History

Osho, Christ’s dates could be kept—he lived one thousand nine hundred and seventy years ago—so could Krishna’s not have been kept too?

They could have been. It depends on the people around them. It depended on those who were around Jesus; Jesus himself did not keep accounts. Look at his words and you will understand. There is a saying of Jesus—Abraham was a prophet, hundreds of years before Jesus. Someone asked Jesus, “Abraham lived before you.” Jesus said, “No. Before Abraham was, I was.” What does this mean? Jesus broke time; he shattered the notion of time. Abraham lived hundreds, even thousands of years earlier, yet Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I was.” But the people around him had a certain notion of time—they had never seen an ocean, only wells. Such sayings must have seemed very mysterious to them. They said, “All right, he says so; it must be some secret,” but they did not understand that he was breaking the concept of time itself. Someone asked Jesus, “What will be…

Questioner: if a record of christ's life could be maintained, we know he was born nineteen hundred and seventy years ago. How is it that a similar record of krishna is not available?

It was possible to keep such a record and it depended on the people who lived with Krishna. The people living with Jesus kept a record of his life, Jesus himself did not do it. If you look at a saying of Jesus' you will understand what I mean. When someone asked Jesus if Abraham happened before him, he said, "No, before Abraham was, I am." What does it mean? By saying it, Jesus denied time altogether. Abraham had happened thousands of years before Jesus, but Jesus says, "Before Abraham was, I am." The people who lived with Jesus had a concept of time, were time-oriented. They had not seen an ocean, they had only seen wells. So they thought Jesus was saying something mysterious, they failed to understand that Jesus denied time itself. Someone asks Jesus, "What will be the special thing in your kingdom of God?" Jesus says,…

Osho, what is history?

Before long, those who went to live in the valleys wished they had gone to live in the hills and those who had gone to live in the hills wished they had gone to live in the valleys. The liberators, under the guidance of God, set fire to the discontent, so presently the world was at war again. This time the destruction was so complete... that nothing at all was left in the world except one man and one woman and one flower. But that's enough, that will do; that one flower will do. Again everything will come back. History is a wheel. It is a vicious circle, it goes on moving in the same rut. Many, many times man has become very civilized, and many, many times all civilization has disappeared from the earth. This is not for the first time that we have discovered science. Ancient records tell…

If that is so, then what is your view of Hitler?

Adolf Hitler was an utterly dead man—no life at all. He was a dead man all the time, and that’s why he appealed in the West. At this moment the West is drawn to dead men. The West is tired of fighting. So... it just goes on. (The audio recording of the question is unclear.) Change. Thinking comes to a stop; one man after another makes people stop thinking. He gives you the chance: “You don’t think; I’ll think. We will tell you everything; we will do the thinking.” People agree: “All right, I’ve become frightened of thinking.” Any act—“we’ll do the work for you, we’ll hold your feet.” The West is tired of thinking; that’s why fascism and Stalin and Hitler, and these kinds of systems—the dead system of communism—are all arising. (The audio recording of the question is unclear.) He wanted to destroy—precisely so; in the name of…