Where did the devil come from when he appeared to Adam and Eve as a serpent?

Beloved Osho, where did the devil come from when he appeared to adam and eve as a serpent?

Not only were ordinary women forced to confess and burned alive, once a woman accepted that she was a witch and has had a sexual relationship with the devil, then certainly she could not be allowed to remain alive even for a single moment. She was bringing the devil into human blood, she would pollute the whole of humanity: she had to be burned alive. And it was not ordinary women only -- even nuns, mother superiors, they managed, and forced them to confess. Anybody could raise the suspicion, just that was enough. Anybody, any man, could raise the suspicion to the pope, to the bishop, to the high priest, that this woman, this nun, seems to be a witch. That was enough for the investigation to begin. And there was a special court arranged by the pope, the Inquisition, with a big office and hundreds of people working for…

In the biblical story, Eve and Adam are seduced by the snake, who tells to Eve that if you eat from the tree of knowledge you will become like gods. That's why God has prevented you from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Now this is a great temptation. She persuades Adam and they both eat from the tree of knowledge. Who is this snake? Snake don't speak. This snake is symbolic, and the tree of knowledge is symbolic. The tree of knowledge is not the tree of wisdom. Remember the distinction. Wisdom comes out of your own innocence. Wisdom means your innocence becoming mature, your innocence coming of age, your innocence flowering, releasing its fragrance. It comes from within you. Knowledge comes from somewhere else, from a tree. This is symbolic. It is borrowed knowledge.

Beloved master, since you started speaking again last year, I heard you several times quoting the story of adam and eve longing for the tree of knowledge, always in the sense that they did a great job for mankind. But, according to the bible, it was not just the tree of knowledge, but the tree of determination of good and bad. Wasn't it this desire of the mind for judgment and splitting into dualities that caused man's loss of innocence and paradise that is described in this symbolic story?

And my father would say, "You keep quiet. If you cannot keep quiet, go home, but don't say such things. A masochist?" I said, "I cannot be quiet, and I cannot go away from here. I have to see the whole show of this masochism." It is a known fact that mad people in madhouses pluck their hair. And you may know women -- because they cannot do any other harm to the man they love, they start pulling out their own hair. So this Jaina monk is doing something feminine too; he is not really a male. Pulling out your hair... I don't see any beauty, any grace in it. Look at his face: it is distorted with pain. But he is doing it because thousands of people are applauding. His ego is fulfilled. For his ego he is ready to suffer. In Jainism it is thought to be…

Question: OUR BELOVED MASTER, SANSHO, A DISCIPLE OF RINZAI, ONCE SAID TO SEPPO, "THE GOLDEN CARP IS OUT OF THE NET! TELL ME, WHAT WILL IT FEED ON?" SEPPO SAID, "WHEN YOU HAVE GOT OUT OF THE NET, I WILL TELL YOU." SANSHO SAID, "THE RENOWNED TEACHER OF FIFTEEN HUNDRED MONKS CANNOT FIND EVEN ONE WORD TO SAY ABOUT THIS TOPIC." SEPPO SAID, "I AM THE CHIEF ABBOT AND HAVE MUCH TO ATTEND TO." ON ANOTHER OCCASION, SOME TIME LATER, SANSHO SAID TO A MONK, "WHERE HAVE YOU JUST COME FROM?" THE MONK SAID, "KWATZ!" SANSHO SAID, "KWATZ!" THE MONK AGAIN SAID, "KWATZ!" SANSHO SAID, "KWATZ!" THE MONK SAID, "IF YOU STRIKE ME BLINDLY, I SHALL SAY `KWATZ!'" SANSHO PICKED UP HIS STAFF, AND THE MONK PUT HIMSELF IN READINESS TO RECEIVE A HIT.

Beloved master, I know that god is love, but then why am I so afraid of him?

People become conditioned to seeing certain things. When there is a certain conditioning, you look at things through that conditioning and it appears like that. Two men were sitting under a tree; one was a Hindu, another was a Mohammedan. Birds were singing, it was a beautiful spring morning. They both listened for a time, then the Hindu said, "Can you hear? All the birds are resounding the sound aum. I can hear it. I have been practicing aum for thirty years, and now I have become capable of deciphering it very easily. All the birds are resounding with the same sound: the soundless sound, the ancient sound of the Hindus, OMKAR." The Mohammedan laughed and he said, "Nonsense! I have also been practicing my prayers. The birds are not saying aum, they are saying AMIN." Mohammedan prayers, Christian prayers, end with amin; Christians call it AMEN, Mohammedans call it…