BELOVED OSHO,

THE CONVALESCENT

ONE MORNING NOT LONG AFTER HIS RETURN TO HIS CAVE, ZARATHUSTRA PASSES THROUGH A PERIOD OF SEVEN DAYS WHEN HE IS AS DEAD. WHEN HE FINALLY COMES TO HIMSELF, HE FINDS HE IS SURROUNDED BY FRUITS AND SWEET-SMELLING HERBS BROUGHT TO HIM BY HIS ANIMALS. ON SEEING HIM AWAKE, HIS ANIMALS ASK ZARATHUSTRA IF HE WOULD NOT NOW STEP OUT INTO THE WORLD WHICH IS WAITING FOR HIM: `THE WIND IS LADEN WITH HEAVY FRAGRANCE THAT LONGS FOR YOU AND ALL THE BROOKS WOULD LIKE TO RUN AFTER YOU,' THEY TELL HIM....

`FOR BEHOLD, O ZARATHUSTRA! NEW LYRES ARE NEEDED FOR YOUR NEW SONGS.

`SING AND BUBBLE OVER, O ZARATHUSTRA, HEAL YOUR SOUL WITH NEW SONGS, SO THAT YOU MAY BEAR YOUR GREAT DESTINY, THAT WAS NEVER YET THE DESTINY OF ANY MAN!

`FOR YOUR ANIMALS WELL KNOW, O ZARATHUSTRA, WHO YOU ARE AND MUST BECOME: BEHOLD, YOU ARE THE TEACHER OF THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE, THAT IS NOW YOUR DESTINY!

`THAT YOU HAVE TO BE THE FIRST TO TEACH THIS DOCTRINE -- HOW SHOULD THIS GREAT DESTINY NOT ALSO BE YOUR GREATEST DANGER!

`BEHOLD, WE KNOW WHAT YOU TEACH: THAT ALL THINGS RECUR ETERNALLY AND WE OURSELVES WITH THEM, AND THAT WE HAVE ALREADY EXISTED AN INFINITE NUMBER OF TIMES BEFORE AND ALL THINGS WITH US.

`YOU TEACH THAT THERE IS A GREAT YEAR OF BECOMING, A COLOSSUS OF A YEAR: THIS YEAR MUST, LIKE AN HOUR-GLASS, TURN ITSELF OVER AGAIN AND AGAIN, SO THAT IT MAY RUN DOWN AND RUN OUT ANEW:

`SO THAT ALL THESE YEARS RESEMBLE ONE ANOTHER, IN THE GREATEST THINGS AND IN THE SMALLEST, SO THAT WE OURSELVES RESEMBLE OURSELVES IN EACH GREAT YEAR, IN THE GREATEST THINGS AND IN THE SMALLEST.

`AND IF YOU SHOULD DIE NOW, O ZARATHUSTRA: BEHOLD, WE KNOW TOO WHAT YOU WOULD THEN SAY TO YOURSELF -- BUT YOUR ANIMALS ASK YOU NOT TO DIE YET!

`YOU WOULD SAY -- AND WITHOUT TREMBLING, BUT RATHER GASPING FOR HAPPINESS: FOR A GREAT WEIGHT AND OPPRESSION WOULD HAVE BEEN LIFTED FROM YOU, MOST PATIENT OF MEN!

`"NOW I DIE AND DECAY," YOU WOULD SAY," AND IN AN INSTANT I SHALL BE NOTHINGNESS. SOULS ARE AS MORTAL AS BODIES.

`"BUT THE COMPLEX OF CAUSES IN WHICH I AM ENTANGLED WILL RECUR -- IT WILL CREATE ME AGAIN! I MYSELF AM PART OF THESE CAUSES OF THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE.

