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Chapter 6 - The Irrational Rationalist
Second compliment: he says Rajneesh is an ignoramus. Perfectly true, sir. I don't claim any knowledge. I only claim ignorance, utter ignorance ... but that's what the Upanishads have been saying: those who say that they know, know not. That's what Socrates has been saying: "I know only one thing: that I know nothing." These are all ignoramuses, and I am happy with this company -- the Upanishads, the Taoists, the Zen people, the Sufis. I am tremendously happy with this company.
In fact, to know reality, to know yourself, you have to unlearn. Knowledge is good, but good only for the practical world, good only for the objective world. It is not good for knowing yourself. You need not know anything to know yourself. What you need is to go within. You can enter into your being. There is no need to know anything beforehand.
Knowledge has to be dropped.
A German philosopher came to Raman Maharshi and said to him, "Master, I have come to learn from you, and I have traveled long and I have been desiring and desiring to come, and now I am happy that I have come." And Raman said, "Please, the first Principle is that you will have to unlearn. I am not here to help you to learn! You already know too much! If you want more learning, go somewhere else. Here the whole work is of unlearning, unconditioning. I am ignorant, and I help people to become ignorant again, so that they can become innocent, childlike."
And yes, Jesus is right. Only those who are childlike will be able to enter into the kingdom of God. That quality of innocence has to be attained.
Third compliment: Rajneesh is a fool. Good. True. It I was not a fool, why should I be seeking and searching for God? Only fools do that. Clever people seek money, power, prestige. Cunning people seek something of the world. Only fools try to seek the ultimate.
In Hindi we have the same word for "fool" as for the "enlightened one". We call a fool BUDDHU; it is derived from "Buddha". People must have thought Buddha a fool. He looks foolish. He had everything that one can desire -- the
palace, the beautiful woman, the kingdom
-- all comforts -- and suddenly he renounced. The masses must have called him BUDDHU, a fool. These are the things one desires, and he is renouncing them. And what is he going to seek and search for? What more is there than this? St. Francis was thought to be a fool.
Dr. Kovoor has put me in the great company of the greatest people who have walked on the earth. I am thankful.
Fourth compliment: Rajneesh is dangerous. I am. Those who come to me are going to be destroyed by me, because that is the only way to give them rebirth. If you come to me, I am going to destroy you because only through that destruction is resurrection. A Master has to be a death to the disciple. You will never be the same again. The danger is there. I will take all that you have away. All the illusions have to be taken away. I will leave you naked and nude, empty. But in that emptiness happens that which is real, happens that which is eternal. I am dangerous.
And the fifth compliment: Rajneesh is a voyeur. Beautiful. Psychologists say that there are two types of people: voyeurs and exhibitionists. Man is a voyeur, woman is an exhibitionist.
And out of the voyeurism of man, all that has happened has happened. It is voyeurism to inquire into truth. It is voyeurism to penetrate into reality, into the mystery of reality. It is voyeurism to go to Everest and to see what is there. It is voyeurism to go to the moon. Women have not been very creative in that way because they are not voyeurs; they are exhibitionists.
They are satisfied to exhibit themselves. Finished. Their work is finished. Man is a voyeur.
Osho - The First Principle 100
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