BELOVED OSHO,

OF THE FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS

YOU HAVE SERVED THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE'S SUPERSTITIONS, ALL YOU FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS! -- YOU HAVE NOT SERVED TRUTH! AND IT IS PRECISELY FOR THAT REASON THAT THEY PAID YOU REVERENCE....

AND YOUR HEART ALWAYS SAID TO ITSELF: `I CAME FROM THE PEOPLE: GOD'S VOICE, TOO, CAME TO ME FROM THEM.'

YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OBSTINATE AND CUNNING, LIKE THE ASS, AS THE PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE....

AH, FOR ME TO LEARN TO BELIEVE IN YOUR `GENUINENESS', YOU WOULD FIRST HAVE TO BREAK YOUR WILL TO VENERATE.

GENUINE -- THAT IS WHAT I CALL HIM WHO GOES INTO GOD-FORSAKEN DESERTS AND HAS BROKEN HIS VENERATING HEART....

... BUT IN THE TOWNS DWELL THE WELL-FED FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS -- THE DRAUGHT ANIMALS.

FOR THEY ALWAYS, AS ASSES, PULL -- THE PEOPLE'S CART!...

YOU ARE STILL OF THE PEOPLE EVEN IN YOUR VIRTUE, OF THE PEOPLE WITH THEIR PURBLIND EYES -- OF THE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KNOW WHAT SPIRIT IS!

SPIRIT IS THE LIFE THAT ITSELF STRIKES INTO LIFE: THROUGH ITS OWN TORMENT IT INCREASES ITS OWN KNOWLEDGE -- DID YOU KNOW THAT BEFORE?

AND THIS IS THE SPIRIT'S HAPPINESS: TO BE ANOINTED AND BY TEARS CONSECRATED AS A SACRIFICIAL BEAST -- DID YOU KNOW THAT BEFORE?

AND THE BLINDNESS OF THE BLIND MAN AND HIS SEEKING AND GROPING SHALL YET BEAR WITNESS TO THE POWER OF THE SUN INTO WHICH HE GAZED -- DID YOU KNOW THAT BEFORE?

AND THE ENLIGHTENED MAN SHALL LEARN TO BUILD WITH MOUNTAINS! IT IS A SMALL THING FOR THE SPIRIT TO MOVE MOUNTAINS -- DID YOU KNOW THAT BEFORE?

YOU KNOW ONLY THE SPARKS OF THE SPIRIT: BUT YOU DO NOT SEE THE ANVIL WHICH THE SPIRIT IS, NOR THE FEROCITY OF ITS HAMMER!

IN TRUTH, YOU DO NOT KNOW THE SPIRIT'S PRIDE! BUT EVEN LESS COULD YOU ENDURE THE SPIRIT'S MODESTY, IF IT SHOULD EVER DEIGN TO SPEAK!...

YOU ARE NO EAGLES: SO NEITHER DO YOU KNOW THE SPIRIT'S JOY IN TERROR. AND HE WHO IS NOT A BIRD SHALL NOT MAKE HIS HOME ABOVE ABYSSES.

YOU ARE TEPID: BUT ALL DEEP KNOWLEDGE FLOWS COLD. THE INNERMOST WELLS OF THE SPIRIT ARE ICE-COLD: A REFRESHMENT TO HOT HANDS AND HANDLERS.

YOU STAND THERE RESPECTABLE AND STIFF AND WITH A STRAIGHT BACK, YOU FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS! -- NO STRONG WIND OR WILL PROPELS YOU.

HAVE YOU NEVER SEEN A SAIL FARING OVER THE SEA, ROUNDED AND SWELLING AND SHUDDERING BEFORE THE IMPETUOSITY OF THE WIND?

LIKE A SAIL, SHUDDERING BEFORE THE IMPETUOSITY OF THE SPIRIT, MY WISDOM FARES OVER THE SEA -- MY UNTAMED WISDOM!

BUT YOU SERVANTS OF THE PEOPLE, YOU FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS -- HOW COULD YOU FARE WITH ME?

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Zarathustra is not a philosopher. Philosophy to him is sheer wastage of time -- not only of yours but of others' too -- because philosophy is nothing but a mind game. It is not the way to find the truth, it is not the way to find love, it is not the way to find beauty; it only goes on making systems of empty words.

