BELOVED OSHO,

PROLOGUE PART 3

WHEN ZARATHUSTRA ARRIVED AT THE NEAREST OF THE TOWNS LYING AGAINST THE

FOREST, HE FOUND IN THAT VERY PLACE MANY PEOPLE ASSEMBLED IN THE MARKET

SQUARE: FOR IT HAD BEEN ANNOUNCED THAT A TIGHT-ROPE WALKER WOULD BE

APPEARING. AND ZARATHUSTRA SPOKE THUS TO THE PEOPLE:

I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. MAN IS SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE OVERCOME. WHAT

HAVE YOU DONE TO OVERCOME HIM?

ALL CREATURES HITHERTO HAVE CREATED SOMETHING BEYOND THEMSELVES: AND DO

YOU WANT TO BE THE EBB OF THIS GREAT TIDE, AND RETURN TO THE ANIMALS RATHER

THAN OVERCOME MAN?

WHAT IS THE APE TO MEN? A LAUGHING-STOCK OR A PAINFUL EMBARRASSMENT.

AND JUST SO SHALL MAN BE TO THE SUPERMAN: A LAUGHING-STOCK OR A PAINFUL

EMBARRASSMENT.

YOU HAVE MADE YOUR WAY FROM WORM TO MAN, AND MUCH IN YOU IS STILL WORM.

ONCE YOU WERE APES, AND EVEN NOW MAN IS MORE OF AN APE THAN ANY APE.

BUT HE WHO IS THE WISEST AMONG YOU, HE ALSO IS ONLY A DISCORD AND HYBRID OF

PLANT AND OF GHOST. BUT DO I BID YOU BECOME GHOSTS OR PLANTS?

BEHOLD, I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN.

THE SUPERMAN IS THE MEANING OF THE EARTH. LET YOUR WILL SAY: THE SUPERMAN

SHALL BE THE MEANING OF THE EARTH!

I ENTREAT YOU, MY BROTHERS, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH, AND DO NOT BELIEVE

THOSE WHO SPEAK TO YOU OF SUPERTERRESTRIAL HOPES! THEY ARE POISONERS,

WHETHER THEY KNOW IT OR NOT....

ONCE BLASPHEMY AGAINST GOD WAS THE GREATEST BLASPHEMY, BUT GOD DIED, AND

THEREUPON THESE BLASPHEMERS DIED TOO. TO BLASPHEME THE EARTH IS NOW THE

MOST DREADFUL OFFENCE AND TO ESTEEM THE BOWELS OF THE INSCRUTABLE MORE

HIGHLY THAN THE MEANING OF THE EARTH.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

EVERY STATEMENT of Zarathustra is so pregnant with meaning that it is almost impossible to bring

out all the implications, to open up all the mysteries hidden in it. And it becomes more difficult

because he is absolutely against any tradition, any orthodoxy, any past. Ordinarily, our statements

can be interpreted in the light of the past. They contain the past. They are conclusions of the past.

With Zarathustra, the situation is just the opposite. His statements contain the future, and the future

is vast, the future is multidimensional. We can say definite things about the past because it is dead.

About the future, we can only say probabilities, possibilities, potentialities because the future is open.

It has yet to happen, and there is no possibility to predict it – that’s its beauty, that’s its unknowability,

that’s its grandeur.

Looking at the future, you can feel only a deep awe, a wonder, a surprise. In each nook and corner,

so many treasures are hidden that unless you come to them, there is no way to say anything about

them.

Gautam Buddha is simple, so is Jesus, so is Mahavira – they are all conclusions of the past.

Zarathustra is a prophecy for the future.

This should be remembered: that he is the most unpredictable mystic in the whole history of

man. WHEN ZARATHUSTRA ARRIVED AT THE NEAREST OF THE TOWNS LYING AGAINST

THE FOREST, HE FOUND IN THAT VERY PLACE MANY PEOPLE ASSEMBLED IN THE

MARKET SQUARE: FOR IT HAD BEEN ANNOUNCED THAT A TIGHT-ROPE WALKER WOULD

BE APPEARING.

