not worship a book which is dead and full of all kinds of nonsense, stupidities, superstitions.
Religiousness is absolutely an individual phenomenon. It is not something to do with collectivity; you are not going to fight with somebody: “So, be united.” Mohammedans have to be united against Hindus, Hindus have to be united against Christians; Christians have to be united against Jews. These are not religions. These are insane crowds which want to do violence in the name of religion, in the name of God.
I have seen a few riots, and I could not believe: very nice people suddenly become like animals.
I knew a person who was a professor in the same university where I was teaching, I knew him as one of the nicest persons. But he was a Mohammedan, and when there was a riot among Hindus and Mohammedans, I saw that professor raping a woman. I could not believe it. I dragged the professor away. I said, “What are you doing?” He came back to his senses, as if he was doing it in a state of sleep.
He said, “I am sorry, just forgive me. The whole crowd was doing it and I simply became part of the crowd. I forgot my individuality completely, and the animal within me started doing things. First I was trembling, ‘I should not do it – what I am going to do is not right.’ But the animal is too strong and too ancient, and when the whole crowd was doing it…”
I have caught hold of people burning temples, burning mosques – people whom I knew – and I have dragged them away and asked them, “What are you doing? Can you do it alone? If there is no crowd, can you burn this mosque? What has this mosque done to you? It is a beautiful piece of architecture – why are you destroying it? It has not harmed anybody.”
And the man would say, “Alone? Alone I cannot do it. But everybody is doing it, and I am also a Hindu, and Hindus have to be united.” United for what? To kill, to burn people alive!
For thousands of years, religions have been just killing, murdering, burning. And their whole strategy is that the crowd has a psychology of its own. Just don’t let the individual stand aloof; otherwise you cannot make him rape a woman, burn a house, kill a child. Just let him be within the crowd and when everybody else is doing something he will start doing it, his animal will surface.
Once I was sitting in a bookstore and suddenly a riot… And just in front of me there was the most beautiful shop full of watches, clocks. And people started taking away watches and clocks. And one man, one old man was shouting loudly, “This is not right! If Hindus and Mohammedans are fighting, you can fight. But taking things from shops… I don’t see any religion in it.”
I was listening from the bookstore. Nobody was listening to the old man. I knew the old man; we used to meet on a morning walk once in a while and discuss things. He was a very nice man and had a very philosophical approach toward life. He was a Mohammedan, and it was a Mohammedan crowd which was destroying a Hindu shop. When the whole shop was looted there was only one big wall clock left. It was too big, so nobody took it out because he would be seen. Wherever he would go people would see – you would have to carry it on your back. The old man took the big clock.
I could not believe it. I had to come out of the store and I said, “Wait! What are you doing?”
He said, “What else can I do? They have taken everything; only this is left. So I said to myself, now what is the point? They did not listen to me – I tried my hardest to save the shop. And when I saw that all the watches and all the clocks were gone, suddenly a desire arose in me: what are you doing here standing like a fool? Just take this one and go home – and I am going.”
I said, “You are perfectly right. You have earned it. You have been shouting, you have been… You are not stealing – I am a witness. If any problem arises you can always name me. You have done your work, your religious work of teaching people. Nobody listened to you, and the man whose shop it was had escaped out of fear that he would be killed. Now it is just pure earnings. You have wasted your whole day, and in old age… Can I help you?”
He said, “Don’t make me feel ashamed. This clock is so big, and my house is so far away.”
I said, “Let me help you, otherwise… You are a Mohammedan, you may be caught by some Hindus. And nobody will believe that you have purchased this clock at this moment, when people are taking everything.”
He said, “You are right. Just do one thing: if you can call a taxi, it is too heavy.”
I said, “I will call a taxi.” I called a taxi. Meanwhile we were standing by the side of the road; many people gathered there to see what was happening. I said, “Nothing, there is no problem. He has earned it, he deserves it.”
He felt so ashamed that by the time the taxi arrived he said, “No, it is not right. Put it back, leave it, somebody else will take it away.”
I said, “Somebody else is going to take it away. It doesn’t matter who takes it away, just sit in the taxi and take it away.”
He said, “You are a strange man. You are supporting a Mohammedan.”
I said, “I am not a Hindu, not a Mohammedan. I simply see that in old age you have done enough work; you should be paid. Now there is nobody here to pay for it, you can just take it away.”
The next day when I saw him in the garden I said, “How is the clock working?”
He said, “I could not sleep the whole night. It makes such a tick-tock, tick-tock that it reminds me, ‘My God, I have stolen it – against all my philosophy and all my religious teachings.’ And I was advising people that this is not a reward, this is a punishment. And my wife was angry; she said, ‘You have become old but you are really an idiot. When people were taking beautiful wristwatches, you have brought this tick-tock. You cannot even sleep. Throw it out.’ So my wife has put it out in the garage and I have been thinking to somehow return it.”
I said, “That’s a good idea. Should I call a taxi? You should not go to return it. I will go, because you will be caught.”
So I had to go to return the clock. And the shopkeeper said, “But how did you get involved in it?”
I said, “It is a long story, but we could save only one – this big clock. About the others, I know who has taken them, I was watching. I can give you a few names if you can find them, but it will be very difficult. This was taken by an old man, and because his wife could not tolerate this tick-tock… He was coming himself but I said, ‘It is dangerous, there is still tension.’ So you just take it. But when the tension subsides, remember that old man; he has really tried his hardest, but finally the animal surfaced and when he saw that nobody was listening: ‘Only I am the loser, everybody is gaining something’ – just sheer economics.”
Religions are nothing but crowd psychology, mob psychology, and the mob is still in its animalhood. They are still not human beings. There are individual human beings, but there are no crowds which are human. The crowd immediately slips back and becomes unconscious.
So there is no problem for the individual to become religious. You just have to understand what religiousness means.
Be grateful to existence, enjoy the beautiful life that surrounds you.
Love – because tomorrow is not certain. Don’t postpone anything beautiful for tomorrow. Live intensely, live totally, here and now.
And there is no need to be a Mohammedan or a Hindu. And you will find a tremendous blissfulness arising. That is your paradise. Paradise is not some place, somewhere. It is a space within you.
Osho,
The only trust I know which is indestructible, is my trust in you. Since having left the commune, I can see that I have withdrawn my trust from all others. I feel that I would rather spend a thousand lives traveling alone than ever to allow others to have any say in what I do or feel – even if what they say is helpful. At the same time, I feel your light within my heart calling me constantly, and I am too thick to understand what you are saying. Please say a few words to me.
Trust should not be dependent on the trustworthiness of others. Trust should be a quality in you, not a relationship.
You trust somebody because he is trustworthy; this is not trust. There is no dignity in it, there is no glory in it. “He is trustworthy” – you have to trust him.
