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Part IV : Osho confronts his professors
It was a constant problem for me in my university. I have been
expelled from many colleges and many universities.
For the simple reason that I knew more than the professor. I was
reading so much, and the professor had stopped reading thirty
years before when he passed his Ph.D. and became a professor.
He was finished. But in these thirty years so much had grown.
These past thirty years man has grown in every dimension of knowledge,
more than he has been able to in three thousand years.
So when I entered the philosophical class, my professor had
no idea of Jean-Paul Sartre, no idea of Jaspers, Martin Heidegger,
Soren Kierkegaard. Those names were not part of his education,
because when he was studying these people were not in existence.
They were not part of the curriculum. And what he remembered was
Bosanquet, Kant, Hegel, Feuerbach. Now they are all outdated.
They have been replaced by better minds, far more intelligent.
I knew all about Kant and Hegel and Bosanquet, but I knew much
more about Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, Sartre, Marcel. They
had no idea of these people.
It was a strange situation, because on every point they were
feeling defeated. I was expelled just for the simple reason that
the professors complained continuously against me, that I am a
disturbance, that I don't allow them to move a single inch without
days of argument. "And when are we going to finish the course?
This boy seems not to be interested in the course and he brings
such names which we have never heard. And now, in our old age,
we are not going to read all that he is reading, and it is very
awkward in front of the other students to feel that you know nothing
about the latest developments in philosophy."
My principals would call me and they would say, "We know
perfectly well that you are not wrong. You are not being expelled
for doing anything wrong. I feel sad and sorry for you, and I
want you to forgive me, but we cannot lose the professor. He is
our old, well-reputed professor, and he has threatened that either
you will be in the university or he will be. He's given his resignation."
They showed me his resignation. It said, "Either you expel
that boy or accept the resignation."
I said, "It is better you expel me, because what I am doing
here I will do somewhere else. But your college, your university
will miss a well-reputed professor. And I don't want him in his
old age to find another job somewhere else; no, that is not for
me to do. That is ugly. You call the professor, give him his resignation
back, and tell him that I am being expelled."
I have seen tears in my principals', in my vice-chancellors'
eyes, that they are expelling somebody who has done no wrong.
And I said to them, "You need not feel sorry about it. I
have not done anything wrong, but I have done something far more
dangerous, and that is make the professor feel embarrassed continuously
every day."
Now these professors could have bridged the gap. They could
have simply said, "Perhaps you are right and we are wrong;
but the reason is that we studied thirty years ago, and we don't
know anything about what has happened within these years. Wittgenstein
- the name we have heard for the first time from you. So naturally
we cannot argue."
Just this much was needed, and they would have gained my respect
that they are capable men who can accept even ignorance. They
are humble people who can say clearly, "I don't know, so
you please don't bring these thirty years in. What I know I can
discuss with you with full confidence, but you bring people's
names, theories, ideas of which we know nothing. But just to pretend
that we know we argue with you, and naturally we are defeated
because we are not really aware of what you are saying and we
don't understand the implications of it."
They had known Aristotle and his logic, but they had no idea
that modern physics has gone beyond Aristotle, and his whole logic
has been proved wrong. Now I was reading Albert Einstein whose
whole life's experiments, philosophy, simply eliminate Aristotle,
who has been the dominant figure in the world of logic for two
thousand years, from the roots. Aristotle is thought to be the
father of logic in the West. They were not aware that Albert Einstein
had already finished him; there is no Aristotle anymore of any
significance. They had known Euclid and his geometry, but they
were not aware that now his geometry is no longer applicable.
Modern physics has developed non-Euclidian geometry, had to invent
it. They were simply shocked because they had never thought that
Euclid could be wrong. last212
The first college I entered, I wanted to learn logic. And the
old professor, with many honorary degrees, with many books published
in his name, started talking about the father of Western logic,
Aristotle.
I said, "Wait a minute. Do you know that Aristotle writes
in his book that women have less teeth than men?"
He said, "My God, what kind of question is this? What has
it to do with logic?"
I said, "It has something very fundamental to do with the
whole process of logic. Are you aware that Aristotle had two wives?"
