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Chapter 24 - All our doings are disturbances
But you don't know a simple law: if you can deceive many people, you will be deceived in turn. By their being deceived, you will start thinking there must be something in it; otherwise, so many people cannot be deceived. Start by telling a lie and by the evening -- when your wife will tell it to you -- it will have gone around the city. You know perfectly well: you started it in the morning. But if the whole city is agog about it, then perhaps there is something in it!
Such is the madness of man that he can believe even in his own lies, and can believe so totally that you cannot suspect.
One man played the role of Abraham Lincoln for one year continuously. One hundred years had passed since Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and in his honor and in his memory, a whole year was devoted to celebrate it. A drama was prepared and all over America, a great search was made to find a man who could play the part of Abraham Lincoln.
Strangely enough, they managed to find a man who looked like Abraham Lincoln -- the same height, the same weight.
They trained him... because Abraham Lincoln used to stutter a little, so they trained him to stutter. One of Abraham Lincoln's legs was a little longer than the other, so they put the poor fellow on a traction machine and pulled one leg a little longer so he started walking like Abraham Lincoln, with a walking-stick in his hand.
For one year, morning, afternoon, evening, three times a day, he was playing the role. And he was doing it so perfectly that people were amazed: it seemed as if Abraham Lincoln had come back. One year is a long time. He became more and more perfect, and when the year ended, he was awarded a first prize.
He came home, but he continued to stutter. His wife said, "Now, there is no need to stutter."
He said, "No need? What do you mean by no need? Abraham Lincoln has to stutter."
The wife said, "Whom are you trying to befool?"
First, they thought that he was just joking, but then the joke went on so long... he would walk like Abraham Lincoln, he will talk like Abraham Lincoln. He would behave as if he were the president. Finally, they thought, "He has gone crazy. He believes it. Three hundred sixty-five days, three times every day, going through the same role..."
At that very time, scientists had discovered the lie detector machine. You stand on the machine -- you don't know; it is hidden underneath the ground -- and they ask you a few questions: a clock is hanging in front of you on the wall and they ask, "What time is it on the clock?" You cannot lie, you say, "It is ten o'clock" or "twelve o'clock." And the machine goes on marking whether you are right or wrong. They go on asking a few more questions: "How many people are here?" Now, how can you lie? Four persons are there, so you say "four" and the machine makes the point again -- "right." So four or five questions are asked about which you cannot lie. And then they asked him, "Are you Abraham Lincoln?"
And he was tired. His family was after him, his friends were after him, he was being taken to this psychologist to that psychologist...
And finally he had decided to drop this idea, to just accept what these idiots are saying.
Although he IS Abraham Lincoln, what to do? If nobody is ready to believe it, how long can he argue with these people? So when they asked, "Are you Abraham Lincoln?" he said, "No."
Osho - The Hidden Splendor 243
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