What is the significance of John the Baptist in relation to Jesus?

Beloved Osho, I have always felt a great love from you for john the baptist. It seems that the man who is regarded as the prophet who heralded the coming of jesus was of greater stature than jesus himself. Would you please comment?

John the Baptist is not much known. He is overshadowed by Jesus Christ and Christianity. He was certainly more powerful and a greater revolutionary than Jesus himself. It is very unfortunate that Jews won't talk about him because he was declaring that the old Judaism has come to an end and a new message is just on the way. This is an old way of saying that he declared that he is preparing the ground for the new messiah. Symbols change as time changes, but to be more exact and true about the man, it will be better to say that he was preparing the ground for the new message, not the new messiah; and proof for this exists. I will talk about it. Jews, out of necessity, have not taken note of John the Baptist. He was declaring the death of the old and the birth of the new,…

Question: MATTHEW 3 1 IN THOSE DAYS CAME JOHN THE BAPTIST, PREACHING IN THE WILDERNESS OF JUDAEA, 2 AND SAYING, REPENT YE: FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. 11 I INDEED BAPTIZE YOU WITH WATER UNTO REPENTANCE: BUT HE THAT COMETH AFTER ME IS MIGHTIER THAN I, WHOSE SHOES I AM NOT WORTHY TO BEAR: HE SHALL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY GHOST, AND WITH FIRE: 13 THEN COMETH JESUS FROM GALILEE TO JORDAN UNTO JOHN, TO BE BAPTIZED OF HIM. 14 BUT JOHN FORBAD HIM, SAYING, I HAVE NEED TO BE BAPTIZED OF THEE, AND COMEST THOU TO ME? 15 AND JESUS ANSWERING SAID UNTO HIM, SUFFER IT TO BE SO NOW: FOR THUS IT BECOMETH US TO FULFILL ALL. RIGHTEOUSNESS. THEN HE SUFFERED HIM.

Surely that which happens in the instant of death by drowning is the true explanation of jesus' baptism at the hands of john. Was not the skill and strength of the baptist that of taking a man to that point, and the preparation you talk of beforehand employed so that a man be transformed by the experience rather than terrified by it?

One who is ready to die WITHOUT frustration.... Seeing the truth of life, seeing the truth that life is just a dream.... It cannot fulfill anything, it cannot frustrate also. Fulfillment, frustration, both are parts of the illusion that life is real. One who sees that life is unreal, just like a dream, becomes detached. A renunciation comes. In the Upanishads there is one very vital saying: "TEN TYKTEN BHUNJITHA... those who have indulged in life have always renounced." It is very revolutionary; the implication is tremendous. It says: those who have indulged in life are bound to renounce because they have seen the truth -- that life is false. They have looked into it and found nothing. Not that they are frustrated, because if you are frustrated that only shows that you were still expecting something. Frustration shows deep expectation. One who has become aware that life can only…

Osho, I have heard that john the baptist nearly drowned his disciples when baptizing them. Is this true? Is this type of experience something through which a disciple must pass?

Anand Navin, IT IS TRUE. I KNOW THIS FELLOW John the Baptist! In fact, every Master has been doing that. It is absolutely necessary because the disciple has to pass through a death process. Unless he dies -- dies to his past, dies to his knowledge, dies to his beliefs -- he cannot be reborn. And baptism is only symbolic: it is the symbol of death and resurrection. That's exactly what I am doing here. You cling to your beliefs -- political, social, religious, philosophical You cling to whatsoever you have accumulated -- although it is all junk, although it has not given you a single glimpse of truth, you cling to it. Somebody has asked: "I was initiated by a Master five years ago, and now I am feeling deeply interested in you. But the problem is: can a man have two Masters?" If your first initiation has opened…