Upanishads, Talks on the Isha Upanishad. I Am That Chapter 7: Each Moment -- Miracles!, Question 2

The second question:

Question 2

OSHO,

JESUS, BUDDHA, KRISHNA, ETC., CERTAINLY WERE ENLIGHTENED MASTERS. BUT BUDDHISM, HINDUISM, CHRISTIANITY AND WHATSOEVER HAS DEVELOPED FROM THEM, HAVE NOT MUCH TO DO WITH THE IDEAS OF THE MASTERS. OSHO, I AM SURE YOU ARE AN ENLIGHTENED MASTER TOO, BUT WHAT CAN WE DO, OR WHAT AT ALL IS POSSIBLE TO DO, TO PREVENT OSHOISM?

Hermann,

NOTHING can be done at all, and don't waste your time. Whatsoever has happened was natural. Christianity was bound to happen, it was inevitable. When a man like Christ walks on the earth he will leave footprints on the sands of time, and people will worship those footprints. Christianity is nothing but worship of the footprints; it leads you nowhere. But it is bound to happen.

It is as inevitable as the birth of a child brings the death in; you cannot avoid the death. If the child is born, the death is going to happen. And of course we have known that so many people were born before and so many people have died, so when YOUR child is born you may try to do something so he need not die. That is impossible -- birth brings death.

When a living Master is there, sooner or later the Master will be gone and there will be a dead teaching left. That dead teaching becomes Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism; it will become Oshoism too. Nothing can be done about it -- in fact, your very concern is the beginning of it, even the fear. That means Christianity has not happened yet, but the anti-Christian has arrived.

And I am alive! Oshoism will happen, Hermann, when I am gone, but to you it has already happened and you are trying to find out ways how to prevent it. And why you should bother? Who are you to decide for others? You are not a sannyasin, you are not part of my commune, you have no communion with me, you have not tasted of the wine that is available here -- and you are worried about others, that these people will worship the bottles when the wine is gone! (AT THIS POINT A CUCKOO BURSTS LOUDLY INTO SONG.)...

Look...! It always happens exactly at the time -- even birds agree with me! The bird was saying, "Hermann, you are a fool!" You drink right now! and who are you to bother about the future? And why you should prevent people from Oshoism? If they want it, then that is their business! Why you should take the responsibility? Why you should prevent people from their freedom? If they want to worship something dead they are entitled to it!

But to me you are far more foolish than those people. At least they will be worshipping a bottle -- and you are missing the wine! You drink the wine and leave the bottle! If people want to play with the bottle they will play; they are collectors. There are collectors who collect bottles of wine, and sometimes it helps too.

I have heard one case:

In the First World War two brothers separated. The father divided all his property, because he was getting old and he was worried about the younger son -- because he was a drunkard and he will destroy the whole thing, and even the eldest son will suffer because of the younger. So he divided them equally.

And a miracle happened. In the First World War the value of money went so low, as it always goes in wartime: things become very costly and money loses its purchasing capacity. The drunkard had one habit of collecting bottles. He finished with the whole money, he drank and he enjoyed. And the other son was so miserly that he was clinging to the money that he has got, but money was going down every day.

And the miracle was this: that a moment came when the money became almost useless, almost valueless, and the younger son sold all his bottles and he had more money than the elder brother. He enjoyed the wine and he sold the bottles! And the elder was a fool -- he was just clinging to the money.

Life is very mysterious, and the ways of God are very strange. And God is always for the drunkards! He loves these crazy people.

Hermann, if you really feel that I am an enlightened person, then what are you doing here? Drink out of my enlightenment! Others are drinking. And I don't think that you think that I am enlightened, because the way you say:

OSHO, I AM SURE YOU ARE AN ENLIGHTENED MASTER TOO...

You are not sure. When people are not sure, only then they use the word "sure"! If you are sure, then take the jump in! Then why you are standing on the bank? And while the river is alive, do something so that you can quench your thirst. And leave it to others.

Oshoism is bound to happen -- I am not worried about it. It is a natural phenomenon. Don't become obsessed with it. Christianity has happened, Buddhism has happened, Jainism has happened, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, all kinds of "isms". They are not unnatural, otherwise they would not have happened.

There are people who can connect themselves only with dead Masters -- and you seem to be one of those people, you can also connect with dead Masters. Now you are much concerned about Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, because they are dead. Now a few are Christians -- they are concerned with the dead. Now a few are anti-Christians -- they are also concerned with the dead...

Bertrand Russell has written a book: WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN. Why bother about it? There are people who are writing books why they are Christians and there are people who are writing books why they are not Christians. Both are wasting their time!

Friedrich Nietzsche became so obsessed with anti-Christianity that in the last years of his life, when he became mad, he started signing his name as "Antichrist Friedrich Nietsche". Friedrich Nietzsche became secondary; that anti-Christ attitude became more primary. And he was not really anti-Christ, he was only anti-Christian, but when you start moving in a certain direction, if you are logical, you will reach to the logical end. First he started condemning Christianity, and then slowly slowly he found it that Christianity is a byproduct of Christ, so naturally he started condemning Christ, and for EVERYTHING! Sometimes he will go to such absurd lengths to condemn Christ and he will find such rationalizations, such excuses, that one has to say one thing: that he was really imaginative and really logical.

For example, Jesus at the last moment prays to God on the cross that, "Forgive these people, my father, because they know not what they are doing." It is one of the most beautiful utterances, but Friedrich Nietzsche became so obsessed with anti-Christianity that he cannot accept even such a beautiful statement. And if you are not interested to accept anything as beautiful, if you are bent upon to find something wrong, you can always find. He found something wrong even in this. He said, "This means Jesus thinks only he knows and everybody else is ignorant."

