BELOVED OSHO,

OF MANLY PRUDENCE

IT IS NOT THE HEIGHT, IT IS THE ABYSS THAT IS TERRIBLE!

THE ABYSS WHERE THE GLANCE PLUNGES DOWNWARD AND THE HAND GRASPS UPWARD. THERE THE HEART GROWS GIDDY THROUGH ITS TWOFOLD WILL.

AH, FRIENDS, HAVE YOU, TOO, DIVINED MY HEART'S TWOFOLD WILL?...

MY WILL CLINGS TO MANKIND, I BIND MYSELF TO MANKIND WITH FETTERS, BECAUSE I AM DRAWN UP TO THE SUPERMAN: FOR MY OTHER WILL WANTS TO DRAW ME UP TO THE SUPERMAN.

THAT MY HAND MAY NOT QUITE LOSE ITS BELIEF IN FIRMNESS: THAT IS WHY I LIVE BLINDLY AMONG MEN, AS IF I DID NOT RECOGNIZE THEM....

THIS IS MY FIRST MANLY PRUDENCE: I LET MYSELF BE DECEIVED SO AS NOT TO BE ON GUARD AGAINST DECEIVERS....

THIS, HOWEVER, IS MY SECOND MANLY PRUDENCE: I AM MORE CONSIDERATE TO THE VAIN THAN TO THE PROUD.

IS WOUNDED VANITY NOT THE MOTHER OF ALL TRAGEDIES? BUT WHERE PRIDE IS WOUNDED THERE SURELY GROWS UP SOMETHING BETTER THAN PRIDE.

IF LIFE IS TO BE PLEASANT TO WATCH, ITS PLAY MUST BE WELL ACTED: FOR THAT, HOWEVER, GOOD ACTORS ARE NEEDED.

I FOUND ALL VAIN PEOPLE TO BE GOOD ACTORS: THEY ACT AND DESIRE THAT OTHERS SHALL WANT TO WATCH THEM -- ALL THEIR SPIRIT IS IN THIS DESIRE....

THIS, HOWEVER, IS MY THIRD MANLY PRUDENCE: I DO NOT LET YOUR TIMOROUSNESS SPOIL MY PLEASURE AT THE SIGHT OF THE WICKED....

AMONG MEN, TOO, THERE IS A FINE BROOD OF THE HOT SUN AND MUCH THAT IS MARVELLOUS IN THE WICKED.

INDEED, AS YOUR WISEST MAN DID NOT SEEM SO VERY WISE TO ME, SO I FOUND THAT HUMAN WICKEDNESS, TOO, DID NOT LIVE UP TO ITS REPUTATION....

TRULY, THERE IS STILL A FUTURE, EVEN FOR EVIL!...

AND TRULY, YOU GOOD AND JUST! THERE IS MUCH IN YOU THAT IS LAUGHABLE AND ESPECIALLY YOUR FEAR OF HIM WHO WAS FORMERLY CALLED THE `DEVIL'!

YOUR SOULS ARE SO UNFAMILIAR WITH WHAT IS GREAT THAT THE SUPERMAN WOULD BE FEARFUL TO YOU IN HIS GOODNESS!...

YOU HIGHEST MEN MY EYES HAVE ENCOUNTERED! THIS IS MY DOUBT OF YOU AND MY SECRET LAUGHTER: I THINK YOU WOULD CALL MY SUPERMAN -- A DEVIL!

ALAS, I GREW WEARY OF THESE HIGHEST AND BEST MEN: FROM THEIR `HEIGHTS' I LONGED TO GO UP, OUT, AWAY TO THE SUPERMAN!

A HORROR OVERCAME ME WHEN I SAW THESE BEST MEN NAKED: THEN THERE GREW FOR ME THE WINGS TO SOAR AWAY INTO DISTANT FUTURES....

BUT I WANT TO SEE YOU DISGUISED, YOU NEIGHBORS AND FELLOWMEN, AND WELL-DRESSED AND VAIN AND WORTHY AS `THE GOOD AND JUST.'

