Disrespect

Osho, why is it so dangerous to be with a living Sadguru? Why do so few people dare to stake everything and dive into your Buddha-field, even though, like Paltu, your call is echoing across the world—“There’ll never be such a wager again; you may not be human again. Why do you stand hesitating while the gold slips from your hand.” Osho, have compassion, grant awakening.

Paltu’s call never resounded across the world. Very few knew him. He was a simple rustic; his language was of the village. But he spoke to the point. This one aphorism of his is priceless. It should have resounded—but it didn’t. To make a thing resound in the world requires great skill and organization. And to make a religious statement resound is very hard. Religion is not a detective novel that everyone wants to read; not a film full of murder and rape that everyone wants to watch; not sensational news that every newspaper puts in headlines. Religion is delicate—no sensation, no violence, no arson. Religion is meditation. Who has taste for meditation? People care for money, not meditation; for office, not for the divine. They are ready to collect all kinds of junk, but words like moksha and nirvana create no echo in their hearts. The moment they hear…

Question: Second question: Osho, why am I afraid of sannyas? From one center he will start cursing all of a sudden. He is a respectable gentleman—spins a charkha, wears khadi and a Gandhi cap—and suddenly he begins to swear. And his greatest difficulty will be that he himself won’t understand what he is doing. Sometimes you too don’t understand what you are doing. Many times you say, “It happened despite me.” Why does it happen despite you? You say, “That man pressed my button.” Meaning? What is “pressing a button”? You do have buttons. And everyone knows where whose button lies; press it and at once he heats up. Any little thing is enough to press your button; instantly you behave in precisely the way you did not want to. Wives know the husbands’ buttons; the moment he arrives home, they press them.

Osho, Saint Paltu Das calls the one trapped in the world's false illusion (maya) a bumpkin, and he calls a fool the one who takes a step toward love. Then who is the wise one?

He called a bumpkin the one still entangled in the world; he has no awareness of what he is doing. “Bumpkin” is what the awakened, the ones who have come to their senses, call him—“Wake up!” And then, the one who is becoming absorbed in love of the Divine is called a fool, an idiot, a madman. Who calls him that? Those who are asleep. These are relative words. Both are spoken from two different sides. The first Paltu says from his own side: “Wake up now, you bumpkin! Enough—wake up!” The second he says in irony, in jest, in humor. He says: Look, if you wake up, wake up knowingly, because this is the work of “madmen.” The world will call you mad. The world will laugh. The world will say, “His brain is deranged.” Your position and prestige will go. Your honor and respect will go. The very…

Osho, when will people understand you? You offer songs, and people hurl insults in return!

You ask: “When will people understand you? You offer songs, and people hurl insults in return!” Anant, this is what they have always done. If they didn’t return abuse, I would be startled: what’s happened? What’s the matter? Did they not hear my songs? Did my songs not touch them, please them? Am I speaking to the deaf? Why didn’t the abuses come? They should! Mulla Nasruddin and his wife went to the station, leaving on a pilgrimage. There was a weighing machine there—stand on it, put in a ten-paisa coin, a ticket comes out. Mulla quickly stood on it, the ticket came out. Before he could pick it up, the wife snatched it. It read: “You are a great hero. Fear never troubles you. In life you may break, but you do not bend. You have great inner strength. God has bestowed you with the wealth of resolve.” The…