He’ll never give a talk in German—now or ever.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, what kind of Indian guru are you? We’ve heard you don’t even know Sanskrit!
English, therefore, is the most alive language on earth today--every year it digests eight thousand new words. No other language has such digestive power. It digests everything. You’ll be surprised: English even digested the Sanskrit word “pandit.” “Pandit” is used in English; the meaning is the same as in Hindi--a pompous pundit, hollow, stuffed with cow-dung. Digestive power is the mark of a living being. They can’t even digest “railgadi,” though it has caught on! Millions use it. The whole country understands “railgadi.” Neither Tamil nor Marathi nor Gujarati nor Punjabi nor Hindi has any difficulty with it. But he coined a word, and it didn’t fly. He tried very hard to make it fly--“lohpathgamini” (iron-path-goer)! It just doesn’t sit right; it sounds stupid. You’re going to the station, someone asks, “Where are you going?” You say, “I’m going to catch the lohpathgamini!” He’ll think your wife has run away…
Osho, even in your Hindi discourses seventy to eighty percent are Western sannyasins who do not know Hindi at all. It is surprising that you still speak with the same alertness, ease, and depth, as if the whole assembly understands the language. Does this not create any difficulty for you? Please be gracious and explain how this is possible.
Chinmaya! It is not a matter of language here; it is a matter of feeling. And those who understand the language—do they really understand? Mere comprehension of words does not make you understand. What is being said may be expressed through language, but it is not confined to language. It is communicated by means of words, but it is not of the words. Only when you connect through the heart, through feeling, will you understand. Many must wonder: those who do not understand Hindi—how could they be understanding? They may not grasp what I am saying, but they do understand what I am. And that is what is valuable. Not what is said, but where it is said from. My silence is the valuable thing. From that silence the words arise. Words are like ripples on a lake. Ripples are not the whole of the lake. The lake can be…
Osho, for forty years continuously Buddha gave discourses and sermons, and it is said that he did not speak a single word. Likewise, you too have been speaking and giving discourses for twenty years, and it could be said that you do not speak a single word. Is this true?
There is a sweet story about Mahavira. The Jains, in their rigidity, clung to the letter and missed the essence. The story is that Mahavira never spoke, and yet people heard. This is a difficult matter: Mahavira did not speak, yet people heard. Mahavira did not speak in any language that the ears can hear. The Jains say his speech is soundless—nishabd. There are no words in it. Yet people heard—those who could. If they too became wordless, sat near Mahavira in silence, they heard. Therefore there is another story in Mahavira’s life, important to note: wild animals heard him, gods of the sky came to listen, birds and beasts came, ghosts and spirits were present. The Jains have great difficulty explaining how birds and beasts can hear. Certainly, if Mahavira spoke in a language, then even among humans only those who knew that tongue could understand. If I am…
Beloved Osho, lord buddha kept on discoursing and giving sermons continuously for forty years, yet it is said that he never spoke a single word. The same way you are discoursing and giving sermons continuously for the past twenty years and it can be said that you do not speak even a single word. Is it true?
Sometime visit a madhouse: the doctor there seems to be crazier than the patients. The patients are mad without worries, but this poor man has to suffer the madness of so many of them. In treating all these mad people, the psychologists themselves reach to the same stage of madness. The qualities travel through the words too. So an intelligent person will listen only to the words that are coming out of an inner emptiness, an inner peace, that are born in the inner depths. If the words are coming from an inner dis-ease, then close your ears -- it is better to be deaf to them. This will protect you. And likewise, don't look at the wrong -- because by looking at it, it is entering you. And don't touch the meaningless, because the very touch of it will affect you. But we are not aware of all this.…
Beloved Osho, have we failed you in any way, that you have to start speaking again?
The story is that Bodhidharma was determined to remain awake for twenty-four hours. But the body is the body, the eyelids get tired, and when they get tired the eyes close. He became so angry that he cut off his eyelids and threw them in the grass. Then his eyes could not be closed. It is a symbolic story. It did not happen, it cannot happen -- because I know Bodhidharma perfectly well.... He is the last person to do such a thing. But the story is significant, although it is just a story: those eyelids grew into a plant that became the tea plant. And because those were the eyelids of a man like Bodhidharma, the tea still carries the quality of awareness. That is the significance of the story. In every Buddhist monastery, the first thing is the tea. But in Gandhi's ashram, if somebody was caught drinking…