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Part VII : Osho advises sannyasins on responding to negativity
You ask: Working at Amitabh, your Amsterdam center, for the last
few years, I have become aware that in our contacts with the media
or government agencies we have been on the defensive and have
been trying to be acceptable. Now the pressure is building up,
specifically with the recent Dutch government inquiry into what
they call 'sects'.
It is coming to a point where becoming still more defensive
would be a denial of our innermost experience. It feels that the
time has come to be less accommodating, less compromising and
less defensive. Could you give us your guidance, please?
Anand Niketana, The most important thing to remember is truth
cannot be defensive; it is against the nature of truth to be defensive.
Just think: if Jesus has been defensive, then humanity would have
missed all that is valuable. Truth has to assert itself. There
is no need to be aggressive, remember that too. Truth is neither
defensive nor aggressive, but truth has to be assertive….
So, Niketana, you have been doing something wrong from the very
beginning. There is no need to be defensive, there is no need
to compromise, there is no need to be accommodating. it is better
to be destroyed than to compromise, because when truth is crucified
that's its victory, when truth is crucified it is crowned.
So don't be afraid of crucifixion. It is beautiful to die on
the path of truth, it is ugly to survive through compromising.
Each compromise means you have fallen from the truth into the
ditch of lies. What else can a compromise be?
I have come across the news that the Dutch Government has made
a commission of inquiry to investigate 'impartially' about sects.
Now, this is sheer stupidity! How can they inquire impartially?
And the people, the majority of the people, who have been appointed
to the commission are Christian Democrats. Now, how can Christians
be impartial? and they call it 'an inquiry into sects'. The very
word 'sect' is condemnatory. Christianity is a religion—and
my sannyasins are a sect, a cult! That is the beginning of prejudice.
Now, how do you define a cult or a sect?
When Jesus was alive, whatsoever he was teaching, and the people
who were following him, were they a religion or a cult, a sect?
Of course, in the eyes of the Jews—the established religion—it
was a cult, a sect; it was not a religion. If it was religion,
then Jesus could not have been crucified. A cult is something
that takes you away from religion, that distracts you from the
true religion, from the main path.
Jesus was a cult when he was alive. Now, how can Christianity
be a religion? If in the source it is a cult, if the seed is the
cult, how can the tree be religion? And when Jesus was alive,
then it was a cult, and now he has been dead for two thousand
years and around his corpse a religion has grown. When Buddha
was alive it was a cult, a sect; now Buddhism is a religion. So
what is the definition?
When the Master is alive, when he is living, when the truth
is breathing, then it is a cult—it has to be condemned.
And when the Master is dead…and with the Master's death
the truth disappears, because truth needs an embodiment. It is
an experience; it has to exist in the person who has realized
it. When the person is no more, the truth is no more.
If Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra, Mohammed, while they
are alive are only creating cults and sects, then the definition
of religion is: the corpse of truth—rotten, stinking….
So, Niketana, tell those fools there that "You are cults
and we are a religion!" And make a commission of inquiry,
because only my sannyasins can be impartial. Here are Christians
and Hindus and Mohammedans and Parsis and Buddhists and Jainas;
in my sannyasins all the rivers are meeting and merging. It is
an ocean! Only my sannyasins can be impartial—how can these
Christians be impartial? They have already shown their faces that
they are Christians. They are already prejudiced that Christ is
right, that the Christian dogma is right, that anything that goes
against it is wrong. How can they inquire? Inquiry needs no a
priori assumptions, no conclusions.
So you can make, Niketana, a commission of inquiry to look into
what Christianity has done in two thousand years. All kinds of
crimes have been committed—murder, rape, arson—all
kinds of crimes have been committed by these so-called religious
people. In fact, they have proved the greatest calamity to humanity.
Be assertive! Drop all ideas of being defensive! But you are
still talking in terms of defence.
You say: It feels that the time has come to be less accommodating,
less compromising and less defensive.
Less defensive or more defensive, less accommodating or more accommodating,
less compromising or more compromising, is only a question of
quantity. It is not a change of your vision, of your perspective.
Change the whole perspective! It is not a question of less or
more—simply drop being defensive. And don't move to the
other extreme: don't become aggressive—but be assertive.
Open up your heart, say the way you feel, explain it to the people
the way you feel.
You say: It is coming to a point where becoming still more defensive
would be a denial of our innermost experience.
Never betray your own innermost experience. If you betray it you
are committing suicide. A person who kills himself physically
is not really committing suicide, because he will be born again;
he will have a new body that's all, a new model. But the person
who goes against his own inner experience is committing a far
deeper suicide—he is destroying his very soul. It is better
to suffer; it is beautiful to suffer on the path of truth. Even
death on the path of truth has a beauty of its own.
And these governments are going to do the same thing everywhere,
all over the world it is going to happen, because my sannyasins
are now in almost all the countries of the world. Sooner or later
everywhere the same problems are bound to arise. In Germany the
government has appointed a commission, now it is Holland, soon
it will be Italy, and so on and so forth. You are going to be
tortured everywhere! That's how it has always been….
