If you’re naturally inward, meditate for peace; if you’re naturally outward, act bravely and responsibly—choose the path your nature supports, not your caste.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Before asking about the fifth verse, three small questions remain from yesterday’s discussion. Yesterday you said that the Kshatriya is extroverted and the Brahmin is introverted, and accordingly their spiritual practices differ. Please tell us: in which mental category would you place the Vaishya and the Shudra?
The Kshatriya’s longing is a longing for power; the Brahmin’s longing is a longing for peace. The Kshatriya longs for power. And if someone fails to become a Kshatriya and remains a Vaishya, then the Vaishya’s personality is very fearful, frightened, timid—but he carries the Kshatriya’s seed, so the longing for power does not leave him. Yet he cannot attain power as a Kshatriya would. Therefore the Vaishya seeks power through wealth. He tries to manufacture power by means of money. He cannot fight, cannot be on the battlefield, cannot take a sword in his hand—but a strongbox can be held, and swords can be bought. Indirectly, then, the lust for wealth is a lust for power—by a backdoor, fearful route. The longing to be a Brahmin is present in the Shudra too; it must be, for the seed of introversion is within him. If he develops, he will set…
Osho, “atha yadi ve karma-vicikitsā vā vṛtta-vicikitsā vā syāt, ye tatra brāhmaṇāḥ sandarśino yuktā ayuktā alūṣā dharma-kāmāḥ syuḥ; yathā te takra varteran tathā tatra varteṭhāḥ.” “If ever you find yourself in doubt about your karma or conduct, then present yourself before those who are thoughtful, austere, duty-bound, serene, righteous, and learned—Brahmins; resolve your doubt in their company, and follow their conduct and counsel.” Osho, please be compassionate and shed light on this saying from the Taittiriya Upanishad.
Following another is suicide. Leaping off a mountain and dying is only body-killing, not soul-killing. “Suicide” is not the right word for that. Drinking poison, cutting your throat—these are body-killings, not soul-killing. And does anyone die when the body dies? Na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre—Krishna says: No one dies. But if you make another’s conduct your foundation, that is soul-suicide. You will live, but on loan. Your legs will not be your own; you will walk on someone else’s legs. Your eyes will not be your own; you will see through someone else’s eyes. You will act, but within you there can be no trust that you are doing right or wrong—because the action has not arisen from within, from your own shraddha, your own knowing. Doubt arises only when you have draped yourself from the outside. You can cover yourself with a shawl embroidered with “Ram-naam” in the finest letters—what…
You have become master of your inner instrument. Dama— The senses are no longer the masters; awareness has become the master. As you are, your senses drive you. A beautiful woman passes; you were sitting to meditate, and the eyes say, “Look, a beautiful woman!” You are not the master. The eyes coerce; you must look; you must raise your gaze. You raise your eyes and then repent: “What difference did it make to see? And what is there to see in beauty? Lines drawn in air—perhaps in a pleasing proportion—laid over bone, flesh, marrow! But what of it?” Still, the meditation broke, the chain snapped. The eyes called; they caught you. Dama means the senses have come under your sway. Shaucha—purity within and without. Always bathed in purity; within, no dust of defilement rises. Tapas— Willingness to endure suffering if it purifies. Ready to suffer if suffering brings peace.
Osho, yesterday you said that jealousy is included in respect. I have immense respect for you, but the jealousy inherent in it keeps poisoning it, and I feel guilt and pain. Does reverence transcend this poison-laced respect?
It needs a little explaining—it's a delicate point. Whenever you respect someone, you do so because you see in that person something you do not have. You respect because you glimpse in the other something you would also like to possess. A beggar respects an emperor because he, too, longs to be an emperor. So on the one hand he respects, and inside he also envies. Because he is not yet an emperor but wants to be. You have attained what he wants to attain. He respects you as skillful, successful: “I stand far back in the line; you have gone ahead to where I should have been.” So you are powerful, clever, intelligent, strong—he respects you. But inside a fire of jealousy also burns—if he gets the chance, he would like to be in your place and push you aside. And if the beggar gets that chance, he will…
Osho, I am a Brahmin, and perhaps that very identity is becoming a barrier to surrender. I am not accustomed to bowing, and now even when I wish to, the old habit obstructs me. Please help.
So being a Brahmin is not something bad. It is good fortune—you were born in a house where there was talk of God; even if only in words, there was some hint of the divine, a far-off echo of God’s voice. There was the hum of the rishis, the Vedas and Upanishads. It has become very old, covered in dust, but behind it truth still lies. However deep the embers lie under ash, they are not extinguished. Even if only the ash is being worshiped, remove a little and you will find the coal aglow. Consider it a blessing. When I say consider it a blessing, do not misunderstand me. Do not think I imply that one born in a Shudra’s house is not blessed. I say to him as well: you too are blessed—blessed that you escaped the pundits’ nuisance, escaped the nets of doctrines and scriptures; you are…