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Part VIII : Osho's Personal Life
In 1985, for the first time, Osho speaks at length in discourse
about his personal life. In July the three intimate books from
his dental sessions are published. During press interviews he
answers many personal questions.
Who are you?
I am just an ordinary human being. I consider your saviors, your
prophets, your messengers of God, crackpots. These people are
hallucinating. They are not in their right senses. What to say
about their being enlightened?—they are not even normal
human beings. They are sick. And the popes are representatives
of these sick people….
I am just an ordinary man who is not sick….
To be perfectly healthy in your being, to be whole, is enlightenment.
And that does not make you superior to others. It makes you unique;
that's why you can't fit into any category. Every enlightened
person is unique.
Whatever I have experienced has made my life a benediction, has
made thousands of other people's lives a blessing, a joy. I have
not divided humanity and I have not created any hatred. I have
not created any fight, cruelty, war, violence.
I don't represent any religion. I have a religious experience.
I am my own authority. last403
What makes You so special? Why are You the one who is the leader?
You tell people things, and they follow what You say, but why
You? Why not somebody else?
You ask them—because I am not their leader. I have not told
them that they are my followers. I have not asked them to come
and be here with me. It is their business and their problem, and
their responsibility. I am a very irresponsible person. I don't
take anybody else's responsibility. It is enough that I take my
own responsibility.
You will have to ask my people why.
Does it surprise You that they follow You the way they do?
It surprises me immensely. It is really a miracle. I am nobody's
leader, but there are half a million people who think they are
my followers.
Do You enjoy the adoration?
No. Not at all. I hate it. I enjoy friendship. Adoration is putting
somebody high above you. I don't have any ego. I am not higher
than anybody else, not holier than anybody else.
But it certainly surprises me. They adore…they must be crazy!
Now what can I do about it? You tell me.
I'd just go along with it.
That's okay. last105
Perhaps You could make some mistakes. Or do enlightened people
make mistakes?
I make as many as possible. But that makes me more human. And
it is easier to love a human being than to love the only begotten
son of God. last327
Never use words like "perfect". Everything is imperfect
here, has to be—except idiots like Pope the Polack. These
are perfect people, infallible. Only idiots can claim infallibility.
The wise ones will say, "Perhaps it is so. I do not know
absolutely. Yes, I have glimpses. There are moments of clarity;
there are times it seems, `Yes! This is it!' but there is no full
stop anywhere."
If you ask me how many times I have said, "This is it!"
and the next day, something bigger…. And I think, "My
God! So this is it!" But slowly slowly, when it was happening
more and more, more and more, bigger and bigger, I dropped the
idea of saying, "This is it!"
This is always becoming it, but there is no full stop. It is never
perfect.
Knowing is a process. dark09
To me life is a permanent change; only change is unchanging,
everything else changes. If you are alive you change, if you are
dead, of course you cannot change. The moment you stop changing
you have died. Many people die near about thirty years of their
age; then they may live fifty years more, but that is posthumous
life. I will live to the very last breath. I will go on changing.
I will go on growing. There is no limit to it. There may be a
limit to the sky, but there is no limit to the consciousness.
last302
Do you meditate for many hours a day?
It is my twenty-four-hour thing, because…. I will have to
explain a little bit about it. Other religions have prescribed
people a few minutes, half an hour, to meditate, concentrate,
contemplate, pray—but to me the whole idea is idiotic that
you can meditate for half an hour and for the remaining twenty-three
and a half hours you can remain non-meditative. That is impossible.
It is just like saying, "Breathe half an hour and for the
remaining time, forget all about it—tomorrow morning breathe
again."
Meditation is something that has to become your constant companion.
So my method is such that it disturbs nothing. For example, I
am talking to you: my method is that while I am talking to you
I am fully aware of what I am saying, to whom I am saying it.
Every gesture of my hand is with full awareness.
So do whatsoever you are doing—walking on the street or
swimming on the lake—but remain conscious of your activity.
Then you can be in meditation twenty-four hours a day. And unless
you can be twenty-four hours in meditation, all your half-hour
meditations are toys: you are just befooling yourself. last220
Could You say something to us about bliss?
I have been blissed out myself for almost thirty-three years.
That is exactly the time Jesus lived on earth. Shankara also lived
only thirty-three years, Vivekananda too. For the length of the
whole life of Jesus I have been blissed out. And this seems to
be the right time to ask me what bliss is. It is almost impossible
to answer, but remember I am saying "almost"….
In coming out of the ego you come out of suffering, misery, anguish—that
whole company. And when there is no ego, what remains is blissfulness.
I close my eyes—it is there.
I open my eyes—it is there.
I walk—it walks with me.
I sleep—it sleeps with me:
I am no longer separate from it…. person26
I am perfectly happy right now, so blessed that I can bless the
whole world. Still my blissfulness will not be exhausted.
Why share it with the world?
Because it goes on increasing if you share. It is profit-making.
There are a few giggles there. Define what you mean by profit-making.
The more you share your bliss, your joy, the more it increases.
It is a totally different kind of economics from that which you
are aware of. In the ordinary economics the rule is if you go
on sharing your money, it will decrease.
In the higher economics, which is my business, the more you share,
the more existence goes on pouring into you. It is just like a
well: you go on drawing water from the well and new water goes
on flowing from everywhere. If you stop drawing water from the
well, the water will become stale, dead, even poisonous.
Bliss has to be shared. It is not out of compassion. That is why
I said it is profit-making. It is not out of compassion that I
share my bliss. it is just out of simple profit motive. It increases
the more I share. It is like the rain cloud full of rain. It has
to shower somewhere, otherwise it will become heavy, burdened.
Yes, I say, if you don't share your bliss it will go stale. It
will start stinking very soon. It will die. You have to share
it to keep it alive, flowing, increasing, expanding. I am an imperialist.
I don't believe in any limits on anything. last121
Recently you said that most people who become enlightened die
shortly afterwards. How have you managed to stay with us so long?
I am so grateful.
Really I should be grateful to you. It is love for you, and the
love that you go on pouring upon me that has helped me to remain
with you. Love is a spiritual nourishment.
Those who died after their enlightenment died because they thought
they had found it and now there was no reason to live. When I
found it, I said to myself, "Now there is every reason to
live." Before finding, there was no reason; I could have
died easily. But after my finding it, my love would not let me
die. I waited for you, and you started coming. I have not sent
a message, not written a letter. Still, from faraway lands you
started coming, as if you have always belonged to me.
Now I am part of you, you are part of me. It is going to be very
difficult for death to take me away from so many people, from
your love: I am protected.
Love is the antidote of death, not life.
Ordinarily you think that life and death are contraries. No, death
and love are the contraries. Now it is going to be a great strain
on death. I should be grateful to you. I have not given anything
to you, there is nothing to give. You have already got it. At
the most I go on shaking you, shocking you, hitting you. Do you
think that is giving?
But you have loved me—a man who does not deserve anybody's
love. I am immensely grateful to the sannyasins. You are my life!
If you are with me, there is no death. If you are not with me,
then this very moment I will be gone. It is your love which is
keeping me breathing, living; it is your joy, your blissfulness,
your songs, your dances.
In the night when I go to sleep, I tell death, "At least
don't disturb my morning. My people will be waiting to burst into
singing." I am alive because so many people would like me
to be alive. Existence cannot go against so much love. Existence
cannot do anything without the permission of so many people. Death
has to wait!
It all depends on you. My work is done as far as I am concerned.
There is nothing more to experience, nothing more to know. But
I have become so much concerned with you that it does not matter
that my work is finished; there are so many people who love me
whose work is not finished. I have to live, to find ways and means
to postpone death.
And I am very stubborn. I have struggled with life, and I have
been victorious. Death is a poor thing; if I can be victorious
in life, I can easily keep death waiting outside the door. I will
allow it in only when I see that you are awake, that your consciousness
has arisen, that even if I am not here you will continue my work,
you will go on spreading the fire around the world. But please,
just to keep me alive don't go on sleeping.
