< Previous | Contents | Next >
Chapter 6 - The Irrational Rationalist
genius. He laughed and blew the candle out, and he said, "Right now it has gone. Where? You have seen it! Where has it gone? "
The coming and going is not from somewhere to somewhere. We arise out of the cosmic consciousness; we fall back into the cosmic consciousness. We arise again; we fall back again.
My concept of the soul is exactly the same as that of Gautam the Buddha. There is no individual soul, there is no ego. That's why I insist so much: drop the ego. Then you will start living a life -- a cosmic life, a divine life. Then you will live like God -- because God will live through you. You will not be there.
Second thing: he calls me a fraud. I would have loved it if I could have agreed with him. I could not. I am sorry. He calls me a fraud because he says I claim miraculous powers. I was simply amazed. I have never claimed any. With whom is he fighting? With Satya Sai Baba? I have never claimed any miraculous powers, and he says I claim miraculous powers. That's why I am a fraud, because there are no miraculous powers. My whole emphasis is that the whole existence is miraculous! There are no miraculous powers, but the whole of life is miraculous. And I don't claim any power. I am the most ordinary man. I don't claim anything.
I have no claim.
When I say that I am the most ordinary, I mean it exactly. I am not special; I am not "holier than thou". Then what am I doing here with people? I am just helping them to come back to their reality, to their ordinariness, to their first principle. If you start living and enjoying your ordinariness you are divine, because the ordinary is the divine.
He projects something, then he demolishes it, and he thinks he has demolished me.
And the third thing. Because I say that without God there will be no meaning and I had asked Dr. Kovoor, "What meaning will your life have if there is no God?" he has answered that his life has an aim, and that aim is to impart
whatsoever he has learned to other human beings. But that seems to be very irrelevant. One candle imparting to other candles! What is the meaning of it? There is no difference. And why do you say "human beings"? And what is the point? Even if you make a candle very much informed -- you talk and talk and talk -- what is the point? A candle is a candle -- there is no difference, sir. And this is your whole aim of life! Whatsoever you have learned in life, you have to teach others. This does not seem to be much of an aim. It seems more like a duty
-- and a mechanical one at that.
And why help these candles -- these chemicals, oxidization processes -- why help? If they remain ignorant, if the candles are ignorant, what is lost? And he says, "My aim in life is to help people so that they become aware and nobody can exploit them." But what is the point if one candle exploits another candle? A little wax goes from here to there -- what is the point?
It does not seem very meaningful.
And then, finally, he says, "Except for creating mental derangements and hallucinations ...
there is absolutely no beneficial value in meditation ... meditation is a ... technique of inducing self-hypnosis." Now, he says meditation only creates "mental derangement," "hallucination,"
and only "religious maniacs" do meditation, and people who are "mentally sick". That means all the Vedas were written by mentally sick people. And the Bible and the Koran and the Dhammapada and the Tao Te Ching and the Zend- Avestaall were written by mentally ill people. Then all that has been of any value on this earth was illness! Then Buddha has no health; then Buddha has no well- being. Then who else can have well-being? Then Nagarjuna and Shankara and Vasubandhu and Bodhidharma and Bokuju and Lin Chi, all are "religious maniacs". Then Jalaluddin and Bahauddin and Junaid and Mansur are all mentally ill people.
Osho - The First Principle 103
< Previous | Contents | Next >