Commentaries on Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. Vol. 1 The Messiah Chapter 18: Shame was his loom...

BELOVED OSHO,

AND THE WEAVER SAID, SPEAK TO US OF CLOTHES.

AND HE ANSWERED:

YOUR CLOTHES CONCEAL MUCH OF YOUR BEAUTY, YET THEY HIDE NOT THE UNBEAUTIFUL.

AND THOUGH YOU SEEK IN GARMENTS THE FREEDOM OF PRIVACY YOU MAY FIND IN THEM A HARNESS AND A CHAIN.

WOULD THAT YOU COULD MEET THE SUN AND THE WIND WITH MORE OF YOUR SKIN AND LESS OF YOUR RAIMENT.

FOR THE BREATH OF LIFE IS IN THE SUNLIGHT AND THE HAND OF LIFE IS IN THE WIND.

SOME OF YOU SAY, "IT IS THE NORTH WIND WHO HAS WOVEN THE CLOTHES WE WEAR."

AND I SAY, AY, IT WAS THE NORTH WIND,

BUT SHAME WAS HIS LOOM, AND THE SOFTENING OF THE SINEWS WAS HIS THREAD.

AND WHEN HIS WORK WAS DONE, HE LAUGHED IN THE FOREST.

FORGET NOT THAT MODESTY IS FOR A SHIELD AGAINST THE EYE OF THE UNCLEAN.

AND WHEN THE UNCLEAN SHALL BE NO MORE, WHAT WERE MODESTY BUT A FETTER AND A FOULING OF THE MIND?

AND FORGET NOT THAT THE EARTH DELIGHTS TO FEEL YOUR BARE FEET AND THE WINDS LONG TO PLAY WITH YOUR HAIR.

Almustafa again has a great flight towards the heights and comes really close to the stars. I emphasize that he comes very close because he goes on missing a few essential things. If he had reached the target, he would not have missed them.

It is one of the most fundamental principles of life that the bridge between you and the whole, even if traveled just a little bit, starts to cleanse your eyes, your perception. But even at the very last step in the journey the whole secret is not revealed to you.

Not that existence is miserly; existence is very just. It reveals only as much as you can absorb. If you are not capable of absorbing the truth yet, existence protects you by not revealing it to you. If you are not totally ready for love and existence opens all the mysteries of love to you, it will not give you joy, it will give you pain. It will not give you insight, it will blind you.

When a blind man has an operation, for a few days he is still kept unaware of the light and the sun. His eyes remained covered with a blindfold. If the blind man who has been operated and is no longer blind, is suddenly told, "Now you can go home. Now you can see the sun, the trees, the birds, the people you have been living with," he will reach home with burned eyes, again blind. And the second operation is going to be far more difficult.

Nature may be slow, but it is in your favor. It gives you only that which you can digest.

Hence I say, Almustafa has come very close to some beautiful experiences, revelations. But he has not reached the target yet. His statements are true, but only fragmentarily. And I would like you to remember that a half-truth sometimes proves more dangerous than a lie. Because one can be deceived by the half-truth for his whole life -- nobody can be deceived by lies for that long.

So I would like to make the truth complete, and indicate to you why I am saying it is only a half-truth.

AND THE WEAVER SAID, SPEAK TO US OF CLOTHES.

This is the beauty of Kahlil Gibran, that he brings immense insight into very ordinary things. If you ask a philosopher about clothes, he will laugh. He will say, "Go to some weaver, or a tailor. Philosophy has nothing to do with the clothes."

But there is not anything in life which is unimportant. If it appears unimportant, it only means your perceptivity is not clear. The moment your perceptivity is clear, and your eyes are innocent, the smallest pebble on the shore becomes as mysterious as the greatest star in the sky -- because they both belong to the same mystery.

AND HE ANSWERED:

YOUR CLOTHES CONCEAL MUCH OF YOUR BEAUTY, YET THEY HIDE NOT THE UNBEAUTIFUL.

This is a half-truth -- because clothes were discovered by the unbeautiful, to hide it. You don't see any animals, any birds, having clothes. Man is the only living being on the planet who has invented clothes. For what?

Superficially it seems they protect you from the rain, from the winter, from the summer. But if all the animals and all the trees are protected without clothes, man seems to be in a fallacy. Yes, today it is true that they protect you from winter and rain and heat, because you have become weaker. Using clothes for thousands of years, you have lost your strength, which is given intrinsically to every baby when he is born.