`"I SHALL RETURN, WITH THIS SUN, WITH THIS EARTH, WITH THIS EAGLE, WITH THIS SERPENT -- NOT TO A NEW LIFE OR A BETTER LIFE OR A SIMILAR LIFE:

`"I SHALL RETURN ETERNALLY TO THIS IDENTICAL AND SELF-SAME LIFE, IN THE GREATEST THINGS AND IN THE SMALLEST, TO TEACH ONCE MORE THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE OF ALL THINGS,

`"TO SPEAK ONCE MORE THE TEACHING OF THE GREAT NOONTIDE OF EARTH AND MAN, TO TELL MAN OF THE

SUPERMAN ONCE MORE.

`"I SPOKE MY TEACHING, I BROKE UPON MY TEACHING: THUS MY ETERNAL FATE WILL HAVE IT -- AS PROPHET DO I PERISH!

`"NOW THE HOUR HAS COME WHEN HE WHO IS GOING DOWN SHALL BLESS HIMSELF. THUS -- ENDS ZARATHUSTRA'S DOWN-GOING."'

WHEN THE ANIMALS HAD SPOKEN THESE WORDS THEY FELL SILENT AND EXPECTED THAT ZARATHUSTRA WOULD SAY SOMETHING TO THEM: BUT ZARATHUSTRA DID NOT HEAR THAT THEY WERE SILENT. ON THE CONTRARY, HE LAY STILL WITH CLOSED EYES LIKE A SLEEPER, ALTHOUGH HE WAS NOT ASLEEP: FOR HE WAS CONVERSING WITH HIS SOUL. THE SERPENT AND THE EAGLE, HOWEVER, WHEN THEY FOUND HIM THUS SILENT, RESPECTED THE GREAT STILLNESS AROUND HIM AND DISCREETLY WITHDREW.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

There are many beautiful parables in the ancient literature. People have enjoyed them, but have rarely understood them. A parable is something like poetry; it is more symbolic. One has to dig deep to find the treasure hidden in it. Apparently, it is only a story and it appears that it is only for entertainment, but this is not true.

The ancient parables of Panch Tantra, or the parables in the life of Gautam Buddha, or the parables of Aesop in the West, all have tremendous spiritual significance. They have been written in such a way, or told in such a way that even children can enjoy them -- but to find their meaning, a sage is needed.

It was just an old device used when there were no written books, when writing was not yet invented, and things had to be told from the teacher to the disciple. The parable greatly served the purpose, because it can be easily remembered, and because it has many layers of meaning -- at least at the lowest everybody can remember it.

At its highest, only those who have that quality of consciousness.... For example, all these parables are based on dialogues between animals, or between animals and man. And we know that animals don't speak. Still, around the world the same pattern has been followed; and great truths have been expressed through the animals.

The animal is a symbol of absolute innocence. Even a child is not so innocent; even a child starts becoming diplomatic, political from the very beginning, because he's surrounded by an atmosphere which contaminates his consciousness.

The smallest child will smile at the mother -- not that he really feels like smiling; his smile is no different from the smile of Jimmy Carter -- he knows that by smiling he persuades the mother. His smiling is diplomatic; it is not from his heart. It is not that he is very happy, seeing the mother, but he depends on the mother. His whole nourishment is in the hands of the mother -- he has to keep her happy. He smiles, not without some reason -- his smile is not innocent.

In the parables animals have been used because they are absolutely uncontaminated by human cunningness, diplomacy, and dirty politics. They are absolutely simple and innocent. They represent innocence -- an innocence which, even though it may not speak, its very presence radiates truth. Today's fragment on Zarathustra starts with a small parable.

ONE MORNING NOT LONG AFTER HIS RETURN TO HIS CAVE, ZARATHUSTRA PASSES THROUGH A PERIOD OF SEVEN DAYS WHEN HE IS AS DEAD. In parables everything has to be searched, because one never knows where the meaning has been hidden in its words. For example: ZARATHUSTRA PASSES THROUGH A PERIOD OF SEVEN DAYS. Seven days are symbolic and significant; they are symbolic of the seven stages of human consciousness. For centuries the so-called crowd of humanity has known only one stage, in which we live -- the so-called consciousness.