There are so many—eight hundred thousand—sannyasins
around the world. It is going to be a difficult task for death
to take me away from my people. I am not alone, I have penetrated
into your beings. I have dispersed myself into so many beings
that it is almost impossible for death to collect me unless I
help.
Don't just feel grateful. If you are grateful, it is good, but
not enough. Become what you are, be what you are. Let me rejoice!
My only joy is to see somebody coming home.
I will wait till eternity. You can go on and on befooling yourself,
but remember—I am waiting, and I want you to be enlightened.
I want it to become the most important historical fact in human
existence, that thousands of people relax into their ordinariness
and become enlightened. Yes, in the past it was so that after
thousands of years one person may become enlightened. I don't
live in that bullock-cart age, I am a contemporary man. I want
you to become enlightened with jet speed—and it is possible.
I am not asking the impossible.
You have given so much to me.
You go on giving so much to me.
I wonder…what have I done? Where have I gone wrong?—that
so many people for no reason go on pouring their love on one who
deserves nothing. And your love goes on growing. As your love
goes on growing, I become healthier and healthier.
Soon I am going to dance with you! false28
I am only fifty-four but it seems I am almost ancient. Deep inside
I feel just like a child, just born, as fresh as the dewdrops
in the early morning sun. But in the body I feel as if I have
lived many lives together in one life. person22
I am ancient…. Very ancient. You can see in me, in my eyes…you
will see the whole past of humanity. I am as old as existence
itself—because I have always been here. I am part, just
as you are part, of this existence. And I have been in so many
bodies that now I cannot get identified with any body. When you
have to change so many trains, you are bound to feel that no train
is yours; at the coming junction again you have to change the
train.
In this body I have been fifty-four years. But in fifty-four years
I have lived a life which is not possible to live even in two
hundred years. I have lived intensely, totally. Whatever I have
been doing at whatever time, I was doing it with my whole heart,
as if the next moment is death.
This time is the last time. I have been coming into bodies again
and again, but this time it is the last time. After enlightenment,
you cannot come back to the body. That is the only disadvantage.
last108
Who will be your successor when you die?
I don't care. I don't care at all. I am a man who is not concerned
with past or future….
I care in this moment. It is not caring about their future. In
this moment I care. What happens tommorrow I have nothing to do
with. But in this moment, whatsoever response arises in me I have
to share with my people. last105
I want to leave this world as if I have never been here. I don't
want to leave any footprints, so that no idiot starts following
the footprints. I will destroy everything. last312
What do You do all day?
Nothing. Just nothing.
And where do you do nothing?
Just sitting in my room, in my chair, enjoying myself. last102
Are You never bored with life?
Boredom is something very fundamental.
It is part of not accepting your aloneness.
It is part of not being able to enjoy your aloneness.
You have been taught by the society to escape, to go on running,
not to look back; but boredom follows you like a shadow.
Boredom is your shadow.
Where are you going to escape?
You can't escape from it….
My life is absolutely lonely.
This is strange to say because I have lived thirty-five years
of my life in crowds. But I am alone in the crowd.
You are there, but I am alone.
Even in the crowd I am not in any way different than when I am
sitting in my room alone. My aloneness persists; it is incorruptible.
I live in just one room almost the whole day.
My life is as much a routine as possible. Everything that creates
boredom I have meticulously arranged around myself I have not
allowed anything that may help me to escape from my aloneness.
In the morning exactly at a certain time I get up. And do you
know what I do first thing? Even Vivek does not know. The first
thing is, I pinch myself to see whether I am still here or it
is finished. Only after pinching myself and being certain do I
push the button for Vivek to bring my tea. Because what is the
point of pushing the button if I am not here? She will unnecessarily
get up and prepare the tea and bring it—and that is not
right.
So first I make certain that I am still here. Then the second
thing I do—I push the button for her to bring my tea. And
what is my tea? No milk, no sugar, just hot water with tea leaves.
But I enjoy it because it is the purest taste of tea. Sugar and
milk destroy the purity of tea completely.
Everything is set up exactly the same every day. I have half an
hour in my bathroom, then half an hour in my swimming pool. It
must be the hottest swimming pool in the world: ninety-nine degrees
fahrenheit. It is just cooking yourself completely. Twenty minutes
in it and you are cooked well. And I don't have a small swimming
pool, it is olympic size. You know I am a man of very simple tastes—I
am satisfied with the best of anything: satisfied simply, but
with the best of anything.
Sheela was asking me, "What are you going to do with the
olympic size?"
I said, "That is not the point, what I am going to I do with
the olympic size. The size has to be olympic; I cannot step into
a smaller size swimming pool."
Half an hour in that hot water, then back for half an hour under
an ice-cold shower. You cannot have that ice-cold shower for more
than two minutes. But after ninety-nine degrees of hot water it
is a tremendously beautiful experience to be under ice-cold water
The change from hot to the opposite, to very cold, is again a
deeper pinching. The first was on the body, this is on the soul.
Then I am perfectly certain that I am here and going to prevail,
at least for today.
Vivek brings my breakfast, which is really a great breakfast—just
a glass of juice, the same. It would be the same for everybody
else, but not for me because I don't compare. Yesterday is gone
and tomorrow has not come yet—I don't compare it. Vivek
was asking me today, "Are you really excited with the same
food every day?"—because yesterday I said I was excited.
She was asking, "Are you really excited?"
I said, "I am always excited with the same juice, the same
food, because the problem arises only when you start comparing.
When you start thinking that for ten years you have been having
the same juice, then there arises the fear, "What are you
doing?"
But I am not bored. I have dropped comparison. I don't carry any
psychological memory with me. I go on dropping it moment to moment,
and then I can enjoy the same thing for the whole of eternity.
She must have been worried because of what I said. She must have
talked with my personal physician, Devaraj, and said, "Should
we change Osho's complete menu?"
I said, "No, I am not going to allow you to change it. I
am so settled with it that a change may create some trouble."
And I am not bored with it. It is difficult to believe, but I
have learned one thing:
If you can enjoy your aloneness then you can enjoy anything.
And if you cannot enjoy your aloneness, you cannot enjoy anything.
That is an absolutely fundamental principle…. person23
You, got as far as breakfast. To complete our religious historical
records, could You tell us what goes beyond the juice?
There is nothing that goes beyond the juice.
The seers of the Upanishads have described the ultimate reality
as the "juice"—raso vai saha. This is the only
definition which comes close to what I call godliness.
Raso vai saha means "that which is nothing but juice":
No person, no personality, but only a taste, a feel.
So if you ask me for anything that goes beyond the juice, it is
very difficult for me to answer because juice is the last, the
ultimate, the beyond itself—nothing goes beyond it. And
as far as my breakfast juice is concerned I don't allow anything
to go beyond even that.
You will have to understand it. First, for your religious and
historical records: after juice—and remember, "after"
does not mean "beyond"; "after" simply means
chronologically after, timewise, but not beyond. After juice I
listen to a few songs, poetry, music, that I have been listening
to for almost thirty years. Those who have lived with me have
always been puzzled.
When I was a student my friends were puzzled—they were the
same records. I had an old-style gramophone and a collection of
records. When I started playing my records they would escape from
their rooms, which were on either side, and they couldn't help
but hear. They complained to the vice-chancellor.
I was called and I explained to him, "Hearing has two dimensions.
One is horizontal. You hear a song; if it is new, you are interested
because you don't know what is coming next, what turn it will
take. But if you have heard it once, then horizontally it loses
meaning. Horizontally there is no excitement: you know perfectly
well what is going to come next. And when you know it already,
how can you be excited?"
The horizontal meaning is finished in just experiencing anything
for the first time. But I have discovered that there is a vertical
meaning too—to everything in life. The songs, the music,
that I have heard for thirty years and still listen to, now have
no horizontal meaning for me. I know every nook and corner, every
nuance—as far as the horizontal lines are concerned they
have become almost irrelevant. And when I hear them, a strange
thing happens: physically I almost fall asleep, but I continue
to hear. And in this state, the words which have been heard thousands
of times are no longer significant, but something deeper than
the words starts opening up.