AND I MYSELF WILL SIT AMONG YOU DISGUISED, SO THAT I MAY MISUNDERSTAND YOU AND MYSELF: THAT, IN FACT, IS MY LAST MANLY PRUDENCE.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Zarathustra is not a thinker but a seer. All thought is a groping in darkness. Seeing is altogether a different matter.

The blind man can think about light, but however hard he thinks, it is not going to give him an experience of light. His thinking is going to remain always empty. There is a great danger that he may start believing in his thinking. And if a blind man starts believing in his thinking about light, he forgets all about finding his eyes, or searching for a physician who can cure his blindness.

There is a beautiful story from Gautam Buddha's life: He is staying in a village, and a crowd brings a blind man to him. A spokesman from the crowd says to Gautam Buddha, "We have brought this blind man to you for a special purpose -- he does not believe in light, he argues against light. He has a very sharp intellect and a very logical mind. We all know that light is, but we cannot convince this blind man about the existence of light. On the contrary, he convinces us that there is no light.

"And his arguments are such that we cannot refute them. He says, `If light exists I would like to touch it, because I know things by touching.' Now, there is no way to touch light. He says, `I also know things by tasting, I can taste light.' But light cannot be tasted either. He says, `I also smell things.' But light has no smell. He says, `I have only four senses. You can beat light just like a drum is beaten -- then at least I can hear the sound of it.'

"We are tired of this man, and slowly, slowly he has even been creating doubt in us, that perhaps we are deluded and he is right. And he has no other business. His whole life is devoted to a single cause -- to convince people that there is no light, and the idea that you have eyes is only imagination.

"Now, what to do with this man? Hearing that you would be coming to our village, we were immensely glad that now a great enlightened being will certainly be able to convince this blind fool that light exists."

What Gautam Buddha said is very symbolic, and very significant. He said, "The blind man is right. For him light does not exist. And why should he believe in something which he cannot experience himself? The whole fault lies with the crowd of your village. Rather than convincing him by arguments, you should have taken him to a physician. You bring him to me; I cannot give him his lost eyesight, but I will call my physician."

And he called his personal physician, who always used to travel with Gautam Buddha. The blind man said, "But what about arguments?" Gautam Buddha said, "Just wait a little. Let my physician check your eyes."

The physician looked into the blind man's eyes and said, "It is not a great problem. It may take at the most six months to cure him."

So Buddha said, "You remain in this village, and don't leave this village until this blind man is cured. When he starts seeing light, bring him to me, because then there will be a point to argue. Right now we are living in two different dimensions; it is impossible even to have a dialogue. What to say about light -- this blind man has not even seen darkness, because even to see darkness you need eyes. And no argument can prove...."

There are things which are beyond arguments, but which are not beyond experience. Zarathustra is not a thinker, he is not a blind man, he is a seer.

After six months the blind man came dancing, with tears of joy in his eyes. He fell to the feet of Gautam Buddha and said, "I am immensely sorry that I wanted to argue about something which is not arguable, that I wanted to be convinced about something which can only be experienced. There is no way to talk about it. There is no way to explain it to someone who has no eyes.

"You were greatly compassionate towards me, that you refused to argue. I have been arguing my whole life, and wasting my time -- I could have cured my eyes long ago. And to live a life without eyes is not a life at all. Now I can say it, because now I can compare -- all the beauty of existence, all the beauty of flowers, all the beauty of sunrises and sunsets, all the beauty of a night full of stars, all the beauty of human beings.

"I would have died without knowing anything about beauty, anything about rainbows, anything about that which is available only to the eyes." And the experience of our lives is almost eighty percent from our eyes. Only twenty percent of the experience is from the other senses.

When I say Zarathustra is not a thinker but a seer, I want to emphasize the fact that just as you can see outside with the eyes, there is a way of seeing into your own being. Just as there are outward eyes, there is a sensibility, sensitivity, which is capable of seeing inwards. And unless one has that capacity, all arguments are futile.

That's why Zarathustra never gives any arguments; he simply states his experiences. But if you can understand his statements, that may start the beginning of an inner journey of seeing yourself; otherwise, people just go on looking outside. They never become aware that there is a possibility to see into their own beings, into their own subjectivity.