Man is so miserable, that he wants to forget his misery in any kind of entertainment, howsoever

stupid it may look to those who have a little intelligence. All our games are childish, but millions of

people are so interested in them, as if they are going to give them a new life, a transformed being,

as if they are going to take away their misery, their dark night of the soul.

If it is announced that a tightrope walker is appearing, thousands of people will assemble, just to see

somebody walking on a tightrope – as if these people don’t have anything significant to do in their

lives; as if they don’t know what to do with the time that existence has given them.

Zarathustra found this assembly. Certainly, these were not the people who deserve a Zarathustra

and his message, but these are the only kind of people all over the earth – there is no other

kind. Hence, ZARATHUSTRA SPOKE THUS TO THE PEOPLE... without bothering whether they

deserved it, whether they would even be able to comprehend what he is saying.

He is like a raincloud, so burdened with wisdom that he wants to rain anywhere. He wants to empty

himself. The riches of his joy, his silence, his blissfulness have become so heavy that he needs

anybody to share them. The question is not whether they deserve it or not. Certainly, this was

not the assembly to hear him; but a raincloud even rains on stones, rocks, on infertile land. The

raincloud cannot discriminate; his whole problem is how to unburden himself.

The first sentence that he uttered contains his whole philosophy, his whole religion:

I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN.

Man is something that should be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? Nobody has

said it so pointedly, so clearly that man has to transcend himself; that he has to go beyond himself;

that man is something that should be overcome. You should not be satisfied by just remaining man.

You should move beyond all that is human. Everything that is within you belongs to man.

To be a superman means dropping your mind, dropping your ideologies, dropping your instincts,

dropping your intelligence, moving totally beyond all your conceptions about man. The superman is

his teaching; and his insight about it is derived from a very natural phenomenon.

ALL CREATURES HITHERTO HAVE CREATED SOMETHING BEYOND THEMSELVES.... That’s

the whole theory of evolution: every creature has produced something beyond itself. The apes have

created man. You cannot even conceive that they are your forefathers. The distance is so much; the

transcendence is so great.

Scientists say life began in the oceans, with a fish. From the fish to man, every creature has been

giving birth to something that transcends him. But suddenly, coming to man, the whole evolution

has stopped. Man simply gives birth to another man.

AND DO YOU WANT TO BE THE EBB OF THIS GREAT TIDE, AND RETURN TO THE ANIMALS

RATHER THAN OVERCOME MAN?

WHAT IS THE APE TO MEN? A LAUGHING-STOCK OR A PAINFUL EMBARRASSMENT.

AND JUST SO SHALL MAN BE TO THE SUPERMAN: A LAUGHING-STOCK OR A PAINFUL

EMBARRASSMENT.

YOU HAVE MADE YOUR WAY FROM WORM TO MAN, AND MUCH IN YOU IS STILL WORM.

In fact, the whole of evolution from the fish to man is still within you. It has left its footprints in your

consciousness. Every child in the nine months of mother’s womb, passes through all the stages that

humanity has passed, from fish to man.

We have all the tendencies which prove that, even if Darwin is not found to be right biologically,

psychologically he cannot be refuted. Your mind still carries the monkey; your behavior is still below

human; your humanity is not skin-deep – just a little scratch and you will find the gorilla coming out.

Just a little humiliation, and you are ready to kill or to be killed. You are carrying all the violence of

all the animals; you are carrying all the instincts of all the animals.

ONCE YOU WERE APES, AND EVEN NOWMAN IS MORE OF AN APE THAN ANY APE. Because

apes have not created world wars – they are simple beings. They are not piling up nuclear weapons

to commit a global suicide. Man’s violence seems to be unlimited.