Trust as a quality; whether the other is trustworthy or not, whether the other deceives you or not, it should not make any difference in your trust. Your joy should be in trusting itself. It should be intrinsic; it should not be dependent on the other.
I have heard that a man was brought for the tenth time into court. The magistrate said, “You should be ashamed. You have been brought before me ten times. And just look at who you have cheated – the most innocent man in the town.”
The criminal said, “My lord, if I don’t cheat the innocent, then who am I going to cheat? The innocent are the easiest to cheat. What do you want me to do – cheat people who are not innocent?”
The magistrate said, “You seem to be very cunning, distorting what I am saying.”
The man said, “My lord, you said that I should be ashamed that I have been brought ten times before you in the court. This is not my fault. Tell these policemen, these idiots who go on catching me. I told them that the magistrate would feel ashamed. It is time that I should not be brought to the court, but nobody listens.”
If you are trusting, people are going to cheat you. And naturally, when a few people have cheated you, your trust in humanity disappears. That is very strange – five persons have cheated you, and five billion people on the earth lose your trust. You should just try to understand a little arithmetic. And the people who have cheated you, what can they gain? Perhaps some money, but if you can still trust them, you have gained something which no money can buy.
I used to travel in trains continually. Once, from Indore to Khandva, I had arrived and there was a one-hour gap before the other train that I had to catch for Mumbai. So I was sitting in the compartment alone – the other passengers had left; it was the terminus for that train. One man came, tears in his eyes. I said, “Don’t… Just wipe your tears. Just tell me the story.”
He said, “Story?”
I said, “Whatever it is – it may be real, unreal – just tell me the story.”
He said, “You are strange… My mother has died.”
I said, “I knew it.” I gave him one rupee.
He said, “I need it. I am very thankful. Nobody gives nowadays.”
He went away, but he thought, “This man seems to be very gullible. He gave me one rupee without inquiring in detail.” He simply put on a coat and a cap, and came back again. I said, “Where are the tears?”
He said, “What tears?”
I said, “You are another person, but what is the story?”
He said again, “My father has died.”
I said, “You take one rupee, because I give one rupee to anybody who brings a story – mother died, father died… Soon somebody will come and his wife has died, somebody will come and his child has died. There is one hour’s time, and I have enough money for one hour. Just go, go fast!”
He said, “Why fast?”
I said, “You will have to change clothes. Just go.”
He said, “My God, have you recognized me?”
I said, “No, I have not recognized you. How can I recognize you? The cap, the coat, so new! I have never before seen you in the coat, in the cap. And your relatives are dying so fast, just go.”
The third time he hesitated to come, but greed is such that he could not resist his temptation. He put away his coat, his shirt; he came just with a lungi on.
I said, “That is great, that fits. It is so hot that I was worried – shirt and coat and cap. Now who has died?”
He said, “My God, it is strange, but a very unfortunate day. You were right, my wife died.”
I said, “Take one rupee. Go home and find out if somebody else has died. And no need to come naked, you can just go on wearing the lungi, otherwise the police may catch hold of you and you might be in trouble. And I will be in trouble.”
He said, “Why will you be in trouble?”
“Because I am here waiting for you, waiting and waiting. If you are caught by the police it will be a real anxiety to me: ‘What happened to the poor guy?’ So many people have died, and I have not even asked your name; otherwise I could come to your home. But remember not to die yourself. Otherwise who is going to come for the rupee?”
He was really shocked. The fourth time he came with four rupees, saying, “You take them back, I cannot accept them.”
I said, “But what happened? What will happen to your father, your mother, your wife – they have all died. You can take more if you want, if it is not enough.”
He said, “Nobody has died. This is just my profession – I cheat people. But I cannot cheat you.”
I said, “Why can’t you cheat me? I am so available to be cheated. I am just sitting here; there is no other business except to be cheated. You need not take such a long time, just go around the railway station and come back, take one rupee. No need from now onward to tell me any story. Just come with your hand out, I will understand that somebody has died.”
He said, “No, this is… Nobody has died; everybody is alive. You just accept your rupees back.”
I said, “But why are you feeling so guilty? There is no problem; I am enjoying the game. Sitting here, there is nothing else to do. And you are bringing such entertainment – one rupee is not bad.”
But he would not accept; he said, “Nobody has ever trusted me, and you are either just crazy or I don’t know what, but you go on trusting. Do you really believe that my wife is dead?”
I said, “I really believe it, because man is mortal, people die. Your wife is not immortal. Don’t be afraid – she will die. If she has not died today, tomorrow she will die. Keep the rupee with you; perhaps you are telling the story a little ahead of time.”
He said, “I will not take any money from you, and from today I will stop this business of telling lies to people. The whole day I have to say, ‘My father has died, my mother has died.’ Sometimes in one day my wife dies twelve times. Only you are the first person who has believed me, and is ready to believe.”
I said, “Simply go and count all the people who are alive in your house and who are dead. For the dead you have already taken; for the alive you can more take rupees. Someday they will die and then you may not be able to find me because I am here for only one hour and then I will be gone.”
I used to pass Khandva continually, because it is a junction going to Nagpur, going to Indore, going to Jabalpur, going to Mumbai – and that man would always come with some fruits, some flowers.
And I would say, “This is not right, you are poor.”
He would say, “I am poor, but not so poor that I can’t see that you cannot insult me. You cannot insult a human being, you cannot distrust. And what can I take from you? A few rupees, but I cannot take your trust in humanity.”
And to be trusting in humanity is such a joy. It is part of being religious.
You say you trust me, you say you trust only me. That is not enough; that is a very poor trust. When you can have an ocean of trust, you are taking a drop of trust.
Trust everybody, including those who cheat you. They have their difficulties; they have their problems.
Mulla Nasruddin was sleeping just on the veranda of his house with the doors open. A thief entered. At first he was a little hesitant – because people don’t keep their doors open in the night. A strange house, but he entered. And when he saw that somebody was lying on a blanket, he went in. It was dark.
Nasruddin followed him, lit a candle. The thief was very much shocked, tried to escape – but Nasruddin was standing at the door. He said, “Don’t escape, I have just come to help you.”
He said, “What help? I am a thief.”
Nasruddin said, “That’s perfect. I needed a thief. For thirty years I have been living in this house and I have not found anything. I wanted an expert. Now you try; I will help you. And whatever we can find, half and half, fifty-fifty.”
The man said, “You are a strange fellow. For thirty years you have not found anything?”
He said, “No, I have not found anything. But I am not an expert; you are an expert. And you were trying in darkness! I thought you might fall, might stumble; something might go wrong, some accident might happen. And I know this house; it is utterly empty. But one more try with an expert… I am feeling very enthusiastic. Just go on!”