Soren Kierkegaard, one of the most important Danish mystics, has said that all religion is nothing but an experience of your subjectivity. It has nothing to do with God, it has nothing to do with virtue, it has nothing to do with heaven and hell -- all that is fictitious.

The authentic religion has only one concern, and that is the exploration of your inner world, the opening of the inward eye. In the East we have called it the third eye; that is only a symbol, a metaphor. But one can see inwards.

In silence, in utter silence, when the mind stops its constant chattering, suddenly you become aware of a great space which is far more beautiful than you could have ever dreamt of. You become aware of yourself, and your whole life is transformed.

Just seeing yourself is the beginning of a superman in you. Then you are no longer the old, rotten, prejudiced, blind follower of somebody, who himself may be in the same boat in which you are.

The man who can see himself becomes free from all bondage -- religious, ideological, theological, philosophical -- because now he has his own vision. He need not depend on anybody else. He does not need any saviors, he is already saved.

Listening to Zarathustra's statements, remember: they are not based on rational analysis of questions, they are not answers to any particular questions. They are his insights, his experiences, which he is trying, with great effort and with great success too, to convey to people for whom the world of their own interiority is absolutely unknown.

This is one of the greatest problems -- talking about light to people who don't have eyes. But everybody has the potential to be cured, to be healed. All that he needs is to put aside all prejudices and all beliefs and be as innocent, unknowledgeable, unprejudiced as a child. Innocence can understand the language of a seer, because the seer is also a child -- on a higher level, but there is something similar in both.

The child does not know anything, and the seer has known everything and dropped it, because it was all rubbish. Both have come very close, and it is possible to have some kind of communion. That is what is needed when you are trying to understand a man like Zarathustra. It is not a question of your intellectual acumen, it is a question of your innocent heart.

He says, IT IS NOT THE HEIGHT, IT IS THE ABYSS THAT IS TERRIBLE!

THE ABYSS WHERE THE GLANCE PLUNGES downward AND THE HAND GRASPS upward. THERE THE HEART GROWS GIDDY THROUGH ITS TWOFOLD WILL.

He is talking about every human being who is trying to go beyond himself, who is trying to transcend himself, who is trying to become something superior to what he is. He faces the problem -- his hands are moving upwards, but below him there is a terrible abyss. The danger is, if you lose your grip, rather then becoming super-human you may fall into a subhuman existence.

According to Zarathustra, man is a rope stretched over an abyss. Man is joined on one hand with the world of animals, and has the longing on the other hand to go beyond man itself -- because man itself is not a being, it is only a bridge; it is something to be passed by, a ladder.

But millions of people never try to move upward, for sheer fear that the moment you start moving there is every possibility that you may fall. A small wrong step... and the terrible abyss is just by the side. Man can become far worse than any animal.

Man can go even beyond gods, because all gods are men's fictions. He can attain to a far greater reality than his fictions -- that is the height. Zarathustra is saying, "But with every height comes an abyss. And the moment you start moving upwards, you are taking a risk."

The height is not the problem. It may be hard to climb, but it is not terrible. What is terrible is the abyss by the side. A single wrong step, just a moment of unawareness and you can fall; you can fall below animals.

AH, FRIENDS, HAVE YOU, TOO, DIVINED MY HEART'S TWOFOLD WILL? Anybody who wants to evolve is divided: his biological, physiological gravitation pulls him downward, and his spiritual longing calls him from higher places, from sunlit peaks. He is divided, he becomes twofold.

And the height is hard. This is the reason why millions of people have decided not to bother about the height, not to make any effort to rise above themselves. That way they can avoid the abyss and the fall. They are not taking the challenge of the height because of the fear that the challenge contains in it -- a great abyss and a great fall.

Those who never try to rise, of course they never fall; they never take a wrong step, they never move. They simply remain where they are. But their life is almost dead, because life means something only if it is a constant movement towards height, a welcome to the challenge that is coming from the height, and a daring spirit to accept the abyss. But remain alert and aware, so that not a single step goes wrong!