BUT HE WHO IS THE WISEST AMONG YOU, HE ALSO IS ONLY A DISCORD AND HYBRID OF

PLANT AND OF GHOST. BUT DO I BID YOU BECOME GHOSTS OR PLANTS?

Even the wisest amongst you behave in moments of weakness like fools, idiots. The idiot is not very

far away; he is just hiding behind you; a little provocation and he comes out and takes you over. Your

mastery is so superficial; it can be destroyed so easily.

Even the wisest amongst you is a discord; is not a harmony; is not an organic unity; is not an

orchestra. There are so many voices, a big crowd, that everybody is carrying within himself. Have

you not observed the crowd within? How many people live inside you? How many faces do you

have? Perhaps you have not even counted; perhaps there are too many to be counted.

When a Sufi mystic went to his master, renouncing the world, his family and friends, the family and

the friends and the whole village came to see him go. Perhaps they might not see him again – he

was going on a long pilgrimage to find a master. Their eyes were full of tears.

He tried to console them and he said to them, ”Now you should go back. This is the boundary of our

town, the river. Now let me be alone. Don’t delay me.”

He reached the mountains and when he entered the hut of his master, the master looked at him and

said, ”You can come in, but alone.” He looked to both sides; there was nobody else. He said, ”I am

alone.”

The master said, ”Don’t look sideways. Look inside. I can see a crowd, a crowd of your friends, your

relatives, your family, your neighbors – full of tears in their eyes. Just leave them outside. Until you

are alone, don’t enter, because I can deal only with individuals, not with mobs, not with crowds.”

The man closed his eyes and was surprised. All the people that he had left far behind, were still

there in the mind – their memories, their images. He went out and had to remain outside for three

months, just sitting by the side of the door where people used to leave their shoes. Having nothing

else to do, he would polish their shoes while they were meeting with the master.

But his desire and longing were sincere. Polishing the shoes of the visitors for three months, slowly,

slowly, the crowd dispersed. And one day, the master came out, took his hand in his hands, and

invited him in. The master said, ”Now there is no need to wait outside. You are alone and our work

can begin.”

”Even the wisest,” says Zarathustra, ”are nothing but a crowd – not a single voice but so many voices,

a marketplace, contradicting each other, no harmony, no accord.”

BEHOLD, I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN.

THE SUPERMAN IS THE MEANING OF THE EARTH. LET YOUR WILL SAY: THE SUPERMAN

SHALL BE THE MEANING OF THE EARTH!

I ENTREAT YOU, MY BROTHERS, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH....

What does he mean by superman? – exactly what I mean by the new man. I have dropped the word

”super” for a certain reason. It can be misunderstood: it has been misunderstood. It gives the idea

that the man who is going to succeed you will be superior. It humiliates you. And perhaps that is

the reason why the superman has not arrived, because who wants to be inferior? If the superman is

going to make you a laughingstock, perhaps that is the basic reason why man has not only not tried

to go beyond himself, he has done everything to prevent anyone going beyond himself.

Perhaps man crucifies Jesus for a certain reason: Jesus was an insult to humanity. He poisons

Socrates, perhaps not knowing exactly why, but I can see that the very presence of Socrates is

embarrassing to him, the very height of Socrates, the clarity, the intelligence; in every way the

superiority is unbearable.

The crowd cannot tolerate: Socrates has to be destroyed. He makes millions of people feel inferior.

It is not that he wants you to feel inferior, he wants you to become as superior as he is. But it is in

the very nature of things: neither he wants you to feel inferior nor are you devoid of the longing to be

superior. The reality is such that when there is a Socrates, or a Jesus, or a Mansoor, you suddenly

feel yourselves pygmies.

Zarathustra is right: WHAT IS THE APE TO MEN? A LAUGHING-STOCK OR A PAINFUL

EMBARRASSMENT. AND JUST SO SHALL MAN BE TO THE SUPERMAN A LAUGHING-STOCK

OR A PAINFUL EMBARRASSMENT?