But why did man in the very beginning become interested? The first reason was -- and the Biblical story indicates a certain truth -- that when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of knowledge and were no more innocent, they immediately felt ashamed of their nakedness. Man has tried to cover his nakedness -- and the people who are more unbeautiful are more obsessed with clothes. The more beautiful a person is, he would like not to hide his beauty behind the clothes.

In India there are millions of statues. Amongst them, the most beautiful statues are of Mahavira, who remained naked for almost forty years. In Greece we know only one man who has dared to live in nakedness, Diogenes. He was a contemporary of Alexander the Great. Alexander was interested, because he had heard so much about Diogenes -- and he was one of the most interesting persons that humanity has produced.

But the people of Alexander's court always prevented him: "Don't invite him to the court. He's naked." But there came a chance. When Alexander was coming to India, he passed by a forest and a river where Diogenes used to live. Now there was nobody to prevent him. He told his armies to rest a little, because he wanted to meet a man who lived very close by.

His bodyguards, his prime minister, wanted to accompany him. He said no. He himself was a little hesitant that others should know that he has gone to see a naked man. But when he saw Diogenes, the first thing he said was, "I have never seen such a beautiful body. And looking at you, it is absolutely plain and clear to me that clothes were invented by the unbeautiful."

Almustafa says, your clothes conceal much of your beauty -- not "much," but almost ninety-nine percent. Even you are not aware of your body. If your body without the head is brought to you, you will not be able to recognize it as your body. You have never looked at it. We know people only by their faces. But the whole body is an organic unity, and unless the whole body is beautiful... just the face can be very deceptive. It is such a small part.

And the whole East laughs and feels very proud when they hear about Western beauty contests, naked women allowing thousands of people and judges to decide whether their bodies are beautiful or not.

The East thinks it is very much cultured. The reality is that you are not able to see a naked body -- not because the naked body has some obscenity it; you cannot see the naked body because you are full of repressions. In your dreams you have seen naked bodies; in your desires you have longed for naked bodies. And I am not condemning your dreams and your longings; I am condemning your repressions.

The repressed person can easily deceive himself that he is cultured, more civilized.

If man becomes more civilized again... once he was, but it was a natural gift. Every child is born naked, without any shame. In the childhood of humanity, everybody was naked. Hence I said the biblical story has some truth in it. After becoming knowledgeable Adam and Eve both felt ashamed of their nakedness.

What is there to be ashamed of in your nakedness?

And there are such idiots in the world that in the Victorian age -- Bertrand Russell remembers it from his childhood because he lived almost a whole century and saw thousands of changes happening during the century -- even dogs had clothes. And it is to be noted that in London there was a society consisting only of old and ugly and dilapidated women who were forcing everybody and creating much fuss that dogs should not be left naked: it can corrupt their children, their morals. So special garments were made for the dogs.

Particularly in England, people take dogs for a walk but their chains are in their hands because of the simple fear that dogs have not yet eaten the fruit of knowledge. If a dog comes to see a beautiful young lady dog, then he is not going to miss the opportunity.

And all dogs which were not owned by anyone were shot. It looks stupid, but stupidity has no limits: even the legs of the chairs were covered with beautiful clothes because they are called "legs," and they may provoke in someone his repressed sexuality. Is man really mad?

But you will note one thing: there are beauty contests only for women, because it is a male chauvinist society. Why are there not contests for male beauty? And all those thousands of people and the judges who are watching the procession of beautiful women are nothing but voyeurs. The women of the world should demand that "We also want to judge. And there should be contests of naked men, and the audience and the judges will consist of women."

And I am sure if they insist, the beauty competitions for women will disappear. Man is not going expose his nudeness, because he's not so beautiful in his body as a woman.

Once he was even more beautiful. If you go back before Christianity corrupted Italy and its innocence you will be surprised. The Roman civilization was at its peak. All the statues of those days are of beautiful young men; you will not find a single Roman statue of a woman.

But clothes have destroyed the beauties of both -- more of the man, less of the woman, because the woman is more body oriented. She takes the care of her body. The reason is biological.