It is almost like walking on a tightrope -- the excitement is tremendous. Those who arrive at the peak, their ecstasy is immeasurable. Only they have lived their lives; others have only passed their time.

MY WILL CLINGS TO MANKIND, I BIND MYSELF TO MANKIND WITH FETTERS, BECAUSE I AM DRAWN UP TO THE SUPERMAN: FOR MY OTHER WILL WANTS TO DRAW ME UP TO THE SUPERMAN. Zarathustra is analyzing his own situation. And in analyzing his own situation he is analyzing the situation of every human being.

He is saying, "I keep myself fettered with humanity because I am afraid. I have a great longing to transcend myself; I am afraid that the heights are calling me. Irresistible is their challenge, and to move towards those heights I cannot forget the abyss. To avoid the abyss, I cling to the status quo, to the state of things as they are. I create all kinds of relationships, all kinds of fetters, all kinds of bondages, just to keep myself engaged -- so much occupied in the marketplace amongst the crowd of people that my dreams and my longings don't pull me towards the heights. But... I AM DRAWN UP TO THE SUPERMAN."

THAT MY HAND MAY NOT QUITE LOSE ITS BELIEF IN FIRMNESS: that is why I LIVE BLINDLY AMONG MEN, AS IF I DID NOT RECOGNIZE THEM. I live blindly among men, accepting their superstitions, accepting all their stupid ideas because not to accept them means you are falling out of the crowd. And I am afraid of being alone, because in my aloneness there is only one thing and that is an irresistible longing to reach to the sunlit peaks. This is what he is saying -- the situation of every human being.

Why do you go on remaining part of a crowd? Why don't you assert your individuality? Why do you go on playing pseudo roles, imposed by others, and not rebel against them? Why do you belong to so many organizations -- religious, political, social -- knowing that it is not going to help you in any way; it is not going to become the foundation of your growth. It will only lead you towards your grave... all your Rotary Clubs and all your Lions Clubs and all your political parties and all your religions.

You go on carrying your holy scriptures, but you never look in them. You are basically afraid that a doubt may arise -- nobody reads the holy books.

I have heard about a door-to-door salesman who used to sell encyclopedias and dictionaries. One lady opened the door as he knocked, and he showed her the latest encyclopedia. She said, "But we have got one. You can see, there on the table, in the far corner of the room. We don't need another."

The man looked at the table and he said, "Lady, that is not an encyclopedia, it is a bible." The woman could not believe it, that from so far away he had managed to see that it is a bible. She said, "On what grounds are you saying it is a bible, when I'm saying it is an encyclopedia?" He said, "It is not an encyclopedia, I can see the layer of dust on it. It can only be THE HOLY BIBLE."

A small child in school was asked, "Have you ever looked in THE HOLY BIBLE?" He said, "Many times." The teacher asked, "Can you tell me something that is in THE HOLY BIBLE?" He said, "Everything."

The teacher was surprised. He said, "Everything?" The child said, "Everything. My mother keeps my father's hairs in it." The teacher said, "Is your father dead?" He said, "No, he is not dead, but his hair is gone. He has become bald, and that is just the old memory of when he used to be young. My sister keeps her boyfriend's love letters in it, and to read them, I have to look in THE HOLY BIBLE."

People keep all kinds of things in holy books, but nobody reads them. And it cannot be just a coincidence, that out of millions of people in the world, nobody reads their holy books. The reason is, there is a certain fear that reading them, your belief in them may be disturbed. They may look stupid, they may look irrational; and you don't want to leave the fold.

If you are a Christian you want to remain a Christian, for the simple reason that the crowd is cozy, is a certain kind of security. You are not alone, there are millions of people just like you -- and they cannot all be wrong. This gives you a great consolation.

If you are left alone, you will have to look inside yourself. Unoccupied with anything on the outside, in your aloneness, the longing for the heights, the desire to fly like an eagle across the sun is bound to arise, because it is there in every human being.

Life wants to overcome itself.

That is one of the fundamental teachings of Zarathustra: life wants to overcome itself. But in overcoming, there is risk -- you can be new only if the old dies. But the risk is clear. Who knows... if the old dies and the new never comes?

