Is the presence of love in a hostile world not ironic?

Beloved Osho, in a world ridden with hate and hostility, sadness and sorrow, you seem to be the lonely bard of love and laughter. Is this not hilarious?

It is. Maitreya, it is hilarious but somebody has to begin it. We want the world to be less serious and more sensitive. Sincere of course, but serious never. We want the world to learn that the sense of humor is one of the most fundamental qualities of a religious man. If you cannot laugh, you will miss many things in life, you will miss many mysteries. Your laughter makes you a small innocent child, your laughter joins you with existence -- with the roaring ocean, with the stars and their silence. Your laughter makes you the lonely part of the world which has become intelligent, because only intelligent people can laugh. That's why animals cannot afford to laugh -- they don't have that much intelligence. You can try -- you can tell a joke to your buffalo and see what happens. And because seriousness has always been taught to…

People don't know how to relate any more; people are really very much embarrassed in relationship, they feel very shaky. All that they do in relationship goes wrong, all that they do brings more and more misery. People have started moving away from other people. It seems far easier and safer to relate with a dog or a cat, to have a pet animal -- less risky because the dog will not be too demanding, the dog will not be too binding, the dog will not be too possessive, the dog will not provoke your anxiety, your fear. The dog will not in any way become a mirror in which you will be reflected and in which you will have to see your own ugly face; it is far better. And now things have become even worse: now in America they are selling pet rocks.

One of my teachers died. The shape of the man was such that anybody would laugh just looking at him -- he was a cartoon. And the way he dressed and the way he walked.... he was a teacher of Sanskrit -- very tradition, old-fashioned. Any small thing was enough to irritate him, and it was a joy to irritate him, because then he would almost go crazy. He would throw his chair and he would jump all over the class, he would run after the boys who had teased him or irritated him and it would be a chaos; his class was always a chaos. But he was a very simple man too, very innocent. Although we irritated him, we all loved him. In Hindi there is a word "bholanath"; it means a very simple person, almost a simpleton.

Beloved Osho, it is for the first time I have been so close to you. When I am sitting here with you I feel my heart in tune with your heart, I feel a deep love for you. But I also feel my outer seriousness. Why is laughter so difficult for me?

The sardar said, "Don't force me, because the secret is very embarrassing." They said, "Embarrassing? But we thought you are doing great. We always hear laughter -- either you laugh or your wife laughs... no fight." The sardar said, "What happens is, she throws things at me. If she misses, then I laugh; if she hits me then she laughs. The same things are going on, but it is just that we have made a different arrangement -- what is the point? So I have learned how to dodge her, and she is learning how to...." After twenty years the same sardar wanted to divorce his wife. The magistrate had heard about them, that this was the only couple in the whole city who had never been known to fight. They simply laugh -- the whole city knows them as the laughing couple. The magistrate said, "What has gone wrong?…

Question: A friend has asked—Saty Niranjan has asked—Osho, recently I was reading the life story of the renowned Marathi author Acharya Atre. At one point he says: In this world, humor is the royal road to enduring suffering. Humor is the highest human dharma. For the welfare of humankind, many incarnate beings have founded different religions—some based on compassion, some on equality; some on truth, some on nonviolence. But till now there has been no founder who established a laughing, playful, blissful religion grounded in the Vedanta of humor. If only he were alive today, he would have had the good fortune to see such a religion take birth in your form. Osho, what is so special about humor? A pandit is solemn and pompous. He knows nothing of truth, has no experience of life. He has words, webs of logic—and he is a tycoon of words and arguments.