In my understanding, this is the reason why man has not listened to all those people who could have

helped him to a greater, more joyful, more truthful, more authentic, more poetic and more beautiful

existence.

I have dropped the word superman very deliberately. I call the coming man, ”the new man.” It does

not carry any connotation of superiority; it does not humiliate you. It simply declares the arrival of

the new. Words are not just words, they are going to make impressions on you.

Just like Zarathustra, I say unto you: I teach the new man.

My new man is exactly the superman of Zarathustra but I will not call him the superman. That is a

wrong word and it has been a great hindrance in the progress of humanity, in many ways.

Adolf Hitler got the idea of superman from Friedrich Nietzsche, from Zarathustra. Adolf Hitler was

not a man of great intelligence or a man of great understanding. He was almost a retarded human

being, insane. But the word superman in the hands of Adolf Hitler became the second world war –

it killed six millions of people.

Zarathustra would have never thought, nor would Nietzsche have ever conceived, that their

philosophy would fall into the hands of a madman; nor of course, that he could interpret it according

to his own understanding.

To him, the superman is a super-warrior, a super-soldier, a man of steel. He declared that the Nordic

Germans were going to be the race of the coming superman; that they were going to rule over the

world. In fact, it is the privilege of the superman to rule over all those who are inferior.

Strange fate of the word superman! In the hands of a madman, it became something which

Zarathustra would have never dreamt.

The German race was privileged to rule over the whole world for the simple reason that it was

superior; it was going to be the womb of the superman. The superman was the salt of the earth, the

superman was the meaning of the earth.

The same word, superman, was used by Sri Aurobindo in India, and the meaning changes

completely. In Sri Aurobindo’s hand, the superman becomes the immortal man, physically immortal.

Spiritually, man has always been told, that he is immortal. Sri Aurobindo gave his own interpretation:

”I am working to find the right discipline, the right methodology to transform you into the physically

immortal.” And the people who were most afraid of death became his disciples.

Just as a tree can be known by its fruits, a master can be known by his disciples.

I have been in contact with many followers of Sri Aurobindo, and one of my friends was in Sri

Aurobindo’s ashram when he died. I had been arguing with him that this was simply nonsense, that

physical immortality was not possible. To be physically immortal, you would have to change the

whole program of the cells of the body and there are seven million cells in the body which have the

whole program. Even scientists are not able to find a way to change their program.

If we can change their program, then perhaps things can be different. For example, if you want

immortality, then man should stop at a certain age and should not grow beyond that – he should

remain always young and never become old. If he becomes old, then the next step is the grave.

I told my friend, ”You can see Sri Aurobindo is old and soon he will be dying. But this is a beautiful

argument, because if he does not die, at least for the time being he goes on living, and his idea

remains without being refuted. But if he dies, then with whom are you going to argue? – with the

dead body that you used to say was physically immortal? But the person who is dead does not care,

he is no more there.”

One day, Sri Aurobindo died, and my friend sent me a telegram saying: ”Don’t be deceived by the

newspaper reports. He has not died. He has gone deep into samadhi. He has gone so deep inside

himself that now there is no need to breathe, no need for heartbeats. He has gone to look for the

final touches of his methodology that will make people immortal.”

They kept his body for three days – waiting, singing, praying and hoping that he was not dead, but

after three days, the body started stinking. Then they became afraid that to keep the body now was

dangerous. People would start spreading the news that the body was stinking, that the man was

dead.

The believers were so blind that they immediately put his body into a marble grave, and they still

continued to believe that he is working hard inside the grave to find out the secret formula. The

Mother, who was in charge of his ashram, really lived for almost a century. That was a proof. Even

at that age, she was playing tennis, going to swim but one day she also died.