It was only in this century in the West that Sigmund Freud and his colleagues introduced the very shocking idea of the unconscious mind -- because he was working with dreams, with hypnosis, with analysis, and he found a great unconscious space in man, of which he is not aware; although it affects his actions, his ideas, his behavior, his whole life-style.

Sigmund Freud became more interested in your unconsciousness than in what you call your consciousness because your consciousness, he found, is not reliable. You lie, and you lie so sincerely that it is very difficult to detect it. You don't even know that you are lying. You have become so habituated to lying that it appears to you that you are telling the truth.

But when you are asleep you are beyond the control of all the religions, of all so-called moralities, societies, cultures, civilizations. Suddenly you are more authentic. Your dreams say much truer things about you than you say yourself. You may even contradict them; you may find it very difficult to believe that this has come from your own unconscious.

Sigmund Freud brought to the light one more stage of your consciousness which he called the unconscious mind. His disciple and later on his rival, Carl Gustav Jung, tried going even deeper than the unconscious, and discovered that everybody is carrying within his being a collective unconscious -- which is not his, which belongs to thousands of years, which carries the whole past in it.

It was even more shocking: we are not aware that we are carrying the whole history of humanity. But in the East we have been aware of these stages: the unconscious, the collective unconscious, and one more, which perhaps soon the West will have to find -- the universal unconscious. The collective unconscious is concerned only with humanity; the universal unconscious is concerned with the whole universe. You are not only carrying, in subtle forms, the whole history of mankind, you are carrying within you the whole history of the universe itself.

These are the three stages below your so-called conscious mind. I am calling it so-called because in the East we have found the real conscious mind. The so-called conscious mind is only utilitarian -- a small part which is useful for day to day work, but it cannot give you a glimpse of the truth.

Just as these are the stages below your conscious mind, the East has been aware of a similar three stages above your conscious mind. And that seems very rational and very scientific, because it balances you. The East, for at least twenty-five centuries, has been absolutely aware that above your conscious mind is the superconscious mind, and above the superconscious mind is the collective superconscious mind, and above the collective superconscious mind is the universal superconscious mind.

These seven stages have been referred in many ways, but in Zarathustra's parable his being for seven days in a strange state which looked as if he is almost dead -- he was alive... he passed through all these seven stages, from the lowest to the highest. He discovered his whole rainbow of consciousness -- the seven colors, the whole spectrum. And when he awoke after seven days he was not the old Zarathustra. The superman had arrived, who was fully conscious of his whole being. There was not even a small corner within him anymore which was dark. All was light. And this is what has been referred to as self-knowledge, or enlightenment, or awakening to your ultimate reality.

WHEN HE FINALLY COMES TO HIMSELF, HE FINDS HE IS SURROUNDED BY FRUITS AND SWEET-SMELLING HERBS BROUGHT TO HIM BY HIS ANIMALS.

Perhaps animals can fall in rapport with a man who is aware of his whole being; no language is needed. But they were taking care of Zarathustra. They had brought fruits and herbs and they were waiting for his awakening.

ON SEEING HIM AWAKE, HIS ANIMALS ASK ZARATHUSTRA IF HE WOULD NOT NOW STEP OUT INTO THE WORLD WHICH IS WAITING FOR HIM.

Now he's ready. The thing for which he was waiting has happened to him. He has arrived to the optimum awakening. It is time: go down to man; they are groping in darkness.

`THE WIND IS LADEN WITH HEAVY FRAGRANCE THAT LONGS FOR YOU AND ALL THE BROOKS WOULD LIKE TO RUN AFTER YOU,' THEY TELL HIM. The parable indicates one significant thing: a man like Zarathustra can be understood only by innocence. Not by the knowledgeable, not by the scholars, not by those who have lost themselves in beautiful words and theories and philosophies, but by those who are utterly silent.