The song is not in the words: it is something around the word,
between the words, between the lines, but never in the word itself.
If it is authentic poetry then there will be a depth where words
are lost: you dive into the meaning itself, the pure meaning.
It is more sound and silence. The word is left far behind; the
word becomes almost transparent.
In the East it was discovered thousands of years ago. In English
you have one word for reading, "study." For "reading,"
in Sanskrit we have two words—adhyayan, which means study,
and path, which is not translatable. Path means reading something
again and again, not to understand what it means linguistically—that
you can understand by reading one time, or two times; you need
not read it thousands of times. And if you cannot understand it
reading it five or ten times, then you are not capable of understanding
it in reading it a thousand times either. You will still be you.
No, that is not the purpose of reading it a thousand times. The
purpose is how to go farther than the word. The only way is to
repeat the words so many times that they become absolutely meaningless,
irrelevant. And when it becomes irrelevant, only then the vertical
dimension opens; you start falling into its depth.
But that is possible only with authentic poetry or authentic music,
not with ordinary music or ordinary poetry which is composed by
the mind. That is nothing but a play with words; there is nothing
to be conveyed. The man has no experience, no juice to pour into
those words so those words can become carriers of a message. He
knows how to manage a certain rhythm in words, and he composes
a song. It is a composition, it is not a creation.
But when a song is created, it means it is not composed by the
mind but has arisen out of a certain experience of rhythm, harmony;
and you try to express it through the words, because words can
reach the other—the pure juice is not transferable….
So after my breakfast, for two or three hours I listen to my chosen
songs. I know them perhaps more than the people who wrote them
and the people who sang them. I am far more acquainted with them
because I have heard them thousands of times. Every day I enter
a new depth. It is almost a state of deep silence; and because
of the silence, my body relaxes and goes to sleep—l am awake.
With the body, the words are connected; with me, the meaning.
But this too is another experience of juice.
Sometimes, very rarely, I listen to instrumental music. Many people
have asked me, "If you are not interested in the words, then
instrumental music should be more to your liking." But it
is not the case. Instrumental music is beautiful, but because
it has no words it has no dimensionality. The words give the song
a horizontal dimension which makes it possible to dive vertically.
The instrumental music is simple. It is horizontal, but because
there are no words, the moment you drop the horizontal dimension
you are in a desert without any oasis. It is beautiful, horizontally.
The songs are beautiful only when you enter the vertical dimension,
but that is possible only by creating the polar opposite. The
word is the polar opposite of silence. If words are not there,
you cannot create silence. The instrumental music is sound, there
is no silence. It is sound arranged in a harmonious way but it
cannot have that polarity of word and wordlessness.
So after breakfast I enjoy something which is again juice, but
not material, immaterial…as if you have a taste without
eating anything. There is no physical counterpart to it—just
taste without anything tasty on your taste buds.
At eleven I take my lunch. Vivek still cannot believe that I am
excited, but what to do? Whether you believe it or not I am excited.
I myself cannot believe it. So I can understand that nobody will
be able to believe it when I myself cannot believe it. I know
exactly what she is going to bring, everything is predictable;
three small quantities of vegetables, boiled, without salt, without
any kind of spices.
They have become experts in making everything tasteless. You cannot
defeat them in that. And certainly they must be wondering: they
go on giving this tasteless food to me, but I never complain.
I have always appreciated it, because it has given me an opportunity
which they don't know about. When you are eating delicious food,
with spices and all kinds of things, made to be tasty, perfumed,
you are losing something that you don't know. You are destroying
your taste buds. They are not meant for such strong things; they
are very small, and very delicate.
I discovered the real taste of things only when I started following
Devaraj's recipes. He has changed my dining room into a hospital.
But I love it. Now you can put me into any hospital and they will
not be able to do any harm to me.
Three vegetables, almost the same; four slices of bread just toasted
and without any butter; and a cup of Indian sauce, chutney—that's
all. But in my whole life I have never been so satisfied with
my food as I am now. In India there are thousands of kinds of
food. Perhaps there is no other country which has so many different
varieties of food: each province has its own varieties. I have
moved all over India, and I have eaten all kinds of foods. Every
state has its own tremendous findings—perhaps it has taken
thousands of years for them to develop certain delicacies—but
all their food, howsoever tasty, is not good, healthwise.
My weight was good so I used to look very healthy. But I discovered
it only late, that just to look healthy is not health. Now I am
healthy—but my mother comes, and she says every time she
comes…. I remind her, "You have told this to me every
time you have come: 'What have you done to your health?'"
and she thinks that I am wearing this long and loose robe just
to deceive her.
I say, "I am not trying to deceive."
She says, "But I can see your hands on the video. You may
be able to deceive others but you cannot deceive me. I have seen
you from your very child]hood, and you had such a beautiful body."
And I can see tears coming into her eyes looking at my food. I
don't allow her…because she has been trying persistently
for years to bring something, just a little.
I say, "No, nothing doing. My doctor does not allow it. I
can take only what he prescribes, I cannot take anything else."
But again and again—and I know why, because she saw me in
1960 when I was one hundred and ninety pounds, and I had a body….
But Devaraj has been of great help. He has dropped all milk products—milk,
butter, ghee, everything—from my food, and I feel really
clean. Of course, I have lost weight, but what purpose is weight?
I don't look cut out of marble but there is no need to look cut
out of marble—there are enough marble statues.
For the first time in my life I am feeling at ease with food.
In India it was impossible because everybody was harassing me:
"If you drop milk then there is nothing in the food. If you
drop curd then there is nothing in the food. If you don't take
butter then you will lose weight." But that weight was causing
me all kinds of difficulties. Right now all of my difficulties
have disappeared.
My breathing is no longer a trouble, and as my weight has been
coming down my back has been getting better. Strangely, since
the weight has come below one hundred and thirty pounds, my back
is absolutely right. There is no strain at all; otherwise once
in a while I used to feel the strain in a certain position. Now
in no position am I feeling the strain….
After my lunch I go to sleep. This is something that I have followed
my whole life. Two hours sleep in the middle of the day gives
me two days out of one day, two mornings, two evenings; it doubles
the joy of life. And sleep, according to Patanjali, is very close
to samadhi. The only difference is that in samadhi your body is
asleep but your consciousness is awake. Now to me, both sleep
and samadhi are the same. My consciousness is awake twenty-four
hours a day. Whether my body is awake or asleep makes no difference
to my consciousness.
But to give the body a total relaxation—even sitting on
a comfortable chair like this is not total relaxation for the
body because of the gravitation….
So for two hours in the day I enjoy a small night, and I make
my room completely dark. Many times I forget: when I get up at
quarter to two it takes a little while for me to figure it out,
whether it is morning or afternoon, and sometimes Vivek has to
come to wake me because I have simply forgotten completely that
it is afternoon. So I have told her, "You can wait up to
quarter to two; longer than that you should not wait. That means
I am not clear whether it is morning or evening…and people
must be waiting for the drive-by, so you wake me."
Then again, a cup of tea—the same, because it is again morning.
Then I go to see you all.
It is enough for me just to see you happy, dancing, singing, enjoying.
That's what I want the whole world to be:
Just always in a dancing and singing mood.
People who come just as spectators cannot believe it. The journalists
cannot believe that people can be so happy, so joyful; they think
that you are putting it on. And I cannot say that journalists
are misrepresenting it knowingly. They have seen the whole world;
there is no joy anywhere. How can they believe that so many people
can be joyous, and for nothing, because what have we got?…
And just seeing you happy is all that I am here for.
Nothing else is expected from you.
No Master has ever expected less than I expect from you:
Just that you should be joyous, that you should treat miseries
and sufferings as being below you.
The whole world is ready to be miserable and suffer without you.
Do you think the world is going to miss your misery, suffering?
Don't be worried about that.
You can enjoy, you can rejoice….