They looked. They could not find anything. They came out. The thief had left a big bag outside the house full of things, which he had stolen from the other neighbors. Nasruddin threw his blanket also on the bag.
The thief said, “What are you doing?”
He said, “Nothing. I am coming with you. What is the meaning of living in this house? Wherever you are going, I am coming with you.”
The man said, “You are a strange fellow. I cannot take you with me.”
Nasruddin said, “Then fifty-fifty: just the agreement, remember?”
The man said, “We have not found these things in your house!”
Nasruddin said, “You have found this bag just in front of my house. Open the bag – fifty-fifty.”
The thief said, “My God, I have brought those things from your neighbors.”
Nasruddin said, “That will not do. Either you have to take me with you, and I will be living with you in your house and you will have to take care of me, because you have looted, cheated, everything; or fifty-fifty. And from tomorrow night, remember: be watchful. If I find you anywhere doing business, fifty-fifty, that is decided.”
The man said, “You can take all of it, but please cancel the agreement.”
Nasruddin said, “No, that is not right. I will cancel the agreement if you don’t want the agreement, but you put all these things into my house. In the morning I will distribute them to the neighbors. Never come to this neighborhood, otherwise the agreement.”
The thief said, “I have been stealing my whole life. I have never stolen in a house where you have to make agreements with the owner of the house.”
Nasruddin said, “I trust. I never keep my doors closed; that is just an invitation for thieves. You are not new, this happens almost every day. This is how I make my living – fifty-fifty. You are not the only thief. In this city there is no thief who does not have an agreement with me, and they are trustworthy people. Even though they steal in other places, they bring fifty percent to me, knowing perfectly well that an agreement is an agreement; a man should stick to his promise.”
Today the world is not of those old days when people used to stick to their promises. On every step you will find people breaking promises, going against their word, cheating you when you trusted them. But what can they cheat? Just material things! If you lose trust, then certainly they have destroyed you. Trust is nonmaterial, it is spiritual.
If you trust me, and if you feel happy with it, then trust the whole world. These five billion people have not cheated you, these millions of stars have not cheated you, these trees and oceans and rivers have not cheated you. Just a few people may have cheated you – and because of those few people you are going to distrust existence? This will be a loss. You will be losing your own beautiful quality.
I am in favor of trust as a quality, not as a relationship. Don’t make it dependent on the other person, on what he does. You trust him because he is human. And human beings have their weaknesses, their frailties, their limitations; you trust them in spite of all their weaknesses, all their frailties, all their limitations. This trust will become a solid rock within you, a foundation of a new being, of a new life. And perhaps if you had that solid foundation, even those people who have been cheating you may not be able to cheat you. Just your very being…
I was asleep in the train, and there was only one other person. I was in the upper berth. In the middle of the night the person was getting out of the train. It was a beautiful chance, because all my luggage was on the floor and he saw that I was asleep. So he told his servants to take everything. Just my money was in a pocketbook.
So when he had taken everything out, I said, “Wait!”
So he said, “Are you awake?”
I said, “I have been awake all the time. You have taken everything; just this pocketbook is left with the money I have. Take this too. Always do everything totally.”
He said, “My God!” He said to his servants, “Bring his things back, he is dangerous.”
The stationmaster came running, and the driver and the conductor, “What is the matter?” And the man was trembling in case I told them that he was stealing everything.
I said, “It is nothing. Just by mistake he has taken everything out. His mistake was not complete, and I am against things which are not complete. So I was giving my money to him, telling him, ‘Take this too, so everything is complete.’”
They said, “Should we catch hold of this man and give him to the police?”
I said, “No, because he is a nice fellow. He didn’t accept the money and he has brought all the things back.”
He was in such a nervous state that he left one of his bags also with me. I had to send his bag back from the next station, telling them, “Find this man.” At least there was a name on the bag – “So find him.” He was really a good man. He got so nervous – perhaps it was his first effort to steal things.
But human beings are human beings. What was he doing? Just taking a few things which don’t belong to me. Nothing belongs to anybody, but trust belongs to you.
Things don’t belong to you, so let your trust be as cosmic as possible.
Is this a question, a realization, or a declaration? Something beyond forces me to put this on paper; though I am writing this, the words are not mine.
It is past midnight, about five o'clock on the full moonlight night of the Indian month known as “Bhadra the Thursday,” the Guruvar master's day in Indian language. I am in Vipassana meditation. As my eyes open, a dazzling light brightens the room. I cannot keep my eyes open, as the light is too dazzling.
After a few minutes, I can open my eyes and I become quite aware. Two figures are standing before me: one is beloved Osho with folded hands and that gentle, beautiful smile; and the other is Gautam Buddha in gyan mudra. It is Buddha's third body. He looks at beloved Osho, and after a few moments he touches the feet of Osho and merges with his body, smilingly. I hear him saying: “I have fulfilled my promise. I was to come as Maitreya after two thousand five hundred years, and I have come. If you have eyes, you will see me; if you have ears you will hear me; if you have a heart you will feel and recognize me. My third body I had kept in existence to rebirth, to help whoever wanted my help. With due respect and adoration, I have to state that I could have merged with Krishnamurtiji, but due to his insistence on being original I could not merge and help individuals through him. I was hopeful, as he was especially prepared for my appearance – but he was adamant. His body suffered a lot due to his resistance to accepting me. He preferred and chose ceaseless pain and suffering for this.
My third body now cannot remain in existence if it is not accepted for rebirth or merging. The time I had decided for it is coming close to an end so I cannot wait any longer, and hence I am merging my third body with Osho's energy without disturbing his individuality. He is like an ocean; many small and big rivers merge with it, but still the ocean remains, unperturbed. Its identity remains as an ocean without any change. In him, all enlightenments – past, present and future – have become alive and active; a unique event that has not happened before, nor will it happen again. Osho is total acceptance, total emptiness, total nothingness, and unbounded compassion. He is both purna and shunya incarnated. From my third body, I address him as ‘Osho,' but from now onward he will not be only ‘Osho,' he will be ‘Osho, the Buddha Lord Maitreya' – a buddha, a true friend to all. Thus saying, Buddha's third body merged with our beloved, beautiful Osho. Osho's radiance was increasing and filled the whole universe.
I remember the prophecy of Lama Karmapa, who had predicted this event, but had asked me not to talk about the event till it happened. Now it has happened and flowers have showered. So let it be known to all, let it be shouted from the rooftops that Osho, the Buddha Lord Maitreya, is here; Buddha has fulfilled his promise.
The light was fading, the full moon was setting slowly in the West with its cool, silent fading light; and in the East the new sun was rising with a light orange glow, silently bringing a new day, and with it a new journey. Beloved, beautiful Osho slowly, slowly disappeared with a gentle smile and folded hands, leaving me in that gentle morning light with a heart full of gratitude and eyes full of tears.
