Commentaries on Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. Vol. 2 The Messiah Chapter 1: In this silence

BELOVED OSHO,

AND AN ORATOR SAID, SPEAK TO US OF FREEDOM.

AND HE ANSWERED:

AT THE CITY GATE AND BY YOUR FIRESIDE I HAVE SEEN YOU PROSTRATE YOURSELF AND WORSHIP YOUR OWN FREEDOM,

EVEN AS SLAVES HUMBLE THEMSELVES BEFORE A TYRANT AND PRAISE HIM THOUGH HE SLAYS THEM.

AY, IN THE GROVE OF THE TEMPLE AND IN THE SHADOW OF THE CITADEL I HAVE SEEN THE FREEST AMONG YOU WEAR THEIR FREEDOM AS A YOKE AND A HANDCUFF.

AND MY HEART BLED WITHIN ME; FOR YOU CAN ONLY BE FREE WHEN EVEN THE DESIRE OF SEEKING FREEDOM BECOMES A HARNESS TO YOU, AND WHEN YOU CEASE TO SPEAK OF FREEDOM AS A GOAL AND A FULFILMENT.

YOU SHALL BE FREE INDEED WHEN YOUR DAYS ARE NOT WITHOUT A CARE NOR YOUR NIGHTS WITHOUT A WANT AND A GRIEF,

BUT RATHER WHEN THESE THINGS GIRDLE YOUR LIFE AND YET YOU RISE ABOVE THEM NAKED AND UNBOUND.

AND HOW SHALL YOU RISE BEYOND YOUR DAYS AND NIGHTS UNLESS YOU BREAK THE CHAINS WHICH YOU AT THE DAWN OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING HAVE FASTENED AROUND YOUR NOON HOUR?

IN TRUTH THAT WHICH YOU CALL FREEDOM IS THE STRONGEST OF THESE CHAINS, THOUGH ITS LINKS GLITTER IN THE SUN AND DAZZLE YOUR EYES.

The true freedom has nothing to do with the outside world.

The true freedom is not political, is not economic; it is spiritual. Political freedom can be taken away at any moment; economic freedom can disappear just like a dewdrop in the early morning sun. They are not in your hands. And that which is not in your hands cannot be called true freedom.

True freedom is always spiritual. It has something to do with your innermost being, which cannot be chained, which cannot be handcuffed, which cannot be put into a jail.

Yes, your body can suffer all these things, but your soul is intrinsically free. You don't have to ask for it, and you don't have to struggle for it. It is already there, this very moment. If you turn inwards, all chains, all prisons, all kinds of slaveries disappear -- and there are many. Freedom is only one; slaveries are many -- just as truth is one, lies can be thousands.

AND AN ORATOR SAID, SPEAK TO US OF FREEDOM.

The orator is only articulate with words. He talks about freedom, about love, about beauty, about good, but he only talks; his oratory is nothing but a training of the mind. The orator has no concern with realities. His world consists only of words -- which are impotent, without any content -- and his art is to manage those impotent and contentless words in such a way that you are caught in the words.

It is very relevant that an orator asked Almustafa: speak to us of freedom.

What exactly is the innermost substance of freedom? -- that you are free from the past, that you are free from the future. You do not have memories binding you with the past, dragging you always backwards -- that is against existence: nothing goes backwards. And your freedom is also from imagination, desire, longing -- they drag you towards the future.

Neither the past exists nor the future exists.

All that you have in your hands is the present.

The man who lives in the present, unburdened of past and future, knows the taste of freedom. He has no chains -- chains of memories, chains of desires. These are the real chains which bind your soul and never allow you to live the moment that is yours.

As far as I am concerned, I don't see that without a meditative mind one can ever be in freedom.

In India what you have known in the West as paradise is known as moksha. Moksha means freedom. Paradise does not mean freedom, paradise comes from a Persian root, phirdaus, which means "a walled garden." But don't forget that it is a walled garden: it may be a garden, but it is a prison.

The biblical story says that God became annoyed with Adam and Eve and threw them out of the garden of Eden. Into what? Where? If you ask me, it was a curse hiding the greatest freedom, the greatest blessing. They were out of the prison, and that was the beginning of humanity. Now the whole sky and the whole earth was theirs, and it was up to them what they make of it. It is unfortunate that they have not been able to create a free world. Each nation has again become a walled prison -- not even a walled garden.

In a small school, the religious teacher was talking to the children about the biblical beginnings of the world. A small boy raised his hand to ask a question. The teacher said, "What is your question?"

He said, "My question is: THE BIBLE says, `God drove out Adam and Eve.' What model of car did he use?"