I see many times people standing in the line, spectators who come
for drive-by. They don't look at me. I feel like stopping my car
and opening my window, but I feel if they get hypnotized then
I will be found a culprit, so it is better that I pass on and
don't bother about them. They are looking somewhere else…and
they have come to see me! What is happening?—I am seeing
them, and they are avoiding me.
Coming back from the drive-by, which I enjoy immensely…because
my attitude towards life is this: tomorrow perhaps I may not be
able to see you dancing again, so every day I see it as if I am
seeing it for the first time and the last time. Vivek looks a
little puzzled: how can I go on enjoying every day the same people
dancing and beating drums out of tune, and doing all kinds of
things? How do I go on enjoying it every day? I don't look at
her for the simple reason that she may feel awkward. I don't look
at her, not even a single time: she may feel awkward because she
is seeing me enjoying the same scene again every day.
But to me it is a question of tremendous importance. Perhaps tomorrow
I may not be able to see you again; then the last time I see you,
I should see you as fully as possible, as totally as possible.
And because I never compare, the question does not arise that
you are the same people singing the same song, playing on the
same drums. And I know, I will make arrangements so that even
when I am not there, my car will pass at the exact time for you
to dance and sing and play. Wherever I am, I will enjoy it. It
is a promise.
So you will not miss my car at least, even if I am not there.
Vivek will be there; and people already think perhaps she is driving
the car. Sheela had to clear up this rumor in front of the commune—that
it is not so, because the rumor was coming again and again, and
when it became too much….One day a radio reporter was following
the car, giving a commentary to his radio station which was released
immediately. He was giving the commentary like you listen to the
commentary on a football match: "now Bhagwan has come, people
are dancing, singing, jumping. There is all kinds of music, all
kinds of tunes are being played…and now Bhagwan has even
let go of the steering wheel—that too was in the commentary—"and
He is beating time with the dancers and singers. Now it is a wonder
how the car is…." Then Sheela came to me; she said,
"this was the radio commentary. It was relayed all over America."
And then the rumor started coming to her: "Is it true that
Bhagwan is not driving, Vivek is?" The pedals and gears are
on Vivek's side, and only a pseudo-steering wheel is in front
of me so I can let go of it and there is no problem! In fact,
it can be arranged that way. My garage director, Avesh, is a great
mechanic. He can manage it that way so that Vivek will be sitting
still on the passenger's seat with the gears and the pedals, and
a certain small device for steering with the hand. And my steering
wheel will remain free the way it is when I'm not holding it.
But I would like you still to enjoy drive-by the same way, to
dance the same way, even more so, because when I am not there
you have to "put it on"—even better!
Life is so simple and so beautiful.
If you can remember that tomorrow is not certain, then it is intense
too.
Coming back I again listen to music. Then I again repeat the same
routine: going to the bath, going to the swimming pool, going
to the chilled shower. Then the supper, the same. Why you call
it supper, I don't know, because it is the same as lunch. At least
as far as I am concerned, a different word is not needed; it is
just the same as lunch. And as far as dinner is concerned, I don't
know the meaning of it because I have never had any dinner—just
the same lunch, exactly the same.
My kitchen people have invented something new, a patty made out
of dahl. It is really delicious, and perhaps my kitchen is the
only place where it is made because it is not made in India. My
kitchen has dozens of recipes for patties but I have chosen only
two: one for the morning, and one for the evening. But I end up
my lunch with a glass of juice the same as in the morning, because
I will not allow anything to go beyond the juice. I end my supper,
so-called supper, with a glass of juice and then I am excitedly
waiting for Sheela to bring the questions.
You will not be as excited to meet me as I am to meet you. I don't
know what I am going to say. That's why many things I go on missing.
That's why I forgot yesterday after breakfast—I must have
gone somewhere else, because it is not a prepared speech. I am
simply speaking as if to myself—the way you think. I don't
think, so there is no question of preparing: I simply start speaking.
Speaking without thinking, it is bound to be a little bizarre….
After the discourse I do some work with Sheela, anything concerned
with sannyasins' spiritual growth. And nearabout ten o'clock I
take my last glass of juice and go into sleep or samadhi, which
are both the same to me. Now you can see that I don't have anything
beyond the juice.
The juice is the last and ultimate thing: Raso vai saha, that
which is nothing but juice. In the Sanskrit sutra they do not
use the pronoun "he"; instead they use "that."
It is quite clear that they are referring to existence itself
and not to a non-existent God. person25
At eleven in the night, all my life I have eaten a certain kind
of Indian sweet that I eat and go to bed. Without eating my sweet
I cannot sleep.
What kind of a sweet is it?
It is a Bengali sweet which is not known in the West, but is the
best. It is made of milk. The cream is taken out. You heat the
milk and just pour lemon juice into the boiling milk. It separates,
and what is left is called rasogulla.
It is something that the West has not used. It is the lightest
sweet. In Bengal, it is given to patients or to those who are
recovering from a long sickness. It is very helpful and tremendously
delicious. From eleven to six, I am again knocked out. And if
existence wants me again tomorrow, I will be awakened; otherwise
I am gone—gone with the wind. last123
I sleep with three pillows: one on each side and one under my
head…. and I use very big pillows, perhaps the biggest size…"I
cannot sleep without those two. Those two are absolutely part
of my sleep. If somebody takes one of my pillows, then it is difficult
for me to sleep. I will miss him the whole night." unconc27
I take one and a half hours in my bathroom, relaxing in my bath.
I love my bathroom the best; it is my temple. They have made really
beautiful, gorgeous bathrooms for me. And not only one, because
I'm always for two of everything—not less than that—because
if something goes wrong in one bathroom, I'm not going to miss
my bath. A second bathroom has to be constantly alert and ready.
So for one and a half hours I enjoy in my bathroom. I have the
best bubble baths. I'm allergic to perfumes, so I can take only
herbal bubble baths. If you come to my bathroom you will be surprised
to see what a treasure I have got there: the world's best shampoos,
hair conditioners, liquid soaps without perfume—all kinds.
Every day it is really difficult for me to choose. It takes me
almost five minutes to figure out what this combination will do.
last123
You don't go out driving anymore around here, is that correct?
Not every day now. When I was not speaking, when I was in silence,
I wanted to see my sannyasins every day…that's why the driveby
was invented. Now I am seeing them in the morning for two and
a half hours every day, so there is no need. But we have four
celebrations around the year. In each celebration—it will
be a seven day celebration—they will have driveby also.
What do you experience inside your car when you drive past your
disciples?
I love them. Just to see them is a great nourishment to me. to
see them dance, to see them laugh. Perhaps I start feeling: I
am certainly the Blessed One—so much love I don't think
anybody has received ever. last113
Happiness attracts happiness.
Lovingness attracts more love.
Blissfulness attracts more bliss.
Giggle, and soon you will be laughing. Just try to move your hands
and legs and soon you will be dancing—what else to do? I
see it happen every day during the drive-by. First people just
try, because it is so much against their upbringing. But then
they see that others are also doing it; they look to both sides,
people are doing it. Against themselves, reluctantly, they start
moving a little bit—and soon they are dancing.
One old man is there: at first he used to just stand. I went on
watching him, what happens. He is old, has a thick past, but by
and by he started moving. One day I saw—he had brought a
flute, but he was keeping the flute under his arm. Then he started
playing the flute. Then he started dancing and playing on the
flute, together.
And today he was just dancing with the flute above his head, in
his hand; he had dropped everything. He had forgotten he is old;
he forgot that he is not supposed to do such a thing—and
he was so happy! Just to see his face…it was a beautiful
moment. He again became a child, again the same innocence was
in his eyes. dark23
I go for a drive—that I have always loved. And my sannyasins
have made a beautiful road just for me. Perhaps I am the poorest
and the richest man in the world: I don't possess anything, but
everything that anybody can possess, I use. I don't think even
the Queen of England has a private road going into the forest,
in the hills, by the side of a lake. It is used only for one hour,
and there is no traffic, so there is no question of following
any stupid laws of being on the right or being on the left. Mostly
I follow being in the middle, which is not allowed anywhere else
in the world—that's why I enjoy it. last123
Who are the people who come close to you in your everyday life?
