Giftedness

Osho, you must be joking. How can children be more gifted than the old?

Kanhaiyalal, the cow protector—hail to Kanhaiyalal! If you’ve understood even this much, you’ve understood a lot—at least something. Because to get a joke, too, one needs a little intelligence. The cow protectors don’t even have that much. Guzzling Mother Cow’s milk all the time, they end up like oxen. All right then—here’s a little more joking. The teacher, being mischievous, said to the student, “Tillu, sit in shanti—sit quietly.” Tillu said, “Sir, Shanti hasn’t even come to school today.” And you say children aren’t gifted. They’re very gifted. Teacher: “Tillu, when I was your age, I was one class ahead of you.” Tillu: “Sir, you must have had a good teacher.” “When this woman fought with her husband, were you present there?” the judge asked. “Yes, Your Honor,” fourteen-year-old Fazlu replied. “As a witness, do you have anything to say?” “Yes—only that I’ll never get married.” Even a fourteen-year-old gets…

Osho! You say meditation is a rebirth and one becomes gifted like small children. Are little children really so full of talent?

I find sense, consistency, and honesty in Sartre’s stance—though he is an atheist; he believes neither in God nor in any inherent meaning of life, nor in any soul that survives. Yet his courage, his boldness, his strength! One thing is clear to him: “Since I oppose the values of this society, how can I accept honors from it?” If someone conferred on me the title Bharat Ratna, how could I accept it? Impossible. Because I oppose nations. I cannot be the jewel of any nation—at best, a pebble. I cannot be any country’s jewel; that would amount to accepting nationalism. I do not believe the earth should be divided. I do not believe there should be passports. I do not believe there should be any barriers to people going from one country to another. Every constitution proclaims freedom of movement. But what freedom is this? Is there freedom of…

Why do you give sannyas to babies and children?

I have no creed, no dogma, no catechism. I am simply a presence. In this presence you can share something, you can partake of me. Everybody is welcome -- a child of three months and an old man of ninety years. Everybody is welcome. Who-soever wants to go on the journey of the unknown is welcome. And all that we teach here -- if you can call it teaching -- is love and meditation. Both are unconditioning, both are de-hypnotising. We don't teach a philosophy about love, we simply create the milieu where love can grow. And we don't give a ritualistic, formalistic form of meditation -- just the quality of meditativeness. Once you start drinking a little of meditativeness, a little of love. you start growing wings. Sannyas is not the end of the journey, it is just the beginning. It is the first step. When you become a…

Question: OSHO, ARE CHILDREN REALLY SO INTELLIGENT AS YOU ALWAYS SAY THEY ARE? Hindus have not listened to Buddha for the simple reason -- the same reason -- that Hindus are also carrying the idea they are the holiest people in the world and their land is the holiest land. Even gods long to I e born in India! No other country is so holy. And Buddha said, "This is all nonsense!" They had to reject him. Buddhism was thrown out of this country. No society can tolerate such people, who are telling the truth, because they seem to sabotage the very structure. But now the time has come when we have suffered enough. All over the world, in different ways, people have suffered much, and it is time to have a look at history and its stupidity and its ridiculousness and drop the whole idea of these egoistic patterns.