Osho, I bow down to you, announcing to the world that Osho, the Buddha Lord Maitreya, is here and the flowers have showered. To date, masters have declared themselves, but today a disciple declares with gratitude that the master, the buddha, a real friend, has come with a new radiance to help all. Osho, I have nothing to offer – not even a flower – and yet I offer everything. Thus, something is given and something is taken.
Oh beloved sannyasins, devotees and friends who are present here, you are the blessed ones – to hear this declaration and witness this unique event. Oh sannyasins, rejoice, celebrate and sing, “Buddham sharanam gachchhami; sangham sharanam gachchhami; dhammam sharanam gachchhami.”
Osho, I was reluctant to write this to you, but something unknown forces me to write to you. I do not know whether this is right to do or not. Will you please comment on the event?
Govind Siddharth, it is not a question. It is a realization, and it is a declaration.
Whatever you have experienced was not a dream. Your whole life may have been a dream, but this experience is absolute reality. That’s why you felt an unknown force compelling you to declare it. You had to declare it – it is impossible to hide the truth.
It has not only happened to you alone; there are two other persons present here to whom the same experience has happened at the same time. They are also hesitating whether to declare it or not. The hesitation is natural, because the declaration is so big and you feel so small, but you cannot keep it within you. It is just like a pregnant woman – how long can she hide that she is pregnant? One day she is going to give birth to a child.
Every truth is a living experience. And the very nature of life is expression, expansion, declaration. Each flower declares it, each morning the sun declares it, each night millions of stars declare it. Of course their language of declaration is different – a flower declares it by its fragrance, the star declares it by its light, the moon declares it by its beauty.
But truth, beauty, good… These three – satyam, shivam, sundram – are the basic, the fundamental trinity of existence. You cannot hide them.
One feels embarrassed – how to say it? And to say it in a world which is skeptical, in a world where people are deaf as far as truth is concerned, where people are blind as far as beauty is concerned, where people don’t have hearts as far as feeling, sensitivity is concerned… One feels alone to declare such a thing.
But it is not out of egoism – you cannot declare such a thing out of egoism because the ego will feel very embarrassed, and ego does not like to feel embarrassed. It is out of humbleness that one declares such experiences.
I was waiting. Who, out of those three persons, is going to declare it first? Govind Siddharth has proved really humble, courageous. Whatever he is saying, he has seen it – not in sleep, not in dream.
It is true that J. Krishnamurti was prepared for exactly this phenomenon.
Gautam Buddha had promised that after twenty-five centuries he would be coming as Lord Maitreya. Maitreya means “the friend.” Of course his own body was burned, and could not be kept for twenty-five centuries; the technology was not yet developed. Now it is possible. There are ten bodies in the world which are being kept. They are dead, it is very expensive to keep them, but those people were very rich people and they have willed that their bodies should be kept – because science is saying that within ten or twelve years, at the most twelve, we will be able to revive dead bodies. These rich people have allowed their bodies to be kept, so that when the technology is ready to revive them, they can be revived back to life again.
Gautam Buddha had to use a totally different kind of technology – not scientific but occult. The physical body died, but there are other bodies within this body which don’t die, and he has lived with his third body. He cannot be born through a womb; that is impossible, that is against the nature of things. Once you are enlightened you cannot be born through the natural process, through a womb.
It is his compassion. No one before him has ever tried. Perhaps no one before him had such compassion.
The story is that Gautam Buddha reaches the door of nirvana – and once you enter the door you disappear into the universe. The doors are opened, the doorkeeper welcomes him. But he refuses to enter the door and says, “I will stay here outside the door, because millions of my fellow-travelers are groping in the dark. I will try in every possible way to help them. Unless every living being has passed through the door, I will wait. I am going to be the last.”
This is not just a parable, not just a fictitious story, but something absolutely factual in the world of mysticism. It is not factual in the world of matter, it is factual in the world of the spirit.
J. Krishnamurti was prepared by very learned scholars who had found in all the scriptures – Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, Indian – the promise of Buddha that after twenty-five centuries he would be coming back: “I will find a way. I cannot come through a womb but I can enter into a living being, can merge my soul with his soul.” When the theosophists found this, they started searching for somebody who could be prepared – in purity, in discipline, in meditation, consciously – so that he can become a vehicle of Lord Maitreya.
They worked really hard on J. Krishnamurti. He was not the only one they worked on. They had chosen at least five children of immense intelligence, and they worked on all five. One of the five was Nityananda, Krishnamurti’s elder brother. He died; he died because of too much arduous discipline. He was immensely intelligent. He would have become a great scientist, a great philosopher, but he was not meant to become a great mystic – and perhaps not a vehicle of Gautam Buddha.
Training those five – and when Nityananda died, the four – slowly it became clear that Krishnamurti was the best out of the four. One was Raj Gopal, who was made personal secretary to J. Krishnamurti. And he betrayed J. Krishnamurti because he carried that resentment for his whole life. He was chosen for the same purpose, and finally he was just made a personal private secretary. He was angry, resentful, but he didn’t show it.
He was the managing trustee of all the properties that belonged to the organization which was created for Krishnamurti – its name was “The Star of the East.” The royalties for all of Krishnamurti’s books were going to Raj Gopal. And just five years ago, he simply betrayed J. Krishnamurti. He simply said, “You have nothing to do with the organization, the money, the books, the royalties.” At the age of eighty-five, Krishnamurti had to begin again from ABC.
This man, Raj Gopal, must have had tremendous patience, because for sixty years he kept the resentment repressed in himself, waiting for the right moment when Krishnamurti was so old that he could not do anything. At that moment he would desert him. He took away all the assets of The Krishnamurti Foundation – he was the head of the foundation – and Krishnamurti was left, at the age of eighty-five, just a beggar.
Another boy who was trained was a German. Seeing that he was not going to be chosen, he behaved just like a German: he created a new organization and revolted against the theosophical movement, created a split in the movement, and the German section of the theosophical society became a separate party. He became the leader of it, hoping that he would compete with J. Krishnamurti, not understanding at all that these matters are not of competition.
Krishnamurti himself, after years of training and discipline, rather than becoming pure, rather than becoming a right vehicle, became so hateful toward all the ringleaders who were torturing him – telling him to fast, telling him to wake up early in the morning at three o’clock, have a cold bath at three o’clock – with all good intentions, but they never realized the fact that you cannot make anybody a Gautam Buddha. It is not a question of training. However good the intentions are, the result is going to be a disaster.
When Krishnamurti reached the age of twenty-five, they gathered the chief leaders of the theosophical movement in Holland, where Krishnamurti was going to declare that Gautam Buddha had entered into him and he has become the world teacher.