When the old leaf is falling from the tree, what guarantee is there that a new leaf will be coming to replace it -- younger, fresher, greener. The old leaf falling is taking a risk, the tree is taking a risk. The man who wants a transformation to happen in his life has to take the risk.

THIS IS MY FIRST MANLY PRUDENCE: I LET MYSELF BE DECEIVED SO AS NOT TO BE ON GUARD AGAINST DECEIVERS. You have to be continuously on guard. There are so many deceivers around you. Zarathustra says, "My prudence is that I let them deceive; it helps me not to be constantly worried and on guard. It allows me to relax. I accept it, that they will deceive me."

There is no need to be on guard, because to be on guard is one of the greatest worries of humankind. There are so many people... you have to be on guard. Everybody is a stranger, even those who are very close to you are strangers. One never knows what they are going to do to you.

Zarathustra says, "Just to be at rest, I let them deceive me." This is cheaper and simpler than to be constantly on guard -- tense, worried, watching everybody, looking at everybody as if he is your enemy.

THIS, HOWEVER, IS MY SECOND MANLY PRUDENCE: I AM MORE CONSIDERATE TO THE VAIN THAN TO THE PROUD.

IS WOUNDED VANITY NOT THE MOTHER OF ALL TRAGEDIES? BUT WHERE PRIDE IS WOUNDED THERE SURELY GROWS UP SOMETHING BETTER THAN PRIDE.

His insights are tremendously fresh and new. He is saying, "It is better to be proud than to be vain, because if your pride is hurt.... And it is bound to be hurt, because you are not alone here -- there are millions of other proud beings in competition with you. But if the pride is hurt, it always brings something better out of it. To prove yourself better, to regain your pride and dignity, you have to improve."

The real problem is the vain man, who is utterly empty, who tries to show humbleness and meekness and simplicity. You cannot hurt him -- how can you hurt a meek man, how can you hurt a humble man? He is going to remain the same forever. He will never improve, because there is not going to be any challenge for him.

Ordinarily, the religions have praised the humble and condemned the proud, but Zarathustra, on each and every point, has an original contribution to make. One may agree with him or not, but one cannot say that what he is saying is insignificant.

Everything in the world that humanity can be proud of is created by the man of pride; it is not created by the so-called humble people. Have you known a humble painter, have you known a humble poet, have you known a humble creator, a humble dancer, a humble singer? The humble man seems to think that just by being humble he has done great service to humanity. And his humbleness is not of much value.

Perhaps in his humbleness he is simply trying to hide his cowardliness, his uncreativeness. Perhaps in his humbleness he is simply avoiding the competition, the race. Perhaps his humbleness is nothing but an escape from the struggle of life. It is not a positive value, it is a negative value.

IF LIFE IS TO BE PLEASANT TO WATCH, ITS PLAY MUST BE WELL ACTED: FOR THAT, HOWEVER, GOOD ACTORS ARE NEEDED.

I FOUND ALL VAIN PEOPLE TO BE GOOD ACTORS: THEY ACT AND DESIRE THAT OTHERS SHALL WANT TO WATCH THEM -- ALL THEIR SPIRIT IS IN THIS DESIRE.

The humble man is humble only so that he is respected. It is a very contradictory desire: to be humble, to have respectability; to be meek, to be honored. Zarathustra says, "They are all good actors, and all their desire is one -- to be recognized."

Kahlil Gibran has a beautiful story.... There is a very saintly dog, and his single-pointed philosophy is, to other dogs, that dogs are not evolving because they unnecessarily go on barking and wasting their energy.

"Why do you bark at the moon?" And the poor dogs look at each other: "What to say?" "Why do you bark at all people in uniforms?" Dogs are very much against uniforms -- the policeman, the postman, the sannyasin. The moment the dog sees somebody in a uniform, he suspects that something is wrong.