`FOR BEHOLD, O ZARATHUSTRA! NEW LYRES ARE NEEDED FOR YOUR NEW SONGS. You are no longer the old Zarathustra who had gone to sleep. In these seven days you have died and you have resurrected; you are an absolutely new man. You will need new lyres for your new songs.

SING AND BUBBLE OVER, O ZARATHUSTRA, HEAL YOUR SOUL WITH NEW SONGS, SO THAT YOU MAY BEAR YOUR GREAT DESTINY, THAT WAS NEVER YET THE DESTINY OF ANY MAN!

FOR YOUR ANIMALS WELL KNOW, O ZARATHUSTRA, WHO YOU ARE AND MUST BECOME: BEHOLD, YOU ARE THE TEACHER OF THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE, THAT IS NOW YOUR DESTINY!'

This concept of eternal recurrence has to be understood. This is one of the most significant contributions of Zarathustra to humanity. There are religions which believe that there is only one life: Christianity, Judaism, Mohammedanism. They think life begins when you are born and ends when you die. Of course your soul does not end, but you will not have another life. Your soul will be presented before God to be judged.

The three other religions, Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, believe in reincarnation -- man goes on being born. Just as Charles Darwin thinks that man has evolved out of the chimpanzees, or apes, or monkeys, these three religions, for centuries, have believed that man's soul has been passing through different forms according to his actions. And man is the highest form that human consciousness comes to, but it has been moving from other animals.

Perhaps the differences in human beings are based on their coming through different sources: somebody's soul has moved from the elephants, somebody's soul has moved from the lions, somebody's soul has moved from the eagles. Naturally, they will be carrying some characteristics of their past life. And there is not only one past life, there are thousands of past lives. You have moved from one animal to another, each higher than the first.

And man is not the end. Just as you have been transcending other animals, one day you have to transcend man, too. The idea of evolution is not new; it has dominated the whole East for as far back as there are any references available. Man has been moving on from lower forms of animals to higher forms. This is called the theory of reincarnation.

Zarathustra has a third concept, and he's the only one as far as the theory of recurrence is concerned. But his theory has something beautiful about it, and it has to be understood without any prejudice. Just as seasons move: after summer come the rains, after rains comes the winter, after winter comes the summer -- it is a circle. Zarathustra says, just like modern science, that everything moves in a circle. The earth goes around the sun, and the sun itself is going around some sun about which science has only guesswork. We have not yet been able to discover that faraway sun, around which our sun is moving. And all the stars are moving in circles. The circle seems to be the natural way of movement.

Zarathustra says, "Consciousness, life, everything moves in a circle. It recurs again and again." When for the first time you understand him, it feels very strange. What he is saying, in other words, is that we have met in this Chuang Tzu Hall millions of times before, and I have been saying the same things to you -- and this is not the first time you have laughed. And this will go on eternally, again and again, in Chuang Tzu Hall. The same people will be meeting, and talking, and laughing, and singing, and there will not be even a little difference.

His idea is strange, but looking at the circular movement in existence everywhere, there is a possibility that howsoever crazy it may seem, Zarathustra may be right. For eternity... the circle may be very big, it may be repeated after millions of years, but he insists that there is recurrence. What you see today has been there millions of times, and will be there millions of times again.

The animals say to him, "Zarathustra, now go to man. This is going to be your destiny: to teach them the philosophy of recurrence. This is what you have discovered in these seven days. This is what you have come to know in these seven days' absolute silence." There is no way to refute, and there is no way to support. I will not say he is right, I will not say he is wrong. All that I can say is that he has a great idea -- unique, original. Nobody has talked about it before and nobody has ever dared again -- because people laugh at it.

But this is the law of life: the fall comes and the leaves fall from the trees; and new leaves replace them, and again the fall comes -- and the same thing happens again. Every morning the sun rises, and every evening it sets; every day you are hungry, and every day you are thirsty. Just look at your life, and you will find you are moving in circles; every day is a circle. Just like the clock, the hands of your life go on moving in a circle. They pass through the same territory.