But they have deceived millions. And they have prevented millions from going in search to find the key to the mysteries of life. Philosophy has never transformed anyone. It gives people swollen heads, but it does not bring a revolution in their life; no metamorphosis happens through it. It is the greatest deception that man has been giving to himself and to others. It has given beautiful words for people to play with. It has treated people like children; and those who have remained playing with those words have remained children, retarded.

For example, the world of philosophy has given you their most famous word, god, which is perhaps the most meaningless word in human language. It has not been a discovery for you, it has not been your creation; on the contrary, the philosophers, the theologians, the priests have convinced you that you are the creation of God.

This is the most significant point at which to begin a pilgrimage with Zarathustra. In the past God has been accepted as the creator of all, but that very idea reduces man into a thing. Only things can be created. If man is created by God, man has no pride, no dignity of his own -- he is just a puppet. Any moment God can change his mind and destroy humanity, and we stand absolutely helpless. Neither have we any part in our creation, nor will we have any part in our destruction.

If this is true, life loses all meaning. It becomes a tragedy, an imprisonment, a long drawn-out slavery. And Zarathustra is not alone in pointing out the fact that the concept of God is against the evolution of man: Mahavira agrees with him; Gautam Buddha agrees with him.

All these three great geniuses are in absolute agreement on one point: God cannot be allowed as a creator of man and his consciousness. To allow him that is to destroy all meaning, significance, freedom, love, creativity -- all that gives joy and ecstasy to man is destroyed. Without God, man is free. He has not been created, he has been evolving. You have to understand this point, that the idea of creation and the idea of evolution are contradictory. You can't have both -- creation means no evolution.

You create something -- a statue, a painting, a poem. Will your painting evolve? Will your statue change with time? Will your poetry go on renewing itself each and every moment to keep pace with evolution? Anything created has a full stop on it; there is no opening for evolution. That's what the story of the creation of the world says: God created the world in six days -- and there comes the full stop.

Evolution means that the universe has always been there -- constantly changing, moving, evolving, creating new forms, better forms. It is evolution that has brought about man and his consciousness. Evolution is religion for Zarathustra, not creation. And in evolution there is no place for God, at least not as a creator. The only place possible for God, if you love the word, if you want it somehow to be fitted in somewhere, the only possibility is that man's consciousness evolves to its ultimate potential. That will be the creation of God.

Zarathustra denies God as a creator, but he is willing to accept God as the ultimate creation of human consciousness. To avoid misunderstanding, he calls this ultimate evolution of consciousness "the superman." Superman is his God. But he does not come at the beginning, he comes at the very crescendo, in the end. He is not your master and your lord, he is your evolved form, refined form. Hence another thing has to be remembered: Zarathustra cannot believe in one God. There are millions of beings, they are all evolving, and there will be millions of gods; because each life has the seed, the potential, to become a god.

Zarathustra brings a total revolution in the concept of God and religion. Now religion is no longer a worship or a belief; now religion becomes the greatest creative act of man. Now religion is not that which enslaves man, imprisons his spirit. In Zarathustra's hands religion becomes the art of shattering all the chains, destroying all the hindrances -- so that human consciousness can become divine consciousness, so that man disappears and gives birth to the superman.

Twenty-five centuries ago this man had one of the most potential ideas: God in the beginning makes no difference. At the most you become believers -- and all beliefs are blind, all beliefs are false. They do not help you to grow up, they only help you to kneel down like a slave before dead statues, rotten scriptures, primitive philosophies.

Zarathustra wants to clean the whole ground completely of all that is rotten, of all that is old. He wants your eyes to be fixed on a faraway distant star -- the star that is your future, the star that you can become, the star that you have to become, because unless you become that distant star, your life will not be a dance, your life will not be a song, your life will not be a celebration.

He changes the whole focus from the past to the future. You cannot do anything with the past. That which is gone is gone -- nothing can be done about it; you cannot undo it. Hence, because humanity has believed in the past, it has remained stuck. What can you do with the past?

He changes the focus towards the future. The future is open. All the possibilities are in your hands. You can create the superman and you can create a new humanity; you can create a paradise on this earth. Zarathustra loves this earth too much. He is not a renouncer of the world; he is in tremendous love with the trees, with the mountains, with the rivers, with the flowers, with the birds, with people.