Man's sexuality is local; it is confined to his genitals. And man's mind is egoistic and very competitive. Certainly I have come across many people who have asked me, because they could not ask anybody else -- their genitals are very small, and they are afraid somebody may see it; there are people who have really big genitals. His whole mind is concentrated on the genitals.

But the woman's sexuality is not local, it is all over her body. This is one of the greatest mistakes that the god who created the world has committed. Men and women are going to live together, are going to love each other. The woman is far richer as far as sexual energy is concerned -- far richer because her whole body vibrates, every cell of her body dances. And because man has only a genital sexuality, his whole body as far as sex is concerned, is just dead.

This creates one of the greatest problems. It can be solved, but if I suggest the solution, I'm condemned all over the world for making such suggestions. Nobody has the guts to condemn or criticize my suggestions -- they condemn me. They cannot criticize what I'm saying.

Because man's sexuality is only genital, while making love he is finished within two minutes. And he is not interested in foreplay with his beloved's body, nor he is interested in the afterplay. To him the woman is just a wastepaper basket. So whatever burden of sexual energy is torturing him, he uses the woman as a sexual object in a very inhuman way.

If you really understand the thing, first make the woman's whole body vibrate. Put on beautiful music, incense; dance together. Let her be prepared. Her whole body has to be in a certain position, in a certain excitement, afire with desire and longing to meet and merge.

But man is afraid, because the woman is capable of multiple orgasms, and man is finished with one ejaculation. I will not call it orgasm. Orgasm is something spiritual. If he provokes the woman's whole body, then she will demand that she be satisfied. And she is unsatisfied; that is why she is continuously irritated, annoyed, angry, nagging the man. These problems are the by-products, because she is not satisfied.

There are millions of women who have never known what an orgasm is. A woman can know orgasm only when her whole body functions like a musical instrument. When her whole body starts dancing within -- each nerve, each cell -- only then she is capable of having an orgasm.

To make her whole body orgasmic is the function of the foreplay. But man is always in a hurry. What is the point of wasting twenty or thirty minutes when the work can be done efficiently in three minutes? And many women have reported to me that when their beloved or husband is finished, they have not even started. And once he is finished he turns, forgets the woman -- he has used her. His purpose is fulfilled: he falls into sleep.

In fact, for most men, sex is nothing but sleeping pills. Released of the burden, he immediately starts snoring. And many women, intelligent and courageous, have told me that while he is snoring, they are crying. Their tears are flowing -- of pain, insult, humiliation. They have been reduced into things.

This kind of lovemaking is not between two human beings. In fact man simply needs plastic women which he can keep in his pockets. And whenever he wants, he can pump the air in and the woman is ready. It will be more sensible.

I have heard.... Two men were going to do some work in Alaska, close to the North Pole. They were purchasing necessary things, because they were supposed to be there for at least two years. And the shop owner said, "I have no right to say anything, but I have seen many people going for jobs and they always get into one difficulty: How are you going to live for two years without any women?"

They said, "We never thought about it."

The shop owner said, "I have a solution for the problem." And he brought a small packet in which a plastic woman was kept, folded. And he told them, "You can, just through your own mouth, fill the woman with air or you can take this small pump -- just the way you pump air in your bicycle tires, tubes, footballs -- and fill it. And this is a rare kind of woman: no nagging, no trouble, no expenses, no food. You can carry the packet just in your pocket -- so whenever you feel the need, just pump the air in and the woman comes alive. And you may not have seen such a beautiful body" -- obviously, when it is manufactured by man, it cannot become fat, it cannot become thin, it cannot have diseases, it cannot die. Plastic is the only immortal thing that man has created. So without any problems -- and she never says, "Not today, I am having such a headache -- not today."

And I know all those women who are saying, "I am tired and I have a headache" are simply avoiding the ugly situation of being used as sexual objects. There is no insult greater than that. But this woman never complains, never says, "Not today. I am tired and I have a headache." She is always available.

One man said, "This is all stupid. I don't want to get into this nonsense. If people hear that I am carrying a plastic woman with me, they will laugh at me."

But the other said, "I see the sensibility and the logic of it. I am going to purchase it."

He purchased the woman. They were great friends, but whenever there is a triangle, there is trouble. Even a plastic woman becomes a triangle, because the man who was the owner of the woman made it clear to his friend: "Remember, I will not tolerate any interference in my private life."

"What private life?"