But he was a sincere man. Gautam Buddha did not enter. If he had been a man like the pope or Ayatollah Khomeini he could have said, “Yes, Gautam Buddha has entered in me and I am the world teacher.” But he refused. He said, “No Gautam Buddha has entered in me, and I am not the world teacher. Not only that, I am not going to be a teacher at all.”
It was such a shock to the six thousand leaders of the movement who had come from all over the world, they could not believe it. They had prepared this man, they had fought for this man in the courts, they had done everything that was possible to give him the best education. He never gave an indication that he was unwilling. And at the last moment, when he stood up, he declared, “I dissolve the organization: The Star of the East. I am not the world teacher.” It was a reaction. You cannot force anybody into paradise. A forced paradise will become hell, because the basic element of freedom is missing.
Gautam Buddha’s third body has been hovering around the world to find someone to become a vehicle, so that whatever he said twenty-five centuries ago can be updated, resurrected, made fit for the modern man – for the new man who is going to be born. In twenty-five centuries so much dust has gathered that unless something absolutely fresh begins…
There are millions of Buddhists, there are thousands of great Buddhist monks; it looks simply absurd that he should not choose a vehicle from these people. It will be just natural and logical to choose a Dalai Lama or a great Buddhist monk, learned.
But you have to remember – that is one of my basic emphases – that these people cannot be chosen, because they are still hanging onto the Buddha that was twenty-five centuries ago. To choose them as vehicles is just meaningless; they will be repeating the same.
I love Gautam Buddha as I have not loved any other master, but my love is not blind. I have criticized him as severely as possible. I have praised him when I have found him right – right for today, right for tomorrow, right for the new humanity to come. And I have criticized him severely whenever I have found that he is twenty-five centuries old, still carrying conditionings, rotten ideas which are of no use to the new man, but will be a great hindrance.
Govind Siddharth must have been puzzled seeing what he has seen, because I would appear to be the last man that Gautam Buddha would choose to be a vehicle. But this is the beauty of Gautam Buddha: he understands that the message has to be for the present and for the future, that he needs an absolutely fresh being – unattached to any old tradition, his tradition included – a man absolutely untraditional, unorthodox. A man of today, as fresh as today’s rose – even if the man goes many times against the teachings of the old Buddha.
I was not going to declare it for the simple reason that then it would become difficult for me to criticize the old man. So I was keeping completely aloof, so that my freedom and my independence are not in any way curtailed.
I have my own message. If Gautam Buddha finds that my message has the essentials of his message too, then it is his choice. It is not a burden on me. I will go on criticizing him whenever I find anything that is not right for human growth in the future.
But Govind Siddharth’s difficulty was that he could not keep it a secret. One of the most difficult things in the world is to keep a secret – and such a secret!
But I will remain exactly as I am – no compromise. Gautam Buddha and all the masters of the past can choose me as their vehicles, but I will not allow any pollution. My message will remain my message.
Yes, they can. But Govind Siddharth says it rightly: the river can fall into the ocean; thousands of rivers can fall into the ocean – they don’t make the ocean sweet. They themselves become salty.
Gautam Buddha chose me as his vehicle because now it was difficult to keep hanging around in his third body any longer. Twenty-five centuries have passed; in fact a few more years have passed. He had to choose, but he has chosen a person who has his own message. It will surely be beautiful if it coincides with his essentials, but if it does not coincide, then I am going to be as hard on him as I have been before. It will not make any difference. I am not going to be his voice, I am going to remain my voice.
But what Govind Siddharth has seen is a tremendous experience, a great realization.
There are two more persons present here – if they gather courage, then their questions will be coming. If they cannot gather courage, then they will always remain burdened with a secret. It is better to bring it in the open and be free of it – and anyway, it is in the open; Govind Siddharth has done almost ninety-nine point nine percent of the work. Nothing is left for you.
Anybody who has been close to me has felt it many times, that I bring Gautam Buddha, his life, his stories, more than those of anybody else to illustrate some of my ideas. Gautam Buddha comes very close to me. The difference is not of twenty-five centuries – maybe only twenty-five centimeters – but the difference is there.
I am not a person who compromises. I will not be compromising with Gautam Buddha either, but whatever is ultimate truth is nobody’s possession, neither Gautam Buddha’s nor mine. Only the nonessentials are different; the essential is always the same. And my effort is to cut all nonessentials and give you only the pure, essential message, because only the essential religion is going to survive in the future. The nonessential rituals are all going to be dead. With this century ending, there will be a religiousness in the world but no religions.
Perhaps he has chosen a right man. And he has also chosen a right man in Govind Siddharth to declare the fact. I was not going to declare it, because declaration from my side brings a certain compromise, as if I have become a vehicle of somebody else’s message.
I am nobody’s vehicle. In fact my message and Gautam Buddha’s message are almost parallel – so parallel, so similar, that it can be said that he was my vehicle or it can be said that I am his vehicle. But it is not going to change my approach in any way. Now I will be even harder on Gautam Buddha, so that only the most essential and the purest part of him reaches to humanity in the future.
Osho,
How can the master help the disciple to live religiousness without religion?
It is the most simple thing in the world.
Vice versa is the most difficult – to be religious and to be part of an organized religion is almost impossible. But just to be religious, without being part of any religion, is the simplest thing.
You have to understand what I mean by religiousness: by religiousness I mean gratitude toward existence. It has given so much to you, and you cannot pay it back.
I have heard…
A man was going to commit suicide and a master was sitting on the riverbank from where this man was going to take the jump. He said, “Wait just a moment! Wait! Are you going to commit suicide?”
The man said, “But who are you to prevent me?”
The master said, “I am not preventing you. In fact I would love for you to commit suicide, but before committing it, if you can give both your eyes – because the king of this country has gone blind. And the doctors say if somebody can donate their eyes – not the eyes of a dead person, but a living person – then those eyes can be transplanted and the king will be able to see again. And whatever you want as a reward, as a prize, you say it and it is yours. So just before committing suicide, why not do a little business?”
The man said, “How much will he give?” He forgot about his suicide.
People are so business-minded.
The master said, “Whatever you want, just say.”
He said, “I am a poor man, I cannot ask much – you suggest something. And I am going to commit suicide…”
So the master said, “You think it over – twenty thousand rupees.”
The man said, “Twenty thousand? My God, I never thought that I would have twenty thousand rupees.”
But the master said, “You can still think… I can even tell the king, ‘He needs twenty million.’ It all depends on you. The king wants the eyes at any price.”
The man said, “Twenty million? But then why should I commit suicide?”
The master said, “That is up to you, but living a life without eyes, even having twenty million rupees will not be so much joy.”