It must have been a Ford -- the first model, called the Model-T Ford. And I think that poor God is still driving the Model-T Ford without any mechanics, because neither is his son Jesus Christ a mechanic, nor is the Holy Ghost, nor is He Himself.

Christianity thinks that God punished man. My understanding and insight says: God may have thought He was punishing them, but the reality is that God is still imprisoned in a walled garden. And it was a blessing in disguise that he made man free. His intention was not good, but the result was the whole evolution of man. And if evolution is not going as fast as it should go, again the priests of God, of all religions, are preventing it.

When Galileo found that it is not the sun that goes around the earth, that it is an appearance and not a reality.... The reality is just the opposite: the earth goes around the sun. When he wrote a treatise explaining his reasons, evidence, proofs, arguments, he was very old -- seventy or seventy-five -- and sick, bedridden, almost dying. But Christian love is such that the people of the pope dragged him from his bed to the court of the pope.

The pope said, "You have committed the gravest crime, because THE BIBLE says, and everybody knows, that the sun goes around the earth. Either you have to change your opinion, or death will be the penalty."

Galileo, even in his old age, sick and dying, must have been an immensely beautiful man, a man with a sense of humor. He said, "Your Honor, there is no problem. I can write what you are saying. There is just one thing I want to make clear to you -- that my writing is going to be read neither by the sun nor by the earth. They will continue in their old way, as they have always done. The earth will continue to go around the sun. You can burn my book or I can change the paragraph."

The pope said, "You change the paragraph."

He changed the paragraph and wrote, "According to THE BIBLE and according to the pope and according to the ordinary humanity, it appears that the sun goes around the earth." And in the footnote he wrote, "The truth is just the opposite. I cannot help it -- I cannot convince the earth to follow THE BIBLE, and I cannot convince the sun to follow THE BIBLE. They are not Christian." The footnote was discovered only after his death; otherwise he would have been crucified by the Christians -- who go on making so much fuss about the crucifixion of Jesus.

I was talking to one of the most important Christian missionaries, Stanley Jones, and asked, "What do you think about it? -- why was the pope insistent? If science had discovered it, THE BIBLE should have been corrected."

Stanley Jones said to me, "It may have great implications. If one statement in THE BIBLE is wrong, then what is the guarantee that other statements are not wrong?"

And THE BIBLE is a holy book, coming directly from God. Nothing can be changed in it, nothing can be edited out, nothing can be added into it. And in the last three hundred years man has found so many things which are against THE BIBLE.

In fact, as you grow in consciousness, you are bound to find that what was written two thousand years ago, or five thousand years ago, has to be continually improved. New editions have to be produced. But what religions lack is courage -- courage to be on the side of truth. And it is not only Christians, the case is the same with the Hindus, the Mohammedans, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Jainas. There is not any difference in their mentality.

A man of freedom is free of the past. And the man of freedom is also free of the future, because you don't know what is going to happen the next moment. How can you go on desiring?...

An old man was dying. He was a Jew; and his four sons, who used to live in different houses, were of course immensely rich people. Hearing that their father was dying, they rushed to him.

The father was dying, taking his last breath on the bed, and just sitting by the side of the bed, the sons started discussing how to take his body to the graveyard. Their concern was not the father -- a few minutes more and he would be gone, forever; there was no possibility of their meeting or recognizing each other again... but that was not their concern. They were concerned about: "When he dies, how are we going to transport his body?"

The youngest boy suggested, "He always wanted to have a Rolls Royce. And he has enough money, we have enough money; there is no need for him to suffer and repress an innocent desire. So at least we should bring a Rolls Royce to carry his body to the graveyard. In his life he missed, but at least in death he will have the Rolls Royce."

The second boy said, "You are too young and you don't understand matters concerning money. It is a sheer wastage. He is dead -- whether you take him in a Rolls Royce or in a truck does not matter to him. He will not be able to know, so why waste money?" And it was not much money either, just to hire a Rolls Royce taxi. It was not a question of purchasing it. He said, "My suggestion is that a cheap truck will do as efficiently as any Rolls Royce -- for the dead it makes no difference."

The third boy said, "You are also still immature. Why bother about a truck, when the municipal corporation truck takes, free of charge, any beggar who dies? Just put him out on the road! In the morning the municipal truck, with all kinds of rubbish, will take him for free. Give him a free ride! And what does it matter to a dead man whether it is a municipal truck or a hired truck or a Rolls Royce?"

At that very moment the old man opened his eyes and said, "Where are my shoes?" They were puzzled, "What are you going to do with shoes? Why waste a pair of shoes? Anyway you are going to die."

He said, "I'm still alive and perhaps have a few more breaths. Just bring the shoes; I will walk to the graveyard. That is the cheapest and the sanest way. You are all extravagant, spendthrift."