Obviously, not five thousand or two thousand people can be around.
No. Just in the morning, everybody listens to me, the whole commune
together. In the evening, my secretary, Sheela, comes if there
is any problem for which she needs guidance from me. In the day,
Vivek, another sannyasin, takes care of my food. She comes only
when I give her a call to bring my food or my tea. Otherwise,
I remain completely alone. last102
I need a certain kind of chair. I use only this chair, it has
been made by my sannyasins exactly to give support to my back,
because doctors said they cannot do anything….
They make everything for me: this chair, my shoes, my dresses,
my hat, even my watch. Everything they make for me. And because
they make with so much love, so much feeling, that I can feel
the robe is not just the cloth. That's why I sad I am certainly
a sensuous man. Wearing this robe I can feel my sannyasins, their
love for me. Wearing this watch I can feel the person who worked
hard on it…. last210
I know that any fashion-conscious people, particularly women,
who've seen You would say, "Where does He get those magnificent
clothes from?"
My women make them. They love to see me in fabulous clothes.
Are You fashion conscious?
I love everything that is beautiful. I will not say I am fashion
conscious, because my robe is not a fashion.
Well, You may be starting a new fashion.
That is possible. I love everything that is beautiful, but I am
not fashion conscious, otherwise I would be imitating somebody
else who is fashionable. My people design my clothes. They enjoy,
and they know that I love only the best of everything. So they
do it, and try their best. And I am perfectly contented with my
people. In fact, I adore them. Nobody has been so fortunate as
I am. last105
Just look at my beard! I don't think any of my sannyasins would
like my beard to be shaved. Perhaps many of my women sannyasins
are here just because of my gray beard. And anyway, whether I
am saved spiritually or not, I am not going to shave my beard!
dless04
I never have used telephone in my whole life. last302
On my dining table I have a small statue somebody has sent to
me. It is an ancient statue, it has existed in the East almost
for seven thousand years. It is a statue which is half-man, half-woman.
bond36
Basho's small haiku I have on the pond near my house. I love
it so much, I wanted it to be there. So every time, coming and
going…. One of the persons I have loved. Nothing much in
it. "An ancient pond…." It is not an ordinary
poetry. It is very pictorial. Just visualize: "An ancient
pond. A frog jumps in…." You almost see the ancient
pond! You almost hear the frog, the sound of its jump: "Plop."
And then everything is silent. last324
I like everything that is beautiful, creative. It contributes
to life, it makes life worth living. Only a few people have contributed
to life's beauty; others are simply just a burden on the earth.
I would like everybody to know something of painting, something
of music, something of dancing. Everybody…every educational
institution, rather than simply teaching mathematics and physics
and chemistry and geography and history, should pay a little more
attention to dancing, to singing, to painting, to music, to sculpture,
because those are the things which will make life more beautiful.
last213
Do you do any art work?
My whole work is art! I don't do anything else except art work….
I don't paint on ordinary canvases and I don't write poems on
paper, but on living beings. And each of my sannyasins is my poetry.
And each of my sannyasins will carry my gestures, my attitudes,
my approaches, and he will make it even richer because he is a
living person. He may give it more polish, he may give it more
beauty; he has to do it. That will be his gratitude towards the
master, that will be his thankfulness.
So from morning 'til night I am continuously creating. But to
see my creativity you need to be part of it. You cannot be just
a spectator; you have to be insider, not an outsider, because
it is so subtle and so delicate, so invisible, that unless you
enter it with an open mind, without any prejudice, you will not
be able to experience it. Just a little experience will open the
door. last209
My house is made by my sannyasins themselves. No outside worker
has been called for anything. They have made the roads, they have
made the houses, they have made a house for me. They love me.
They have made a beautiful garden because they know I love trees
and they feel sad that I have to live in a desert. They don't
want me to see the desert. They have surrounded my whole house
with so thick trees that I cannot see the desert at all from anywhere.
They have brought peacocks—three hundred peacocks in my
garden. When they all dance, then it is really something worth
seeing. Just they love me! And love needs no why. Whenever you
ask why, that simply means you don't understand love. last308
Just the other morning Vivek showed me one of the white peacocks
which always comes near my sitting room and sleeps on a treetop.
That is his religious practice every night; it may be raining,
it may be snowing—it doesn't matter. And the place where
he sits seems to be so risky that he could fall any moment, but
he is so relaxed, almost one with the tree. Now, after these ten
hours, twelve hours of almost going to the very source of his
life in sleep, if he starts dancing by the morning it is no wonder.
It has nothing to do with the sun or the flowers, it has something
to do with his inner energy which is overflowing. The birds are
chirping, chitchatting—it is simply aliveness. But remember,
animals or birds cannot have a taste of happiness; that is man's
prerogative. person26
In my garden…I used to think there were one hundred peacocks.
Now Mukta has informed me, "You are continuously making a
wrong statement. There are three hundred peacocks."
Six small kids have lost track of their mothers. And, of course,
in peacocks you cannot find a Mother Teresa. Peacocks don't care
about Nobel Prizes. So those six orphans hang out with each other.
And they are growing! They have not bothered about the fact that
the mother is lost, although it would have been easier for them
to grow in the protection of the mother. dless19
I understand that you swim for your health.
I swim.
How often and where and what do you wear?
I don't wear anything. I used to swim twice, but for two months
I had to stop it because my physicians became afraid. The water
going into my ear was creating trouble, and my ear drums may get
hurt or some trouble may arise. And it is possible because I have
been swimming from my very childhood for hours. It may have damaged
my ear drums.
So for two months I have not been swimming. My pool is there,
Olympic size, just for me. That's how I live, in abundance! last224
What happened to your glasses?
That was just because of these lights. My eyes were feeling teary.
Continuous exposure for two hours in the morning or two and a
half hours, and two and a half hours in the evening, my eyes started
feeling teary. That's why I used those glasses; I don't need them
now that they have managed to put the lights a little farther
away. I think they need still to adjust them because I can feel
the strain on the eyes a little. Otherwise, my eyes…you
just look at my eyes. last120
I am just a common-sense man. I am not a scientist I am not a
religious prophet. I am just a common-sense man, but I have tried
to sharpen my common sense to its utmost.
I have only one capacity, to see clearly; not in the sense of
my eye doctor—he is sitting here. he is trying to force
glasses on me. I am talking about his eyes. About my eyes I will
listen to him.
I am very much a man of common sense. When it comes to my physical
eyes, I listen to my eye doctor. When it comes to my body, I listen
to Devaraj. When it comes to anything concerning the ordinary
details of life, I listen to Vivek. Then I don't go into details
about these things. If these people are doing the work, and if
they are doing their homework properly, then it is perfectly okay.
When I say that I have only one capacity and that is of seeing
clearly, I mean some insight.
And in my insight, religion and science are two names of one phenomenon.
dark11
I am a lazy man, bone lazy. My physician, Doctor Devaraj, wants
to give me Vitamin D because I am bone lazy. Calcium is missing
he thinks—perhaps! But it has been tremendous; it is good
that it was missing. person13
Jesus goes on saying, "Repent! Repent!" For what? Because
Adam and Eve ate an apple? And we have to repent for it? Now,
my doctor, Devaraj, does not allow me, otherwise my whole life
I have been eating apples—not one, at least six per day.
That was my main diet. If anybody has committed the original sin,
I am here. That poor Adam and Eve…just one apple. unconc29
Ice cream I used to love. To tell you the truth I still love
it, although there is no way to find it anywhere. person28
How is Your own sex life? Are You still active?
My sex life?
You were active before in Poona?
I have been active all my life. But now it is enough. I'm finished
with it. I enjoyed it before my enlightenment, and I enjoyed it
more after my enlightenment. And I proved one traditional idea
wrong: that an enlightened man cannot enjoy sex. It is something
of historical importance. But now I am completely satisfied. Too
much! last102
Are you celibate?
