Talks given from 25/02/87 pm to 12/03/87 am English Discourse series 25 February 1987 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium Question 5 BELOVED OSHO, ALTHOUGH YOU DON’T KNOW ME PERSONALLY, EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? Anand Prageet, I don’t know anybody personally, but I know everybody essentially, I know everybody spiritually. Personality is a false thing. It is a mask: your name, your address, your profession, your photograph – passport size – your identity cards. What is your personality made of? – just these kind of things. Otherwise you come into the world without any name, without any address, without any religion, without any nation, without any race. You come as just a tabula rasa – so clean, so clear, crystal clear. That is your essentiality. But that is the essentiality of everyone, so it does not matter whether I know you personally or not. All personalities are false. And the essential being within you is the same. The day I came to know myself, I came to know you too. That’s why everything is happening. I can understand your puzzlement, your problem: how is this possible? Because people think that unless you are known personally, how can I do anything for you? The reality is just the opposite: Unless I know you spiritually, I cannot do anything. And you don’t know your own spirituality. You know your face, just the way the mirror shows it. Have you seen a house of mirrors, where there are different kinds of mirrors? In some mirrors you are so long, like a pillar; in some mirrors you are so small, like a pygmy; in some mirrors you even get afraid seeing your own face. But have you any guarantee that the mirror you have in your bathroom is the right mirror? And who decides what is the right mirror? But that is your only acquaintance with yourself. There is a beautiful story about Mulla Nasruddin: He had gone for a pilgrimage to Kaaba, the Mohammedan holy land. And there were millions of pilgrims – because it is expected by the Mohammedan scriptures that every Mohammedan, at least once in his life, must go to Kaaba; otherwise he is not considered to be a real Mohammedan. So even the poorest Mohammedans sell their houses, sell their ornaments, their land, everything, because at least once in their life they have to go to Kaaba. So every year there is a great gathering. All caravanserais are full, all hotels are full. Nowhere was there any vacancy, and Mulla was very tired. He clung to the feet of the manager of a hotel and he said, ”Whatever you can do... but there must be some place in your big hotel, and I’m so tired – walking in the desert for miles. Just have mercy on me!” The manager said, ”I can understand your trouble, but all the rooms are full. Only one room can I manage to smuggle you into, because the man who is staying inside is snoring so loudly, he will not be able to know. You go silently and sleep. At least till morning that man is not going to wake up, and even if he wakes up, he will not find me. In the morning we will see – somehow we will persuade him.” Mulla went in; the room was a double bedroom. The man was snoring, so the manager left him there. And Mulla lay went on the bed with his shoes, with his cap, with his coat, everything – just as he was when he entered the hotel. Naturally it was very difficult to sleep with his shoes and his hat and his coat, and it was hot – Saudi Arabia is the hottest place – and on top of it all, the snoring man was by his side. He was snoring so loudly that even if you were at ease you could not sleep. Mulla was tossing and turning – his tossing and turning woke up the man. And the man watched in the darkness of the room to see what was happening. Slowly, slowly he could see that Mulla had his shoes on, cap on, coat on... and it was so hot. He could not resist the temptation. He said, ”Listen, in the first place you have illegally entered my room. I have booked the whole room, for the simple reason that I snore so much that if somebody else is there he cannot sleep. And if he cannot sleep, then he creates trouble, and then I cannot sleep. But you kept silent for so long and suddenly you started tossing and turning. I opened my eyes; I said, ’My God, again another person!’ But forget all about it – it is midnight, where will you go? But why do you have your shoes and cap on?” Mulla Nasruddin said, ”There is a problem. The problem is that if I take off my shoes, and my cap, and my coat – and in fact I am accustomed to sleeping naked, and unless I am naked I cannot sleep – if I take off everything and go to sleep naked, you are also sleeping naked. That is the trouble.” ”But what is the trouble? I am sleeping naked, you are sleeping naked.” Mulla said, ”You don’t understand. In the morning, how am I going to recognize who is who? Just to keep my identity, I was keeping my hat, my shoes, my coat. That way I will be certain that there is no problem: I am Mulla Nasruddin, this guy is somebody else. But both naked....” The man said, ”I will suggest one thing to you, because this way neither you can sleep nor I can sleep.” And the man also thought that this was a strange type of man, who thinks that if he is naked he will lose his identity. He said, ”Just before us, a family must have stayed in the room, and their child has left a doll. So what I will do is I will tie the doll to your feet, and then you can sleep perfectly well. In the morning you can see that the doll is on your feet, so you are Mulla Nasruddin.” Mulla said, ”I’m so grateful to you.” He dropped all his clothes, and the other man found that doll in a corner and tied it to the feet of Mulla. The man was laughing all the time inside, thinking ”I have never come across such a man.” And then he had an idea in the middle.... when Mulla was snoring, he changed the doll. He tied it to his own feet and went to sleep. In the morning when Mulla looked at his feet, he jumped out of his bed, ran out of the room, naked, shouting, ”One thing is certain: that man is Mulla Nasruddin. The problem is: who am I? Can anybody say? Can anybody recognize me? Where is the manager? He had seen me in the night, perhaps he can recognize me.” Your personalities are nothing but dolls tied to your feet. I don’t have to know your personal life, your personality. I don’t have to be acquainted with you personally; I know you essentially. By knowing myself, I have known you all. By dissolving my own problems I know your problems, and I know the key to how they can be dissolved. The day I became aware of myself I came to know the sinner and the saint both. I have known those who are asleep, and those who have become awakened. So there is no problem in it. If you are here listening to me... and all that I am saying is: drop your personality, drop your ego. Be humble, and be open. Be silent, be alert and conscious, and miracles are bound to happen to you. And remember: I will not be responsible for those miracles. You yourself will be responsible for your miracles. You need not even feel thankful towards me. Your gratitude has to go towards the whole existence. I was just a stranger who met you on the way, and we talked a little, gossiped a little – I don’t have gospels, but only gossips – and then we parted, you on your own way, I on my own way. There is no need for me to know you personally, nor is there any need for you to know me personally. What is needed is an essential bridge between your being and my being. In silence that happens automatically. Okay, Vimal? Yes, Osho.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 06:08:40 +0000
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