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Part IV : Osho is invited to Sagar University for his MA and is
aided by vice chancellor, Dr. Tripathi
After the B.A. I left Jabalpur because one of the professors
in Sagar University, S.S. Roy, was persistently asking me, writing
me, phoning me to say, "After your B.A. you join this university
for your post-graduation."
From Jabalpur University to Sagar University there is not much
distance - one hundred miles. But Sagar University was in
many ways unique. It was a small university compared to Benares
University or Aligarh University, which had ten thousand students,
twelve thousand students. They are just like Oxford or Cambridge - big
universities, big names. Sagar University had only one thousand
students and almost three hundred professors, so for every three
students, one professor. It was a rare place; perhaps nowhere
in the world can you find another university where there is one
professor for three students.
And the man who had founded the university was acquainted with
all the best professors around the world. Sagar was his birthplace;
Doctor Harisingh Gaur was his name. He was a world-famous authority
on law, and earned so much money - and never gave a single
pai to any beggar, to any institution, to any charity. He was
known as the most miserly person in the whole of India.
And then he founded the university and gave his whole life's
earning. That was millions of dollars. He said to me, "That's
why I was a miser; otherwise there was no way - I was a poor
man, I was born a poor man. If I were doing charity and giving
to this hospital and to this beggar and to that orphan, this university
would not have existed." For this university...he had
carried his whole life only one idea, that his birthplace should
have one of the best universities in the world. And certainly
he created one of the best universities in the world.
While he was alive he managed to bring professors from all over
the world. He gave them double salaries, triple salaries, whatsoever
they wanted - and no work, because there were only one thousand
students, which even a small college has in India; one thousand
students is not a large number. And he opened all the departments
which only a university like Oxford can afford. Oxford has nearabout
three hundred and fifty departments.
He opened all the departments which exist anywhere in the world.
There were hundreds of departments without students but with full
staff: the head of the department, the assistant professor, the
professor, the lecturer. He said, "Don't be worried. First
create the university - and make it the best. Students will
come, will have to come." Then all the professors and all
the deans were all in search of the best students. And somehow
this professor, S.S. Roy, who was the head of the department of
philosophy, got his eye on me.
I used to go every year to the university for the inter-university
debating competition. And for four years I was winning the trophy
and for four years he was listening to me, as a judge - he
was one of the judges. The fourth year he invited me to his home,
and he said, "Listen, I wait for you for one year. I know
that after one year, when the next inter-university debating competition
is held, you are bound to be there.
"The way you present your arguments is strange. It is sometimes
so weird that it seems...how did you manage to look from this
angle? I have been thinking about a few problems myself, but I
never looked from that aspect. It strikes me that perhaps you
go on dropping any aspect that can happen to the ordinary mind,
and you only choose the aspect that is unlikely to happen to anybody.
"For four years you have been winning the shield for the
simple reason that the argument is unique, and there is nobody
who is ready to answer it. They have not even thought about it,
so they are simply in shock.
"Your opponents - you reduce them so badly, one feels
pity for them, but what can we do? And I have been giving you
ninety-nine percent marks out of a hundred. I wanted to give you
more than a hundred, but even ninety-nine.... It has become
known to people that I am favorable to a certain student. This
is too much, because nobody goes beyond fifty.
"I have called you to my home for dinner to invite you
to leave Jabalpur University and come here. Now this is your fourth
year, you are finished when you graduate. For post-graduation
you come here. I cannot miss having you as my student; if you
don't come here then I am going to join Jabalpur University."
And he was a well-known authority; if he wanted to come, Jabalpur
University would have been immensely happy to accept him as head
of the department.
I said, "No, don't go to that much trouble. I can come here,
and I love the place." It is situated...perhaps it is
the best-situated university in the world, in the hills near a
tremendously vast lake. It is so silent - such huge trees,
ancient trees - that just to be there is enough education.
And Doctor Harisingh Gaur must have been a tremendous lover
of books. He donated all his library, and he managed to get as
many books as possible from every corner of the world. A single
man's effort...it is rare; he created Oxford just single-handedly,
alone. Oxford was created over one thousand years; thousands of
people have worked. This man's work is really a piece of art.
Single-handedly, with his own money, he put himself at stake.
So I loved the place. I said, "You need not be worried, I
will be coming - but you have seen me only in the debate competitions.
You don't know much about me; I may prove a trouble for you, a
nuisance. I would like you to know everything about me before
you decide."
Professor S.S. Roy said, "I don't want to know anything
about you. The little bit that I have come to know, just by seeing
you, your eyes, your way of saying things, your way of approaching
reality, is enough. And don't make me frightened about trouble
and nuisance - you can do whatsoever you want."
