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Part IV : Osho excels in Public speaking
An incident happened...I was a student, but I used to go
to conferences and other places to speak on different subjects.
There was a meeting on the birthday of Nanak, the founder of Sikhism.
The president of the meeting was the chief justice of Madhya Pradesh
high court, and I was the speaker. I was just a student but this
man, whose name was Ganesh Bhatt, was a rare man. I have never
come across another man of his quality.
He was the chief justice and I was only a postgraduate student.
After I spoke he simply declared to the assembly of almost ten
thousand sikhs, "Now there is nothing more to be said. At
least I cannot say anything better than has been said by this
young man, so I will not deliver the presidential address, because
that may spoil what he has said to you. I would rather that you
go home silently pondering over what he has said, and meditating
upon it."
The Sikhs were surprised, everybody was surprised, and as I
was stepping down from the podium the chief justice, Ganesh Bhatt,
touched my feet. I said, "What are you doing? You are of
the age of my father. You are a learned man, you are a brahmin."
He said, "Nothing matters - neither my being a brahmin,
nor my age, nor my prestige, nor my being the chief justice. What
matters is that whatever you have said has come from the deepest
being. It was unexpected...I have presided over many meetings
and I have listened to many learned people, but all that they
say is within quotation marks. For the first time I have heard
a man who speaks directly, without any quotation marks - who
speaks on his own authority. So don't prevent me. I am showing
my gratitude by touching your feet."
The judges had come because the chief justice was presiding
over the meeting, and the advocates of the high court had come
because the chief justice was there - they were all shocked!
But Ganesh Bhatt became a regular visitor to my house. It became
almost a regular routine that his car would be standing in front
of my house.
People whose cases were being heard in the high court started
coming to me. I said, "I cannot help you."
They said, "Just a word from you, and he will not do anything
against it."
I said, "I cannot do any such thing. He comes here with such
respect towards me that I cannot bring up such trivia."
It became a problem. I had to keep a servant in front of my house
to send these people away, otherwise everybody was coming to the
house saying, "I am in much trouble, and just a little support
from you will get me out of it."
After he retired from the chief justice-ship he became the vice-chancellor
of Sagar University. By that time I had become a professor in
Jabalpur University, and I had gone to Sagar to speak in a public
conference of all religions. He heard that I had come, so he invited
me to the university where he was now the vice-chancellor.
Once I had been a student in that university, and because the
vice-chancellor had called the meeting, all the professors and
all the students, everybody was present. I was worried about only
one thing - that he may do the same act again. The professors
who had taught me were there, and thousands of students were there
who had also been students, junior to me - and he did his
act.
As I went on the podium he stood, touched my feet, and said
to the audience, "To be learned is one thing, and to know
on your own experience - face to face - is a totally different
thing. In my long life I have been in high positions, and I have
come across so many learned people, and I can say with absolute
confidence that learning brings no transformation to their being.
The transformation of one's being comes through some other door,
not through the doors of mind."
It was a great shock! Many of them were my teachers, many of
them were students who knew me when I was a student in that university,
and their vice-chancellor touching my feet.... My old professors
gathered when I came down after speaking, saying, "This is
a strange phenomenon. We had never expected..."
I said, "I was studying under you, but you never looked deeply
into me, you never looked into my eyes. You never thought about
the questions I was asking. You simply thought of one thing - that
I was just creating trouble for you because you had no answer,
and you were not courageous enough to say, `I don't know.'"
Intellectuals are very weak about one point. They cannot say,
"I don't know."
Only an enlightened being can say, "I don't know." His
innocence and his enlightenment are synonymous. tahui08
I was a student in the university, and I was winning all kinds
of debates, eloquence competitions, all over the country. I had
filled my head of the department's office with all kinds of trophies
and cups - gold and silver. And he started telling me, "If
you go on winning in this way, I think I will have to move out
of my office. There is no space left."
I said, "You don't have to move out, I will move all the
trophies and all the cups."
He said, "No, that is credit to the department."
I said, "Then you have to decide whether you want to be in
the office or not." And finally he had to move out of the
office. He created another small office on the verandah where
he used to sit, because his whole office became a showplace for
any guest.
One day he asked me - because in my own university there was
going to be a national university competition - "Why
do you go on unnecessarily traveling long distances? What is your
purpose?"
I said, "I don't have any purpose. I love it - that's
my way of playing. That's my way of telling stories which have
no purpose at all. Just the sheer joy, overflowing life. I am
not old enough to think about purposes."
He said, "What?"
I said, "Yes, I am not old enough, and I will never be old
enough to think about purpose and meaning. I rejoice in whatever
I am doing. There is no purpose...."
I told my head of the department, "There is no purpose. I
enjoy talking. I love a heart-to-heart talk."
And that day the competition was going to be held...There
used to be two persons from each university - one opposing
the subject and one supporting the subject. I was opposing the
subject, but my partner became so nervous...it was his first
time to come to the stage.
The student who used to come with me around the country had died
in an accident, so I had to find a new partner, and that was his
first time. I tried hard to prepare him...to repeat his speech
many times, but finally when the time came he disappeared.
So the vice-chancellor asked me what to do? I said, "I
can manage. First I will speak in support - because my partner
is missing, and I don't want to lose that prize - and then
I will oppose."
He said, "My God! You will do both the things?"
I said, "Just try. It will be a great enjoyment."
So I spoke for it, and I spoke against it, and I had both the
prizes, first and second.
And as I was going out, the vice-chancellor took me into a corner
and said, "It was a miracle. When you were speaking in favor
of it, I was thinking what will you do? You are giving such a
great argument in favor, I don't think you will be able to oppose
it. But when you started opposing, I thought, My God! - your
arguments are so clear. What happened to the other arguments...?"
He said, "But I want to ask you one thing, that's why I
have pulled you out of the crowd. Do you have any convictions
of your own?"
I said, "I just love talking. You have heard only two sides - there
are many sides. And if you want some day I can speak from many
points of view. These are only two polar opposites, but there
are middle positions and there are at least seven positions on
each subject."
He said "That would drive me mad. Just these two positions
drive me completely out of my mind. I don't think I am going to
sleep, because I am wondering what is right."
I said, "That is your problem. I enjoyed the whole game,
and I have got both the prizes. And this is far better. If you
can convince other vice-chancellors that only one person is coming
and he will represent both the sides, it will be far easier for
me because I won't have to prepare the other person. It is better
and easier. I don't have any belief, I don't have any prejudice.
I am utterly open. And because I love, it is a game."
Your life should be a playfulness, not a purpose.
Your life should be a fun, not goal oriented.
It should not be business, it should be pure love. celebr05
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