Will people ever be able to understand you?

Question: Fifth question: Osho, will people ever be able to understand you or not? You understand—that’s enough. Don’t worry about “people.” And who are “people” anyway? Some will understand, some won’t. Those who understand will benefit; those who don’t, that is their choice. Don’t bother about them—lest in worrying about them you miss understanding yourself. Every person is free. I have laid the matter open; whoever wishes to take it, take it; whoever doesn’t, they are free as well. Truth is not to be forced upon anyone. Do not insist, “I must make them understand.” That very insistence breeds fanaticism, disturbance, crusades to convert—one wants to make a Hindu into a Christian, another an Arya Samaji, and so on. And often the joke is like this... An Arya Samaji pundit once stayed at my house.

Osho, you say one thing, and people understand something else. How will this stop?

A very meaningful story—the story of man. When Socrates was sentenced, the judges of Athens decided: either accept death, or stop saying what you say. Choose one of the two. If you stop speaking as you do, you may live. If you continue, there is no way but death. What was Socrates saying? He was speaking of the sea—to the people of the well. And the well-dwellers are angered by talk of the sea. Socrates seemed dangerous. The court declared his crime to be this: “You corrupt people.” Socrates corrupts people! Such pure expression of truth has seldom happened as in Socrates. “You corrupt people”—that was the court’s verdict. And that court was made of Athens’ most intelligent men, its most gifted. Unanimously they judged: “You corrupt people—especially the young; the old won’t fall for your talk, they are too experienced for you to deceive.” “Old”—those who have been in…

Osho, what should be done so that people can understand you? I feel very sad to see so much misunderstanding about you and your teachings.

The apples on a farmer's tree had just ripened. The owner put a notice under the tree which said, 'Don't steal! God is watching you!' The day after, the farmer found his apple tree had been picked bare. On the notice the thief had added a few more words: 'But he is not a spy!' Two members of the Town Council began shouting at each other. 'You are the biggest idiot in the world!' the first shouted. 'And you are the most bigoted and prejudiced donkey in town!' the other man yelled. The mayor, who was presiding, banged his gavel and said, 'Quiet, gentlemen, quiet please. I'm afraid that in your excitement you have forgotten that I am in the room too!' The psychiatrist was talking to his patient. 'Well,' he said, 'your problem has sexual origins. I have to ask you something about your sexual behaviour. Do you talk…

Osho, you say one thing and people understand something else. Why?

Narottam! If it were otherwise, that would be the surprise. You speak; the listener carries his past, his memory, his vested interests. The words are yours, but the meanings will be his. You cannot claim ownership over the meanings. Say what you have to say, but he will hear what he wants to hear—and even from that hearing, he will extract only the meaning he wants to extract. So don’t be annoyed. Present your point; then let him understand whatever he understands. What will you do? What can you do? If you say something more, he will take that too to mean something else. There is no end to it. Often it happens that you want to say something—with goodwill, with love, with compassion—and when you see the other has understood it all wrong, it hurts deeply. It feels as if he is being dishonest knowingly, as if he is…

Osho, the balance between East and West, science and religion, and the outer and the inner that you are trying to bring about—why doesn’t this make sense to ordinary people?

Kamal Bharati, The very meaning of “ordinary people” is: those to whom nothing really makes sense. If it did, why call them ordinary? Then they would be extraordinary! Understanding makes one extraordinary. Without understanding, one is ordinary, separate. No insight, blind, a stickler for the beaten track, living traditionally, rigid—ordinary. Everyone is born extraordinary and then becomes ordinary. Because soon enough all get entangled in who knows what. Their brilliance is lost. Everyone brings a fresh mirror in which the image of the divine could be reflected, but very soon a thick layer of dust gathers upon it. Then, the ordinary person thinks and hears in his own way. What I say is hardly what he hears. I say one thing; he hears something else. Mulla Nasruddin’s wife was ill. A doctor came to see her. After examining her, he went with Nasruddin into another room. Nasruddin said, “My condition…