I said, "Remember that financially I am always broke, so
I will be continuously borrowing money from you and never returning
it. Things have to be made clear beforehand; otherwise later on
you can say, `This you never said.' You will have to lend me money
whenever I want. I am not going to return it, although it will
be said I am borrowing - but on your part you have to understand
that that money is gone, because from where can I return it? I
don't have any source.
"Second, you have to make arrangements in the university
for my free lodging and boarding. Thirdly, you have to ask the
vice-chancellor, because I don't know him - or you can introduce
me to him - for his special scholarship. He is entitled to
give one special scholarship. Other scholarships are there, which
are smaller scholarships given to talented people - first
class, first gold medalist, this and that; I want the special
scholarship which is three times more than any other scholarship.
"It is special because the vice-chancellor is entitled
to give it to anyone talented, not talented, in the good list
of the university, not in the good list of the university; it
does not matter. It is his personal choice - because if they
start thinking about my character certificates and this and that,
I cannot produce a single character certificate.
"I have been in many colleges because I have been expelled
again and again. So in four years time.... People study in
one college, I have studied in many, but all that I can bring
from them is expulsion orders. I cannot produce a single character
certificate - so you have to recommend me. You are my only
character certificate."
He said, "Don't be worried about that."
So I moved to Sagar. dark06
I moved to another city, Sagar, and gave all my certificates
of expulsion to the vice-chancellor of the university. He said,
"But why are you telling me all these terrible things?"
I said, "I am telling you: these are my character certificates.
And I don't want to keep you in the dark; first you should know
about me, only then give me admission. Otherwise it is safer not
to give me admission, rather than expel me later on, because then
it will be your responsibility. And you will be condemned for
it, because I always do the right thing; perhaps at the right
moment, the right thing done rightly is too much, and the people
who have been continually doing wrong things freak out. So I am
telling you these are my character certificates."
He said, "You are a strange young man but I cannot refuse
you, because who else would give such character certificates?
And I am the last to think of expelling you, because each time
you are right. I am not going to deny you admission."
He gave me admission - not only admission, he gave me scholarships.
He gave me free food, lodging, boarding, everything free. He said,
"You should be given all respect, because so much injustice
has been done to you."
I told him, "One thing you should remember: you are doing
all these things; it is so compassionate of you; but if sometimes
a problem arises then I am going to give you a tough time. I will
not think of your favors - that you must keep in your mind - I
cannot be bribed."
He said, "l am not bribing you, these are not bribes. I
really am impressed." He was the only person who did not
expel me for two years continuously. And those two years were
the hardest for my professors because those were the two last
years, the post-graduate years. So many complaints.... But
that man, Doctor Tripathi - he was a very great historian.
He was a professor of history at Oxford, and from there, when
he retired, he became vice-chancellor of Sagar university. He
kept his word.
He simply went on throwing all complaints into the wastepaper
basket, although every day when I used to go for a morning walk,
passing his house, he would tell me, "So many complaints
came yesterday; they are all in the wastepaper basket." And
he was so happy that he had been able to keep his word against
all odds. It was really difficult for him; there were complaints
from students, from superintendents, from the proctor, from professors.
misery01
Every child, if left and helped to grow according to his own
sensibilities, will bring something beautiful into the world,
some unique personality. Right now everybody is a copy of everybody
else.
This very vice-chancellor, when for the first time I entered
the university, looked at me and asked, "Why are you growing
a beard?"
I said, "I am not growing it, it is growing. Don't ask nonsense
questions. On the contrary, I can ask why you are cutting your
beard."
He said, "Settled. I will not ask anything and you will not
ask anything."
I said, "No. You can ask anything, but you have to have
the courage to receive the answer. You have to say that you asked
a wrong question. I am not growing it, I am not pulling my hairs
every day so that they grow; I am not watering them. You are shaving
twice a day. My hairs are natural and you are unnecessarily becoming
a woman."
He said, "What?"
I said, "It is so easy to understand. Do you think a woman
would look good with a beard? The same is true about you - without
a beard, you look just like a woman. A little weird, but..."
He said, "I promise never to disturb you, but don't spread
these ideas in the university, that I look like a woman, a little
weird."
I looked as I wanted. I lived as naturally as I wanted. That has
given me a tremendous sense of peace and integrity. There is no
regret. There is no complaint against life, only deep gratitude.
turnin07
I am reminded of one of my vice-chancellors. He was a world-famous
historian. He had been a professor of history in Oxford for almost
twenty years, and after his retirement from Oxford, he came back
to India. He had a world-famous name, and he was elected to be
the vice-chancellor of the university I was studying in. He was
a nice man, a beautiful personality, with immense knowledgeability,
scholarship, recognition - so many books to his credit.
