A saint’s harsh words are like a quick pinch that pops your ego so truth and love can get in.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, many stories are told about saints and siddhas that when they were pleased with someone, they would shower them with abuses. From Paramahansa Ramakrishna’s mouth many abuses would come—at every turn, abuses. The same is notably true in the life of the renowned music master Alauddin Khan. Would you kindly shed some light on this?
Anand Maitreya, whether a true Master sings a song or hurls an abuse, his aim is always one: by what means can your ego be erased. If it dissolves through song, he will sing; if through abuse, he will abuse. Neither the abuse has any value nor the song; both are means, devices. The whole endeavor of the true Master is this alone: how the rock of your ego may be shattered to pieces. For this reason Ramakrishna would sometimes pat your back, sometimes shower you with abuses. And this is not only with Ramakrishna; it is so with many realized ones. Sai Baba of Shirdi would abuse, throw stones, run after people with a stick. People thought he had gone deranged. He was not. As his death drew near, he abused more, threw more stones, ran more to beat. People thought the madness had reached its peak. Not so.…
Osho, I like you very, very much. In your love, nothing comes to me except to weep. How can I express that love! And, strangely, I often babble nonsense against you; sometimes I even swear at you. What is this?
I have heard: a great architect, a master craftsman, when a ship went down, swam to an unknown island. He was alone. No one was there. He was highly skilled, and he had nothing else to do. The trees were laden with fruit, so there was no shortage of food. There was wood in the forest. There were beautiful stones. Slowly, with nothing else to occupy him, he began to build. He built houses. He built shops. He built churches. Years later—some twenty years—when his whole town had come into being, a ship finally touched shore. The craftsman said to the passengers, to the captain, “Before we leave, before I board the ship, come—at least see what I have built!” He showed them around. Everything was fine, but people were very surprised: he had built two churches. They asked, “What will you do with two churches? One church is understandable.”…
Someone asked Anand Tirth, “If Osho were to tell you to commit suicide, would you do it?” Anand Tirth replied, “It would be my good fortune that he considered me worthy of that. If he were to say so, I would commit suicide immediately.”
When a person is loved so much that someone feels it would be their good fortune to die at his word, then a few abuses are also necessary—otherwise the meal becomes tasteless. It needs a little salt. Pure sugar creates diabetes. Not only sweet—now and then the bitter gourd is enjoyable too. So people also send a few dishes of bitter gourd. As far as I am concerned, I am delighted even with that. You too should begin to be delighted by it. And there is a law of this world: everything is kept in balance. If so many people love me, if so many are my friends, then just as many will be filled with anger toward me, and just as many will behave with enmity. Only then can balance be maintained; otherwise it cannot be. This world is like a tightrope on which an acrobat walks, constantly weighing…
Osho, the master sees the disciple directly, yet he still deliberately puts him through various tests. Does this make the disciple’s self-realization more intense and purer? Please explain.
You will often find that where such pure Vedanta talk is going on, you will see great sinners sitting there—and cheerful! Only there do they find a little joy; nowhere else can they. Anywhere else they go, someone says, ‘There goes a black-marketeer’; someone says, ‘He is a thief’; someone, ‘He is dishonest, a great sinner.’ Only where pure spirituality is flowing do they get a little peace. There they feel, ‘This is exactly right—sin and all that is false!’ You will see sinners gathered around saints. Their words gratify their ego immensely: ‘At least there is some place where we can sit elated—there is no sin and the like; it is all maya. Nothing was done, nothing can be done. We are not doers, nor enjoyers—we are merely witnesses!’ So the master has to watch that this notion of ‘witness’ does not become suicidal for you. Declarations come too…
Osho, your arrow hit the bull’s-eye. The moment I heard your response, Kabir’s verse sprang to mind: “The master is the potter, the disciple the clay pot; moment by moment he picks out the flaws. His hand inside shapes and supports, outside he gives the blow.” I am filled with gratitude toward you. Infinite, infinite thanks!
A very big Hindu mahatma wrote a book, “Why Hinduism?” He gives “scientific” bases for Hindu practices. What he says is astonishing—such a book could be printed even in the twentieth century! And it’s not a small book: seven hundred and fifty pages! And the author is a weighty “mahatma.” How the foolish become mahatmas! He writes that Hindus keep a topknot (shikha) the way churches and temples fix lightning rods—so if lightning strikes, it is conducted straight into the ground. That is why Hindus keep a shikha! And by tying a knot to make it stand upright, lightning won’t strike; even if it does, it will go straight to the ground through the shikha! What astonishing people! What foolishness, what dim-wittedness! But Hindus will be pleased: “What a marvelous explanation!” He says Hindus wear wooden sandals (khadau) because holding them grips the big toe, and in that toe is…