In comparison to him, all other religions are condemnatory of this beautiful planet. They want you to think of heaven and paradise, which are only fictions. He is the first scientist as far as religion is concerned. He wants you to be a realist -- this is the only planet we have, and this is the only time we have, and this is the only life we have. Now it is up to us what we make of it. You can make it a beautiful song, a glorious experience, a golden ecstasy. You can be the creators. And the greatest creation of yours will be the creation of God -- the creation of the superman.

He is not a philosopher, he is an alchemist. He does not believe in God but he believes in man. He does not believe in any paradise but he believes in the earth. And he believes in the tremendous potential that the earth is carrying within it, and that human beings are carrying within themselves as seeds. They have not been growing because their minds have been looking backwards.

The philosophers, the religious priests, the theologians -- they are all trying to keep you tied with the past. That way you remain tamed. You cannot rebel; you remain always afraid of committing a mistake, of committing a sin. You always remain obedient, because those who are obedient will be saved, and those who are not will be thrown into hell to suffer forever. Your fear and greed have been used to destroy you, to exploit you.

Zarathustra will not have anything to do with all these vested interests; his only concern is that man becomes a creator of values. And rather than looking backwards, where he cannot go, he starts looking forwards, where many dimensions are open, many doors are open -- he can choose. Slaves cannot be choosers; only masters can be choosers. Slaves can only be beggars. All the religions have reduced humanity into beggars. They call it prayer, they call it worship -- beautiful names to hide an ugly reality.

Zarathustra wants you to be creators, not beggars. And you can be creators only if you look forward, and you go on dropping the past and the dead. Carrying dead corpses is dangerous. To remain surrounded with dead corpses is dangerous, because they can poison your life -- they have poisoned your life.

Remain with the one that is going to happen and has not happened yet, and it will keep you young and fresh. It will keep you excited, enthusiastic; it will keep you always going for a new journey, for a new pilgrimage -- because there is no end to life, there is no end to time. An infinity of life and an infinity of time is available to you. You can create God within your own soul. But Zarathustra's name for that God is the superman. I think it is better, because with God there are ugly associations. Whatever you do, somehow God slips back and becomes past. It is very difficult to put him in the future.

He is almost like a doll that is made in Japan. It is a doll of an Indian mystic Bodhidharma, who was the founder of the great tradition of Zen. In Japan, more lovingly, his name has become Daruma. Bodhidharma seems to be a little hard; Daruma seems to be sweeter. And they have made Bodhidharma's statue, which are called Daruma dolls.

Their uniqueness is: you can throw the Daruma doll any way, but it will always sit back in the lotus posture. You cannot topple it. Its top is very light and its bottom is very heavy. So whatever you do -- you can kick it, you can throw it in the air -- whatever you do, Daruma always sits back in the lotus posture.

The case with the word God is similar. It has been so misused; it has dominated the whole past of man and destroyed all possibilities for man's evolution. You can manage to drag it, somehow, into the future, but within a few seconds you will find it has gone back again... sitting in the lotus posture.

It is right of Zarathustra to drop the word God. It was a fiction and we cannot relate with a fiction in any way. But superman is not a fiction; it is your potential, it is every man's potential. The very idea of superman makes you rich, makes you feel full, makes you feel no longer a beggar and a worshiper. You need not go to any church or temple or mosque, because now there is no need for any prayer. You have to be a creator, you have to transform yourself.

Religion becomes the alchemy of transformation -- from a slave into a master.

Zarathustra is not to be categorized with your other philosophers; he stands aloof. And his contribution is tremendously valuable. His contribution is so valuable that it is more than the contribution of all your philosophers combined. They have not contributed anything; they have been simply arguing, fighting about words, hypotheses. They have not thought that man is not the end, that the full stop has not come yet and perhaps will never come.

Man will go on evolving. He will feel that he is coming to the full stop, but the full stop will never come. And it is good that it will never come, because the full stop will be death. A full stop means the grave, because now there is no future left, no evolution possible, no more creativity. You have spent your whole potential.

I agree totally with Zarathustra that man has infinite potential, that he can go on growing to new levels of consciousness, new levels of blissfulness, new stages of ecstasy. He goes on becoming superman, but he is a process and not an event. Superman is also a process and not an event.

Zarathustra changes many words which have dominated man very destructively. He does not want to use the word event, he wants to use the word process. He does not want to use the word being; he wants to use the word becoming -- so that there is always something more to be attained, there is always something more to be achieved, there is always immense space for your soul to soar high. You cannot reach to the limits of the universe, because there are no limits.

