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Part VII : Osho’s Discourses
In June 1976, Osho introduces his much loved series on the Bauls
I'm tremendously happy to introduce you to the world of the
Bauls. I hope you will be nourished by it, enriched by it. It
is a very bizarre world, eccentric, insane. It has to be so. It
is unfortunate but it has to be so, because the world of the so-called
sane people is so insane that if you really want to be sane in
it you will have to be insane. You will have to choose a path
of your own. It is going to be diametrically opposite to the ordinary
path of the world.
The Bauls are called Bauls because they are mad people. The
word 'Baul' comes from the Sanskrit root vatul. It means: mad,
affected by wind. The Baul belongs to no religion. He is neither
Hindu nor Mohammedan nor Christian nor Buddhist. He is a simple
human being. His rebellion is total. He does not belong to anybody;
he only belongs to himself. He lives in a no man's land: no country
is his, no religion is his, no scripture is his. His rebellion
goes even deeper than the rebellion of the Zen Masters—because
at least formally, they belong to Buddhism; at least formally,
they worship Buddha. Formally they have scriptures—scriptures
denouncing scriptures, of course—but still they have. At
least they have a few scriptures to burn.
Bauls have nothing—no scripture, not even to burn; no
church, no temple, no mosque—nothing whatsoever. A Baul
is a man always on the road. He has no house, no abode. God is
his only abode, and the whole sky is his shelter. He possesses
nothing except a poor man's quilt, a small, hand-made one-stringed
instrument called aektara, and a small drum, a kettle-drum. That's
all that he possesses. He possesses only a musical instrument
and a drum. He plays with one hand on the instrument and he goes
on beating the drum with the other. The drum hangs by the side
of his body, and he dances. That is all of his religion.
Dance is his religion; singing is his worship. He does not even
use the word 'God'. The Baul word for God is Adhar Manush, the
essential man. He worships man. He says, inside you and me, inside
everybody, there is an essential being. That essential being is
all. To find that Adhar Manush, that essential man, is the whole
search.
So there is no God somewhere outside you, and there is no need
to create any temple because you are His temple already. The whole
search is withinwards. And on the waves of song and on the waves
of dancing, he moves withinwards. He goes on moving like a beggar,
singing songs. He has nothing to preach; his whole preaching is
his poetry. And his poetry is also not ordinary poetry, not mere
poetry. He's not consciously a poet; he sings because his heart
is singing. Poetry follows him like a shadow, hence it is tremendously
beautiful. He's not calculating it, he's not making it. He lives
his poetry. That's his passion and his very life. His dance is
almost insane. He has never been trained to dance, he does not
know anything about the art of dancing. He dances like a madman,
like a whirlwind. And he lives very spontaneously, because the
Baul says, "If you want to reach to the Adhar Manush, the
essential man, then the way, the way goes through Sahaja Manush,
the spontaneous man."
To reach to the essential man, you have to go through the spontaneous
man. Spontaneity is the only way to reach to the essence…so
he cries when he feels like crying. You can find him standing
in a village street crying, for nothing. If you ask, "Why
are you crying?" he will laugh. He will say, "There
is no why. I felt like, I felt like crying, so I cried."
If he feels like laughing, he laughs; if he feels like singing,
he sings—but everything has to come out of deep feeling.
He's not mind oriented, not in any way controlled and disciplined.
He knows no rituals. He's absolutely against rituals because he
says, "A ritualized person is a dead person." He cannot
be spontaneous. And a person who follows rituals, formalities
too much, creates so many habits around him that there is no need
to be alert. Alertness is lost; habits are formed. Then the man
of rituals lives through habits. If he goes to the temple he bows
down, not in any way conscious and alert of what he is doing,
but just because he has been taught to do so, he has learned to
do so. It has become a conditioning.
So they don't follow any ritual, they don't have any technique,
they don't have any habit. So you cannot find two Bauls that are
similar; they are individuals. Their rebellion leads them to become
authentic individuals…. belov101
In September 1976 Osho comments, in Hindi, on Ashtevakra
Just a few days ago I was talking about asthavakra, mm? His
name means he was bent in his body at eight points—his whole
body was like a camel. He could not walk properly, impossible;
in eight places his body had something wrong. He was a caricature—but
he proved to be one of the greatest mystics of the world.
The father must have cried and wept, the mother must have beaten
her head when she saw this child: all wrong, nothing right. But
this child proved to be one of the greatest seers India has produced.