No. Why should I be? I am just natural, why should I be unnatural?
If you want to meet celibates you go to a Catholic monastery,
and you will meet celibates doing nothing but masturbating. I
don't see that anybody can be naturally celibate. He is bound
to become a pervert, some way or other.
And I am a simple, natural man. I follow my natural instincts
in every way. I have loved many women—perhaps no man may
have loved so many women. In the beginning I used to keep a count;
then I dropped it, because what is the point? last103
Right now I am celibate, but if my health gets better I am not
going to be celibate. I have never been celibate. I do not do
anything against nature. Right now I am celibate not because celibacy
has any SIZE=2>last105
No celibacy is needed before enlightenment. After enlightenment
sex disappears, giving place to love—a far more delicate
phenomenon. You can have as much fun as you like, in no way can
it disturb your enlightenment. It is something bodily, chemical,
physiological. How can it affect your consciousness?
The enlightened man can make love, and while he is making love
he is still centered in his being. He is just a witness, he is
seeing himself and the woman making love; he is a third party.
And this is what I mean when I say the enlightened man transcends
sex, because he becomes a third party. He can see his own body
and the body of his woman completely as a witness. His witnessing
is not disturbed by anything. dless05
When I said that I am not celibate because I am not unnatural,
a few sannyasins were shocked. They started writing letters to
me, and I informed them that they cannot have any expectations
about me. I can do anything I want. We don't have any contract
that I will follow your expectations or you will follow mine.
I have no contract of any kind….
I have no contract with my people. I have not promised them that
I should be this or that, so they can never question my behavior.
I remain individual; and that's what I want them to remain, individual.
Now, the persons who were shocked when I said I am not celibate
had carried the idea for centuries that a religious person should
be celibate—and particularly nobody has heard that an enlightened
man had made love to any woman after his enlightenment. Naturally
they were shocked.
It is up to them. They can think that perhaps I am not enlightened.
Perhaps it is time for them to leave this place. Perhaps they
have come to a wrong person. But as far as I am concerned, I am
going to be totally free, absolutely frank, no secrecy, no privacy.
I know for certain that celibacy is unnatural unless you are impotent;
and I don't think any impotent person has ever become enlightened.
No, there is no mention of it. In fact, just the opposite is the
case. The people who became enlightened were really too much sexual,
that's why I call them Zorbas; they were really too much sexual—so
much that finally they understood that there is nothing much in
it. They experienced it through and through and found nothing
in it. And that was the point from where they started searching
for something else. That led them towards Buddhahood, enlightenment.
But once they had become enlightened—they were fulfilling
people's expectations because they wanted to be great enlightened
Masters, prophets, messiahs—they could go on fooling with
women. Buddha would not even look at a woman. What cowardliness!
Buddha would not allow any woman close to him, she had to remain
eight feet away.
Is this enlightenment? so afraid, so shaky that even a woman coming
close and you become afraid? This is repression, this is not enlightenment.
I want to declare to the whole world that unenlightened people
can have only sexual relationships, which they call love. This
is not right. They should stop calling it making love; they are
simply making sex. Only an enlightened person can make love, because
it is no more his need. He can be without it for years and not
even for a single moment will he feel its need. But he can enjoy
it as fun.
I can play cards; it is not a need. I can drink once in a while;
it does not disturb my enlightenment. I can make love. I don't
see…but it can disturb people's idea of enlightenment. That
is their business. My enlightenment is not made of such fragile
matter. It cannot be disturbed by anything. In fact, they have
been asking whether enlightened people transcend sex, and I have
sent the answer to them that the enlightened person finally transcends
enlightenment, too.
And I have transcended enlightenment, too. Now I am again the
same old ordinary man I was before all this round trip jet journey.
I am back home.
I have passed through everything, all meditation, all enlightenment,
and come back home, with new eyes, new clarity, new vision. It
is almost like living continuously on LSD. last119
Of course, my ways of chasing (women) are very subtle. I chase
them sitting in my chair. I don't have to do all kinds of gymnastics.
I don't have to take them to the cafe, to the restaurant, to the
movie; I am simply sitting in my chair. But even if I look in
their eyes, that is enough: cafes and restaurants and movies are
nothing before it. Just waving my hand…and I see the woman
becoming so happy. It makes me happy in return. And I have not
done anything—just waved my hand!
When I see you laughing, it is a nourishment to me. When I see
you singing and dancing with me, I become healthier. What medicines
cannot do for me, my people, rejoicing, do. false27
People think they get hypnotized…I don't know. Journalists
avoid looking into the eyes that perhaps they may get hypnotized.
And for me it is such a simple job that I don't need to exert
too much energy—just a little smile towards a woman is enough!
I don't have to chase her and go through all the dramas and traumas;
there is no need. In my whole life I have never met a single woman
who was not ready the moment I looked into her eyes. Where else
was she going to find such a simple man who has not even asked
her name, who has not asked her address? And on the next railway
station I get down and we shall never meet again. The introduction
has not happened, but I have made love to the woman. I am not
British—they will not do anything without an introduction!
But to me everything is love. Talking to my people is making love
to them. My words reaching into their hearts create orgasmic reactions
in their being. Just coming and going, dancing with my people…just
for a second stopping to dance with someone, and that's enough.
That woman is not going to sleep the whole night. You can ask
the woman—she is going to dream continuously of the dance.
I have already made love. To me love is nothing in particular
to do with sex. There are a thousand and one ways of making love.
Sex is the lowest, the animal heritage. And I would like my people
to rise above biology. Only then will they be really free. Then
you can find thousands of ways of making love. Just sitting silently
together, doing nothing, but full of love for each other, and
there is a certain meeting which is happening between the two
energies. So I am continuously making love to my people in every
possible kind of way.
Don't be worried about my energy. And don't be worried about my
eyes—they are perfectly okay. And I am a non-serious man,
so I have the freedom to say anything that comes to my mind without
ever bothering about the consequences. My whole life's experience
is such that nothing has ever gone wrong, so I have become absolutely
certain that nothing ever goes wrong. You just have to trust existence,
and whatever happens is right.
Meet my people and ask them…everybody will say I have made
love to them. Talking is a way of making love, dancing is a way
of making love—but these are higher qualities of love. Animals
cannot understand it; you can go on playing the flute and the
buffalo will go on chewing the grass. She will not even stop to
look at what you are doing. The flute makes no sense to her. But
play the flute to the lover and something immediately starts transmitting
from your song and showering on your beloved.
And my people are searching all possibilities, finding all possibilities
of being in love. Sex is only one of them, and the very lowest
of the kind. In fact, everybody should have a film of himself
making love and see it once in a while. Then he will see what
kind of gymnastics and what happens to the woman's face—distortions…and
you call it orgasm? She is having a fit. And the man is trying
so hard, huffing, puffing!
Everybody should have a film of his own lovemaking just to see
it whenever the desire arises. Just see the film and that will
be enough. That is the very lowest type of thing that is available
to all animals. Man can manage to have many other dimensions,
many other levels. And the higher you reach towards enlightenment,
new dimensions open up.
For a man who has passed through the door to the other side, everything
is love. My whole day, twenty-four hours a day, I am making love
to existence in different ways. If I am taking a shower I enjoy
it as much as making love to a woman. So what is the difference?
I am contacting existence through water. It is not necessary that
I should make the contact with existence through a feminine body.
Eating I am making love, because I eat with such joy. And I don't
see any difference: my joy is the same. So twenty-four hours a
day I am in love; it does not matter what I am doing. That you
can take as a criterion of the man who has gone beyond enlightenment:
whatever he does is love, whatever he says is love. If he does
nothing, that is love. If he remains silent, that is love.
Now, should we start dancing? last120
Have you ever wanted to have a child yourself?
No, for the simple reason that I don't want to burden this earth.
It is already burdened too much. There is no religious reason
why my sannyasins are not giving birth to children. In the four
years we have been here, not a single baby has been born. And
nowhere is so much love being made as is made here. last112
In place of the namaste before and after speaking, Osho now dances,
inviting friends to dance with him.