YOU HAVE SERVED THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE'S SUPERSTITIONS, ALL YOU FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS! -- YOU HAVE NOT SERVED TRUTH! AND IT IS PRECISELY FOR THAT REASON THAT THEY PAID YOU REVERENCE.

It is unfortunate, but factual, that people will respect you if you support their superstitions, even though by supporting their superstitions you are poisoning them. They will be very respectful to you -- they will make you a saint, they will make you a prophet, they will make you a savior. But don't disturb their superstitions. Their superstitions have lived with them for so long, and they have accepted them as truth and have been very comfortable with them -- because there is no need to search for truth; they already have it. The moment you criticize their superstitions, the whole crowd of humanity becomes antagonistic to you; they all turn into enemies to you.

I have experienced it my whole life. Thousands of people have come to me and disappeared. If they find that some of their superstitions are fulfilled by my statements they remain with me, but the moment they see that they were not right -- I am not in support of their superstitions, on the contrary, I am against them -- they immediately become my enemies. When I was supporting their death they were with me, they were paying great respect and reverence to me. And when I started to be really a friend to them, a health, a wholeness, they turned into enemies.

Zarathustra is talking of the famous philosophers. Their fame depends only on one thing: not that they have contributed anything to human growth, not that they have made this planet more beautiful, not that life has become more joyous, not that love has become more juicy, but because they were in absolute support of your superstitions, your beliefs, your fictions, which are consolatory; they keep you where you are. They save you the trouble of finding the truth. They save you the trouble of transforming yourself into a higher being.

YOU HAVE SERVED THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE'S SUPERSTITIONS, ALL YOU FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS! -- YOU HAVE not SERVED TRUTH! Because those who have served the truth have remained continually on the cross. The same masses which they were trying to help have killed them, poisoned them, stoned them to death.

AND IT IS PRECISELY FOR THAT REASON THAT THEY PAID YOU REVERENCE. Why have they called you great philosophers? -- there is nothing great in your philosophies. But the mobs have made you great philosophers, great servants of the people, because you have kept them asleep; you have not disturbed their sleep. Their superstitions are their sleep, and as long as they remain with their superstitions they will remain retarded, undeveloped. They will remain something between the animal and the superman. They will remain on the bridge; they will never move. But certainly they will pay you great reverence.

AND YOUR HEART ALWAYS SAID TO ITSELF: `I CAME FROM THE PEOPLE: GOD'S VOICE, TOO, CAME TO ME FROM THEM.' Have you ever thought.... Just think of a few great names of the so-called philosophers: Immanuel Kant, Hegel, Descartes; in India: Shankara, Ramanuja, Nimbarka. None of them has been condemned by the masses. They crucified a poor carpenter's son, Jesus. They poisoned Socrates, but they did not poison Plato, Aristotle....

It is strange that the names you will find in the history of philosophy are not the people who have been crucified, are not the people who have been stoned to death. They are the people who have been respected -- and they are still respected, after centuries. And the strange thing is, they have not contributed anything to you. The only people who have contributed anything to you, you have crucified.

It seems that for your friends you always keep ready your cross, and for your enemies you are always ready with your reverence. Howsoever great may be the philosophy of Immanuel Kant or Shankara or Bradley or Bosanquet, it is simply verbal diarrhea. These people are sick. They use big words -- and people are very impressed with big words which they don't understand.

There is only one thing they want to be certain about: that the philosophers are not saying anything against their superstitions -- they are not speaking against God, they are not speaking against heaven or hell, they are not speaking against their holy scriptures, but on the contrary, they are praising them. Then they don't care whether this great philosophy has been able to change their own consciousness. And if it has not been able to change their own consciousness, how is it going to change humanity?

But perhaps nobody wants to change. Change needs effort, and man is bone-lazy. Change means going into the unknown, and man is a coward. He will remain in the known even if the known is nothing but misery -- at least it is known. He will never cross the boundary of the known because, who knows? -- one may get lost in the unknown. One may not be able to get back home to the same misery, to the same wife, to the same husband, to the same anxieties and problems.

YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OBSTINATE AND CUNNING, LIKE THE ASS, AS THE PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. The people don't need any advocate. They are in such misery that their whole life is nothing but a slow death. Advocating in favor of their life is not a service to mankind. They need people who will hammer their heads to bring some sense to them, who will destroy their superstitions so they can start moving in search of truth, who will destroy their laziness so they become a process, a progress, a becoming.

