| 
Part VIII : Osho's deposition for a local court case
In an attempt to harrass Osho, and hold him responsible for
Sheela's actions, Osho is called to testify in a law-suit brought
by Donna Smith Quick, a local woman who has been organising opposition
to the commune. In August 1984, Osho's deposition is taken at
his house. The jury dismiss the claim.
Your Honor, before I take the oath, I have to say few things,
otherwise the oath will be a fraud. The first thing—I have
always been against the ritual of oath-taking for the simple reason
that if a man is capable fo lying he can lie even while he is
taking the oath. His oath can be a lie, and if a man is a man
of truth, the oath creates a dilemma for that man. For the man
of truth to take the oath means that he is capable of lying. Without
the oath he will lie and with the oath he will say the truth.
You are putting me into a dilemma, but I am not a serious man.
In life I never take anything seriously, except the jokes. I will
take this oath just to play the game of this deposition. I will
follow the rule, but I would like you to remember that by taking
the oath I am lying in the first place. It is against my philosophy
of life and you are forcing me to take the oath, that means you
are freeing me, giving me the freedom to lie later on although
I am not going to lie. The oath allows me to lie, but in spite
of that freedom I will only say the truth, because I am incapable
of lying. That is impossible, that is against my being and my
existence. Now, just to play the game, I will take the oath. You
can repeat what you want….
I take the oath on the book of Rajneeshism that I will speak
only the truth. It is good that you have allowed me to take the
oath on the book of Rajneeshism because these are my own words,
but this is such ridiculousness that I am taking oath on my own
words. These dead words on the paper mean more to you than my
living words. But if it was a Bible, I would have refused immediately,
or Koran, or Gita, or any so-called holy book, because they are
full of lies, out-of-date, un-scientific, sub-status. silent06
The interviewer reads extracts from a discourse given by Osho
in Poona, to show that he is responsible for the commune. Osho
responds:
It is absolute nonsense to read that big passage—you simply
ask me the question. These are my own words, but they were spoken
six years before, they were spoken in India; they were spoken
in a totally different context.
I have been in different phases of work. First, I was working
on myself. Then I was working to find the right expression to
allow people to know what I have known, so for 20 years I have
been travelling all over India.
Third, when I have found my people then I remain in one place,
in Poona. That was a special experiment. It was not a political
place, so the question of democracy does not arise at all. Jesus
was not a democrat, nor was Buddha a democrat, nor was Moses a
democrat. These people who have known the truth cannot depend
on voting whether it is true or not. It is their own experience.
I am not a democrat as far as my religion is concerned but that
does not imply politics at all. Democracy is a political phenomenon.
And democracy takes care of the last person in the society, the
most ignorant. Democracy is really for the most ignorant. It is
mobocracy. Religion takes care of the highest man, the Buddha,
the enlightened, the Christ, who has known the truth. Now there
is no question of deciding whether it is true or not by voting,
by people who know nothing about it.
In that experiment there was no question of democracy. That
does not mean that I am against democracy. In politics democracy
is okay, but politics is a lower field. Religion is the highest
phenomenon on the earth. In religion it can only be dictatorial,
and by dictatorial I don't mean the dictatorship of masses, communists,
by dictatorial I mean simply the master dictates and the disciple
follows, there is no question of whether it is right or wrong.
This was my third phase of work.
When that phase was over I moved out of India and I moved into
silence. Now the situation and the context is totally different.
I am no more concerned with the Commune, its day to day work,
its details, its economics, its finance. I am not concerned at
all with any mundane worldly affairs. Now my disciples are prepared
enough to take care of the Commune. I am just an outsider. They
can ask only their spiritual questions to me, nothing else. And
if you want to ask me spiritual questions you have to come here
like a disciple, sit on the ground in total acceptance, not like
the way you are sitting here, interrogating me. This is a different
situation. silent06
|
