Strength

Beloved Osho, I remember that I did go for rebellious things, but when I was turned down or shut off or dismissed, it hurt so deeply that I gave up. Can you tell us the secret of how to be strong enough to cope with the consequences?

It is very simple. You have been too serious about your rebellion. That's why you got hurt, because you were thinking you were doing something great, and they told you to shut up! You were expecting a Nobel prize. The secret is very simple. About your rebellion, don't be serious. On the contrary, when they say, "Shut up!" have a good laugh, be hilarious; then they will be hurt. They will not be able to figure out what is the matter: "I shouted at the boy and rather than getting sad, hurt, he laughed." That's what I was doing in my childhood. I turned whatever they gave to me, or were trying to give to me, I turned it back with great force. If somebody told me, "Shut up!" I laughed loudly, and I inquired, "Does your `shut up' apply to laughter too? I will not say a thing, but…

Osho, it is said: “Nirbal ke bal Ram” — the strength of the weak is Ram. Is this true?

So what does it mean when we say, “Nirbal ke bal Ram”? Not what you imagine. You think you will go to the temple and say, “O God, I am very weak, now give me strength — run my business well, make my shop prosper, increase my prestige in the market. All right, I admit I am weak; now show your miracles.” That is not the meaning. People have foolishly taken it so: that if we cry and weep, plead, “We are fallen, you are the purifier of the fallen; we are nothing, you are everything; we are the dust of your feet, you are the king; now save us” — then He will come running. These are childish expectations. It means you have co-opted Him into your service. Clever! Your flattery worked. Your prayers are flatteries. That is why prayer is called stuti — praise, eulogy. Your prayers are…

Man is weak and helpless what can he do to find strength?

Imagination has the power to take you somewhere. If you just allow it to go, it will move into the future. It will go to the moon and to planets and to stars and anywhere. This is one dimension of movement: Call it the dimension of time. Ordinarily our imagination travels only in one dimension: the dimension of time. It goes into the future or the past. It moves in time. With observation, there is a change. Imagination begins to move in space not in time. That is the change that observation creates. The arrow of imagination moves from 'there and then' to 'here and now'. Space is always here and now: it has no expansion in time. So imagination has two dimensions to develop in. Without observation, it goes from the past to the future and from the future to the past. With observation, it goes into space. If…

Osho, until now Munshi-ji wasn’t weak, was he?

When I went there again, it became a problem. No spiritual seekers came to listen to me. The lame, the crippled, the blind—everyone kept coming, saying, “Please touch us.” The child had survived. If I touch a hundred patients, fifty will survive anyway—not because I touched them. Those who don’t survive need not concern us; they won’t publicize it. The K. M. Munshis who didn’t get cured have done no publicity. And the K. M. Munshis who did get cured are doing publicity. Those who survive will become my advertisers; those who don’t, I have nothing to do with. Gradually a crowd will gather around me of those who benefited, and they will create a buzz—and that buzz keeps going. There is no value in this, no spirituality, no meaning. And when even people like K. M. Munshi fall prey to such showmanship, we should reflect that in this country…