The saintly dog becomes more and more honored, and more and more respected. And the poor dogs say, "You are a great dog and we are just very ordinary dogs. We are ashamed, but what to do? We cannot control -- this barking is such a temptation to us. We try in every way to discipline ourselves. We understand your idea -- that if we stop barking we will have so much energy that that very energy will become our evolution."

The saint goes on becoming a bigger and bigger saint, and the dogs worship him. Finally, one full moon night, they decide that, at least once a year -- and this full moon night was the birthday of the great saint -- at least on his birthday, we should remain silent. It is going to be very difficult not to bark for the whole night -- and that too on a full moon night -- but we have to do it, just in honor of the great saint.

They decide that whatever happens, everybody should go into a dark corner, close his eyes and lie down. The whole night, don't look here and there. It is only a question of one night, and then tomorrow we can bark twice, or thrice, but tonight.... The great saint is very puzzled. One hour has passed, and the moon is high; two hours have passed, and not a single dog is seen anywhere. Where have they all disappeared to? And no barking is heard. It is such a strange experience.

It gets to be the middle of the night, and for the first time the great saint recognizes how he has been able to avoid up to now the temptation to bark. After all, he is also a dog. He was able to resist because he had no time. All his energy was wasted in giving sermons all over the city, getting hold of dogs and teaching them, "This is our downfall, your barking."

He had been barking all day anyway, against the dogs! But tonight suddenly, a great irritation in his throat, irresistible.... Half the night had passed and for the first time he found that he is also an ordinary dog. Something had to be done; it was becoming too much.

He goes into a dark corner and starts barking. Other dogs hear that somebody has broken the agreement. They have also been suffering half the night, and if one has broken the agreement, then they are not bound to the agreement anymore, the contract is finished.

The whole city is suddenly full of barking dogs, and the saint comes back and starts teaching again, "I have told you so many times, and even on my birthday you cannot remain silent just for one night. This is the downfall. This is why other animals have reached to higher stages of evolution and dogs, who have such a great potential, are still lingering behind."

The dogs said, "Forgive us. Just, somebody broke the agreement, but we don't know who he is. We had managed up to the middle of the night... and you can understand how difficult it was. Only saints like you can do it. We are very ordinary dogs -- just don't hope. We are ready to worship you, we are ready to believe in you, we are your followers, but we cannot change ourselves."

The vain people are all pretenders, hypocrites, actors. They can act as saints -- in fact, they have acted as saints; all that is needed by them is respectability.

The day saints are not worshiped, saints will disappear. The more you worship the saints, the more and more people are ready to do things which are against nature, against themselves. The desire to be recognized, to be respected, to be thought of as "holier than thou" is so great, and so irresistible.

Zarathustra is saying, "People who have pride are not to be condemned, because if they are hurt, they will manage to rise higher -- just to protect their pride, to prove their mettle." The really ugly part of humanity is the vain actors. They are absolutely hollow, but whatever you want they are ready to act.

And because it is only acting, they are different people from the back door, and they are different people from the front door.From the front door they are saints; from the backdoor you will find them the real sinners -- they sin with vengeance! And from the front door they are again standing there with their makeup to receive your worship, your respectability, your honors, your awards.

THIS, HOWEVER, IS MY THIRD MANLY PRUDENCE: I DO NOT LET YOUR TIMOROUSNESS SPOIL MY PLEASURE AT THE SIGHT OF THE WICKED.

AMONG MEN, TOO, THERE IS A FINE BROOD OF THE HOT SUN AND MUCH THAT IS MARVELLOUS IN THE WICKED.

Zarathustra sees things without any prejudice. He says, "Even in the so-called wicked people I have seen much that is marvellous. Just as I have seen your so-called great saints who are nothing but actors, your do-gooders who are just superficial... even in the wicked, I have seen something marvellous."

INDEED, AS YOUR WISEST MAN DID NOT SEEM SO VERY WISE TO ME, SO I FOUND THAT HUMAN WICKEDNESS, TOO, DID NOT LIVE UP TO ITS REPUTATION. Neither your wise men are so wise, nor your wicked are so wicked as you think. In fact, your wise and your wicked are not very different -- they are two sides of the same coin. Perhaps the wicked are more sincere, and your so-called saints and holy men are nothing but actors. The wicked at least are not actors; they are authentically wicked. They have a certain sincerity, and that sincerity makes them marvellous.