Perhaps Zarathustra has seen a glimpse of something which has yet to be decided whether it is true or not. But for twenty-five centuries people have ignored it. They have not even discussed it. That is ugly. You can deny a doctrine, you can say it is not true, you can give proofs why it is not true -- that is acceptable. Or, you may prove it right, and give arguments and proofs and evidence. But to ignore it, what could be the psychology behind it?

My own understanding is that man is afraid to talk about it. Man is afraid because, who knows? -- it may be true. It is better not to talk about such things, because if it is true it will change your whole life's values. You will have to think anew about everything, because you will be getting the same wife, the same children, the same parents again and again and again. And there is no end to it. It will create really a great boredom if somebody proves it right. Perhaps out of fear people have ignored it.

Nobody has given any reasons against or for. I can only say one thing: the idea is immensely original and should be respected, should be discussed, should be explored. There is every possibility that it may be true. But by ignoring it, you are behaving like the ostrich. Just by closing your eyes it does not mean that the world has disappeared.

`THAT YOU HAVE TO BE THE FIRST TO TEACH THIS DOCTRINE -- HOW SHOULD THIS GREAT DESTINY NOT ALSO BE YOUR GREATEST DANGER! This is going to be your destiny, to teach this doctrine. But this is also going to be your great danger, because nobody is going to like it. Nobody is going even to hear it. It will shake their foundations of life. It will create such great phobia: "My God, I will have eternally to be married to the same woman. I was thinking that it is only a question of one life. Somehow much has passed, a little bit remains -- that too will pass -- but eternally?"

You can say that you can divorce now, but that will not make any difference to the doctrine -- that simply means you will have to divorce her again. Whatever you are going through, you will have to go through millions of times, eternally. This is the wheel of life that will go on moving.

So the animals say to him, "This is your great destiny, because you are the first man to teach this doctrine. But remember this is your great danger, too, because nobody's going to like the idea."

It is terrifying, if you think over it in the night, lying down in your bed in the darkness, "My God, again and again, in the same room, on the same bed... millions of times I have been lying on this bed, and still millions of times more?" In fact, there is no end to it... forever and forever. You may have nightmares. It is a nightmare if it is true -- an eternal nightmare that goes on repeating.

But my own experience is that Zarathustra is using it just as a device -- a great device to make you utterly bored, so that you have to do something to jump out of the wheel of recurrence. If you don't do anything, then mechanically you will go on moving in the wheel.

You have to do some conscious act to attain freedom -- freedom from the clutches of the eternal law of recurrence. And I think the device is great. If you understand that this is going to be so, then something has to be done right now to get out of the way, to become an exception to the law. Perhaps that is the hidden intention of Zarathustra.

The theory of recurrence may not be true, but it can be used as a great device for people to go beyond themselves. It can create the right atmosphere for transformation. I would support the theory of recurrence for the simple reason that it can make you think again: don't repeat anything in this life; start changing from today. Learn not to repeat, so that one day you can be out of the mechanical recurrence.

But people go on repeating the same thing, sometimes in spite of themselves. So many people have told me they want to stop smoking. I said, "Then who is preventing you? At least I'm not preventing you. Why are you bothering me? If I want to start smoking I will not ask anybody. If I have not started smoking it is not because somebody advised me. Who is preventing you? you want to stop."

They feel shocked, because they were thinking I would show sympathy. They say, "We have tried many times but again and again the urge comes with such force that we forget all our decisions. We forget all our willpower, and we start even arguing in favor of smoking: just one cigarette, once in a while, cannot be so harmful. But one cigarette brings another in."

Just look at your life. If you are repetitive in your life, perhaps you will be repetitive on a larger scale -- what Zarathustra calls recurrence. You commit the same mistakes again and again. You get angry and you repent, and your repentance is not going to prevent you because it is a pattern. First you get angry, then you repent, then you get angry again, then you repent.... The repentance is really to erase the feeling of guilt that you became angry -- now you are again ready to be angry, the guilt is gone.

