Like a flower’s smell, true goodness spreads on its own, but people standing too close often miss it until they step back.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, there is a metaphor by Bihari: “Phulyo anphulyo rahyo ganvai gaon gulab.” Is the same happening with you in India? Your fragrance is spreading to far horizons, and yet India remains untouched?
Buddha’s wife too was furious. He returned after twelve years; twelve years of accumulated ire burst forth. She was proud, a princess; she had never complained to anyone, never shed a tear. She was a kshatrani; such tears are not becoming. She swallowed everything, drank the poison—but the poison had filled her throat! When Buddha came, everything broke loose. Like a maddened lioness she raged at him—accusations, complaints, denouncements, sarcasm. Buddha had left behind a newborn son; the child was one day old. Now he was twelve. In anger the mother said to her son, “Here—this is your father. You kept asking, ‘Who is my father? Where is he?’ Here he is! The gentleman who ran away, leaving me and you helpless! Ask him for your inheritance! He fathered you—demand your right from him!” She was mocking, taunting. What did Buddha have to give? The boy did not understand; hearing…
The perfume of sandalwood, rosebay, or jasmine, cannot travel against the wind.
BUT THE FRAGRANCE OF VIRTUE TRAVELS EVEN AGAINST THE WIND, AS FAR AS THE ENDS OF THE WORLD. HOW MUCH FINER IS THE FRAGRANCE OF VIRTUE THAN OF SANDALWOOD, ROSEBAY, OF THE BLUE LOTUS, OR JASMINE! THE FRAGRANCE OF SANDALWOOD OR ROSEBAY DOES NOT TRAVEL FAR. BUT THE FRAGRANCE OF VIRTUE RISES TO THE HEAVENS. DESIRE NEVER CROSSES THE PATH OF VIRTUOUS AND WAKEFUL MEN. THEIR BRIGHTNESS SETS THEM FREE. HOW SWEETLY THE LOTUS GROWS IN THE LITTER OF THE WAYSIDE. ITS PURE FRAGRANCE DELIGHTS THE HEART. FOLLOW THE AWAKENED AND FROM AMONG THE BLIND THE LIGHT OF YOUR WISDOM Life has to attain a balance always. You have taken so much, now give it. Become a flower! Only when you become a flower is there a possibility of disappearing as a fragrance. But then too, remember, don't remain a closed flower, don't remain a bud; otherwise your fragrance will…
Osho, that morning the Buddha bestowed the supreme treasure of silence upon Mahakashyapa by offering him the symbolic flower. A flower blooms in the morning and withers by evening. Yet the Zen tradition is alive to this day. Kindly explain the relation between the flower’s transience and the living vitality of Zen.
Seeing the meeting of these two lotuses, Mahakashyapa laughed—he blossomed. It was a unique event. Therefore the Buddha offered that lotus to Mahakashyapa and said to his monks, “What I could say in words, I have given you. What cannot be said in words and has not been said, I am giving to Mahakashyapa—wordlessly.” Thus, in the Zen tradition, from then on, one master has been giving to another in silence. One more story. In Mahakashyapa’s lineage there was Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma went to China, and from India the Zen tradition reached China. Bodhidharma was the twenty-eighth Indian patriarch. In China, Bodhidharma sat facing a wall for nine years. People came, but he would not look at them. He kept his back toward them. People asked, “We have seen many monks, many saints—but why do you keep your back to us?” Bodhidharma said, “When one worthy of falling within my eyes…
Osho, today the fragrance, the beauty, the intimacy of a living flower — life blossomed again. However plastic flowers may be, they have no fragrance. This is not attachment; it is aesthetic. Your grace! Your blessings!
It is true that plastic flowers have no fragrance. And it is also true that plastic flowers do not die; they just keep on “living.” Wash them every day and they look new again. Real flowers open with the morning sun, spread their fragrance, and by evening their petals have merged with the dust. You will never meet that same flower again. Flowers will keep coming, and flowers will keep going. If the only truth were that real flowers have fragrance and plastic flowers do not, the distinction would be easy. The real difficulty is that the fake flowers last a long time, while real flowers wither quickly. The more real the flower, the sooner it withers—because the more real it is, the more totally it lives and spends itself. So it is auspicious that you feel real flowers are blooming in your life. Now, take care: when these real…
Beloved Osho, passing through the gate of this mandir for the first time in eight years, I felt a kind of fragrance which has stayed with me ever since. Is it possible to take this fragrance with me when I leave? Oh, beloved master, it is so beautiful, and I am so grateful to spend this time with you, even if I cannot take this fragrance with me.
Prem Maharaj, the fragrance that you have felt in this temple of seekers is not something that you can leave behind. This fragrance contains love, meditativeness, silence, trust, life-affirmative values, a song of gratitude, a dance with the trees and with the stars... This fragrance is an experience of a totally new atmosphere that does not exist in the outside world. If you meditate, you will become the same temple. Then, wherever you go the fragrance will go with you like a shadow; even others will feel it. It is not the first time that such a question has come to me. The moment they enter the gate many people have felt suddenly, as if they are entering into another world -- the air is different, the vibe is different -- as if they have come home. And there is bound to be a certain fragrance, because so many people…