The fifth question:

Question 5

BELOVED OSHO, IN THE OLD DAYS YOU USED TO HAMMER US FIERCELY. I REMEMBER CLUTCHING AT THE TILES OF THE FLOOR IN DESPAIR AFTER LECTURE WHEN YOU HAD ONCE AGAIN SHOUTED AT US, "YOU STUPID DISCIPLES!" NOW YOU COME INTO LECTURE LOOKING AROUND HAPPILY, LIKE A FARMER LOOKING ON HIS GOLDEN CORNFIELDS. ARE YOU HAPPY WITH US?

Hari Chetana,

I absolutely happy with you. I am one of the most fortunate Masters in the world, because a great many intelligent, alive, loving people have gathered around me. The VERY CREAM of the modern mind has gathered around me. I am tremendously happy, yes, just like a farmer when he looks on his golden cornfields.

You are my golden cornfield. The crop is becoming more and more ripe every day. Many are blossoming, many are coming to fruit. Many are growing -- in love, in awareness, in trust, in EVERY possible way. I am tremendously happy that you are here with me.

It very rarely happens. Jesus was not so fortunate: he had only a few disciples, and those too were not very intelligent people either. They were asking REALLY stupid questions, even to the very end.

The night Jesus invited them to say goodbye, to dine and drink with him and dance with him -- because this was the last night, he would be caught that night and the next day he might be killed -- do you know what the disciples were asking? One disciple asked, "Lord, now that you are leaving us, please tell us one thing. We know perfectly well that in the kingdom of God you will be by the right side of God, you will be his right hand. And who amongst us will be by your side? And what will be our number and position?"

The Master is going to die and the disciples are talking politics! -- "Who will be the first after you, and the second, and the third?" The Master is going to die and the disciples are feeling jealous of each other, competitive. They are thinking of the other world also in terms of this world. Jesus must have cried deep down in his heart.... These are the people on whom he had wasted his life, for whom he was ready to die.

And then he was caught, and then one disciple started following him. Others fled! Out of the twelve, one deceived him, Judas; he sold him for thirty silver coins.

When I read that the man who hanged Z. A. Bhutto of Pakistan got twenty-five rupees for hanging him, suddenly I remembered Jesus: he was sold for thirty rupees. The price has fallen down; now you get five rupees less! In fact, the price has fallen too much, because thirty rupees of pure silver in those days and twenty-five paper notes of this day... the difference is not only of five rupees, the difference is much more. Thirty rupees of those days must be equivalent to almost one thousand rupees of today.

But what kind of humanity is this? What kind of civilization and what progress do we go on talking about? Jesus was killed by Jews. The man who hanged Bhutto was a Christian; in a Mohammedan country, they could not find anybody else to hang Bhutto. A Christian! How can a Christian do such a thing? And how can he still remain a Christian? He is a professional. This is what they have been doing for many generations.

One of the great Indian martyrs, Sardar Bhagat Singh, was hanged by the father of this man. And a very strange coincidence: Bhagat Singh, a revolutionary, one of the greatest revolutionaries that India has produced in these hundred years, was hanged by this man's father in the same place where Z. A. Bhutto killed one of his enemies. Now there is no more jail, the jail has disappeared, has been demolished. Instead of the jail, a highway passes through the place.

Z. A. Bhutto killed one of his political opponents in the exact same place where Bhagat Singh was once hanged. And this opponent was the man who was the witness against Sardar Bhagat Singh, and instrumental in his being hanged. And now Bhutto is hanged by the son of the man who hanged Bhagat Singh.

History goes on spinning in a very mysterious way, weaving strange patterns. Life certainly is more strange than fiction.

The night Jesus was being taken away one disciple betrayed him for only thirty rupees. For just thirty rupees, one can sell a man like Jesus? And seeing the danger, the remaining ten fled immediately. What kind of disciples were they? Only one remained, and that one also was not following Jesus but was hiding in the crowd. Just out of curiosity he had remained. And Jesus said, "Escape, because before the sunrise, before the cock crows, you will have betrayed me thrice!"

But the man thought in his heart, "No! Judas can betray you, others can flee, but I am not made of that stuff. I cannot deny you, I cannot renounce you. I will be true to you to the very last."

And it happened exactly the way Jesus had said: before the sunrise, the man had denied him thrice, because the crowd that was taking Jesus, making him a prisoner, became suspicious of this man many times. They were carrying torches, and this man looked a little like a stranger. They asked, "Who are you? Are you a follower of Jesus?" And he said, "No." And when he had said no thrice, Jesus looked back and he said, "Remember, now."

At the time of crucifixion not a single disciple was there, they had all escaped.

Jesus was not very fortunate. Buddha was far more fortunate. But I am even more fortunate than Buddha, because Buddha had only one kind of people around him. My disciples are multi-dimensional; they come from every nook and comer of the world. This is a universal brotherhood. This is for the first time that religion is taking off -- from local limitations, becoming airborne. This is for the first time that religion is losing racial associations, national associations -- Indian, Chinese, Japanese, German, Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian, Buddhist. We are creating a kind of religiousness without any name; a nameless religion can only be true to a nameless God.

Yes, Hari Chetana, I am tremendously happy. The moment I look at you my heart dances with immense joy. And this is only the beginning. Many, many more are going to come, they are on the way. You are just heralding the coming of millions more. Hence your responsibility is great, because you will be preparing the way; the others who will come will learn from you. The others will learn love, awareness, discipline, spontaneity, individuality, freedom, all of these dimensions, from you.