Just on the way toward the palace, the man started saying to the master, “I am having second thoughts.”
He said, “What second thoughts? Have you raised your price again?”
He said, “The price is not the question. I am thinking that twenty million just for two eyes – what about the ears, the nose, the teeth, my whole body? How much is the price of my whole body?”
The master said, “You can calculate; just for two eyes, twenty million…”
The man said, “I am not going to sell. I am going home.”
The master said, “What about suicide?”
He said, “I used to think you are a religious man. You are a murderer! You want me to commit suicide? Now for the first time I have recognized what existence has given to me – and I have not paid a single pai. These two eyes which have seen all kinds of beauty, these two ears which have heard all kinds of music, this life which has experienced so much – and I have not paid anything and I have not even said a thank-you.
“And suicide is nothing but the last complaint, the ugliest complaint against existence; you have given me so much and I am destroying it. Rather than being grateful, I am betraying. No, I cannot commit suicide and I cannot sell my eyes; they are priceless. You can tell the king that I cannot give my eyes even for the whole kingdom, although I am a beggar.”
Have you ever realized how much existence has given to you? No, you simply take it for granted, as if you deserve it, as if you have earned it.
You don’t deserve it. You have not earned it; it is a gift. It is a blessing; it is simply out of love that the existence has given you so much. And it is ready to give you much more. You are just not ready to take it.
Religion prevents you from being religious – sends you to the mosque, to the temple, to the church. It teaches you to pray to a hypothetical God that you have never met, that nobody has ever met. And the real temple is all around you – under the stars, under the green foliage of a tree, by the side of the ocean. The real temple is all around, and the real truth is nothing but the living, the alive, the conscious phenomenon in you.
Wherever there is life, wherever there is consciousness, there is godliness. And when you come to the ultimate experience of consciousness you become a god. Everybody’s birthright is to become a god – not to worship “God” but to become a god.
All the religions are preventing you. They don’t teach you non-ambitiousness, they teach you ambition, they teach you how to be virtuous so that you can reach paradise. They don’t teach you fearlessness, they teach you fear – that if you do certain things you will be thrown into hell and you will suffer for eternity. All the religions are basically an exploitation of humanity; they enslave you, they humiliate you, they call you sinners, they destroy your self-respect.
Religiousness is a humble gratefulness toward existence. And because existence has given so much to you there is a humble self-respect – but humble; it is not egoistic, you are not bragging about it.
It teaches you to love, it teaches you to be more alive, more playful, more celebrating. Your life should be a song and a dance and a festivity.
What is the need to belong to a crowd? All these things are your individual experiences; they don’t have anything to do with any crowd. You need not go to a church, you need not worship a God, you need not worship a book which is dead and full of all kinds of nonsense, stupidities, superstitions.
Religiousness is absolutely an individual phenomenon. It is not something to do with collectivity; you are not going to fight with somebody: “So, be united.” Mohammedans have to be united against Hindus, Hindus have to be united against Christians; Christians have to be united against Jews. These are not religions. These are insane crowds which want to do violence in the name of religion, in the name of God.
I have seen a few riots, and I could not believe: very nice people suddenly become like animals.
I knew a person who was a professor in the same university where I was teaching, I knew him as one of the nicest persons. But he was a Mohammedan, and when there was a riot among Hindus and Mohammedans, I saw that professor raping a woman. I could not believe it. I dragged the professor away. I said, “What are you doing?” He came back to his senses, as if he was doing it in a state of sleep.
He said, “I am sorry, just forgive me. The whole crowd was doing it and I simply became part of the crowd. I forgot my individuality completely, and the animal within me started doing things. First I was trembling, ‘I should not do it – what I am going to do is not right.’ But the animal is too strong and too ancient, and when the whole crowd was doing it…”
I have caught hold of people burning temples, burning mosques – people whom I knew – and I have dragged them away and asked them, “What are you doing? Can you do it alone? If there is no crowd, can you burn this mosque? What has this mosque done to you? It is a beautiful piece of architecture – why are you destroying it? It has not harmed anybody.”
And the man would say, “Alone? Alone I cannot do it. But everybody is doing it, and I am also a Hindu, and Hindus have to be united.” United for what? To kill, to burn people alive!
For thousands of years, religions have been just killing, murdering, burning. And their whole strategy is that the crowd has a psychology of its own. Just don’t let the individual stand aloof; otherwise you cannot make him rape a woman, burn a house, kill a child. Just let him be within the crowd and when everybody else is doing something he will start doing it, his animal will surface.
Once I was sitting in a bookstore and suddenly a riot… And just in front of me there was the most beautiful shop full of watches, clocks. And people started taking away watches and clocks. And one man, one old man was shouting loudly, “This is not right! If Hindus and Mohammedans are fighting, you can fight. But taking things from shops… I don’t see any religion in it.”
I was listening from the bookstore. Nobody was listening to the old man. I knew the old man; we used to meet on a morning walk once in a while and discuss things. He was a very nice man and had a very philosophical approach toward life. He was a Mohammedan, and it was a Mohammedan crowd which was destroying a Hindu shop. When the whole shop was looted there was only one big wall clock left. It was too big, so nobody took it out because he would be seen. Wherever he would go people would see – you would have to carry it on your back. The old man took the big clock.
I could not believe it. I had to come out of the store and I said, “Wait! What are you doing?”
He said, “What else can I do? They have taken everything; only this is left. So I said to myself, now what is the point? They did not listen to me – I tried my hardest to save the shop. And when I saw that all the watches and all the clocks were gone, suddenly a desire arose in me: what are you doing here standing like a fool? Just take this one and go home – and I am going.”
I said, “You are perfectly right. You have earned it. You have been shouting, you have been… You are not stealing – I am a witness. If any problem arises you can always name me. You have done your work, your religious work of teaching people. Nobody listened to you, and the man whose shop it was had escaped out of fear that he would be killed. Now it is just pure earnings. You have wasted your whole day, and in old age… Can I help you?”
He said, “Don’t make me feel ashamed. This clock is so big, and my house is so far away.”
I said, “Let me help you, otherwise… You are a Mohammedan, you may be caught by some Hindus. And nobody will believe that you have purchased this clock at this moment, when people are taking everything.”
He said, “You are right. Just do one thing: if you can call a taxi, it is too heavy.”
I said, “I will call a taxi.” I called a taxi. Meanwhile we were standing by the side of the road; many people gathered there to see what was happening. I said, “Nothing, there is no problem. He has earned it, he deserves it.”
He felt so ashamed that by the time the taxi arrived he said, “No, it is not right. Put it back, leave it, somebody else will take it away.”
I said, “Somebody else is going to take it away. It doesn’t matter who takes it away, just sit in the taxi and take it away.”
