Gorakhnath

Question: Third question: Osho, why is Gorakhnath against pandits? This is the language of experience. A well-read parrot cannot speak like this. The well-read parrot begins to whimper; he forgets the name of Ram and starts praising the cat—“Mother, spare me! I made a mistake. From today I’ll worship and pray only to you—why was I lost in Ram-ram!” Gorakh says: The one who merely mouths doctrine, call him a student; the one who reads the Vedas is but a grandson. The one who lives the way is our master; we are companions of the one who lives. The one who only repeats hearsay is a student; not a knower—at best a student: all right, he is studying. And even this—only if what he repeats has been heard from a living master—then he is a disciple; that is his status.

What is gorakh nath's fundamental teaching?

It is short, very brief: <q>LAUGH, PLAY, MAKE MERRY, NEITHER LUST NOR ANGER REMAIN, LAUGH PLAY, SINGING A SONG, KEEP CONSCIOUSNESS WELL CENTERED.</q> This is my teaching also. LAUGH, PLAY, MAKE MERRY... Be merry! In ecstasy, in joy, in bliss. God has given so much: dance, hum a tune, sing! A song of thanksgiving wants to rise from your heart. This is prayer. <q>LAUGH, PLAY, MAKE MERRY... Laugh. If you cannot laugh then know that you can never become religious.</q> Your so-called religious people have completely forgotten laughter. They cannot laugh, laughing is a fault, a sin. This is why you cannot remain very long with your priests. Just go, quickly touch their feet, salute them and leave. You will find difficulty in staying twenty-four hours. Your own laughter will be taken away. People become serious going to the priests. People go to the sadhus and become stiff -- become…

Osho, why are you so opposed to politics?

I am not against politics. Politics is only a symptom. I am against the inferiority complex in man; that inner sense of smallness. And politics is a symptom of that very disease. The more a person suffers from an inferiority complex, the more he hankers after position. The more he is filled with inferiority, the more he hankers after wealth. Understand this. An inferiority complex means: inside you feel, “I am nothing, a nobody, a two-bit fellow.” But this rankles. “I—and two-bit!” The mind cannot swallow it. “I will show the world that I am somebody. I’ll become a prime minister, a president. I’ll amass the world’s wealth and prove to the world that I am somebody.” Politics is the device to fill that inner sense of two-bit-ness, meaninglessness, emptiness. Politics means ambition—whether for money or for office, it makes no difference. Sometimes it is even the ambition for renunciation;…

Question: NEITHER ISNESS NOR NO-ISNESS, NEITHER EMPTINESS NOR FULLNESS, SO UNFATHOMABLE, BEYOND THE SENSES. WITHIN THE CROWN OF THE HEAD A CHILD SPEAKS, HOW SHALL HE BE NAMED? LAUGHING, PLAYING, THE KNACK OF MEDITATION, DAY AND NIGHT SHARING DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. HE LAUGHS, PLAYS, KEEPS MIND UNTROUBLED SUCH UNWAVERING ONE IS ALWAYS WITH GOD. DAY AND NIGHT DISSOLVING MIND IN NO-MIND, DROPPING FATHOMABLE TALKING THE UNFATHOMABLE. DROPPING HOPE REMAINING HOPELESS: BRAHMA THE CREATOR SAYS, "I AM YOUR SERVANT." WHAT FLOWS DOWN, HE CHANNELS UP, A YOGI BURNS UP HIS SEX. HE RELEASES HIS EMBRACE, SHATTERS ILLUSION: VISHNU THE SUSTAINER WASHES HIS FEET. DIE, O YOGI, DIE! DIE, SWEET IS DYING. DIE THAT DEATH GORAKH DIED AND SAW. You have become miserable. Now you understand only the language of misery, you recognize only misery. You have become so skilled at misery that you are able to relate only with the miserable.