He said, " You are not to be interested in my woman. Because sometimes for days I may be gone deep into the oceans or into the snows, and my woman will remain at home. Treat her just as your mother."

He said, "What nonsense! I cannot treat her as my wife even, and you are telling me that I should treat this plastic toy as my mother! Have you gone mad?"

He said, "No, I am making things clear because I am a very jealous man."

He said, "Jealous about what?"

He said, "If I see ever any attempt from your side to seduce my woman, our friendship is finished and there is going to be bloodshed."

The other man said, "For a plastic toy, you are going to kill me?"

He said, "Not you. I cannot waste a bullet on you. But I can kill my woman."

And one day it happened. He was going out and he was looking very happy, as he has never looked. And he was saying, "I want to extend my job for two years more, because back home my wife is there -- and having two wives does not double the trouble, it multiplies it."

The other man said, "Whatever you want to say, say; and whatever you want to do, do -- because I think you have gone absolutely nuts."

But the man went out -- he was looking healthier than ever before. No anxiety, no problem, nobody to bother him -- where can you find such an obedient woman? The other man also became slowly slowly interested. His sexuality... and two years in Alaska are very long because there is no social life. So when his friend had gone he thought, "Perhaps it is that plastic woman. I am suffering and he is enjoying."

He was not supposed to come home that night, so he opened the box, filled the woman with air. And he was so hungry for sex, so repressed for months -- and the woman was exactly how a world beauty queen has to be; those exact proportions of the body.

He enjoyed loving her immensely. But then an accident happened -- and the accident was that he was playing with the breasts of the woman and a tremendous desire arose in him to take the nipples in his mouth. And he was so repressed, almost like any saint, that not only he tried to suck -- and there was nothing to suck, just plastic -- he tried to suck in the darkness and forget that it was just a plastic woman. And he cut a hole in the breast.

The air went out and the woman flew out of the window! He said, "My god. I have seen many types of women but a flying woman -- just because I have cut a little on her breast!" And outside it was snowing and dark. So he said, "In the morning I will find her and put her back."

But his friend returned in the middle of the night. He said, "The work finished early." He opened his box and there was no woman. He said, "What happened? Where is my woman?"

He said, "I am very sorry. I could not resist the temptation, and foolishly, I cut her beautiful nipples with my teeth. I never thought that she would fly out of the window. So she must be somewhere outside, and such heavy snow is falling.... She must be under the snow. In the morning we will find her and try to fix her up."

But the other man said, "You have forgotten. I have told you before: never try in any way to be involved into my private life -- and you did that!" And he was so angry that he shot his own friend.

The next day he went back down to the same shop. The owner said, "What happened? Last time you had come with your friend."

He said, "He was not a friend, he was an enemy -- he killed my woman! I have come for another woman. I have killed that man and taught him that you should behave in a moral way. He is so immoral, corrupted, he does not deserve to live on the earth."

But man has been doing the same with the real women.

They are not plastic. And because they don't have any orgasmic experience, their life becomes more and more frustrated, full of anger and rage.

It is a simple question, but the solution is very difficult. If a man really plays with the woman's body, and wakes up the sleeping cells all over the body, he will not be able to satisfy her. The most scientific suggestion will be that he should always invite at least five friends. Then you will see a totally different woman in the world -- joyous, never nagging, never angry.

But man's ego... rather than taking a scientific attitude -- towards a thing for which he is not responsible; it is God's fault, he should have made them equal. If women can have six orgasms, man must be able to have the same number. Or he should have given women only genital sexuality; life would have been peaceful.

But the women have to demand: "Enough of this voyeurism. Now we want beauty contests all over the world with the same conditions.

But man is ugly, has become ugly, and he is hiding all his ugliness in clothes. And he is jealous -- he is forcing the woman also to cover herself completely. Almustafa is right: your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.

But my statements, which are absolutely based on scientific research, will be called obscene by the police commissioner. He should ask his woman how much she has cried and wept each night when he has made love to her. It is not love. It is simply the release of a burden. It is no more significant than a sneeze -- a genital sneeze. Once his sneeze is finished, he goes to sleep.

Even ordinary sneezes give you a good feeling in the head. And the woman is not to tolerate any more. She is not here just to be an instrument for your sneezes. She should understand her sexuality and she should demand. Monogamy is absolutely against nature. And I am not responsible for it, remember. Your God is responsible for all this.

