Animals

Osho, there is no mention, so far as we know, of any enlightened being ever being killed by an animal. And scriptures contain many mentions that animals like cobras or tigers or lions would come and sit near enlightened ones. Osho, what is the secret behind this?

Kailash Goswami, Man has a singular quality: if he falls, he can fall below the animals; if he rises, he can rise above the gods. That is uniquely human—that is his dignity. It is in your hands. Man is a ladder—one end descends below the animals, the other goes beyond the clouds. On this very ladder you can climb up, and on this very ladder you can climb down. The ladder is one. No animal can fall below its own kind. If man decides to fall, he will outdo all animals. Who among animals could rival Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Nadir Shah? They slaughtered millions. And that’s history; just recently Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin butchered millions. Which animal has ever killed so many? And there is an amusing fact: no animal kills its own species. No lion kills another lion. No dog kills another dog. Only man kills men. And…

Osho, what is the meaning of gurdjieff's saying: "practice love to animals first, because they are more sensitive"?

Don't take it literally, because I know my people are dangerous people! He is talking metaphorically! But George Gurdjieff's statement is not complete; it has to be made complete so you don't misunderstand it. Start loving yourself; that has to be the beginning and that is also going to be the end. Then the circle is complete: you begin by loving yourself, because you are the closest to yourself. Of course, when you begin to love yourself your love is from the circumference towards the center, because you exist on the circumference. You turn in: you stand on the door which connects your inside and the outside. You look inwards -- you are still standing on the circumference -- and you fall in love with your center. This is the beginning. And the end will be that you have reached the center and you stand at the center and look…

Osho, almost every day Maitreya-ji cautions us that coughing during the discourse disturbs you. But during yesterday’s talk several sparrows circled around you, chirping, and then one sat on your left hand and another on the microphone—and, amazingly, your posture or the flow of the discourse did not change a whit. The sparrows came and went as though alighting on a branch, and it felt as if everything remained naturally in its place, although we listeners were certainly astonished! Kindly shed a little light on this.

Maitreya-ji has to tell you, “Don’t cough”—and you’ve noticed something amusing: you even obey him and don’t cough. So the coughing is almost false. And you’ve seen it: one person coughs, then another will cough, a third will cough, a fourth will cough—a chain is created. There are reasons behind coughing. Seldom is a cough the real reason for coughing—perhaps one time in a hundred. Then you simply cannot hold it back, no matter how much Maitreya-ji bangs his head. What can you do! What can anyone do! But ninety‑nine times out of a hundred you can stop it. Whatever you can stop is false. Why does a false cough arise? Because you are sitting idle. Sitting idle makes you very restless. A man, left idle, starts smoking. Idly, he reads the same newspaper again. Idly, he feels hungry, opens the fridge and eats something. He cannot sit idle. To…

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…