My friend came, very frustrated. I said, ”What is the problem? Your belief is not absolute; otherwise,

instead of one man, one man and one woman – both are going into their graves to find out the secret

of physical immortality. And naturally a woman also needs to know because, who knows, there may

be different secrets for man and for woman. There is no need to be frustrated.”

He said, ”You are making a laughingstock of me. You have always been against and now you are

telling me that I should go back, that those two persons have been deceiving.”

I said, ”They were not deceiving you, you were deceived, that is true, and you were deceived

because of your own fear of death.”

I know many followers who are now frustrated because they had gone there to become superman;

and superman in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy means ”physically immortal,” a god in the body. Words

can be given any kind of meaning. I have dropped that word completely because both Adolf Hitler

and Sri Aurobindo contaminated it completely.

I use a very neutral term: the new man. That was originally the meaning of Zarathustra, that man

should not stop where he is. He has many more possibilities to grow, he has not come to the end

of the street – there is a long journey ahead. I would like to change this much: the new man is the

meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the new man shall be the meaning of the earth.

What is the new man? – A man who has dropped all conditions forced upon him from the past; who

has dropped all knowledge that is borrowed; who is in search of his own truth, of his own being. His

religion is individual, no more an organization, no more a crowd, no more a collectivity. His religion

is not synonymous with social morality. His religion can be reduced to a single word, meditation –

a state of no-mind, in which he can experience the essential core of his being, which is immortal,

which is eternal.

Thousands of possibilities open as you enter into your own subjectivity. You start being showered

by absolutely new experiences, you cannot even dream about them. You don’t have words for them,

you don’t have images for them: ecstasy, blissfulness, peace that passeth understanding, a living

silence – not the silence of the graveyard but the silence of a garden. A silence which is also a song.

A silence which has a music in it, a soundless, music, and an overflowing love in all directions, not

addressed to anybody.

Just like a fountain, you have so much, and all your sources are bringing more and more love to

your being that there is no other way than to shower it – without being concerned whether it reaches

the deserving ones or the undeserving, whether it reaches the saints or the sinners, without any

discrimination. A compassion arises because now you know you are part of the whole – to destroy

anything is to destroy something of you, to kill anyone is to kill your own part.

The new man will not be higher or holier than you, he will be totally different from you – there is no

question of comparison.

You are only a seed.

The new man will be the flower.

It will be your dignity, not your humiliation. You are only potential – it will be your actualization. You

are dormant – it will be dancing and alive. It will be your fulfillment. It will be totally different from you

and yet it will be your very essence. It will be your glory; it will be your fragrance.

The new man can bring a new humanity, a new world, a new earth.

Zarathustra says, ”’I entreat you, my brothers...” In his mind there is no question of superiority.

Gautam Buddha cannot address you as ”my brothers.” Neither can Mohammed address you as ”my

brothers,” nor can Mahavira address you as ”my brothers,” nor can Jesus. They are so holy and so

sacred – so high. How can they call you their brothers?

I am reminded of my first encounter, which started a lifelong friendship with Morarji Desai. We both

were invited by a Jaina monk, Acharya Tulsi, to address a big conference. Morarji Desai was, at that

time, finance minister of India, under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister.

Before addressing the great crowd that had gathered, almost fifty to sixty-thousand people, Acharya

Tulsi wanted to meet with the guests separately. There were thirty persons invited from all over India.

Acharya Tulsi was sitting on a high podium and all the guests were sitting on the ground. Morarji

Desai was just sitting by my side. And as he came in and sat by my side, I could feel the vibe of

anger. I could not understand why he should be angry – what is the problem? – but soon it became

clear that there was a problem. As soon as all the guests had come, before Acharya Tulsi could

say anything, Morarji Desai said, ”Before anything else has to be discussed here, I want to ask two

questions. My first question is that, when I came in...”