People may have money, and the money becomes their fetter. People may have prestige, and the prestige becomes their fetters. It seems the whole past of humanity has been improving on how to make better chains, but even if a chain is made of gold, it is still a chain. Freedom on the outside is just the politician's continuous deceiving of the whole humanity.

Freedom is your individual affair.

It is totally subjective.

If you have thrown out all the rubbish of the past and all the desires and ambitions for the future, this very moment you are free -- just like a bird on the wing, the whole sky is yours. Perhaps even the sky is not the limit.

Why is the orator, not a slave, asking him? It would have been far more relevant had a slave asked, speak to us of freedom. The orator is asking about freedom so that he can start speaking on freedom with more efficiency and with more articulateness.

He is not interested in being free. His interest is to become a great orator about freedom -- because everybody is in chains of different kinds, and enslaved by religions, by politicians, by parents, by society. The orator is simply asking to decorate his speeches. It is not an authentic question. But the answer is far more authentic. Almustafa answered:

AT THE CITY GATE AND BY YOUR FIRESIDE I HAVE SEEN YOU PROSTRATE YOURSELF AND WORSHIP YOUR OWN FREEDOM.

What do you do when you go to a Hindu temple, or a Mohammedan mosque, or a Christian church, or a synagogue? -- you are worshiping things which you yourself have created. And that shows man's utter stupidity: first you carve a statue of God and then you prostrate yourself before it. This is your religion. Why don't you start touching your own feet? There is no difference.

Mohammedans have been in difficulty, because Mohammed, fourteen centuries ago, found that the people of Arabia were worshiping three hundred and sixty-five statues. Kaaba was their temple, and for every day one statue was worshiped. And even

Mohammed, uneducated, could see the foolishness of it -- you make the statues, and then you worship them -- so he destroyed all those three hundred and sixty-five statues.

I am not in favor of his destruction. Instead... the same thing started again. He himself started it, because he found man is so much in love with his own misery that he cannot understand the idea of freedom -- because to be free is to be free of misery.

The same Kaaba where three hundred and sixty-five statues used to exist also had a big square stone. It was not an ordinary stone, it was an asteroid. Every night you see stars falling -- but stars don't fall, and it is good and compassionate of them that they don't fall, because they are so big that if they fell on the earth, the whole earth would disappear as if it had never existed. What you see, and call falling stars, are nothing but small stones.

When the moon became separated from the earth.... In the beginning days the earth was not so solid. It is not solid even today, if you go deep inside: deep inside, it is burning lava. Once in a while it erupts into a volcano, but the upper crust has become solid. In the beginning it was not solid, and when the liquid earth was first moving on its own center....

It takes twenty-four hours for it to move on its own center. And then it is also moving around the sun -- it takes three hundred and sixty-five days. In this double movement parts of the liquid crust were falling out here and there. Where you find, today, the great oceans, those are the places where big lumps of earth fell out. Joined together, they became your moon.

This moon continues to move around the earth, but no religious scripture of the world has any idea of it. Sometimes, because there are almost three thousand stones falling every twenty-four hours on the earth.... In the day you cannot see them because the sun is so bright, but in the night you can see them. It is a stone moving towards the earth, pulled by gravitation, with such a speed that the friction makes it burn up; hence you see the light and you think it is a star.

But sometimes big stones also fall, and the Kaaba is one of the biggest stones that has fallen. Because it had fallen from above, the people who worshiped the three hundred and sixty-five statues thought that it was a gift from God, and they placed it in the middle of the temple. The temple was vast -- naturally, to accommodate three hundred and sixty-five guests. It was a five star hotel! And it was just a coincidence that the stone of Kaaba fell there. Mohammed destroyed all the statues, but he could not destroy the men's memories, he could not destroy the men's imaginations. Not finding the statues, they started worshiping that great stone.

It seems that man is afraid to be free. He wants some father in the sky, at least for complaints and prayers. He needs a father in the sky as God, to take care of him. Without God in the sky, he feels like a lost child. It is a father fixation, psychologically.

Almustafa is saying, "I have seen you worshiping and prostrating yourself; and in a certain way you worship yourself -- in a roundabout way." The simplest way would have been to just put a mirror up, stand before the mirror, and with folded hands, repeat any kind of prayer -- Hebrew, Sanskrit, Arabic, Greek, Latin. Don't use the language that you know, because when you know the language your prayer looks very ordinary. When you don't know the language, it is mystifying.

... EVEN AS SLAVES HUMBLE THEMSELVES BEFORE A TYRANT AND PRAISE HIM THOUGH HE SLAYS THEM.

Your worship is just like slaves praising the tyrant who has reduced them from humanity into slavery. And he can kill them any moment, because a slave is a property, not a person.