He said, "I don't know...from where are you getting these
facts?"
But in Greece it was traditionally known for centuries that women
were bound to have everything less than men. Naturally, they couldn't
have the same number of teeth as men.
I said, "And you call this man Aristotle the father of logic?
He could have at least counted - and he had two wives available,
but he did not count. His statement is illogical. He has simply
taken it from the tradition, and I cannot trust in a man who has
two wives and writes that women have less teeth than men. This
is a male chauvinistic attitude. A logician has to be beyond prejudices."
Seeing the situation, the professor threatened the principal that
either I should be expelled from the college or he was going to
resign. And he stopped coming to the college. He said, "I
will wait three days."
The principal could not lose an experienced professor. He called
me into his office to say, "There has never been any trouble
with that man, he is a very nice man. Just on the first day...what
have you done?"
I told him the whole story and I said, "Do you think it deserves
expulsion from college? I was asking absolutely relevant questions,
and if a professor of logic cannot answer, who is going to answer?"
The principal was a good man. He said, "I will not expel
you, because I don't see that you have done anything wrong. But
I cannot afford to lose the professor either, so I will make arrangements
for you in another college."
But the rumor about me had spread in all the colleges. The city
I was in had almost twenty colleges and finally it became a very
prestigious university just by combining those twenty colleges.
He sent me to another principal with a letter of recommendation,
but he must have phoned him to say, "Don't believe in the
letter of recommendation. I had to write it because I have to
get rid of that student. He is not wrong, but he is absolutely
individualistic and that is going to create trouble."
I went to see the other principal, and he was waiting. He said,
"I can admit you only on one condition: that you will never
attend the college."
I said, "Then what is going to happen when it is time for
my examination?"
He said, "I will give you the necessary percentage for being
present in the college, but this is a secret pact between me and
you."
I said, "It is perfectly good - anyway your professors are
out of date. But can I enter the library?"
He said, "The library is perfectly okay, but never attend
any class because I don't want to hear from any professor the
complaint that you are creating trouble."
And I have never created any trouble! I was simply asking questions
which...if they were really gentlemen they would have said, "I
will find out. For the time being, I don't know."
But this is the most difficult thing in the world to say, "I
don't know." mani10
In the college, I used to have a long robe, with a wraparound
lungi as it is used in India, and with no buttons on the robe,
so the chest is open. And I was very healthy and robust, one hundred
and ninety pounds.
The principal told me, "Coming to the college without buttons
is not according to the etiquette."
I said, "Then change the etiquette, because my chest needs
fresh air. And I decide according to my needs, not according to
anybody's idea of etiquette."
In my first year in the college, I won the all-India university
competition for debate, and the professor in charge - he is
dead now, Indrabahadur Khare - was a very properly dressed
man. Everything about him was proper. He took me to a photo studio
near the college, because they wanted my picture to be released
to the newspapers, to the magazines, and particularly for the
college magazine: I had won the all-India competition and I was
just a first-year student.
But he was very tense all the way to the studio. And when we entered
the studio, he said, "Excuse me, but without the buttons,
how will your photograph look?"
I said, "It will look just like me! You have not won the
debate, I have won the debate. And when I was debating there were
no buttons, so what is the problem now? If I can win the debate
without buttons, then my photograph has to be without buttons!"
He said, "You do one thing" - he was a very small
man. He said, "You can take my coat, it will fit you. You
just put it on top of your robe and it will look beautiful."
I said, "Then better you stand here and let it be perfectly
proper. Let that picture go."
He said, "That cannot be done. That will be simply objectionable.
The principal will say, 'This is your photograph, and....'"
So I said, "You should remember, my photograph has to be
like me. I cannot use your coat. Either the photograph will go
without buttons, or I am not interested in the photograph at all.
So you decide."
He had to decide for something very improper. He said, "I
have never done anything improper, and I never allow anybody to
do anything improper. But you seem to be strange."
I said, "This is not improper."
Every child is born naked - that is proper. Every animal is
naked, and that is proper. But there are people addicted to properness....
bond21
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