But certainly they don't like such people. Those who love humanity have to accept it, that they will be hated -- hated in all lands, hated by all the people. Perhaps a very few intelligent and brave people may join hands with them in the great exploration of truth and consciousness, but most of the people are going to be angry at them. They have disturbed their sleep, they have disturbed their consolations. They love their advocates.

AH, FOR ME TO LEARN TO BELIEVE IN YOUR `GENUINENESS', YOU WOULD FIRST HAVE TO BREAK YOUR WILL TO VENERATE. Zarathustra is saying, "If you want me to believe that you are genuine, then the first proof I need is: you will have to break your will to venerate." Whom are you venerating? There is nothing above human consciousness; only human consciousness can go on transcending itself. There is nobody else you can worship, you can venerate. You can create temples and rituals, and you can believe that somebody else is going to take care of you, that you need not bother about any transformation.

GENUINE -- THAT IS WHAT I CALL HIM WHO GOES INTO GOD-FORSAKEN DESERTS AND HAS BROKEN HIS VENERATING HEART.

... BUT IN THE TOWNS DWELL THE WELL-FED FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS -- THE DRAUGHT ANIMALS.

FOR THEY ALWAYS, AS ASSES, PULL -- THE PEOPLE's CART!

Zarathustra is hard, but every great creator has to be hard. He calls your great philosophers "donkeys who are carrying the people's cart" -- they are in the service of the idiots. And certainly the idiots respect them very much. If you want respectability then you should never say a single word that goes against people's prejudices. Then you should always support them, even though you can see that it is nonsense -- but that is the way of being respectable.

Any man of dignity does not want respectability. He has his own dignity. He respects himself; he does not need anybody else's respect. He will say whatever is true, and he will say it as clearly as possible. Even if it hurts, he is not going to dilute it. All surgery hurts, and if a cancer has to be removed the surgeon cannot go on supporting the idea you that you don't have any cancer.

I had a relative.... His wife came to me one day, crying, and she said, "You have to do something. My husband will listen to nobody. He is not willing to call the doctor and let him examine him. And everybody in the house, in the neighborhood, feels that he is continuously becoming weaker, looks pale; there is something wrong. But he says, `I'm perfectly healthy. Who says that there is something wrong? Why should I call a doctor?'"

I had to go to his house. I told him, "You are absolutely right. You are at the prime of your health. Who says you are sick?"

He smiled and he said to his family, "Look. And you are all harassing me, saying that I should go to a doctor, or I should call a doctor."

I said, "There is no need for any doctor; you are perfectly healthy. But just to convince all these people, you come with me to the doctor."

He could not deny me, because I was his only supporter. So he went with me to the best doctor. On the way he said, "Is it really necessary to go? Can't we just return, from half way there? You will have to lie -- that is true."

I said, "I cannot lie. I did not lie before those people, I told the truth. They were all saying that you are becoming sicker every day, and every day you are becoming weaker; and I see that you are becoming every day healthier, younger. Just to convince them, I have to get a certificate from the doctor, so the whole problem is finished forever."

He said, "Okay."

And he had cancer. The doctor told me, "You have brought him in time; otherwise it would have been too late."

Returning home he said to me, "This was the reason that I was not going to the doctor. I was afraid, who knows? -- the doctor may find something wrong with me. And now he has given me cancer!"

I said, "He has not given you cancer, you have cancer. And now there is a possibility to cure it."

But he said to me, "I will never forgive you! You tricked me. You were lying."

I said, "That's true. I had to lie; otherwise your life was in danger."

And to lie to save a life -- I don't consider it sin.

The people who are living in superstitions.... All the people of the world are living in superstitions, and all their priests and preachers and philosophers and theologians are supporting them -- they get respectability, they become great saints. But this is too inhuman. It is better to lose all your respectability but to tell the truth to the people.

There is still time; their cancer can be removed.

There is still time; the superman can arrive.

The miserable man, with all his misery, can be dropped. There is no need to cling to it. You are clinging because nobody has told you that you have greater possibilities: higher experiences, more joy; your life can become a constant song and a dance. You can blossom. Your life can have fragrance instead of this disgusting anxiety, this misery, and the whole nausea that you are carrying around yourself. And you are clinging to it because you think this is you. And the people who support your idea, you touch their feet, you make them popes, you make them shankaracharyas.