Look at his approach. Jesus is praying to God, "Forgive these people. They are crucifying me only because they know not what they are doing." Friedrich Nietzsche condemns it -- even this beautiful statement is condemned. He finds a logical reason, that this shows only an egoistic approach, that "I know, and all these people are fools, ignorant. They know not, so forgive them." This asking, praying to God to forgive the people, is an egoistic approach; it is not love, it is ego, according to Friedrich Nietzsche.

Jesus has said, "If somebody slaps you on one cheek, give him the other too." Now this is one of the greatest statements ever made by anybody, of tremendous beauty, of deep love, of non-violence -- but Friedrich Nietzsche condemns it. He says, "This is humiliating to the other person. This is insulting the other person's integrity, his humanity. When somebody hits you on one cheek and you give him the other you are showing him, 'Look how saintly I am, holier-than-thou, and you are just an animal.' You are insulting him!" Nietzsche says it will be far better to hit him back, because that means you have accepted him on equal terms; you are not lowering him. And if you listen to his logic you can find there is something in it.

Logic is a game; it can be played from both the sides. Logic is a prostitute -- it can be with anybody, whosoever is ready to pay.

Nietzsche remained his whole life concerned against Christianity and against Christ. Now this is sheer wastage! There are people who are praying to Christ and there are people who are condemning Christ, but both are concerned with the dead person. And if you are concerned, I think praying is far better than condemning, because the person who is praying may get something out of it, but the person who is condemning is not going to get anything out of it.

My approach, Hermann, is that if you happen to meet a Jesus, a Buddha, a Krishna, don't miss the opportunity. And don't become concerned about others -- respect them. They have their own life and they have to decide about it. And millions will always decide to be with a dead Master because that is convenient, comfortable. A living Master is always uncomfortable, inconvenient.

Just think of yourself, Hermann, to be with Jesus when he was alive: there were thousand and one difficulties...

One day Jesus is a guest in a house and Mary Magdalene came -- and she was a prostitute! -- and she started washing Christ's feet with a very costly perfume, with a very costly oil. Judas could not tolerate it -- he was a socialist! He is the real founder of communism in the world; Karl Marx, et cetera, are just offshoots.

He immediately said to Jesus, "This is not right! This perfume, this perfumed oil is so costly that if we sell it we can feast all the poor of this town for at least three days. And this is sheer wastage -- you should not allow such a wastage. A man like you should immediately stop.

"Secondly" -- now he is far more religious than Jesus -- "a prostitute should not be allowed to touch your feet; it is prohibited. A man like you, a man of God, should not allow a prostitute to touch him."

And Jesus said, "Look at her heart. Thousands of people come to me, but rarely I see such love, such surrender. How can I say to her, 'Don't touch me'? That will be ugly!"

Now to be with this man who is going against the whole tradition of religion is dangerous. To be with this man who is allowing the woman to destroy a precious thing which can feed the poor people... and what Jesus says?

Jesus says, "When I am gone the poor people will still be with you, so there is no hurry; you can feed them later on. While the bridegroom is here, celebrate!"

Now, Hermann, will you be ready to say yes to Jesus...? Immediately your rational mind will say, "This is not right! He is not concerned about the poor people at all. He is not concerned about the tradition of the sages at all. He is very unsocialistic, he does not understand anything of economics, he is not compassionate to the poor."

Do you think Mother Teresa of Calcutta would have agreed with him? Impossible! She would have said that "This can help many orphans. We can open a school for the poor children or we can purchase medicine for the ill, and what are you doing?"

Do you think Jesus can get a Nobel Prize? I don't think -- impossible. You will rather agree with Judas -- he is more rational, more socialistic than Jesus.

To be with Buddha would have been difficult for you, Hermann, because to be with Buddha means surrender, total surrender. The ego has to be put aside.

It is very easy to be with dead Masters because to be with dead Masters is very nourishing to the ego -- that you are a follower of Jesus, follower of Buddha, follower of Krishna. But to be with Krishna would have been really impossible -- he had sixteen thousand wives! Hermann, would you agree with this man? What kind of enlightened man is this Krishna? Sixteen thousand wives! And they were not all married to him -- many he had stolen -- they were married to other people! How can you agree with this man?

And he persuaded Arjuna to go into war, and the reasons that he gave were that, "The soul is eternal, so don't be bothered. You can kill -- the soul is not killed, only the body, and the body is dead anyway. So there is no violence involved, because the soul is immortal and the body is mortal. You are only separating the immortal from the mortal, there is nothing wrong in it -- just separating the essential from the non-essential.

Do you think you would have agreed?

That's why people create Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mohammedanism -- it is easier, very easy, because then you can manage the dead Master according to your ideas. You can put your ideas in his mouth, you can ignore the ideas that go against you, you can interpret. manipulate, rationalize... you can do thousand and one things because the Master is no more there.

So many people need dead Masters, that is their need. And remember one economic law: wherever there is demand there will be supply. Because people need dead Masters, that's why the Pope is needed -- a representative of a dead Master. The Shankaracharya is needed -- a representative of a dead Shankara. Ayatollah Khomaniac is needed -- a repre-sentative of a dead Mohammed. People need, that's why these things happen, and nothing can be done about it.

My concern is not at all about the future. I accept the way things are; they cannot be otherwise. My insistence is: while I am here, if you are really interested in transforming your life, then the opportunity is available. Don't miss it.

Upanishads

I AM THAT

Chapter-7

Each Moment -- Miracles!