Animals use a few simple signals, not a full language like people do.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Do animals have a language of their own?
Only in a manner of speaking. It is not a language, just signals. The signals are makeshift and very limited. For example, bees have about four signals. So they can give those four signals.
प्रश्न: पशुओं की अपनी भाषा है?
कहने मात्र को। भाषा नहीं है, सिर्फ संकेत हैं। संकेत कामचलाऊ हैं और बड़े सीमित हैं। यानी जैसे कि मधुमक्खियों के कोई चार संकेत हैं उनके पास। तो वे चार संकेत दे सकती हैं।
Beloved Osho, on one occasion, nansen said to joshu, "nowadays, it is best to live and work among members of a different species from us." joshu replied, "leaving aside the question of `different' let me ask you, what do you mean by `species'?" nansen put his hands on the ground. Joshu walked towards nansen from behind, trampling him into the ground, and then ran into the nirvana hall, crying, "I repent! I repent!" nansen sent his attendant to ask joshu what he was repenting for. Joshu replied, "I repent that I did not trample him twice over."
And secondly, if they can understand the mind, and can show their fear and worry and anxiety, they may in some way perhaps be speaking also, but we don't know their language. Perhaps their language sound range is either below us or above us. We can hear only a certain range of sound, and we can also see only a certain range. For example, the owl can see in the night, where we cannot see. His eyes have a bigger range than our eyes. It has always been known, and you can see it anywhere, in India particularly, that snakes dance with a flute player. The problem was that science could not find any ears in the snake. So how can they respond to sound? They cannot hear! But the research went on and on and now they have come up with a new idea which satisfies. The snake hears…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS THE LANGUAGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT? ... "This time you have come, they have all gone to spread the message. They have ripened, they have arrived at the space they had been searching for. Now they have gone to catch hold of other mad people. I will have to begin again when new people come. I will talk, and when they are ready just to enjoy my presence in silence, then I will sit in silence with them. And when they have come so close that their heart and my heart have become one, I will send them to fetch other mad people who are in need of me. Enlightenment has no language, Milarepa. But enlightenment finds ways, even without language, to convey the essential message. Even language can be used as a device, but it is not a communication of the experienced truth.
I want to ask something: Osho, is an animal’s subtle body the same as a human’s?
By “animal,” you mean? Any animal, like a cow. No, they are not the same; they are different. They are different.
मुझे एक बात पूछनी है: ओशो, प्राणी का सूक्ष्म शरीर और आदमी का एक ही समान होता है?
प्राणी यानी? कोई भी जानवर, जैसे गाय. नहीं, एक सा नहीं होता, अलग-अलग होता है। अलग-अलग होता है।
Osho, even in your Hindi discourses seventy to eighty percent are Western sannyasins who do not know Hindi at all. It is surprising that you still speak with the same alertness, ease, and depth, as if the whole assembly understands the language. Does this not create any difficulty for you? Please be gracious and explain how this is possible.
Chinmaya! It is not a matter of language here; it is a matter of feeling. And those who understand the language—do they really understand? Mere comprehension of words does not make you understand. What is being said may be expressed through language, but it is not confined to language. It is communicated by means of words, but it is not of the words. Only when you connect through the heart, through feeling, will you understand. Many must wonder: those who do not understand Hindi—how could they be understanding? They may not grasp what I am saying, but they do understand what I am. And that is what is valuable. Not what is said, but where it is said from. My silence is the valuable thing. From that silence the words arise. Words are like ripples on a lake. Ripples are not the whole of the lake. The lake can be…
पहला प्रश्न: ओशो, आपके हिंदी प्रवचनों में भी सत्तर-अस्सी प्रतिशत वे पाश्चात्य संन्यासी होते हैं जिन्हें हिंदी-भाषा बिलकुल नहीं आती। आश्चर्य है कि आप फिर भी उसी तत्परता, सहजता और गहनता से बोलते हैं, मानो कि पूरी मंडली भाषा समझ रही हो। क्या आपको इस बात से कोई अड़चन नहीं आती? यह कैसे संभव है, यह समझाने की अनुकंपा करें।
चिन्मय! भाषा की यहां बात ही नहीं है, भाव की बात है। फिर भाषा जो समझते हैं, वे भी कहां समझ पाते हैं? भाषा समझने से ही तो नहीं समझ लोगे। जो कहा जा रहा है, वह भाषा में आबद्ध भला हो, भाषा में सीमित नहीं है। भाषा के द्वारा संवादित किया जा रहा हो, लेकिन भाषा का ही नहीं है। भाव से जुड़ो तो ही समझ में आएगा। अनेक को यह प्रश्न उठता होगा मन में कि जो हिंदी-भाषा नहीं समझ रहे हैं, वे कैसे समझ रहे होंगे? मैं जो बोल रहा हूं उसे वे नहीं समझेंगे, लेकिन मैं जो हूं उसे वे समझेंगे। और वही मूल्यवान है। जो कहा जा रहा है, वह नहीं, वरन जहां से कहा जा रहा है, वह। मेरी चुप्पी मूल्यवान है। उसी चुप्पी से शब्द निर्मित हो रहे हैं। शब्द तो ऐसे हैं जैसे झील पर तरंगें। तरंगें ही थोड़े झील का सब-कुछ हैं। …