You danced with Your sannyasins. When You look into their eyes,
what do You see on their faces?
Just love and nothing else. Great love and great gratitude. I
don't think anybody has been loved so much as I have been loved.
Jesus had only twelve disciples, I have one million; and out of
one million, ninety percent are women. (laughter) So it is really
groovy. last128
The way you dance is absolutely unique and outrageous. What is
the secret behind the Osho Shake?
I have never thought in my life that there is going to be someday
the Osho Shake!
I don't know dancing, so it is going to be outrageous.
And the secret is very simple:
It is your love.
I don't think any man in the whole history has been loved so much
by so many intelligent people.
Your love makes me dance.
The secret is with you.
I cannot believe it, because I don't deserve any love even from
a single human being. But one million sannyasins around the earth—it
surprises me!
And you are showering so much love that what else can I do? I
can do a little Osho Shake! dless33
All my dreams feel fulfilled. My master is dancing. My heart
has wings. How can there be anything more after this? Osho, thank
you.
There is much more. There is no end to it! Soon your master will
be drinking wine with you. Soon your master will be dancing in
the disco. You have got a very unreliable man here. I can do anything—and
I am going to! dless01
Yes, while dancing with me you must have experienced something
that you cannot experience with anybody else—because it
is not a dance of two bodies, not a dance but a deep, very deep
meeting.
Don't listen to my words.
Trust what you feel with me.
That dance has given you the right dimension which I cannot give
you with words. Words are ordinary, but the silence, the beautiful
dance—mingling, meeting, merging into each other, forgetting
who you are…the dance is drinking from the very source of
my being.
You have tasted something of me.
I have to create so many devices for you so that you can be taken
out of your imprisonment.
You would never have thought that one day you would be dancing
with me. Your mind simply stopped. Your heart started functioning
with great energy. Looking into my eyes, looking into my gestures,
slowly slowly there is a synchronicity. Then there are not two
persons dancing, there is only dance. And that is the state of
the divine drunkard.
You are blessed. But don't make it a mind thing; otherwise you
will be back to the same old miserable state.
What you have experienced in the dance, let it become your life
now.
And it is not that you have to dance only with me. I only give
you the key; then, dance with the wind, dance with the sun, dance
with the trees, and everywhere you will find me dancing with you.
That's a promise.
Ordinarily, I never give promises. dless12
My mother came to me yesterday; she was a little worried. She
said, "It is beautiful to see you dancing, but now you have
started dancing with girls!" She was concerned that if people
in India see this, in the pictures, on the video, they will be
very much shocked. I said, "So far, so good."
But I am free—more free than Gautam Buddha, more free than
Mahavira. Gautam Buddha did not have the guts to dance with a
girl.
I can dance because I don't see any problem. There is no hindrance,
no boundary to me; I can do anything.
Just the other night, Vivek was asking me, "Should we go
to the disco?"
I said, "I am going to the disco one day, but right now it
is too late."
My discos, my restaurants are called Zorba the Buddha. First I
am a Zorba, and then I am a Buddha. And remember, if I have to
choose between the two, I will choose Zorba, not Buddha…because
the Zorba can always become the Buddha, but the Buddha becomes
confined to his own holiness. He cannot go to the disco and become
the Zorba. And to me, freedom is the highest JUSTIFY">My
discos, my restaurants are called Zorba the Buddha. First I am
a Zorba, and then I am a Buddha. And remember, if I have to choose
between the two, I will choose Zorba, not Buddha…because
the Zorba can always become the Buddha, but the Buddha becomes
confined to his own holiness. He cannot go to the disco and become
the Zorba. And to me, freedom is the highest value; there is nothing
greater, more precious, than freedom.
My enlightenment has freed me from everything, including enlightenment.
Now will be the crucial point. Those who trust me will trust me
even when I am drinking champagne, because there was no condition.
You had not told me, "I will trust you only until you start
drinking champagne." The trust is unconditional.
The heart knows different ways of seeing. The mind is linear,
it looks only towards one line. The heart is multi-dimensional.
And the more I feel my people's trust, the more dimensions of
my being I can reveal to them.
I would like you to know me in my total freedom, because that
is what I want you to be—totally free, no strings attached.
Blessed is the sannyasin who can trust me without bothering about
my statements or my actions. His is the kingdom of God right now!
dless03
I went to the disco yesterday. I enjoyed it! last120
I went just to shock my people! But it was not much of a disco,
because as I went there everything stopped and the whole commune
gathered in the disco and around the disco, so I had just to go
in and come out. I did not see anything there except people—the
same people I see everywhere!
I wanted to know what the hell this disco is, but they did not
allow me! I don't go anywhere. And entertainment is needed because
you are not blissful with yourself. Something is missing in you.
Some worry, some tension is there that you want to forget. Entertainment
helps you, for the time being.
To me there is no point at all in going to any entertainment.
I am not against it—I can go. If people feel happy by my
going there, I can go anywhere, hell included! But as far as I
am concerned, I don't need any entertainment. I am so full of
blissfulness in myself. last220
I don't know whether you perspire or not. But when I came to
your disco I was really surprised. The smoke of the cigarettes…I
never feel it here. And, my God, the way you perspire! I was thinking
that my disciples had stopped perspiring!
Of course, I myself rarely perspire, because moving from one air-conditioned
place to another air-conditioned place in an air-conditioned limousine,
there is no chance for me to perspire. But once in a while the
electricity fails, the compressor in the car stops functioning—then
I know certainly that I am not a prophet. I perspire just like
you, and I am fortunate that I perspire just like every human
being, because I don't want to be made of plastic. My skin is
as real as yours. If Mahavira did not perspire, the only possibility
is that he had a plastic body without any pores. Perspiration
is absolutely natural. dless05
Is there anybody in the world that You have great admiration
for?
I admired one man, J. Krishnamurti.*
That's it?
One man I used to admire who is dead was P. D. Ouspensky, an Russian
who was living in London, a mathematician. I admired another man,
George Gurdjieff, who was a Caucasian living in France, died in
'50.
Other then these three men, there was one man from Babylon, Michael
Naimy, whom I had admired because of his book, The Book of Mirdad,
has been my the most loved book. He shows tremendous insight,
which only a mystic is capable of.
But very few people—only one is alive: J. Krishnamurti.
I admire him but that does not mean that I agree with him. I criticize
him as much as possible. He criticizes me as much as possible.
So there is only one agreement between us, that we disagree. But
I admire the man just the way he admires me. last304
*Note: Osho named a newly constructed dam after Gurdjieff, and
the lake after Krishnamurti. The welcome centre at the entrance
to Rajneeshpuram is named Mirdad
It is a strange coincidence that just for the first time today
I have seen J. Krishnamurti on the television screen….
Just today I saw a B.B.C. interview with Krishnamurti—that
was my first acquaintance with how he looks—and I was simply
shattered! Again, it was the same story I was telling you yesterday—the
same story. He has no charisma at all, no impact. I was sorry
to see the interview. I know he is enlightened, but it would have
been better if I had not seen his face, his gestures, his eyes,
because you cannot find in anything even a shadow of enlightenment.
The luggage has reached—the passenger has got lost somewhere
on the way.
I still say he is enlightened because I have read thousands of
enlightened people's words—Krishnamurti's words are far
more accurate in describing the experience. person07
A few days ago I was talking to you about J. Krishnamurti—that
I saw him on a television interview, and I felt very sorry for
him. Vivek thought that perhaps—because he was sitting on
a straight—backed wooden chair with his hands underneath
him, she thought perhaps he suffers from a certain disease in
which your hands start trembling. So Vivek thought that he was
afraid to show his hands, and that was why he was sitting on them.