So, Niketana, change your attitude totally. You are not to be
defensive at all. But let me remind you again—because mind
moves to polar opposites—I am not telling you to be aggressive,
I am not telling you to be violent. I am telling you to be simply
in the middle, exactly in the middle, neither defensive nor aggressive
but assertive—standing naked in the sun, in the rain, in
the wind and telling the world what sannyas is all about. ultima04
You ask: I have heard that the German Chancellor, Helmut Schmidt,
declared on television that sannyasins were very dangerous people
for the state and society, and should not be engaged for public
service or by respectable companies any more….
I don't enjoy the idea of not getting a job because of my orange
clothes or being molested by people on the street, as they very
often become aggressive towards outsiders. You said that sannyasins
are meant to be a provocation for the world, but do you want us
to fight or to go underground?
It is a good news! The politicians become afraid only when something
really significant is happening—and they are becoming afraid
all around the world. It is a good sign. It is immensely beautiful
that my sannyasins are not being ignored. That's the ugliest thing
that can happen to anybody.
What the German Chancellor has said is right: sannyasins are
very dangerous people! Religion is always dangerous; the moment
it is not dangerous it is no more religion at all. Jesus is dangerous,
Christianity is not dangerous—hence Christianity has nothing
to do with Jesus. Buddha is dangerous, Buddhists are not dangerous.
They have turned against their Master; they have compromised with
the society—with all that is rotten, dead, traditional.
It is bound to be so if you are trying to live life authentically,
lovingly. Then the politicians are bound to be against. They have
created a society which is based on hatred, violence, division,
distrust, cunningness, hypocrisy. And to be religious simply means
to be against all these things.
To be religious means to live a life full of love, joy, innocence,
freedom, individuality, to the extent that even if life has to
be sacrificed for the higher JUSTIFY">To be religious
means to live a life full of love, joy, innocence, freedom, individuality,
to the extent that even if life has to be sacrificed for the higher
values of freedom, love, truth, then one sacrifices it joyously.
It is worth! Freedom cannot be sacrificed, bliss cannot be sacrificed,
love cannot be sacrificed, and life is significant only if these
things are flowering, blossoming. The moment these things are
sacrificed there is no point in living. Then life is simply vegetating….(here
Osho repeats what he said to Niketana above)
My sannyasins will have to suffer, but suffering in itself is
not bad, suffering in itself is not misery. If you are suffering
because you cannot compromise, if you are suffering because you
want to live your truth, it is a joy, it is a bliss. You have
to become the very salt of the earth!
And I know people believe the politicians. They will create all
kinds of troubles for you, but I know only through those troubles
you will grow. So whenever I hear that people are going to create
trouble for you, secretly I giggle! I say, "Hee-hee!"
You have also asked: And do you think it is cowardly that I
am considering staying in India not only to be close to you but
also to avoid these troubles?
It depends. It is up to you to be clear. If you want to be here
just to be close to me then there is no question of cowardliness,
because here also you will have to face troubles—in fact
many more…because the main troublemaker is here! I have
always enjoyed mischief and I still enjoy—I don't want to
hide it from you! From my very childhood I have enjoyed all kinds
of mischief, and my enlightenment has not made any difference.
At the most it has made my mischiefs a little bit enlightened,
that's all, but the basic foundation remains the same. Of course
I make mischiefs now on vaster, greater planes, my canvas is bigger,
but I enjoy.
So if you want to be here just to be close to me it is beautiful.
but you will not be avoiding any trouble. In Germany you will
be far better, because I have not heard yet that any sannyasin
has been molested in Germany, raped in Germany, murdered in Germany,
but in India all these things have happened. And many cases happened,
because India is far more uncultured, far more uncivilized, far
more irreligious than anybody else in the world, for the simple
reason because Indians believe that they are religious. Their
belief of being religious hides their irreligiousness. They are
the greatest hypocrites in the whole world. But if you want just
to avoid trouble, don't be here. Germany is far better.
Secondly: if you are here only to avoid troubles there you will
not be close to me; it will be a negative kind of closeness, and
unless it is positive it is meaningless. If you are here to be
with me, then it is perfectly beautiful. Otherwise, go to Germany
and earn a positive relationship—accept the challenges there.
And I am not for going underground—there is no need.
Only in China and Russia I have allowed my sannyasins to remain
underground. Now, two of my sannyasins from Russia are here. They
have been underground there; somehow they have escaped. Only in
China and Russia it can be understood that it will impossible
to declare openly, but few Russian sannyasins are still doing
it openly; they have found a beautiful way. If you are really
ready, then you can always find a way.
They are moving in red clothes and they say, "This is the
color of communism!" And they are moving with a picture of
mine in their malas and they say, "This is nobody but Karl
Marx!" If one wants to find a way one can find a way! And
they are enjoying, and I love the idea—nothing is wrong
in it—because nobody knows about me so they think, "Maybe
this is Karl Marx." And red is certainly a communist color
so there is no problem about it. And you can always read my books
hiding them inside Das Kapital, Communist Manifesto!
But except China and Russia I will not allow underground work
anywhere else. Remain above ground and give a good fight! And
I am giving you so many weapons to fight. In fact, the people
you have to fight with are already dead. Just a little push and
they will fall flat on the ground. Much wrestling is not needed
at all! They have been dead long… just they are standing
there because nobody pushes them! wildgs02
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