Just for an empty respectability these people are the greatest enemies of humanity. If you enjoy crucifying people, crucify these people! And in fact they need crucifixion. What right has the pope to go on living? He is a representative of Jesus Christ; he should prove it by being crucified -- that is the only proof. But instead of being on the cross he keeps a golden cross dangling around his neck with a golden chain. Jesus was not crucified on a golden cross. And the cross was not dangling around his neck -- he was dangling on the cross!

YOU ARE STILL OF THE PEOPLE EVEN IN YOUR VIRTUE, OF THE PEOPLE WITH THEIR PURBLIND EYES -- OF THE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KNOW WHAT SPIRIT IS! Without knowing the spirit, the very energy of your life, the very flame that you are, how can you be virtuous? You are just following the crowd: whatsoever they believe is virtuous, you are doing. And because you follow their idea of virtue they make you a saint. And if you want to become a great saint, you have to go to the very extreme of their idea of virtue.

For example, in India, the Jaina monks never take baths. That is a virtue -- because they are so averse to their bodies that they don't care that the body should be clean. Who cares? If the body is just matter, and if a little more matter gathers on it... no harm; you are gaining a little weight. They don't brush their teeth, because all that is considered to be showing that you still believe in the body. To talk with them is so difficult, because their breath is so foul, their body stinks. Every year they pluck their hair with their own hands -- they cannot use any mechanical device. Strange, a safety razor is thought to be great technology.

They are against all machines, all technology; naturally they have to pluck their hair with their own hands. Thousands of devotees gather to see it. And I have seen people standing there, well shaved -- perhaps they shave twice a day -- with tears flowing from their eyes: "What a great saint!" They cannot follow it -- they are sinners -- but he is following the scriptures.

There are many monks, Jaina and Hindu, who live naked, in all the seasons. It is torturing the body, but because they torture the body their followers believe they are attaining to self-realization. The body no longer matters. Whether it is cold or hot summer, it makes no difference to them; they have attained to a state of balance. To them success and failure are the same, heat and cold are the same. They are not the same, because I have seen the monks shivering with cold; they cannot sleep the whole night.

They are following it because in return they have been respected by millions of people. Just to be naked is not a virtue -- all the animals are naked, all the birds are naked. If to be naked is a virtue that leads to heaven, then only man is going to be in difficulty. And I have become worried about tailors... and particularly my seamstress, Gayan. What will happen to these people who are making clothes, allowing people to commit as many sins as they want?

But different societies have different virtues. In the middle ages, English ladies in Britain used to cover their dogs with clothes, because a naked dog is obscene. And if the dog comes across a girlfriend then it will become even more difficult; then it will be absolute pornography, live! So they used to take their dogs for a morning walk, chains in their hands, and the dogs having strange clothes. And the poor dogs must have been thinking, "What nonsense this is, no other dog...." You will be surprised that very high class ladies used to put cloth around the legs of chairs, because they are called legs, and legs should not be left naked. Any stupid idea....

Unless you know your own sources of life, you are bound to follow the virtues of the crowd in which you have accidentally found yourself.

In my house I had not tasted a tomato up to the age of eighteen, because the tomato was not allowed in the house -- it looks like meat. I tried to convince my grandmother that a poor tomato is not meat. She said, "I know it is not meat but it looks like meat, and I don't want to have anything that looks like meat in the house. We are vegetarians."

I said, "This too is vegetable." But while she was alive, tomatoes were not allowed.

I had never eaten in the night, up to the age of eighteen, because to eat in the night, in the crowd I had found myself, was a sin.

I told them, "It may have been wrong three thousand, four thousand years ago, when people had to eat in darkness, but now... inside the house, in the night, there is more light than in the day.

But they would say, "Don't talk against the scriptures. Even to listen to you is a sin. The people who wrote those scriptures were all-knowing, omniscient."

I was not a respected person in the house. Whenever a guest would be coming, they would tell me, "You just move out. You can go anywhere."

I said, "What is the problem?"

They said, "You are an embarrassment to us. You may do something which should not be done, you may say something which should not not be said."

Other children were obedient; they were brought to the guest, introduced: "He is very obedient." And I would come in the middle: "I am also here! -- very disobedient. I thought you would love a little variety. Everybody is obedient here; I am the only disobedient one. And I want to say to you that I am not glad to meet you."