And his book, Asthavakrasanta, is incomparable in the whole world's
literature. No Bible, no Koran, no Veda, no Gita, has anything
comparable to it. It is simply transcendental! So, one never knows….
madmen17
In December 1976, Osho comments on the poetry of Kabir
I invite you to come with me into the innermost realm of this
madman Kabir. Yes, he was a madman—all religious people
are. Mad, because they don't trust reason. Mad, because they love
life. Mad, because they can dance and they can sing. Mad, because
to them life is not a question, not a problem to be solved but
a mystery into which one has to dissolve oneself.
One thing more about Kabir's approach. He is life-affirmative.
That too is an indication of a real man of understanding. ecstas01
That is the game between a master and a disciple. Whatsoever Kabir
is saying has not been written—it is addressed to his disciples.
This is a spontaneous outpouring of his heart. He was a singer,
he was a poet: somebody would ask something and he would sing
a song spontaneously. And nobody has ever sung such songs.
The enlightened man is not other than the fool. Remember, while
moving in the company of Kabir, that the enlightened man is not
other than the fool. What makes a man enlightened is the realization
that he is as a fool. 'My mind is that of a fool' says Lao Tzu.
Kabir will agree perfectly, totally. 'How empty it is' says Lao
Tzu '—as empty as the mind of a fool.' Emptiness takes nothing
seriously, raises no one thing up over another. Worshipping nothing,
it celebrates all.
Kabir is a celebrant. He celebrates all—all colors of
life, the whole rainbow of it. What he is going to say to you
is not philosophy but pure poetry. It is not religion but a hand
beckoning, a door half opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way
back home, a way back to nature.
Nature is God to Kabir—the trees and the rocks and the rivers
and the mountains. He does not believe in the temples and the
churches and the mosques, he believes in the living reality. God
is there, breathing, flowering, flowing. And where are you going?
You are going to a temple, man-made, to worship an idol, again
manufactured by man, in his own image.
Kabir calls you back from the temples and the mosques: What
are you doing there? He calls you back to celebrate life. revol01
You say: Since you gave me sannyas, I feel I am in a tremendous
Poona fiction story.
Right, I am creating a fiction here: the fiction of the Master
and the disciple, the fiction of the god and the devotee. It is
really a myth, but very alive. And there is no way to come to
the truth unless you pass through a great mythology. Man is lost
in lies. From lies there is no direct way to truth. Myth is a
bridge between the lie and the truth. A myth partakes of something
of the lie and something of the truth; it is a bridge.
Yes, you are right. This is a tremendous Poona fiction story.
Whatsoever is happening here is very fictitious—these people
in orange, and so many crazy things going on, and I am supporting
you and leading you towards nowhere and promising you things which
cannot be promised.
Man lives in lies, God lives in the truth; but how to bridge both?
Man is a lie, God is a truth; how to bridge both? It is very impossible.
Myth is the way—fiction, yes, a spiritual fiction. All the
religions are fictitious, all the mythologies are fictitious,
but they are of tremendous help. A mythology has something of
the truth in it—maybe just a reflection—and something
of the lie in it. You can move through the myth towards truth.
And if an alive myth is available, don't miss it…
Yes, it is a fiction that I am creating here, but it is alive.
That is the difference. While I am here, the myth is an alive
bridge; you can pass through it towards the unknown. ecstas04
In February 1977 Osho introduces sutras on Lieh Tzu, and in
April 1977 Osho comments on the tantric mystic Saraha
Now we enter into this great pilgrimage: The Royal Song of Saraha.
It is also called 'The Song on Human Action'—very paradoxical,
because it has nothing to do with action. That's why it is also
called 'The Song on Human Action'. It has something to do with
the being, but when the being is transformed, action is transformed.
When you are transformed, your behavior is transformed—not
vice versa. Not that first you change your action and then your
being changes—no. Tantra says: First change your being and
then your action changes automatically, of its own accord. First
attain to a different kind of consciousness, and that will be
followed by a different kind of action, character, behavior.
Tantra believes in being, not in action and character. That's
why it is also called 'The Song on Human Action'—because
once being is transformed, your actions are transformed. That
is the only way to change your actions…
In these four verses, Saraha has invited the king to enter into
his inner being, he has opened his heart. And he says: I am not
here to convince you logically. I am here to convince you existentially!
I will not give any proof, and I will not say anything in defence
of myself. The heart is just open—you come in, you go in.
You see what has happened…so close is spontaneity, so close
is God, so close is truth. The sun has risen. Open your eyes!
Remember, a mystic has no proof. He cannot have any proof by the
very nature of things. He is the only proof—so he can bare
his heart to you.
These verses, these Songs of Saraha, have to be meditated on
deeply. Each song can become the opening of a flower in your heart.
I hope these forty verses will become forty flowers in your being,
as they became in the being of the king. The king was liberated—so
can you be. Saraha has penetrated the target. You can also penetrate
the target. You can also become a Saraha—one whose arrow
is shot. tvis101
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