He said, “You are a strange man. You are supporting a Mohammedan.”
I said, “I am not a Hindu, not a Mohammedan. I simply see that in old age you have done enough work; you should be paid. Now there is nobody here to pay for it, you can just take it away.”
The next day when I saw him in the garden I said, “How is the clock working?”
He said, “I could not sleep the whole night. It makes such a tick-tock, tick-tock that it reminds me, ‘My God, I have stolen it – against all my philosophy and all my religious teachings.’ And I was advising people that this is not a reward, this is a punishment. And my wife was angry; she said, ‘You have become old but you are really an idiot. When people were taking beautiful wristwatches, you have brought this tick-tock. You cannot even sleep. Throw it out.’ So my wife has put it out in the garage and I have been thinking to somehow return it.”
I said, “That’s a good idea. Should I call a taxi? You should not go to return it. I will go, because you will be caught.”
So I had to go to return the clock. And the shopkeeper said, “But how did you get involved in it?”
I said, “It is a long story, but we could save only one – this big clock. About the others, I know who has taken them, I was watching. I can give you a few names if you can find them, but it will be very difficult. This was taken by an old man, and because his wife could not tolerate this tick-tock… He was coming himself but I said, ‘It is dangerous, there is still tension.’ So you just take it. But when the tension subsides, remember that old man; he has really tried his hardest, but finally the animal surfaced and when he saw that nobody was listening: ‘Only I am the loser, everybody is gaining something’ – just sheer economics.”
Religions are nothing but crowd psychology, mob psychology, and the mob is still in its animalhood. They are still not human beings. There are individual human beings, but there are no crowds which are human. The crowd immediately slips back and becomes unconscious.
So there is no problem for the individual to become religious. You just have to understand what religiousness means.
Be grateful to existence, enjoy the beautiful life that surrounds you.
Love – because tomorrow is not certain. Don’t postpone anything beautiful for tomorrow. Live intensely, live totally, here and now.
And there is no need to be a Mohammedan or a Hindu. And you will find a tremendous blissfulness arising. That is your paradise. Paradise is not some place, somewhere. It is a space within you.
Osho,
The only trust I know which is indestructible, is my trust in you. Since having left the commune, I can see that I have withdrawn my trust from all others. I feel that I would rather spend a thousand lives traveling alone than ever to allow others to have any say in what I do or feel – even if what they say is helpful. At the same time, I feel your light within my heart calling me constantly, and I am too thick to understand what you are saying. Please say a few words to me.
Trust should not be dependent on the trustworthiness of others. Trust should be a quality in you, not a relationship.
You trust somebody because he is trustworthy; this is not trust. There is no dignity in it, there is no glory in it. “He is trustworthy” – you have to trust him.
Trust as a quality; whether the other is trustworthy or not, whether the other deceives you or not, it should not make any difference in your trust. Your joy should be in trusting itself. It should be intrinsic; it should not be dependent on the other.
I have heard that a man was brought for the tenth time into court. The magistrate said, “You should be ashamed. You have been brought before me ten times. And just look at who you have cheated – the most innocent man in the town.”
The criminal said, “My lord, if I don’t cheat the innocent, then who am I going to cheat? The innocent are the easiest to cheat. What do you want me to do – cheat people who are not innocent?”
The magistrate said, “You seem to be very cunning, distorting what I am saying.”
The man said, “My lord, you said that I should be ashamed that I have been brought ten times before you in the court. This is not my fault. Tell these policemen, these idiots who go on catching me. I told them that the magistrate would feel ashamed. It is time that I should not be brought to the court, but nobody listens.”
If you are trusting, people are going to cheat you. And naturally, when a few people have cheated you, your trust in humanity disappears. That is very strange – five persons have cheated you, and five billion people on the earth lose your trust. You should just try to understand a little arithmetic. And the people who have cheated you, what can they gain? Perhaps some money, but if you can still trust them, you have gained something which no money can buy.
I used to travel in trains continually. Once, from Indore to Khandva, I had arrived and there was a one-hour gap before the other train that I had to catch for Mumbai. So I was sitting in the compartment alone – the other passengers had left; it was the terminus for that train. One man came, tears in his eyes. I said, “Don’t… Just wipe your tears. Just tell me the story.”
He said, “Story?”
I said, “Whatever it is – it may be real, unreal – just tell me the story.”
He said, “You are strange… My mother has died.”
I said, “I knew it.” I gave him one rupee.
He said, “I need it. I am very thankful. Nobody gives nowadays.”
He went away, but he thought, “This man seems to be very gullible. He gave me one rupee without inquiring in detail.” He simply put on a coat and a cap, and came back again. I said, “Where are the tears?”
He said, “What tears?”
I said, “You are another person, but what is the story?”
He said again, “My father has died.”
I said, “You take one rupee, because I give one rupee to anybody who brings a story – mother died, father died… Soon somebody will come and his wife has died, somebody will come and his child has died. There is one hour’s time, and I have enough money for one hour. Just go, go fast!”
He said, “Why fast?”
I said, “You will have to change clothes. Just go.”
He said, “My God, have you recognized me?”
I said, “No, I have not recognized you. How can I recognize you? The cap, the coat, so new! I have never before seen you in the coat, in the cap. And your relatives are dying so fast, just go.”
The third time he hesitated to come, but greed is such that he could not resist his temptation. He put away his coat, his shirt; he came just with a lungi on.
I said, “That is great, that fits. It is so hot that I was worried – shirt and coat and cap. Now who has died?”
He said, “My God, it is strange, but a very unfortunate day. You were right, my wife died.”
I said, “Take one rupee. Go home and find out if somebody else has died. And no need to come naked, you can just go on wearing the lungi, otherwise the police may catch hold of you and you might be in trouble. And I will be in trouble.”
He said, “Why will you be in trouble?”
“Because I am here waiting for you, waiting and waiting. If you are caught by the police it will be a real anxiety to me: ‘What happened to the poor guy?’ So many people have died, and I have not even asked your name; otherwise I could come to your home. But remember not to die yourself. Otherwise who is going to come for the rupee?”
He was really shocked. The fourth time he came with four rupees, saying, “You take them back, I cannot accept them.”
I said, “But what happened? What will happen to your father, your mother, your wife – they have all died. You can take more if you want, if it is not enough.”
He said, “Nobody has died. This is just my profession – I cheat people. But I cannot cheat you.”
I said, “Why can’t you cheat me? I am so available to be cheated. I am just sitting here; there is no other business except to be cheated. You need not take such a long time, just go around the railway station and come back, take one rupee. No need from now onward to tell me any story. Just come with your hand out, I will understand that somebody has died.”
He said, “No, this is… Nobody has died; everybody is alive. You just accept your rupees back.”