It happened once: Ramakrishna was asked by a man, "I'm going to Varanasi...." Every twelve years people gather near the Ganges to have a holy dip, and Hindus believe that whatever sins you have committed in twelve years are washed out -- just one dip. It is a very cold season, and the water is ice-cold, coming directly from the Himalayan ice. So even one dip is enough to freeze your blood, and people jump out. But now for twelve years they are again free to commit the same things. After twelve years they will come again.

This man was going to take a holy dip, and he was a devotee of Ramakrishna, so he went just to touch his feet and to get his blessings. Ramakrishna said, "Where are you going?" He said, "I am going for a holy dip."

Ramakrishna said, "If you are going, very good. You can take one dip for me too, because I am not going; the water is too cold. And anyway, I have not committed any sin, so why unnecessarily harass the Ganges, where so many people are. And I am also afraid: I have not committed any sin, and so many people are throwing their sins into the Ganges... entering into the Ganges is dangerous -- some sins may get stuck to me. So you can take one dip for me too."

The man said, "Are you kidding or what?"Ramakrishna said, "To tell you the truth... but I'm not preventing you. Have you seen those big trees standing by the side of the Ganges?"

He said, "Yes, because twelve years ago I went for the holy dip, and I saw really big trees, huge trees."

Ramakrishna said, "Do you know their purpose, why they are standing there?" He said, "How am I supposed to know the purpose of the trees, why they are standing there? Today you are in a strange mood."

Ramakrishna said, "I will tell you their purpose. When you take the dip it is not the Ganges that the sins are worried about, it is the coldness of the water. So they jump out, sit on the trees and wait for you. How long can you remain in the Ganges?"

The man said, "How long? I cannot remain for more than two minutes; the water is too cold."

So Ramakrishna said, "Yes, as you come out they jump back on you. And remember, sometimes it happens that somebody else's sins may also jump on you. Seeing that a very good guy... just for a change; they have tortured somebody enough, now torture this fellow. So be very alert; when you are passing under those trees, be careful!"

He said, "How I can be careful? -- because I don't see anything. I don't see the sins." Ramakrishna said, "It is up to you. It is a very dangerous thing that you are doing. If you hear me, think it over. There is no hurry; you can go tomorrow. The Ganges will be there, and those trees will be there."

The man remained awake the whole night. He thought again and again, and the idea looked meaningful -- although it was a pure device; there was no truth in it.

Neither is there is any truth in the idea that by taking a dip in the Ganges your sins are washed away. If it was so cheap then you could do every kind of thing you wanted to do for twelve years, and then after twelve years just for one day go to the Ganges, and take a dip.

And particularly now there is no need even to go to the Ganges. The Ganges water can be supplied by pipes throughout the country. So just in your bathroom, take a shower. And why wait for twelve years? Every day keep yourself fresh for new sins to commit.

Devices can be helpful. And devices need not be true or false; if they are helpful they are true. And I say, the theory of recurrence can be of immense help to many people; hence it has a truth.

`BEHOLD, WE KNOW WHAT YOU TEACH: THAT ALL THINGS RECUR ETERNALLY AND WE OURSELVES WITH THEM, AND THAT WE HAVE ALREADY EXISTED AN INFINITE NUMBER OF TIMES BEFORE AND ALL THINGS WITH US.

`YOU TEACH THAT THERE IS A GREAT YEAR OF BECOMING, A COLOSSUS OF A YEAR: THIS YEAR MUST, LIKE AN HOUR-GLASS, TURN ITSELF OVER AGAIN AND AGAIN, SO THAT IT MAY RUN DOWN AND RUN OUT ANEW.

