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Part V : Osho's interaction with Sikhs and Punjabis
The Sikh religion is in many ways interconnected with the Hindu
religion. The Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, is the main Sikh
temple.
One man in Punjab...he was the most famous saint in Punjab,
known as the Lion of Punjab, Baba Hari Giri. He was not aware
of me, and it was just a coincidence that in a conference...
In Amritsar they have every year a Vedanta conference, world conference,
and at least one hundred thousand people gather in the conference.
It was just a coincidence that he spoke and I was to speak after
him. And I criticized him point by point. The organizers were
simply frozen to death, because that man was respected in Punjab.
Thousands will be ready to die for him. I was not known in Punjab
at all, that was my first time to be in Amritsar.
And I criticized him so totally, even on small points, that they
were afraid that there is going to be a riot immediately. And
I don't have not even a single person who knows me.
An ancient Vedanta story he has told. The story is that ten blind
men cross a river, and after passing the river they think it is
better to count. Perhaps somebody the river has taken away. The
current is strong and it is rainy season. So they start counting.
But the count always comes to nine, because everybody leaves himself.
He starts from the other, ends with the last, does not count himself.
Naturally, it is nine.
One man sitting on the bank was watching the whole scene. It was
hilarious what they were doing. They started crying and weeping
that, "One friend is lost."
That man came and he said, "Don't be worried. I will find
your friend. You stand in a line. I will hit the first man on
the head with my stick and you say one. I will strike the second
man twice, you say two. Third three times, you say three. You
count how many times I strike and you speak the number."
And they were immensely happy because the last man is found. The
tenth man got ten hits.
This is an ancient Vedanta story told for centuries. Nobody has
ever raised any question about it. I asked the people, "This
story is absolutely idiotic, because how did these people know
that they were ten? Had they counted before entering the stream?
If they knew how to count before they entered the stream, how
did they forget it? How did they know that they were ten? And
Hari Giri has to answer it, otherwise...telling such idiotic
stories and making them into great philosophy!"
He became so furious, knowing perfectly well that now there is
no answer. If these people count themselves before entering the
stream, then naturally they will be able to count afterwards.
If they had not counted, then how did they come to know that they
are ten?
He simply walked down the podium, and I told him, "This escape
will not help. I have discussed every single point that you have
raised. If you have any guts - and you are known as the Lion
of Punjab, the whole pride of Punjab is at risk - then don't
escape. Come back."
And he would not come back. He simply escaped. And I asked the
people, "This man you still want to call the Lion of Punjab?
And I will be here ten days and for ten days I will wait. If he
wants, this challenge is open for ten days. I am ready to fight
on every ground."
And the problem is that I am not against the essential message
of the Upanishads. But what these people are doing has nothing
to do with the essential. They are making the nonessential more
important, because the nonessential helps them to exploit people.
The essential will not help to exploit anybody.
The man simply escaped. Ten days I was there in the conference,
and even the organizers were surprised that not a single Punjabi
stood in favor of him. I asked that anybody, if he wants to accept
the challenge in place of his guru, his Master, I am ready. Those
one thousand people...one hundred thousand people just remained
silent. In ten days time I was able to manage that what I am saying
is the real essence of Vedanta, and what you have been told up
to now is not the real essence.
The real essence is the same whether it is Vedanta or Zen or Sufism
or the songs of Baul or Kabir. It doesn't matter. If anybody who
has really attained, experienced, then he will agree with me.
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It was an every day experience in India. I was worshipped in
the temple of Amritsar by the Sikhs almost as one of their masters.
They have ten masters. Actually the man who introduced me in their
conference said that I could be accepted as their eleventh master.
But now they won't let me into the temple.
At that time I was holding back many things. I had talked about
one small book, Japuji, and the Sikhs were immensely happy because
no non-Sikh had ever bothered. And the meaning I gave to their
small booklet they had never thought of. But when I said, after
two years, in a meeting in their Golden Temple that, "I consider
only Nanak to be enlightened; the remaining nine masters are just
ordinary teachers," they were ready to kill me. I said, "You
can kill me, but you will be killing your eleventh master!"
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I don't have any desire to die. That does not mean that I want
to live forever. It simply means that as long as life is, I enjoy;
if death comes, I will enjoy it too. But I am not going to Jerusalem
knowing perfectly well that they are preparing a crucifixion.
It happened in Amritsar when I was getting out of the train, I
was blocked. Two hundred Hindu chauvinist people wanted me to
get back into the train and not enter Amritsar. The people who
had come to take me had no idea that there would be two hundred
people, so only twenty or twenty-five people were there just to
take me home. And there was to be a meeting immediately - just
time enough for me to take a cup of tea and go to the meeting.
So everybody was in the meeting - ten thousand people waiting
there - and these twenty-five people surrounding me in case
those two hundred Hindu chauvinists do any harm to me. I could
see in the faces of those two hundred people nothing but murder.
The stationmaster by chance happened to be one of my lovers. He
phoned to the Golden Temple of the Sikhs, "This is the situation:
We are not moving the train, because if we move the train there
will immediately be trouble. We are not moving the train. Those
people are insisting that he should get into the train and he
is not going to get into the train, so immediately send a few
temple guards.
The temple guards have naked swords, so a few temple guards
came. As they came the crowd started dispersing, because naked
swords - there would have been a massacre. And for the first
time I had to be escorted, protected from all sides with naked
swords, into the city.
I said, "This is my last time in this city."
They said, "Why?"
I said, "Because I don't want this kind of nonsense."
And that was not only my last time in that city, I stopped moving
altogether. I said, "Those who want to understand me will
come, and those who do not want to understand me - in fact
why should I interfere in their lives? If they don't want me to
be in their city.... It is their city: if they want to remain
idiots forever they have the freedom, and I respect their intention.
I cannot force them to be enlightened. Let them remain endarkened - this
is their choice. Why should I bother?"
That day became decisive: I was not going to move anywhere.
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