I said, “But why are you feeling so guilty? There is no problem; I am enjoying the game. Sitting here, there is nothing else to do. And you are bringing such entertainment – one rupee is not bad.”
But he would not accept; he said, “Nobody has ever trusted me, and you are either just crazy or I don’t know what, but you go on trusting. Do you really believe that my wife is dead?”
I said, “I really believe it, because man is mortal, people die. Your wife is not immortal. Don’t be afraid – she will die. If she has not died today, tomorrow she will die. Keep the rupee with you; perhaps you are telling the story a little ahead of time.”
He said, “I will not take any money from you, and from today I will stop this business of telling lies to people. The whole day I have to say, ‘My father has died, my mother has died.’ Sometimes in one day my wife dies twelve times. Only you are the first person who has believed me, and is ready to believe.”
I said, “Simply go and count all the people who are alive in your house and who are dead. For the dead you have already taken; for the alive you can more take rupees. Someday they will die and then you may not be able to find me because I am here for only one hour and then I will be gone.”
I used to pass Khandva continually, because it is a junction going to Nagpur, going to Indore, going to Jabalpur, going to Mumbai – and that man would always come with some fruits, some flowers.
And I would say, “This is not right, you are poor.”
He would say, “I am poor, but not so poor that I can’t see that you cannot insult me. You cannot insult a human being, you cannot distrust. And what can I take from you? A few rupees, but I cannot take your trust in humanity.”
And to be trusting in humanity is such a joy. It is part of being religious.
You say you trust me, you say you trust only me. That is not enough; that is a very poor trust. When you can have an ocean of trust, you are taking a drop of trust.
Trust everybody, including those who cheat you. They have their difficulties; they have their problems.
Mulla Nasruddin was sleeping just on the veranda of his house with the doors open. A thief entered. At first he was a little hesitant – because people don’t keep their doors open in the night. A strange house, but he entered. And when he saw that somebody was lying on a blanket, he went in. It was dark.
Nasruddin followed him, lit a candle. The thief was very much shocked, tried to escape – but Nasruddin was standing at the door. He said, “Don’t escape, I have just come to help you.”
He said, “What help? I am a thief.”
Nasruddin said, “That’s perfect. I needed a thief. For thirty years I have been living in this house and I have not found anything. I wanted an expert. Now you try; I will help you. And whatever we can find, half and half, fifty-fifty.”
The man said, “You are a strange fellow. For thirty years you have not found anything?”
He said, “No, I have not found anything. But I am not an expert; you are an expert. And you were trying in darkness! I thought you might fall, might stumble; something might go wrong, some accident might happen. And I know this house; it is utterly empty. But one more try with an expert… I am feeling very enthusiastic. Just go on!”
They looked. They could not find anything. They came out. The thief had left a big bag outside the house full of things, which he had stolen from the other neighbors. Nasruddin threw his blanket also on the bag.
The thief said, “What are you doing?”
He said, “Nothing. I am coming with you. What is the meaning of living in this house? Wherever you are going, I am coming with you.”
The man said, “You are a strange fellow. I cannot take you with me.”
Nasruddin said, “Then fifty-fifty: just the agreement, remember?”
The man said, “We have not found these things in your house!”
Nasruddin said, “You have found this bag just in front of my house. Open the bag – fifty-fifty.”
The thief said, “My God, I have brought those things from your neighbors.”
Nasruddin said, “That will not do. Either you have to take me with you, and I will be living with you in your house and you will have to take care of me, because you have looted, cheated, everything; or fifty-fifty. And from tomorrow night, remember: be watchful. If I find you anywhere doing business, fifty-fifty, that is decided.”
The man said, “You can take all of it, but please cancel the agreement.”
Nasruddin said, “No, that is not right. I will cancel the agreement if you don’t want the agreement, but you put all these things into my house. In the morning I will distribute them to the neighbors. Never come to this neighborhood, otherwise the agreement.”
The thief said, “I have been stealing my whole life. I have never stolen in a house where you have to make agreements with the owner of the house.”
Nasruddin said, “I trust. I never keep my doors closed; that is just an invitation for thieves. You are not new, this happens almost every day. This is how I make my living – fifty-fifty. You are not the only thief. In this city there is no thief who does not have an agreement with me, and they are trustworthy people. Even though they steal in other places, they bring fifty percent to me, knowing perfectly well that an agreement is an agreement; a man should stick to his promise.”
Today the world is not of those old days when people used to stick to their promises. On every step you will find people breaking promises, going against their word, cheating you when you trusted them. But what can they cheat? Just material things! If you lose trust, then certainly they have destroyed you. Trust is nonmaterial, it is spiritual.
If you trust me, and if you feel happy with it, then trust the whole world. These five billion people have not cheated you, these millions of stars have not cheated you, these trees and oceans and rivers have not cheated you. Just a few people may have cheated you – and because of those few people you are going to distrust existence? This will be a loss. You will be losing your own beautiful quality.
I am in favor of trust as a quality, not as a relationship. Don’t make it dependent on the other person, on what he does. You trust him because he is human. And human beings have their weaknesses, their frailties, their limitations; you trust them in spite of all their weaknesses, all their frailties, all their limitations. This trust will become a solid rock within you, a foundation of a new being, of a new life. And perhaps if you had that solid foundation, even those people who have been cheating you may not be able to cheat you. Just your very being…
I was asleep in the train, and there was only one other person. I was in the upper berth. In the middle of the night the person was getting out of the train. It was a beautiful chance, because all my luggage was on the floor and he saw that I was asleep. So he told his servants to take everything. Just my money was in a pocketbook.
So when he had taken everything out, I said, “Wait!”
So he said, “Are you awake?”
I said, “I have been awake all the time. You have taken everything; just this pocketbook is left with the money I have. Take this too. Always do everything totally.”
He said, “My God!” He said to his servants, “Bring his things back, he is dangerous.”
The stationmaster came running, and the driver and the conductor, “What is the matter?” And the man was trembling in case I told them that he was stealing everything.
I said, “It is nothing. Just by mistake he has taken everything out. His mistake was not complete, and I am against things which are not complete. So I was giving my money to him, telling him, ‘Take this too, so everything is complete.’”
They said, “Should we catch hold of this man and give him to the police?”
I said, “No, because he is a nice fellow. He didn’t accept the money and he has brought all the things back.”
He was in such a nervous state that he left one of his bags also with me. I had to send his bag back from the next station, telling them, “Find this man.” At least there was a name on the bag – “So find him.” He was really a good man. He got so nervous – perhaps it was his first effort to steal things.
But human beings are human beings. What was he doing? Just taking a few things which don’t belong to me. Nothing belongs to anybody, but trust belongs to you.
Things don’t belong to you, so let your trust be as cosmic as possible.