You have seen an ancient device for measuring time. Just a glass made in the shape of a drum is filled with sand, and the sand goes on falling through slowly, slowly. The passage is very narrow. In one hour the upper glass is empty; the lower glass is full. And the device is made in such a way that when the upper glass is empty, completely empty, the lower glass moves up and the upper glass moves down. Again, the same sand, the same glass and the same recurrence.

The animals are saying...

LIKE AN HOUR-GLASS, TURN ITSELF OVER AGAIN AND AGAIN, SO THAT IT MAY RUN DOWN AND RUN OUT ANEW:

`SO THAT ALL THESE YEARS RESEMBLE ONE ANOTHER, IN THE GREATEST THINGS AND IN THE SMALLEST, SO THAT WE OURSELVES RESEMBLE OURSELVES IN EACH GREAT YEAR, IN THE GREATEST THINGS AND IN THE SMALLEST.

`AND IF YOU SHOULD DIE NOW, O ZARATHUSTRA: BEHOLD, WE KNOW TOO WHAT YOU WOULD THEN SAY TO YOURSELF -- BUT YOUR ANIMALS ASK YOU NOT TO DIE YET!

`YOU WOULD SAY -- AND WITHOUT TREMBLING, BUT RATHER GASPING FOR HAPPINESS: FOR A GREAT WEIGHT AND OPPRESSION WOULD HAVE BEEN LIFTED FROM YOU, MOST PATIENT OF MEN!

`"NOW I DIE AND DECAY," YOU WOULD SAY, "AND IN AN INSTANT I SHALL BE NOTHINGNESS. SOULS ARE AS MORTAL AS BODIES.

`"BUT THE COMPLEX OF CAUSES IN WHICH I AM ENTANGLED WILL RECUR -- IT WILL CREATE ME AGAIN! I MYSELF AM PART OF THESE CAUSES OF THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE.

`"I SHALL RETURN, WITH THIS SUN, WITH THIS EARTH, WITH THIS EAGLE, WITH THIS SERPENT -- NOT TO A NEW LIFE OR A BETTER LIFE OR A SIMILAR LIFE:

`"I SHALL RETURN ETERNALLY TO THIS IDENTICAL AND SELF-SAME LIFE, IN THE GREATEST THINGS AND IN THE SMALLEST, TO TEACH ONCE MORE THE ETERNAL RECURRENCE OF ALL THINGS,

`"TO SPEAK ONCE MORE THE TEACHINGS OF THE GREAT NOONTIDE OF EARTH AND MAN, TO TELL MAN OF THE SUPERMAN ONCE MORE.

`"I SPOKE MY TEACHING, I BROKE UPON MY TEACHING: THUS MY ETERNAL FATE WILL HAVE IT -- AS PROPHET DO I PERISH!

`"NOW THE HOUR HAS COME WHEN HE WHO IS GOING DOWN SHALL BLESS HIMSELF. THUS -- ENDS ZARATHUSTRA'S DOWN-GOING."'

WHEN THE ANIMALS HAD SPOKEN THESE WORDS THEY FELL SILENT AND EXPECTED THAT ZARATHUSTRA WOULD SAY SOMETHING TO THEM: BUT ZARATHUSTRA DID NOT HEAR THAT THEY WERE SILENT. ON THE CONTRARY, HE LAY STILL WITH CLOSED EYES LIKE A SLEEPER, ALTHOUGH HE WAS NOT ASLEEP: FOR HE WAS CONVERSING WITH HIS SOUL. THE SERPENT AND THE EAGLE, HOWEVER, WHEN THEY FOUND HIM THUS SILENT, RESPECTED THE GREAT STILLNESS AROUND HIM AND DISCREETLY WITHDREW.

Hearing the animals is symbolic. It means as if the universal life, the anima itself, spoke to Zarathustra: "This is your destiny, to go to men and to teach them the theory of eternal recurrence. But remember, your destiny is also very dangerous." Listening to these animals Zarathustra closed his eyes, and it seemed as if he had fallen asleep. But he was not asleep. He was in deep meditation, consulting with his own soul. About what was he consulting with his own soul?