And my father would say, "I have been telling you that you will say something, you will do something. Just go somewhere else!"

But I said, "I am saying my truth -- I am not feeling any gladness. And I think this gentleman will respect the truth."

But nobody respects the truth. If you want respectability then you have to follow the crowd: whatever it calls right is right, and whatever it calls wrong is wrong.

Zarathustra is saying: YOU ARE STILL OF THE PEOPLE EVEN IN YOUR VIRTUE. Your virtue is hypocrisy, because it is not coming out of your own spirit; it is just imitation. You are a carbon copy. You are not your original self.

SPIRIT IS THE LIFE THAT ITSELF STRIKES INTO LIFE: THROUGH ITS OWN TORMENT IT INCREASES ITS OWN KNOWLEDGE -- DID YOU KNOW THAT BEFORE? Spirit is a continuous challenge and struggle. Life is striking into life -- to be more, to be higher, to be awakened. Only out of this awakening, out of this spiritual growth in you, virtues are born. But they are born according to your own experience and understanding. They are original; and only something original is beautiful. This is the spirit's happiness: to be original, to be always growing to new heights, to new insights, always going into new depths, always moving to the uncharted, untrodden path.

The spirit is an adventurer.

The crowd is like a pond; it goes nowhere.

Its water becomes dirtier and dirtier every day, because more and more water is evaporating in the sun. Soon the pond becomes just muddy water. Spirit is a river. It is always flowing, moving into new lands -- from the mountains, to the valleys, to the plains, till it merges into the ocean.

AND THIS IS THE SPIRIT'S HAPPINESS: TO BE ANOINTED AND BY TEARS CONSECRATED AS A SACRIFICIAL BEAST -- DID YOU KNOW THAT BEFORE? One is sacrificing oneself, always, for something better to arise. One is dying only to be resurrected on a higher level. One is the sacrifice and one is the god the sacrifice is given to. But there is a continually evolving awareness, a crystallization of awakening. Even in sleep something in you remains alert and awake. Right now, even when you are awake, your eyes are open, something in you is fast asleep. Just close your eyes, and you will see dreams floating by.

AND THE BLINDNESS OF THE BLIND MAN AND HIS SEEKING AND GROPING SHALL YET BEAR WITNESS TO THE POWER OF THE SUN INTO WHICH HE GAZED -- DID YOU KNOW THAT BEFORE? The blind man simply believes that there is light. In fact only blind people believe. In other words: all beliefs are blind. The moment you know something, you don't believe.

Once a German philosopher asked Raman Maharshi, "Do you believe in God?"

And he was shocked to hear the answer. Raman Maharshi said, "No, I don't believe in God."

The philosopher could not understand, because he had always thought that Raman Maharshi is a god-realized person. What is he saying? Seeing him puzzled, Raman Maharshi laughed, and he said, "Don't get disturbed. I don't believe in God because I know God."

Knowing is a totally different process. Believing is just its opposite. Millions of people believe in God and millions of people in the communist countries don't believe in God. Both are in the same boat, because neither the believers know nor the non-believers know. Knowing needs great effort, great search. Believing or disbelieving are very cheap; you don't have to do anything. They are all borrowed.

AND THE ENLIGHTENED MAN SHALL LEARN TO build WITH MOUNTAINS! IT IS A SMALL THING FOR THE SPIRIT TO MOVE MOUNTAINS -- DID YOU KNOW THAT BEFORE? He is asking the philosophers, "What do you know? -- living in your crowd, getting fatter and fatter, being respectable, following your own followers. Do you know that an enlightened man shall learn to build mountains?" -- mountains of consciousness, Everests of consciousness, heights that reach to the stars.

IT IS A SMALL THING FOR THE SPIRIT TO MOVE MOUNTAINS -- DID YOU KNOW THAT BEFORE?

YOU KNOW ONLY THE SPARKS OF THE SPIRIT: BUT YOU DO NOT SEE THE ANVIL WHICH THE SPIRIT IS, NOR THE FEROCITY OF ITS HAMMER!

IN TRUTH, YOU DO NOT KNOW THE SPIRIT'S PRIDE! BUT EVEN LESS COULD YOU ENDURE THE SPIRIT'S MODESTY, IF IT SHOULD EVER DEIGN TO SPEAK!

YOU ARE NO EAGLES.

