Time is very short but my methods are very quick
Question 1
BELOVED OSHO,
HOW DO YOU INTEND TO RAISE THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ENTIRE PLANET? DO WE
HAVE ENOUGH TIME? DO WE HAVE A CHANCE?
I can only answer for myself. I cannot use the word ”we.”
That word is used by political leaders and religious priests. I am neither of them. I do not represent
anybody in the world except myself.
The politician represents a certain crowd; hence his use of the word ”we” has some meaning. He
is no more than the total sum of the crowd. Withdraw the crowd and the politician disappears into a
vacuum, into nothingness.
The same is true about a pope, a shankaracharya, or any other religious leader. The pope is simply
the sum total of all the Catholics of the world. But remember, he is not a man but only a sum total –
a number in arithmetic, but not an individual.
The individual can never use the word ”we,” he can only use the word ”I” – and that too with a very
specific condition. His ”I” is not equivalent to the ego. His ”I” is not to be written in capital letters, his
”I” should be written in lower case letters. It is not something extraordinary: he is simple, an ordinary human being. I am using the word ”i” in the same way. ”We” is impossible for me because I don’t
belong to any crowd, any mob.
My commune is not a crowd.
It is a communion of individuals.
Yes, one can misunderstand it as a crowd. From far away you see a forest, but as you come close
there are only trees, no forest. Exactly that is the case with my commune. Those who never come
close to it will think of it as a cult, a creed, a certain society. But those who come close will find only
trees, no forest – each individual so absolutely unique, alone. The question of ”we” does not arise
at all.
So when I am saying that I cannot use ”we,” I am also trying to help you understand that you cannot
use ”we” either. You will have to be very alert.
And the ”I” that you have to be has not to be the ”I” of the egoist. The egoist uses ”I” in the sense that
he is superior to you, that you are nothing compared to him. His ”I” is big, and his whole effort in his
whole life in only one: how to make the ”I” bigger and bigger, higher and higher, so that it becomes
an Everest; no other peak can ever come even close to it.
This is the way Muhammad Ali uses ”I” – Muhammad Ali, the Greatest. This is the way Alexander
used his ”I” – Alexander the Great. Just Alexander won’t do, ”the Great” is needed to make him
stand separate from thousands of other Alexanders.
I am suggesting to you to use ”I” just in a utilitarian way – not to impose yourself on others, not to
project yourself as bigger than others, but as an absolutely human necessity. You have to use some
word. There have been people who have tried not to use the word ”I” for the simple reason that it
may be misunderstood as being used in the same way as everybody uses the ”I.” Or perhaps they
were deep down afraid themselves that if they used the word ”I” the ego would come following it; it
would be standing just behind it. Perhaps that is the case.
I recall one person, one very important Hindu sage of this century, Swami Ramateertha. He
has been to America; and he was an influence wherever he went; he was a man of charismatic
personality. He never used the word ”I.” But that makes no difference at all – he had to use something
else. If he was feeling thirsty, instead of saying, ”I am thirsty,” he would say, ”Ramateertha is thirsty”
..., ”Ramateertha wants to go to sleep.”
New people who had no idea what he was talking about could not understand it. They looked here
and there and they asked, ”Were is Ramateertha who is thirsty?” And then he would have to point to
himself: ”This is Ramateertha who is feeling thirsty.” But this seems to be such a stupid procedure.
Rather than catching your ear directly, you go around the head and make such weird gestures, and
finally you catch the ear – nothing special.
I am a lazy man, I cannot do that. If I have to catch hold of my ear I will catch it directly, rather
than moving my hand around my head and then catching hold of my ear – that looks ludicrous.
But Ramateertha made a great impression by this. People are foolish; if you try to see what things people get impressed with you will be surprised. That will show you what kind of humanity exists on
the earth. They were very much impressed by Ramateertha: ”Here is a man who is egoless.”
He was not egoless. There is enough proof in his life to show that he was not egoless. When for the
first time in India I said that, there was great anger amongst Hindus because they always believed
that Ramateertha was one of the greatest souls born in this century. He was respected around
the world, and nobody has said anything against him. But the problem was that the Ramateertha
League – it is an international organization, its headquarters are in Lucknow, India – invited me to
speak on Ramateertha.
Now, it was not my fault. I even inquired of them, ”Are you sure you want me to speak on
Ramateertha?” And they were not aware ... because nobody had spoken about him. He was a nice
man, but to be nice is not enough. I went to speak at their annual conference, a world conference,
and I said, ”To me Ramateertha befooled himself and nobody else” – and I gave the instances from
his own biography published by the league ... authoritative, approved by Ramateertha himself. I
said, ”I will simply be quoting, there is no need even to interpret. If you are just a little bit intelligent,
you will see the point.”
Ramateertha toured all over the world and then he came back to India. Everywhere, he was received
with great honor as a sage from the Himalayas. First he went to Varanasi, the center of Hinduism for
thousands of years. He was shocked because, naturally, deep down he must have been expecting
.... The biography says he was shocked because there was no overwhelming reception. The
same way, just a few days ago the pope was shocked in a Catholic country because there was
no overwhelming reception.
But unless you are expecting something, I don’t see the possibility of being shocked. Ramateertha
must have been expecting an overwhelming reception, a welcome – the welcome that is given to
a man who has conquered the whole world. He comes back to the citadel of Hinduism, and he
has been talking about Hinduism around the world, praising Hinduism around the world, making
Hinduism appear the highest religion in the world. Naturally, it is human – he must have been
expecting ....
But out of eight shankaracharyas, the heads of Hinduism, not a single one was present to receive
him. Forget about shankaracharyas, because they are the heads, and Ramateertha was still a
monk, not a head of Hinduism; but there were no other monks either to receive him. A few people
had come who looked more curious than receptive or welcoming.