Traditionally, in the East, we great each other with folded hands. That is a very significant greeting;

it means, I bow down to the god within you. It is not so mundane as shaking hands; I call shaking

hands mundane because its origin is out of fear. You have to shake hands to show that your right

hand is not carrying any weapon, to make the other person clear that your intentions are friendly. It

is just to be safe and secure. Folding both your hands and bowing down your head is a recognition

of your dignity.

Morarji Desai said, ”I did the namaskar” – that’s what it is called – ”but you did not reply. On the

contrary, you raised your one hand, which means ’I bless you.’ I am not your disciple and I don’t

want anybody’s blessings. I was your guest; you insulted me.

”Secondly, why are you sitting on a high podium? This is not a meeting that you are going to address.

This is just a friendly introduction to the guests. You should have sat with us. I want answers to these

two things. Only then can anything else be discussed.”

There was a great silence. It became very awkward. And Acharya Tulsi had no answers although,

if he had been a man of a little understanding, the answer was so simple – he could have folded his

hands: But a Jaina monk is not allowed to do that. He cannot be respectful to ordinary human

beings, he is a holy man. You can touch his feet. He cannot even respect you as his equal.

Otherwise, the answer was very simple: he could have stepped down from the podium and sat

with us. There was no need to say anything, just to step down from the podium, sit with us, fold his

hands, and Morarji Desai’s question was answered.

Such is the stupidity even of your great religious leaders. Acharya Tulsi is a great religious leader of

a particular Jaina sect.

Seeing that the situation had become very awkward, I asked Acharya Tulsi, ”Although the question

has not been asked of me – the question has been asked of you, but you don’t seem to have the

answer – I have the answer. If you are ready, I can answer Morarji Desai.” He was very happy to

somehow change the atmosphere that Morarji Desai had created and I said to Morarji Desai also:

”You have not asked me. If you are ready to listen to me, I can answer you but I need your permission

too.”

He said, ”It does not matter. I want the answer. Whoever can give the answer is welcome.”

I told him, ”Morarji Desai, twenty-nine other guests have come before you. Everybody was in the

same situation, but nobody raised the question. I want to know why you raised the question.

Certainly, your ego is hurt; otherwise, what is wrong in receiving the blessings? He is an egoist;

he cannot fold his hands with respect towards you. You cannot receive his blessings; they become

insults to you. You both are egoists – and just look at the roof!”

There was a big spider. I said, ”That spider is sitting higher than Acharya Tulsi. If just sitting on a

higher podium makes one holier, then that spider seems to be the greatest saint here. Acharya Tulsi

is stubborn and stupid; otherwise, he should have come down. Even now there is time, he can come

down. You both belong to the same category.

”If you were also sitting on the podium, you would never have asked the same question. I know

perfectly well you sit on podiums while many people are sitting on the ground. You have never

asked, ’Why am I sitting on the podium?’ It is not that Acharya Tulsi is sitting on the podium, the

question is really why are you not also sitting on the podium? Neither he has courage to come down,

nor you have courage to go up.”

I said, ”Now we can start the discussion, leaving aside these two persons. If they don’t want to

participate, the door is open.”

Since then, he has been angry with me. While he was prime minister, he was phoning almost three

times a week to the chief minister of Maharashtra, early in the morning, at six o’clock, saying ”Do

something – Osho’s work should be stopped; his ashram should be somehow destroyed. Create

legal problems – do anything that you can.”

This was reported to me by the chief minister himself: ”What can I do? Three, four times every

week, at six o’clock, I hear the phone. I know it is about you and your ashram. Whether he sleeps

or not, whether he goes on the whole night thinking about you and your ashram.... It seems that if

your ashram is destroyed, India will have no problems at all; you are the only problem.”

He created as many problems as possible. He is no longer prime minister, but bureaucracy goes on

carrying whatever he started – in so many courts, in so many ways.