TRULY, THERE IS STILL A FUTURE, EVEN FOR EVIL! Even the most evil person still has a future. If he can be evil he is a man with courage, with power -- cowards cannot be evil -- and once his courage is challenged he can change any moment. Perhaps he is evil because that is the only possibility for people who want to live dangerously, who don't want to live a tepid life, a lukewarm existence.

The masses live in a very lukewarm way, and your saints don't live at all. You have not left a clear-cut direction for those who want to live totally, fully, intensely... no guidance for those. If these people become rebellious against your social norms, against your hypocritical society, they can also become immensely good. All that is needed is a challenge. Right now, only evil gives them the challenge.

Zarathustra is saying, "If we want the superman to come into the world, we should make a `good life' also a challenge, also dangerous."

AND TRULY, YOU GOOD AND JUST! THERE IS MUCH IN YOU THAT IS LAUGHABLE AND ESPECIALLY YOUR FEAR OF HIM WHO WAS FORMERLY CALLED THE `DEVIL'! He is saying, about the so-called good and the just, that their goodness is not even skin-deep. Just scratch them a little and you will find the animal coming out. The people you call "just" are just showmen. If you look deeply into their lives, if their lives become an open book, you will be surprised: these people were thought to be great men, good and just, but they had another life also that they lived underground. They had their secrets.

President John Kennedy was respected in his life as one of the most just presidents America has ever had -- a very good and nice man. But after his death, after his assassination, things have come to light which are shocking to people who could have never thought that he had an underground life.

Everybody condemned his wife when she married after the assassination. But now nobody can say anything against her, because even while Kennedy was alive he was cheating her. He was going to many other women; and being the president he had the power and attraction, he was connected with many actresses. But that was the underground life; otherwise, he was a very moral man.

All your so-called good and just people remain good and just only because their whole life never becomes available to you; or if it becomes available to you, it becomes available only when they are dead. And then, who cares?

TRULY, YOU GOOD AND JUST! THERE IS MUCH IN YOU THAT IS LAUGHABLE AND ESPECIALLY YOUR FEAR OF HIM WHO WAS FORMERLY CALLED THE `DEVIL'. Your so-called good, just, holy, and saintly people are afraid of the devil. Zarathustra says, "It is laughable, it is so childish -- the very idea of the devil. And they are afraid of the devil." But there is a certain rationality: they are afraid of the devil because they are attracted toward another fiction, and that is the fiction of God.

Good and evil, God and the devil -- they are two opposite poles of the same fiction. Neither the devil can exist without God, nor God can exist without the devil. They need each other, they are complementary. So those who worship God are bound to be afraid of the devil.

Zarathustra says, "It is so laughable that fictions are worshiped, that fictions are feared -- and by so-called great men: saints, holy men, just men, good men. Even the wicked are more mature than your so-called good."

YOU HIGHEST MEN MY EYES HAVE ENCOUNTERED! THIS IS MY DOUBT OF YOU AND MY SECRET LAUGHTER: I THINK YOU WOULD CALL MY SUPERMAN -- A DEVIL. He is aware of the fact that his superman will be called, by the so-called religious people, a devil -- because the superman will be beyond your ideas of good and bad, your ideas of sin and virtue, your ideas of hell and heaven. Because the superman will not be a child, but a mature, centered, fully awakened human being, the religious people are bound to condemn him as the devil.

ALAS, I GREW WEARY OF THESE HIGHEST AND BEST MEN: FROM THEIR `HEIGHTS' I LONGED TO GO UP, OUT, AWAY TO THE SUPERMAN!

A HORROR OVERCAME ME WHEN I SAW THESE BEST MEN NAKED: THEN THERE GREW FOR ME THE WINGS TO SOAR AWAY INTO DISTANT FUTURES.

It is my own experience, too, that it is better not to know your so-called great men very closely -- because then you will get weary and tired, even of your greatest men; you will be able to see their superstitions, stupidities.