Question 1
BELOVED OSHO,
HOW DO YOU INTEND TO RAISE THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ENTIRE PLANET? DO WE
HAVE ENOUGH TIME? DO WE HAVE A CHANCE?
I can only answer for myself. I cannot use the word ”we.”
That word is used by political leaders and religious priests. I am neither of them. I do not represent
anybody in the world except myself.
The politician represents a certain crowd; hence his use of the word ”we” has some meaning. He
is no more than the total sum of the crowd. Withdraw the crowd and the politician disappears into a
vacuum, into nothingness.
The same is true about a pope, a shankaracharya, or any other religious leader. The pope is simply
the sum total of all the Catholics of the world. But remember, he is not a man but only a sum total –
a number in arithmetic, but not an individual.
The individual can never use the word ”we,” he can only use the word ”I” – and that too with a very
specific condition. His ”I” is not equivalent to the ego. His ”I” is not to be written in capital letters, his
”I” should be written in lower case letters. It is not something extraordinary: he is simple, an ordinary human being. I am using the word ”i” in the same way. ”We” is impossible for me because I don’t
belong to any crowd, any mob.
My commune is not a crowd.
It is a communion of individuals.
Yes, one can misunderstand it as a crowd. From far away you see a forest, but as you come close
there are only trees, no forest. Exactly that is the case with my commune. Those who never come
close to it will think of it as a cult, a creed, a certain society. But those who come close will find only
trees, no forest – each individual so absolutely unique, alone. The question of ”we” does not arise
at all.
So when I am saying that I cannot use ”we,” I am also trying to help you understand that you cannot
use ”we” either. You will have to be very alert.
And the ”I” that you have to be has not to be the ”I” of the egoist. The egoist uses ”I” in the sense that
he is superior to you, that you are nothing compared to him. His ”I” is big, and his whole effort in his
whole life in only one: how to make the ”I” bigger and bigger, higher and higher, so that it becomes
an Everest; no other peak can ever come even close to it.
This is the way Muhammad Ali uses ”I” – Muhammad Ali, the Greatest. This is the way Alexander
used his ”I” – Alexander the Great. Just Alexander won’t do, ”the Great” is needed to make him
stand separate from thousands of other Alexanders.
I am suggesting to you to use ”I” just in a utilitarian way – not to impose yourself on others, not to
project yourself as bigger than others, but as an absolutely human necessity. You have to use some
word. There have been people who have tried not to use the word ”I” for the simple reason that it
may be misunderstood as being used in the same way as everybody uses the ”I.” Or perhaps they
were deep down afraid themselves that if they used the word ”I” the ego would come following it; it
would be standing just behind it. Perhaps that is the case.
I recall one person, one very important Hindu sage of this century, Swami Ramateertha. He
has been to America; and he was an influence wherever he went; he was a man of charismatic
personality. He never used the word ”I.” But that makes no difference at all – he had to use something
else. If he was feeling thirsty, instead of saying, ”I am thirsty,” he would say, ”Ramateertha is thirsty”
..., ”Ramateertha wants to go to sleep.”
New people who had no idea what he was talking about could not understand it. They looked here
and there and they asked, ”Were is Ramateertha who is thirsty?” And then he would have to point to
himself: ”This is Ramateertha who is feeling thirsty.” But this seems to be such a stupid procedure.
Rather than catching your ear directly, you go around the head and make such weird gestures, and
finally you catch the ear – nothing special.
I am a lazy man, I cannot do that. If I have to catch hold of my ear I will catch it directly, rather
than moving my hand around my head and then catching hold of my ear – that looks ludicrous.
But Ramateertha made a great impression by this. People are foolish; if you try to see what things people get impressed with you will be surprised. That will show you what kind of humanity exists on
the earth. They were very much impressed by Ramateertha: ”Here is a man who is egoless.”
He was not egoless. There is enough proof in his life to show that he was not egoless. When for the
first time in India I said that, there was great anger amongst Hindus because they always believed
that Ramateertha was one of the greatest souls born in this century. He was respected around
the world, and nobody has said anything against him. But the problem was that the Ramateertha
League – it is an international organization, its headquarters are in Lucknow, India – invited me to
speak on Ramateertha.
Now, it was not my fault. I even inquired of them, ”Are you sure you want me to speak on
Ramateertha?” And they were not aware ... because nobody had spoken about him. He was a nice
man, but to be nice is not enough. I went to speak at their annual conference, a world conference,
and I said, ”To me Ramateertha befooled himself and nobody else” – and I gave the instances from
his own biography published by the league ... authoritative, approved by Ramateertha himself. I
said, ”I will simply be quoting, there is no need even to interpret. If you are just a little bit intelligent,
you will see the point.”
Ramateertha toured all over the world and then he came back to India. Everywhere, he was received
with great honor as a sage from the Himalayas. First he went to Varanasi, the center of Hinduism for
thousands of years. He was shocked because, naturally, deep down he must have been expecting
.... The biography says he was shocked because there was no overwhelming reception. The
same way, just a few days ago the pope was shocked in a Catholic country because there was
no overwhelming reception.
But unless you are expecting something, I don’t see the possibility of being shocked. Ramateertha
must have been expecting an overwhelming reception, a welcome – the welcome that is given to
a man who has conquered the whole world. He comes back to the citadel of Hinduism, and he
has been talking about Hinduism around the world, praising Hinduism around the world, making
Hinduism appear the highest religion in the world. Naturally, it is human – he must have been
expecting ....
But out of eight shankaracharyas, the heads of Hinduism, not a single one was present to receive
him. Forget about shankaracharyas, because they are the heads, and Ramateertha was still a
monk, not a head of Hinduism; but there were no other monks either to receive him. A few people
had come who looked more curious than receptive or welcoming.
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