To Zarathustra the eagle is a great symbol. He loves two symbols: the eagle and the serpent. To him the serpent represents wisdom and the eagle represents freedom. The eagle goes highest into the sky; it flies across the sun.

YOU ARE NO EAGLES -- he is saying to the philosophers -- SO NEITHER DO YOU KNOW THE SPIRIT'S JOY IN TERROR. Only the eagle knows the aloneness of the heights, the silence of the heights, the dangers of the heights. But without knowing dangers, one never grows. Zarathustra's basic teaching is: live dangerously. Follow the eagle to faraway skies; don't be afraid, because your inner self is immortal. Those who are afraid of danger are the people who don't know their immortal self. Their fear shows their ignorance and nothing else.

AND HE WHO IS NOT A BIRD SHALL NOT MAKE HIS HOME ABOVE ABYSSES. But the joy of making a home above great abysses... that joy belongs only to the very few courageous souls. And according to Zarathustra, religion is not for all. It is only for the eagles; it is only for those who are ready to live dangerously -- because only they can find the truth, only they can find the meaning of life, only they can become one day the superman.

YOU ARE TEPID: BUT ALL DEEP KNOWLEDGE FLOWS COLD. THE INNERMOST WELLS OF THE SPIRIT ARE ICE-COLD: A REFRESHMENT TO HOT HANDS AND HANDLERS. The crowd lives a life which is tepid, lukewarm -- neither hot nor cold. It knows no extremes; it moves always safely in the middle. But those who are too much concerned about safety and security cannot be the explorers, cannot be the discoverers. Knowledge flows deep; hence it is cold. And one has to be capable of coming out of the tepid waters, of coming out of the lukewarm life, which is neither life nor death, which is just a kind of vegetation, just a survival.

From the cradle to the grave, all that you are concerned with is: how to survive, how to remain safe, how to remain secure. And where are you going? -- going to the grave. All your securities and all your safeties are leading you to the grave. Before the grave comes, have a little dance, have a little party, sing with your heart full of joy.

Live dangerously!

The grave will come, whether you live dangerously or just lukewarm. The only difference will be: one who has lived dangerously, one who has lived totally, intensely, he will come to know the deathless in him. Then the grave will come, but death will not come. One who has never lived totally, has never gone deep enough into himself, because it is ice-cold there, will also reach the grave, but he will not know the eternal principle of life. He will simply die with tears in his eyes because he has not been able to live his life. He has not lived, and death has come.

One who has lived totally, he celebrates death too -- because death comes to him as the ultimate challenge of the unknown. And that has been his whole life: to accept challenges from the unknown. He will welcome death and enter death with a song and with a dance, because he knows there is something in him which is indestructible, which knows no death.

YOU STAND THERE RESPECTABLE AND STIFF AND WITH A STRAIGHT BACK, YOU FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS! -- NO STRONG WIND OR WILL PROPELS YOU.

HAVE YOU NEVER SEEN A SAIL FARING OVER THE SEA, ROUNDED AND SWELLING AND SHUDDERING BEFORE THE IMPETUOSITY OF THE WIND?

LIKE A SAIL, SHUDDERING BEFORE THE IMPETUOSITY OF THE SPIRIT, MY WISDOM FARES OVER THE SEA -- MY UNTAMED WISDOM!

Wisdom is always untamed.

Wisdom is always wild.

Wisdom is always spontaneous.

Knowledge is a slave, tamed; knowledge is very poor. A computer cannot have wisdom; it is the privilege only of human beings, human consciousness, to have wisdom. But then you have to be ready for the wild, for the untamed, for the spontaneous.

People talk about freedom but people don't want freedom, because freedom brings dangers. Slavery is comfortable -- somebody else takes the responsibility for your life. But wisdom is freedom. You never know what you are going to know the next moment; you cannot rehearse it. It comes suddenly. But it is such a joy, such a blessing, that those who have not known the untamed wisdom have not known anything at all.

BUT YOU SERVANTS OF THE PEOPLE, YOU FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS -- HOW COULD YOU FARE WITH ME? He is saying to the philosophers, to the theologians, to the priests, "You cannot fare with me, you cannot go with me into the wild, you cannot go with me into the unknown -- you are too cowardly. You don't have the spirit. And you don't know the dignity of accepting the challenge of all that is unknown, unknowable, of all that is dark and deep."

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.