Before the British empire disappeared from this country, one of the greatest states was Nizam Hyderabad. Nizam, the king of the state, was perhaps the richest man in the world, but he lived almost like a poor man.

If you had seen him, you could not have believed that he is the richest man. He had in his state the greatest diamond quarry in the world -- all the great diamonds, the Kohinoor and others, have come from his quarry. His own palace was full of diamonds; all his basements were full of diamonds. There were so many diamonds because first they used to come to him, he would choose the best ones for his own palace, and the remaining ones would be sold all over the world. He had so many diamonds that they were not counted, they were weighed. Diamonds are not weighed anywhere in the whole world, but their number was so great that there was no other way.

This man was a very holy man, and because of his holiness he lived a poor life. He went on gathering the money -- that was not a problem at all.The state had thousands of starving people and his palace was full of diamonds which were never going to be used. And he was a holy man, just because he lived like a poor man.

The most laughable thing about him was that he was very much afraid of ghosts. In Hyderabad it is thought that if you want to protect yourself from ghosts, you have to do one thing... they attack particularly in the night when you are asleep. To protect yourself in the night you have to put one of your legs into a bag full of salt. Nizam Hyderabad slept all his life with one of his legs in a bag full of salt, because ghosts are very much afraid of salt, they don't come close to salt -- I don't know who has created this idea.

And this man was constantly reading the holy KORAN, and was even respected by great Mohammedan scholars -- but nobody ever thought that he seems to be pathological... the fear of ghosts. To guard yourself against ghosts, and you are a man of God... God will take care at least. And if God cannot save you, how is the salt going to save you?

He was holy and very simple, doing everything a Mohammedan is supposed to do, but he had five hundred wives. Because Mohammed himself had nine wives, he has allowed his followers to have as many wives as they want. Can you think a man simple, holy -- afraid of ghosts, having five hundred wives, and not doubting once that it is absolutely ugly?

Women are not cattle. And there is a certain balance in existence; men and women are of equal number. If one person has five hundred wives, that means four hundred and ninety-nine men will remain without wives. What are they going to do? They will become homosexuals, or they will have to resort to some perversion, or they will have to go to prostitutes, or they will become rapists... but whatever happens to those four hundred and ninety-nine people, Nizam is responsible for all that.

Watch your holy men, watch your good men, watch your so-called moral men, and you will be amazed that the hidden reality is disgusting.

ALAS, I GREW WEARY OF THESE HIGHEST AND BEST MEN: FROM THEIR `HEIGHTS' I LONGED TO GO UP, OUT, AWAY TO THE SUPERMAN!

A HORROR OVERCAME ME WHEN I SAW THESE BEST MEN NAKED: THEN THERE GREW FOR ME THE WINGS TO SOAR AWAY INTO DISTANT FUTURES. The moment I saw these greatest men naked, in their absolute reality -- not just the facade, not just the mask, but when I saw their original face -- I grew so weary that I grew wings to soar away into distant futures.

BUT I WANT TO SEE YOU DISGUISED, YOU NEIGHBORS AND FELLOWMEN, AND WELL-DRESSED AND VAINAND WORTHY AS `THE GOOD AND JUST.' I want you to remain disguised, because if you stand naked this whole world will look so disgusting that it is better you keep yourself... WELL-DRESSED AND VAIN AND WORTHY AS `THE GOOD AND THE JUST.'

AND I MYSELF WILL SIT AMONG YOU DISGUISED, SO THAT I MAY MISUNDERSTAND YOU AND MYSELF: THAT, IN FACT, IS MY LAST MANLY PRUDENCE. He is talking about prudence. In an authentic society there is no need for any prudence. One should be simple and open, available to be seen; there should be nothing secretive. The secretive is always ugly.

The superman must be an open book.

"But before the superman comes into existence," Zarathustra says, "I myself will remain disguised amongst all these disguised people." Because to stand naked amongst these disguised people is to be crucified; that is the crime of Jesus -- is to be poisoned; that is the crime of Socrates.

Zarathustra says, this... IS MY LAST MANLY PRUDENCE.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.