The whole existence seems to be made by an amateurish god, who knows nothing. And how can he know? The Christian trinity has no woman in it; it is a gay group. And if AIDS has come to the world, it must be coming from the Christian trinity because they are the oldest homosexuals. In fact, what else will they do? After creating the world in six days, what are you supposed to do? God cannot smoke....

These are the conditions imposed on us -- and I don't know but I am almost certain that the police commissioner must be smoking. God cannot drink alcohol. But I am again certain... because all police officers, government bureaucrats, are drinking alcohol. And when we phoned again and again, in office time -- "Where is he?" -- it took one hour for their office to give his home number.

I know the reason. When we phoned to his house, somebody answered, "He's in worship." Most probably, he had drunk too much, and the hangover was still there and he was fast asleep. I am not saying it as a fact, but as an experience of coming in contact with all your leaders, your bureaucrats -- they are all drunkards. And they are always coming to the office late. Sometimes they come for half an hour and they are gone. For what? -- "worshipping."

And in fact without wine, how can you worship? Particularly Christians have made wine a part of their holidays, of their worship. Even Jesus Christ was a drunkard -- not only a drunkard, but a criminal in the sense that he was changing water into wine.

I hate the smell of wine. I hate smoke. But one day I am going to drink wine here, and I am going to smoke here, just to show that police commissioner that neither wine is prohibited in India, nor smoking is prohibited in India.

AND THOUGH YOU SEEK IN GARMENTS THE FREEDOM OF PRIVACY, YOU MAY FIND IN THEM A HARNESS AND A CHAIN.

They are not giving you privacy. They are giving you a thin wall surrounding you so you can move, carrying your prison with yourself.

If you have not been naked in the sun and allowed your whole body to be nourished by the vitamins that the sun is showering on you, if you have not been naked in the wind, you are a prisoner. I am not saying to you, go in a public square, or on the streets which are filled with all kinds of idiots, to be naked. Because they are blind and deaf, they are retarded and heartless, and they will not understand it.

But whenever you can find privacy, enjoy freedom from the clothes.

Bertrand Russell had opened a school for small children, and there were many rumors about the school. He was a controversial man -- anyone who can think cannot be otherwise. Finally, the bishop of that locality knocked on the doors. A young girl -- maybe nine years old, naked -- opened the doors and the bishop closed his eyes and said, "My god!" But the girl said, "God has made everybody naked!" And we have never heard that God uses garments -- he must be naked. And what about your holy ghost? Ghosts are not known to purchase clothes, holy or unholy.

And in fact, what the Christians call the holy ghost is the most unholy idea because this holy ghost made pregnant an innocent, virgin girl -- Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. He is a rapist. And still he remains holy, and he is part of God.

This trinity is not separate; this is almost like the trimurti of the Hindus, the three faces of God: God the father, God the son, and God the holy ghost. But no place for any woman... either they have found plastic women or they must be homosexuals.

Another possibility exists and that is that this holy ghost may be functioning both ways -- sometimes man, sometimes woman; sometimes for the father, sometimes for the son. Ghosts can take any shape.

And I have been consistently, all over the world, forced not to criticize any religion. What can I do? Those religions deserve criticism. In fact, they deserve to be burned completely. Their holy scriptures are very unholy.

So remember: Whatever I am saying is not just for you. It is for all of my sannyasins around the world, my sympathizers, my lovers, and they must be in millions. And it is not even just for them; I am talking also for the future generations.

But whatever I say -- there are some nuts present here, too -- don't misunderstand me. That enemies misunderstand me, I can understand. But when you misunderstand me, you are wounding my heart and my being.

I have heard that a few people have arrived in the office, saying, "Osho has allowed us, there is nothing obscene. So we are going to do whatsoever we want on the streets."

This will be stupid -- because your stupidities don't harm you. The whole responsibility comes to me. I have suffered for you in many jails; I have suffered for you in the hands of inhuman police people; I have suffered for you in every way at the hands of almost all the governments of the world.

So when I say these things, be intelligent and understanding because you are surrounded by all kinds of bigots, fanatics, and whatever you do, it ultimately condemns me. Nobody will ever bother about you. Nobody will even ask your name.