That is not the case. You should have looked at the chair. You
can't find a more uncomfortable chair than he has found: a straight-backed
wooden chair, with no armrests. He was trying the lotus posture
on the chair, because in England to sit in a lotus posture will
not look right—and he is very fussy about being right, mannerly.
person25
Vivek was asking me, "You go on criticizing J. Krishnamurti;
Krishnamurti goes on saying things about you. You must both be
giggling inside." I said, As far as I am concerned, I am
certainly giggling. About Krishnamurti I cannot say that. He is
incapable of giggling, absolutely incapable. He has forgotten
to laugh; he is too serious, and as he is becoming older he goes
on becoming more and more serious, I can understand, and I could
have been of immense help to him, but he cannot even tolerate
seeing one of my sannyasins; otherwise I can give him one whole
commune of mine.
Krishnamurti has been looking for people who can understand him
and do what he wants them to do. Now I have so many communes around
the world, I can give one whole commune to him. It will be a joy
to me if he can get a little satisfaction in the last years, perhaps
the last days of his life.
He is ninety, any time he will pop off. Before he pops off I offer
him any commune. If he wants this commune he can take this commune—I
will withdraw. If he can manage my people…
As far as I am concerned I am willing: he can take any of my communes.
If he wants people who can risk everything, then I have got the
people."
But he cannot tolerate, he cannot risk being among my people.
He is so enraged because what he wanted to do he has not been
able to do, and I have managed to do it without much doing.
I don't do anything.
I have told you, I am just a lazybones.
And that's how I have been my whole life:
I don't do anything.
But if there is something in me that attracts people who do—and
for no reward except that they are with me, except that they can
bathe, be showered, in my presence, in my love…. What other
remuneration have they got? And they are risking their whole life.
I can give him the people he has not been able to find because
he moved wrongly. He missed the train; but I am in the train and
I can pull the emergency lever. If he wants me to get down I can
get down and be in his place and he can take my place; there is
no problem in it. But that will be a great problem to him because
this world that I have created around me can be managed only by
a non-existent manager like me….
So I said to Vivek, "I can giggle because to me he is not
a problem; to me nobody is a problem." But to him, somehow
my existence hurts because this is what he wanted. person14
One song I have with me, sung by some Nirmala Devi. All my life,
around India, I have been inquiring about the woman because I
want her other songs too. But I have not been able to find who
the woman is, where she disappeared. And I have no memory either
of who sent me this tape. People go on sending me tapes; whenever
I have time, I listen. This song remained with me in Poona for
seven years but I never listened to it. I had never heard of the
name, so whenever I came across the name and the tape I simply
put it away; someday I would…. Nirmala Devi—nobody
had ever heard the name.
Here, one day, I thought, "The woman has waited too long,
and perhaps she has something. There is no harm—let me listen."
Her singing is something tremendously beautiful. Since then I
have not missed a single day of listening to it. And each time
I listen there is something more to it, a new layer, a new meaning—not
only in the words but in the voice, its subtle nuances.
The song is simple but profound, immensely profound. She is singing
a song which means, "Just let me get ready…."
She is talking to death. It is understood, it is not said in the
song, but she is saying to death, "Just wait a little. Let
me sing my last song."
This very idea, to say to death, "Just wait a little, and
let me sing my last song….I have lived in sadness and sorrow
so long. Let me dance a little before I join you. I have been
crying and weeping; my whole sari is soaked with my tears. Just
wait a little. Let me at least dry my sari, let me at least regain,
remember, recall my smile. Just a little…so that I can get
ready. I would not like to go with you in this sad miserable condition.
I would like to go with you dancing, smiling, singing." A
simple song, but her voice, the ups and downs of her voice, the
beautiful turnings of her voice give it so much beauty, color
and depth. misery06
In India we call these people kavis, poets. But don't go to see
them, because the poet will be a very ordinary person. Just the
other day—it has happened so many times I feel it almost
a rule to be followed. Just the other day I saw for the first
time a film of an Urdu singer, Gulam Ali. He is one of the topmost
Urdu singers in the East, he has his own way and style. There
are many singers, but Gulam Ali stands far above any of them.
But I had always heard Gulam Ali on records, I had never seen
him; it had never happened.
We were both moving around the same country but by chance it never
happened that we were in the same city. He wanted to meet me.
His disciples…. In India a great musician, a great singer,
is called ustad, maestro. He has disciples just as spiritual masters
have disciples, because Eastern music needs a long discipline.
It is not like jazz music that any idiot can start jumping and
shouting and it becomes music; it is not the music of the Beatles.
It takes twenty or thirty years of training, eight hours or ten
hours a day. It is a whole life's work.
Gulam Ali has worked hard and still works hard. It is said that
if you don't practice Eastern music for three days, people will
recognize something is missing. If you don't practice for two
days, only your disciples will recognize something is missing.
And if you don't practice for one day, only you are certain to
feel that it was not the same thing. Not even a single day has
to be missed.
But just the other day somebody from Pakistan sent me a video
film of Gulam Ali. And what I was expecting, happened. His personality
is so poor that to connect that beautiful voice with this man
who looks like a clerk in some post office, or a ticket collector
in some railway company, or a conductor in some bus, that type
of man….
I had to keep my eyes closed because his face, his eyes, his hands,
his gestures—everything was disturbing. I thought that I
should send him a suggestion, "You should sing behind a curtain.
You are not worth presenting, you destroy your music. The music
is almost divine, then you see, standing behind, a donkey—you
cannot connect them."
The same happened a few days before. I have never seen Mehdi Hasan—another
great singer, far more modern than Gulam Ali. Gulam Ali is very
orthodox, his training is orthodox. But Mehdi Hasan has a very
innovative genius. He is trained in orthodox music but he has
not kept himself confined to it. He has improvised new ways, new
styles, and he is really a creative man. Gulam Ali is not a creative
man; he recites those songs exactly as they have been recited
for thousands of years. Listening to him you are listening to
thousands of years, the whole tradition behind him.
These singers all have what is called gharanas—gharana means
family. They don't belong to the family of their father and mother,
they belong to the family of the master from whom they have learned.
That is their gharana. They are known by the name of their master,
their master is known by his master. Their gharanas are thousands
of years old, and each generation teaches to the next generation
exactly the same tone, the same wavelength.
But Mehdi Hasan is ultra-modern, and he has a creative genius
which is far more significant. I have loved him because he has
brought a new light, new ways of singing the same old songs. He
is so creative that the whole song seems almost new, reborn, fresh,
like a just-opened flower with the dewdrops still on it.
But what a misery to see him. He is far worse than Gulam Ali!
Gulam Ali at least seems to be a conductor on a bus, but Mehdi
Hasan is not even worthy to be conductor. While Gulam Ali does
not fit with what he is singing, Mehdi Hasan is exactly contradicting
what he is singing. Strange that the two persons I have seen on
the screen, I have not met. This has been my general practice
my whole life in India. I have read poets, heard poets on the
radio, but I have not met them because my early experiences of
meeting poets were just shipwrecked. person05
You like movies, isn't that right?
Once in a while, if my people suggest them to me.
What are some of the movies you have seen lately on video?
Perhaps one or two which I liked. One was The Brothers Karamazov.
That is Dostoevsky's novel that I have always loved, and I consider
it more valuable than the holy bible. Another was Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy. That is a masterpiece of genius. So once in a
while, if somebody sees something beautiful that they would like
my time to be wasted on, they bring it.
I read somewhere that you liked Patton and The Ten Commandments.
Ten Commandments I liked, as a film.
You didn't like the book!
No. `Commandment'—the very word—is not for me.
Do you spend much time looking at videos?
No.
And you're not reading anything any more?
No, for five years I have not read anything, but before five years
I have read as much as people will read in five lives. last130
I understand you like Zorba the Greek. What are your other favourite
films?
Nobody is comparable to Zorba.
Have you met Anthony Quinn?
No. But he seems to be a beautiful man. I have seen his other
films also. In Barabbas also he has done tremendously beautiful
acting.
But to me Zorba represents the materialist West and Buddha, to
me, represents the spiritualist. I want them to meet and be one.
I don't see there is any antagonism or contradiction.
So I am Zorba the Buddha, not Zorba the Greek. last230
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