Zarathustra is very special in this way. He calls: ”I entreat you, my brothers....” That’s what he said

to the old saint while coming down to the world. ”I am going to mankind, I love mankind. I want to

become a man again. I don’t want to remain a monk forever. It was good to be alone. It was a great

experience to be in silence for ten years, but now my cup is overfull and I want to share – I am going

down to be a man again.”

I ENTREAT YOU, MY BROTHERS, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH. This is such a pregnant

statement. Remember it, because all the religions are teaching just the opposite: Betray the earth,

renounce the earth, renounce the world. To be in the world is to be a sinner; to renounce it, one

becomes a saint.

Zarathustra is saying, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH, AND DO NOT BELIEVE THOSE WHO

SPEAK TO YOU OF SUPERTERRESTRIAL HOPES! – of heaven, of paradise and of all kinds of

pleasures that will be available there if you renounce the earth. The only condition is to renounce

the earth and its pleasures; and there, faraway in the sky, angels are waiting to welcome you.

All the religions have made every possible pleasure available to the saints in heaven. The same

pleasures that are condemned here are made available millionfold. One cannot conceive the

illogicality of it, the insanity of it.

Mohammedanism condemns alcohol and gives the hope that those who renounce alcohol, will have,

in paradise, rivers of alcohol. It is not available in bottles: you can swim in it, you can drown in it, you

can drink. There is no prohibition; no license is needed; you don’t have to pay any money.

Beautiful women are available who are always young. They have been young so long that one is

afraid that their youth is so old; it cannot be fresh, it will be stinking. For millions of years, they have

remained stuck at the age of sixteen, they don’t grow.

Here, woman is condemned by all religions as the source of sin, as the source of bondage. And in

the other world, the same woman is made available and the same is true about all pleasures.

Zarathustra is absolutely right. Do not believe those who speak to you of superterrestrial hopes;

they are poisoners, whether they know it or not.

My heart feels so immensely happy, just thinking that twenty-five centuries ago, a man was capable

of saying, that they are poisoners – all the priests, all the so-called religious people. They have

only poisoned humanity. They have destroyed humanity’s joys, its laughter, its dance – they have

crippled everybody.

ONCE BLASPHEMY AGAINST GOD WAS THE GREATEST BLASPHEMY, BUT GOD DIED, AND

THEREUPON THESE BLASPHEMERS DIED TOO. TO BLASPHEME THE EARTH IS NOW THE

MOST DREADFUL OFFENCE AND TO ESTEEM THE BOWELS OF THE INSCRUTABLE MORE

HIGHLY than the meaning of the earth. There is only one blasphemy, according to Zarathustra, and

that is blasphemy against the earth and the earthly joys, earthly pleasures.

He is one of the most realistic, pragmatic and practical philosophers the world has ever known. He

loves the earth, and he loves all that the earth contains. He has made the earth sacred; and he is

alone – a category in himself.

I am in total agreement with Zarathustra because this is my insight too – that unless you are capable

of enjoying this moment, here-now, you will not be able to enjoy, ever, anything, anywhere else;

because the other moment is going to be born out of this moment. The other world – if there is any

other world – is going to be an extension of this world, a continuity. If something is good here, it is

going to be good there; and if something is wrong here, it is going to be wrong everywhere in the

whole universe. This is a simple, logical, rational approach to life.

Beware of the poisoners. The problem is that they are your leaders – in politics, in religion, in

society, in education, everywhere poisoners are your leaders. Beware of them. Beware of your

leaders. They are blind and they are leading other blind people. They have brought the whole world

to this dangerous situation; they have brought the whole world almost to the point of a global suicide.

The whole credit goes to your religious, your political, your philosophical leaders.

It is still time. If anything has to be renounced, renounce the poisoners.

Anybody who is against the earth, is against you, because you are sons and daughters of the earth.

Just as the trees are, just as the birds are, this earth is your mother; and anything that grows on this

earth is your family.

To make this whole world a big family, an ocean of love, is the only religion I can think of. All else

that has been talked about as religion is hypocrisy.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.