A few sannyasins have just come from Nepal, and they were not thinking that there would be any problem because on the border -- they came by road -- there are no computers. All the computers of the Indian government in all the embassies all over the world and in all the international airports in India simply say, "This man is a disciple of Osho and should not be allowed in the country." But they were amazed to see that even on the road -- no airport, just passing the boundary -- the police have a thick book of all the names of sannyasins they may have been able to collect.

And in the ministry, the most egoist and the person most interested in power, Arun Nehru, has issued all these documents, names, to the computers. And if computers are not available, then they are put into a thick book. He made the statement in the parliament -- asked by a member of the parliament, "Is it true that OSHO's sannyasins will not be allowed in India?" he said, "It is absolutely wrong. Everybody is welcome."

These politicians can lie without any shame. Almost all the parliaments of Europe, under pressure from America, have passed resolutions or laws or orders that "this man is very dangerous and he should not be allowed in the country." And because they are all taking billions of dollars of loans every year -- America knows it cannot be returned; from where will they return it? -- they are under economic slavery.

Even the great nations who once ruled the whole world are now in a state of being beggars. They don't have even the guts to ask the American government, "What do you mean by dangerous? Is he carrying a nuclear missile? Is he coming with atom bombs?"

No. Twenty-one countries have decided that I cannot enter because they are afraid I will destroy their religion, I will destroy their morality, I will corrupt the minds of their young people.

And I am amazed -- for two thousand years, what have these idiots been doing? If a morality that has been taught for two thousand years can be destroyed with a three-week tourist visa, then what kind of morality do you have? What kind of religion do you have?

If a single man comes just for three weeks and demolishes all your traditions and all your past, then it deserves to be destroyed! You are befooling people. The simple conclusion is that you have been befooling them and you would not like me to expose that you have been cheating. This is not morality and this is not religion.

And I can do it in three weeks; more than that is not needed. In fact, in their rejection, they have accepted their defeat from a single individual -- who has not even a knife used for cutting vegetables. Impotent religions, impotent moralities -- one just has to indicate, and those who are intelligent will immediately understand it.

So whatever I say, you have to be very clear about it, that if you want to see me alive -- because now there is no other way for all these countries. There is only one way -- to assassinate me. And if you behave in an insane way, you will repent your whole life, and I don't want anybody to repent. You will feel guilty that you have played a part in the assassination.

So don't do anything that goes against the blind and the dead and the deaf. Knowing that they are burdened with past and have not the courage even to understand me, you behave so that they don't have any opportunity.

Let me fight alone, because I am alone enough.

WOULD THAT YOU COULD MEET THE SUN AND THE WIND WITH MORE OF YOUR SKIN AND LESS OF YOUR RAIMENT.

It is a simple physiological fact that your whole skin breathes -- inhales, exhales -- not just your nose. If a thick paint is put on your body so that all possibilities of inhaling and exhaling are stopped, and your nose is left open -- you will still die in three hours. Just the nose is not enough. It is the most important part, but it is not enough. Your whole body consists of almost seven billion living cells. They all need oxygen and they all need to throw out carbon dioxide. Your clothes are preventing it.

Your clothes are not your friends. But because of thousands of years of using clothes, your bodies have become weak, so you will have to use them. But once in a while, when the season allows you and there are no fanatics around, just be as God has sent you -- utterly naked -- and you will feel a new release of life, youthfulness, freshness.

The sun is your friend. The wind is your friend; the rain is your friend. Your clothes are your enemies. But now, because you have become weak -- man is today the weakest animal in existence -- you will have to use clothes. Use clothes... but once in a while, give a chance to the body to have its natural right.

FOR THE BREATH OF LIFE IS IN THE SUNLIGHT AND THE HAND OF LIFE IS IN THE WIND.

SOME OF YOU SAY, "IT IS THE NORTH WIND WHO HAS WOVEN THE CLOTHES WE WEAR."

AND I SAY, AY, IT WAS THE NORTH WIND,

BUT SHAME WAS HIS LOOM, AND THE SOFTENING OF THE SINEWS WAS HIS THREAD.

Because of the continuous hammering of a certain thought -- that your bodies are ugly, that your bodies are your punishment -- you have become very ashamed to be seen naked. Almustafa is right: shame was his loom. All your clothes are woven on the loom of shame.

