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Chapter 18 - Inside you god is hidden
man, and the man of outer possessions is simply deceiving himself that he is rich, but deep down he knows he is a pauper.
I have known the richest people, and when they expose their hearts, their eyes are full of tears -- because they have all the money the world can afford... but the money cannot purchase love, the money cannot purchase peace, the money cannot purchase silence, the money cannot purchase prayer, the money cannot purchase God. So what is the use of it? Their inner being remains dark, empty.
And it is the inner being that counts finally, because death will take away everything else and leave you only with that which is inner. Death should be accepted as the only criterion to decide what is richness and what is poverty. That which death can take away is not richness; that which death cannot destroy is the real richness.
And Milarepa, you are a rich man. You can become even richer. There is no end to it until you become enlightened, until you have reached to the highest peak of the Himalayas of consciousness. That should be the goal for every human being who has any intelligence.
Question 3 BELOVED OSHO,
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SO-CALLED
SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND SELF-AWARENESS? IS SELF- CONSCIOUSNESS A FORM OF UNAWARENESS, OR IS THERE SOMETHING OF AWARENESS IN IT?
Prem Anudeva, self-consciousness is a disease, it is sickness. Self-awareness is health -- it is wholeness. Both words appear to be the same, but in fact, because language is created by unconscious people, they cannot make the fine demarcations.
Self-consciousness simply means ego consciousness and self-awareness means
soul consciousness. Your ego is a false entity. Because you have so much money, because you have so much power, because you are born in a very respected family... your education, your position in life -- all these things constitute your ego. But your soul comes with you when you are born, it has nothing to do with anything. Whether you are educated or uneducated -- Kabir was not educated; Jesus was not educated -- whether you come from a respectable family or not, does not matter.
It is not known whether Kabir was born from a Hindu family or a Mohammedan family.
He was found on the bank of the Ganges by a sannyasin, Swami Ramananda; a small child whose parents had left him there. Perhaps he was illegitimate. But Kabir became one of the richest human beings the world has known. No family, no certainty of what religion he belonged to, no education, no riches -- he remained a weaver his whole life. He would weave and go every market day into the market to sell his clothes, and that was his whole earnings; it was enough for seven days.
But you cannot find a richer man; so full of bliss that each of his songs still carries something alive in it. After centuries have passed, just the words of Kabir can echo something within you -- as if Kabir were present. He has poured his heart in his words; those words are of gold.
Osho - The Hidden Splendor 187
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