Mythology

Beloved Osho, do hindu mythological gods, like shiva, uma and indra have a real existence on some plane, or are they just symbols as you implied in your talks the last two mornings? And if they are really only symbolic, why do people see visions of them in meditation and what do such visions of gods mean?

Human imagination is such a forcible thing, it has such a tremendous force within it, that if you imagine something continuously you will start feeling it around you. Then you can see it, then you can realize it. It will become an objective thing. It is not objective but you will feel it as existing outside you. So it is dangerous to play with imagination because then you can be hypnotized by your own imagination and you can come to see and feel things which are not. This is creating a private fantasy, a dreamworld; this is a sort of madness. You can see Krishna, you can see Christ, you can see Buddha, but this whole effort is wasted because you are moving in dreams and not in reality. Hence, my insistence to always remember that these mythological figures are symbolic. They are meaningful, they are poetic, they are a…

Why do Puranic, mythic tales gather around enlightened ones? Please explain.

The full moon is a symbol of fullness. Grasping that symbol, the Purana says: the Buddha was born whole—born on a full-moon night—born cool, radiant, with the complete beauty, carrying a unique ambrosia. Then, on a full-moon night, that hidden nectar within him flowed forth, blossomed, opened like a lotus—he attained. And on a full-moon night he departed, for even the death of a buddha is full, as his birth was full. Everything in the Buddha’s life is complete. To say this—that everything in the Buddha’s life is complete—we chose the symbol of the full moon. People choose different symbols, but the value lies not in the symbol itself; the value is in the meaning we pour into it. That is why Puranas arise around enlightened ones; mythic stories are created. Through the meanings hidden in those stories you can understand what buddhahood signifies. There are two kinds of fools…

Then why is it mentioned in such a way that Mahavira conversed with Indra?

Some, like Plato, say poets are utterly false, and until poetry is erased from the world, falsehood will not be erased. There are such people. But there are others, deeper in their grasp, who say: if poetry is false, then what truth is left in life? Then life itself is futile. A young man tells his beloved, “Your face is like the moon.” This is factually fictitious—can anything be more un-factual? How can a woman’s face be like the moon? If you told Einstein, “We believe a woman’s face is like the moon,” he would say, “You have gone mad. The moon’s mass is so great that not one woman, not all the women on Earth together, could bear it. How could her face be the moon? And the moon is full of craters and pits. What nonsense is this—calling a woman ‘moon-like’!” Yet the lover will still insist, “Her…

Osho, yesterday you said that jealousy is included in respect. I have immense respect for you, but the jealousy inherent in it keeps poisoning it, and I feel guilt and pain. Does reverence transcend this poison-laced respect?

It needs a little explaining—it's a delicate point. Whenever you respect someone, you do so because you see in that person something you do not have. You respect because you glimpse in the other something you would also like to possess. A beggar respects an emperor because he, too, longs to be an emperor. So on the one hand he respects, and inside he also envies. Because he is not yet an emperor but wants to be. You have attained what he wants to attain. He respects you as skillful, successful: “I stand far back in the line; you have gone ahead to where I should have been.” So you are powerful, clever, intelligent, strong—he respects you. But inside a fire of jealousy also burns—if he gets the chance, he would like to be in your place and push you aside. And if the beggar gets that chance, he will…