But what is shameful? Trees are naked, all the animals are naked, all the birds are naked. What is shame? And the clothes have done immense harm to your health, to your beauty, for the simple reason that they have become a barrier between you and life. The whole existence is naked except man. And why should one be ashamed?

It is your body, it is your temple, it is the place God is dwelling in. There is no question of shame.

But this is how religions have been exploiting you, politicians have been exploiting you. Your so-called leaders are not leaders but murderers. They have murdered the whole of humankind in many ways -- enslaved, weakened you.

A truly religious person cannot be ashamed of his body because it is a gift. And feeling ashamed of your body, you are condemning existence.

AND WHEN HIS WORK WAS DONE, HE LAUGHED IN THE FOREST.

He's saying when the work of making the man ashamed was complete, the very energy that has made you ashamed of yourself laughed in the forest.

In fact, all the trees laugh, looking at you; all the birds laugh, looking at you -- "What a strange creature this man is! Why should he hide himself?"

The small rose bush is not ashamed of being small. Neither are the cedars of Lebanon, reaching one hundred fifty, two hundred fifty feet high in the sky, proud. It is the same nature that creates the rose bush; it is the same nature that creates the cedar. Our mother is the same.

We come from the same source. To feel ashamed is a condemnation -- not of you, but of the source that has given you everything without asking anything in return.

FORGET NOT THAT MODESTY IS FOR A SHIELD AGAINST THE EYE OF THE UNCLEAN.

You have been told again and again in the past that modesty is a great quality. This is an utter lie. Modesty is just a shield against the eye of the unclean.

And who are the unclean? Understanding the past and the religions that it created... it is a tremendous surprise. On the one hand, they make you repressive of your energies -- particularly of your sex, because that is the only energy you have. Have you ever heard of any impotent person becoming enlightened? Have you ever heard of any impotent person becoming a great poet or a great painter or a great dancer or a great singer? The impotent person does not have the energy. It is not only a question that he cannot produce children; he cannot produce poems, he cannot produce anything at all.

He's a saint, celibate. Only impotent people are celibate. Those who are not impotent, their celibacy is hypocrisy. And I challenge all your shankaracharyas who pretend that they are celibate: they should be examined by the medical experts. And you will find none of them is celibate, unless somebody turns out to be impotent.

You should remember: Sex is energy.

And energy is God.

And I have been ordered not to talk about sex. That means I have been ordered not to talk about God, not to talk about life. Then what am I supposed to talk about? But these people have no idea what they are saying.

If God gives you sexual energy, it becomes sacred. Anything from God is sacred and everything is from God. And by "God" I don't mean a certain person, I mean the whole existence.

When the cuckoo starts singing, have you ever thought for what the song is for? It is to attract a sexual partner. But nobody condemns the cuckoo as obscene. When the flowers open and send their fragrance, what do you think they are doing? They are advertising that "I have come to flower; now butterflies, bees are invited and welcome." But for what? -- because the flower has small seeds which will go with the butterflies, with the bees. Because the same division exists in the whole existence: there are plants which are male, and there are plants which are female. The male plant has to send its seeds to the female plant, its beloved.

Nobody condemns flowers. In fact, you take flowers to your temple to offer to your god. You are not aware you are offering sexual energy to your god.

Have you seen the dance of a peacock? Do you think he is dancing for you? And remember one thing: The beautiful tail of rainbow colors and the dancing peacock is male. He is attracting some female. It is only the insane humanity where the female has to attract the male.

All over nature, it is the male who attracts the female. And for that reason, all over nature the male is more beautiful -- because the female need not have any beauty; just being female is enough. But strange -- man has been standing on his head, doing shirshasana continuously. It is the male who should be more beautiful so that a female is attracted towards him.

But religions have made a mess. To such an extent that if you see a rich man walking with his wife, he looks like a servant, and the wife looks nothing but an advertisement for his riches. All the diamonds, all the emeralds, all the rubies, all gold -- that is an advertisement for the man. He's just a businessman; having a beautiful wife is a business strategy so you can invite your customers to your house for dinner, and your wife will hypnotize them with her beauty so that you can cut their pockets! But man has become just a servant, a businessman. His riches are known through the wife -- his riches, his beauty, his genius has to be kept hidden.

Whenever you disturb nature and start manufacturing your own rules, remember it is a crime -- unforgivable.