By chance, the day he took charge as vice-chancellor was Gautam
Buddha's birthday. And Gautam Buddha's birthday is more important
than anybody else's birthday, because Gautam Buddha's birthday
is also his day of enlightenment, and also his day of leaving
the body. The same day he was born, the same day he became enlightened,
the same day he died.
The whole university gathered to hear him speak on Gautam Buddha.
And he was a great historian, he had written about Gautam Buddha;
and he spoke with great emotion. Tears in his eyes, he said, "I
have always felt that if I had been born in Gautam Buddha's time,
I would have never left his feet."
According to my habit I stood up, and I said, "You please
take your words back."
He said, "But why?"
I said, "Because they are false. You have been alive in
Raman Maharshi's time. He was the same kind of man, his was the
same enlightenment - and I know that you have not even visited
him. So whom are you trying to befool? You would not have visited
Gautam Buddha either. Wipe your tears, they are crocodile tears.
You are simply a scholar and you don't know anything about enlightenment
or people like Gautam Buddha."
There was a great silence in the auditorium. My professors were
afraid that I might be expelled; they were always afraid, that
any time.... And I had told them, "You don't be worried
about me. I have been expelled from many colleges, universities - it
has become almost my way of life, being expelled."
But now they were very much afraid. They loved me, and they
wanted me.... But to create such a situation, such an awkward
situation...and nobody knew what to do, how to break the ice.
In those few seconds it looked as if hours had passed. The vice-chancellor
was standing there - but he was certainly a man of some superior
quality. He wiped his tears and asked that he should be forgiven - perhaps
he was wrong. And he invited me to his house so that we could
discuss it in more detail.
But he said, before the whole university, "You are right.
I would not have gone to Gautam Buddha, I know it. I was not aware
when I said it; it was just emotional, I was carried away. Yes,
I have never been to Raman Maharshi when he was alive. And I had
been very close to his place many times - I used to deliver
lectures in Madras University, from where it is only a few hours'
journey to Arunachal. I have been told by many friends, 'You should
go and see this man' - and I always went on postponing till
the man died."
The whole university could not believe it, my professors could
not believe it. But his humbleness touched everybody. Respect
for him grew tremendously; and we became friends. He was very
old - he was almost sixty-eight - and I was only twenty-four,
but we became friends. And he never for a moment allowed me to
feel that he was a great scholar, that he was the vice-chancellor,
that he was my grandfather's age.
On the contrary, he said to me, "I don't know what happened
that day; I am not so humble a man. Being a professor in Oxford
for twenty years, being a visiting professor to almost all the
universities of the world, I have become very egoistic. But you
destroyed everything in a single stroke. And I will remain grateful
to you for my whole life: if you had not stood up, I might have
remained believing that I would have done this. But now I would
like it...if you can find someone, then I would like to sit
by his feet and listen to him."
And you will not believe it that when I said, "Then sit
down and listen...." he said, "What!"
I said, "Just look at me. Don't be bothered by my age, sit
down and listen to me." And you will not believe it - that
old man sat down and listened to me, to whatever I wanted to say
to him. But rare are people who have so much courage and so much
openness.
After that day he used to come to the hostel to visit me. Everybody
was puzzled: what had happened? - and I had created for him
such an embarrassing situation! He used to take me to his house,
and we would sit together and he would ask me, "Say anything - I
want to listen. My whole life I have been talking; I have forgotten
listening. And I have been saying things which I don't know."
And he listened the way a disciple listens to a master.
My professors were very much puzzled. They said, "Have you
done some magic on that old man? or has he gone senile? or what
is the matter? To see him, we have to make an appointment, and
we have to wait on a long list. When our time comes, only then
can we meet him. And he comes to see you - not only that,
he listens to you. What has happened?"
I said, "The same can happen to you too, but you are not
that intelligent, not that sensitive, not that understanding.
That old man is really rare." bond38
One of my vice-chancellors, even though I was only a student
in the university, made it a point that he should be informed
whenever I was going to speak. No matter what, he would cancel
all appointments and he would come and listen to me. And I asked
him, "You are a great historian...." He was a professor
of history in the University of Oxford, before he became the vice-chancellor
in India.
He said, "I love your gaps. Those gaps show that you are
absolutely unprepared, you are not an orator. You wait for God,
and if he is waiting...then what can you do? You have to wait
in silence. When he speaks, you speak; when he is silent, you
are silent."
The gaps are more important than the words because the words
can be distorted by the mind but not the gaps. And if you can
understand the gaps, then you have understood the silent message,
the silent presence of the divine. spirit02
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