"Is it the right hour for me to take this dangerous path and to go to men, whom I know perfectly well are deaf and blind and are not going to see any truth, and are not going to listen about any truth? Is it time for me? Has my hour come? Is it the noontide I have been waiting for? If the hour has come then I will take the challenge and I will go to men -- to be laughed at or to be crucified, but I will deliver the message that existence itself has given to me.

"These animals, who have never spoken, who never speak, seem to have become vehicles of existence, and what they are saying is absolutely true. This is my finding. In those seven days I have come across the discovery of eternal recurrence. But the question is, is the time ripe? -- because I don't want to reach humanity before the right time. I want to reach exactly at the time when at least a few people will be ready to hear me, and to understand me."

That's what he was conversing about with his own soul. And the parable ends with a beautiful and graceful expression of his animals. The serpent and the eagle, seeing him silent... RESPECTED THE GREAT STILLNESS THAT WAS SURROUNDING HIM AND DISCREETLY WITHDREW. Even man is not so discreet, is not so respectful of the silence of a master, of the silence of the meditator.

I am reminded of one instance of this century. One of the greatest enlightened men was Raman Maharshi, in South India, on the mountain of Arunachal. He was not a man of many words; he was not very educated either. He was only seventeen when he escaped into the mountains in search of himself. He was a very silent man, and people used to go particularly to have a taste of his silence.

One thing very miraculous was watched by every comer: whenever he sat in the veranda of the temple, waiting for people who wanted to sit with him in silence, a cow used to come without fail, exactly at the right time. She would sit there, and people could not believe it: "What kind of cow is that?" And when Raman Maharshi moved inside his room, and everybody dispersed, the cow would come close to the window and put her head inside -- just to say goodbye, every day. And then she would go back. Then tomorrow she would come again.

It went on continually for years. But one day she did not turn up, and Raman Maharshi said, "She must be either very ill or she must be dead. I must go in search of her."

The people said, "It doesn't look right for a man of your heights to go in search of a cow." But Raman Maharshi did not listen to the people, he went. People followed, and the cow was found. She had fallen in a ditch.

She had become old. She was coming, she was on the way, but she had slipped and had fallen into the ditch.

But she was still alive, and as Raman Maharshi reached her, sat by her side, the cow had tears in her eyes. And she put her head into Raman Maharshi's lap and died.

Raman Maharshi told his people,"A great temple should be made in her memory here, because she has died enlightened -- she will not be born even as a human being." And even today the temple stands there, with a statue of the cow inside.

Perhaps we have not made much effort to communicate with animals, with trees, with mountains, with rivers. Certainly their language cannot be our language; some other ways have to be found. But in silence many people have experienced a harmony with the trees, with the animals, with the birds.

So it is not only a parable, it is also an indication of a possibility for the future. Man just has to explore... there is so much to explore! But we are engaged in trivia. We are not concerned with the real and great values of life. We are not concerned even with life itself and its different forms. All these are different forms of the same life which we are made of -- the same stuff. There must be some way of communion.

Zarathustra was in silence, conversing with himself, searching for a decision to go down from the mountains, from the animals and their innocence to the men who are full of self-conceit and cunningness and who think that they know, although they know nothing.

This fragment does not say what was the conclusion of the communion with his own soul, but the coming fragment is concerned with his going down from the mountains to humanity. So it must have been that he had heard the still, small voice of his own soul, saying, "Don't hesitate. It is a difficult destiny and dangerous too, but you have to go, because whatever you have known and seen and experienced, you have to share it."

Eternal recurrence can become a great blessing if people understand it and start changing their life from the mechanical to a more conscious and alert awareness. It is possible, because it has happened to many people. It can happen to everybody. The only question is to gather courage and to accept the challenge.

Somewhere else Zarathustra says, "Unless you gather courage to transcend yourself and your mechanicalness, your robot-like behavior, the superman, which is going to be your fulfillment, cannot be born."

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.