Forget not that modesty is for a shield... The modesty of the Eastern woman is praised very highly all over the world, but it is a shield. In the West the woman is not modest. She stands on her own feet, equal to man -- there is no question of modesty. The Indian woman has been corrupted for thousands of years to be modest. Modesty is her great ornament.

And Almustafa has really great insight into the fact when he says it is against the eye of the unclean. Who are the unclean? -- the people who have repressed their nature, who have repressed their sexual desires. They may take as many dips as they want into the Ganges -- it only impures the Ganges, but their uncleanliness remains because it is not on the body, it is deep in their minds.

I have heard.... Three old retired men were sitting on a bench in a garden -- that was their usual habit; every day they used to come. The whole day there was nothing to do. This was their only enjoyment, their only entertainment, to discuss and tell each other about the golden memories of the past.

One day it happened... all the three were sitting. One was seventy-five, another was eighty-five, the third was ninety-five. The youngest, seventy-five, said, "I am very much disturbed, very sad."

Both the old fellows asked him, "Tell us. What happened?"

He said, "A beautiful woman came to my house as a guest. She was taking a bath, and I was peeping through the keyhole and my mother caught me red-handed. Don't you think it would make anybody very sad, humiliated?" Both the older fellows laughed. They said, "Don't be worried. In childhood everybody does it, and once in a while everybody is caught. In fact, the keyhole is made for that purpose!"

The man said, "You don't understand. It is not a question of childhood, it happened this morning!"

But it is possible only if a man has been repressing, repressing, repressing. Then he is never free. His inside is really unclean and dirty. If he had lived totally, he would have transcended all these desires and would have been absolutely clean.

On the one hand, religions have made people unclean, dirty -- dirty in their minds. And on the other hand, they have been teaching women to be modest -- "a shield against the unclean." So when an old man comes to your house, touch his feet, call him Papa, keep your eyes looking at the ground. This is a shield.

A healthy human society will not need any shield because there will not be dirty old men. My sannyasins need not have any shield. They have lived their life joyously, thankfully, and they have transcended -- or they will be transcending. But they will not collect all kinds of dirty, repressed desires.

The second old man said, "This is nothing. You always bring third-rate stories. What happened to me is very humiliating. It is now three days I have not made love to my wife. And each time I try, she says, `I have a headache."'

The oldest started laughing. He said, "First you tell that boy what you mean by love, because he does not know your secret."

He said, "There is no secret. My love is that every night before going to sleep I take the hand of my wife and press it three times. But for three days, she has not allowed -- it hurts."

And both asked the oldest fellow, "Have you anything to say?"

He said, "I'm really in a mess. This morning when I started making love to my wife, she said, `You idiot! What are you doing?"'

"I said, `The same thing that I have been doing for almost the whole century: I'm making love."'

"She said, `Love -- my foot. This is the third time tonight that you are making love. Will you allow me to sleep or not?"'

"I said, `Three times? That means I am losing my memory!"'

These are your unclean people: the elders towards whom you have been taught to be always respectful. Modesty is certainly a shield against these ugly creatures which religion has produced.

The crimes of religion are uncountable.

AND WHEN THE UNCLEAN SHALL BE NO MORE, WHAT WERE MODESTY BUT A FETTER AND A FOULING OF THE MIND?

The moment these repressed people disappear from the earth, what will modesty be? -- just a fetter, unnecessarily. Mohammedans don't allow their women even to show their faces. This is modesty, a protection, a shield against the repressed people all around. But when there is no repressed people, these Burkhas, these veils will be just fetters and fouling of the mind. They will disappear.

It will be a great day when a woman and a man can meet just as human beings, without any shields, without any barriers, open hearted. That's my whole effort for my people: to make them so totally alive that everything is consumed in it and they come out free, authentic, sincere.

AND FORGET NOT THAT THE EARTH DELIGHTS TO FEEL YOUR BARE FEET, AND THE WINDS LONG TO PLAY WITH YOUR HAIR.

The whole existence delights in your delight.

The whole existence sings with you, dances with you.

And when someone becomes enlightened, the whole existence celebrates it -- because we are not separate. We are all one cosmic whole.

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.

Kahlil-Gibrans-Prophet

THE MESSIAH, VOL 1

Chapter-18

Shame was his loom...