< Previous | Contents | Next >
Chapter 2 - Just see it
A long report, a full-page story... I told Sheela, "You keep it, because this is an old thing, it has always been happening. This is what the RISHIS, the MUNIS, the bishops, the saints have always been doing. This man is unfortunate."
One of my teachers, a very beautiful old man, used to say before every examination in the school... He used to be the superintendent of the examinations. I loved that old man, his honesty, his truthfulness. He would come and tell all the students, "I am not against it if you are copying from others or if you have brought books with you or you have brought notes with you -- that has nothing to do with me. My whole concern is that you should not be caught. If you are caught then you will be in difficulty, so make sure... If you are certain you will not be caught there will be no problem with me, but if you are caught then I cannot save you."
So he would say, "I will give you five minutes. Close your eyes and ponder the situation, and those who have brought books, notes, etcetera, to cheat with can give them to me -- no notice will be taken of it. But once you decide to cheat then don't be caught, then be clever enough, then be intelligent enough... And remember one thing: that if you are intelligent enough you need not have those notes! So let me warn you that having those notes simply proves you are not intelligent enough, and you will be caught!"
And immediately people would start bringing their copies and notes -- and he would empty almost everybody!
But I loved that old man; he was sincere. He was saying that the question is not that you are cheating, the question is that you should not be caught.
What you read in the newspapers is that some people have been caught. Everybody is doing the same -- yes, with little differences but not many. The quantity may be different but the quality is the same. Murders are being done, rapes are being done, wars continue, all kinds of stupid things go on and on for centuries, and you are reading all these things and wasting your time -- seeing a movie, seeing a TV show or listening to the same old scriptures. You have heard them thousands of times, you know the whole story, but still you go on keeping yourself occupied.
If in a seventy-year life you can find even seven minutes which were just yours unoccupied, undistracted, relaxed, resting in your own being, that will be enough. But even those seven minutes are missing, hence the hurry: life is short and it is running by -- and there is no other life. Death will come and you will die utterly empty, unfulfilled. And this hurry is not going to help, this hurry simply makes things more difficult. It keeps you running, certainly, it keeps you chasing shadows, but while you are chasing shadows you are again wasting your time.
Bhagawati, you say:
I FEEL THAT WE NEED TO HURRY...
If you are here with me forget all about hurrying, forget all about time. Jesus says: There shall be time no longer in my kingdom of Cod. I say to you: Drop time, and this very moment, here and now, you are in the kingdom of God. Why wait for the kingdom of God? I would like to reverse the statement of Jesus. He says: Enter the kingdom of God, because there shall be Osho - The Goose is Out
22
< Previous | Contents | Next >