AY, IN THE GROVE OF THE TEMPLE AND IN THE SHADOW OF THE CITADEL I HAVE SEEN THE FREEST AMONG

YOU WEAR THEIR FREEDOM AS A YOKE AND A HANDCUFF.

Thousands of years of many kinds of slavery have made you so afraid to be free -- which is your birthright and which is your ultimate blissfulness. Your so-called temples and synagogues and mosques and churches are not symbols of freedom, they are symbols of your slavery, of your dead tyrants. But even intelligent people go on doing the same thing.

For example, I would like to tell you.... Mahatma Gandhi has been praised all over the world. Perhaps I am the only person who can see his retardedness: he was preaching nonviolence his whole life and at the same time he was worshiping the SHRIMAD BHAGAVADGITA, the Hindu bible, which is the only book in the world which teaches violence. And I cannot conceive that he could not see the contradiction.

Krishna, in the BHAGAVADGITA, says continually to Arjuna, "It is God's will that you should go to war and destroy your enemies." But because it was a family quarrel -- they were cousin-brothers fighting with each other, Arjuna and Duryodhana -- it was a very strange kind of fight. On each side they had their relatives. It was one family -- even the grandfather had to choose which side to be on; even their master, who had taught both of them the art of archery, had to choose.

Bhishma is known as one of the great men in India, because he remained celibate his whole life. And Dronacharya, the master archer, had loved Arjuna, because he had the capacity to become a master archer in his own right. But still, both of them, the wise Bhishma, and the great archer Dronacharya chose to be against Arjuna and his brothers, because they were only five brothers, and the other party consisted of one hundred brothers. Dronacharya and Bhishma's choice to be on the other side shows not wisdom but only a business mind. Seeing that the one hundred brothers had more strength... and it is always good to be with the strong.

Almost the whole country was divided into two parts. And there were friends on that side, there were friends on this side. Even Krishna was in a difficulty -- he was the spiritual guide of the whole family. So he found a way and gave the choice to both Arjuna and Duryodhana: "One can have me and the other can have my armies. You can choose." Naturally Duryodhana chose his big army, and Arjuna chose Krishna himself to be his charioteer.

The day of fight had come. Both the parties, millions of people, had gathered on the war field, facing each other. A strange kind of fight -- they were all related in some way or other to each other. Seeing the whole thing, Arjuna said, "I don't feel this victory is worth anything. Killing my own people... because on the other side are also my own people -- my grandfather, my teacher, my friends, my relatives -- and on my side also are my friends. Both will be killed.

"And even if I become victorious, upon millions of corpses, sitting on a golden throne, I will not be happy. These are the people I have loved, these are the people I have lived for. And just for the kingdom and the golden throne...? I am feeling very sad, and seeing the truth with my own eyes, I want to renounce the world and become a sannyasin and go to the Himalayas. Let my cousin-brothers rule -- at least nobody will be harmed.

"How can I kill my own master, who is on the other side? How can I kill my own grandfather, who is on the other side?" And Krishna went on and on to convince him, "A warrior's religion is to fight. You are becoming weak, you are becoming soft. A warrior need not have any heart."

But no argument could convince Arjuna. Finally, as the last resort, Krishna said, "It is God's will that you should participate in the war." If I were in the place of Arjuna, I would not have wasted that much time -- because why should God speak to Krishna and not to Arjuna -- "If it is His will, He should speak to me directly. I'm feeling that it is absolutely ridiculous and I'm going to take sannyas and move to the mountains to meditate."

But we have always accepted the mediators: God speaks through the pope, God speaks through Jesus Christ, God speaks through Krishna. He has a certain kind of postal system; He never speaks directly.

The whole book of the BHAGAVADGITA is full of arguments for violence -- even God is for violence. My puzzle has been that Mahatma Gandhi, teaching non-violence, continually carried the BHAGAVADGITA with him. He worshiped the BHAGAVADGITA; every morning a part of it was recited in the ashram of Mahatma Gandhi. And he never became aware of the fact that it is the only book in the world which teaches so openly in favor of violence, and even drags God into it.

Man's blindness seems to be unlimited.

So for thousands of years, if you have been in chains, handcuffed, you must have started believing that these are ornaments, that this is the will of God. Your parents cannot be your enemies. If they take you to the church or to the temple, they take you there because they love you. But the reality is, they take you there because they were taken by their parents. It is a robot-like process, mechanical. And slowly, slowly the slavery has penetrated into your blood, into your bones, into your very marrow.

So if somebody speaks against Krishna, immediately you are ready to fight with him: he has spoken against your God -- who is nothing but a slavery. If somebody speaks against Jesus, immediately you are furious: he has spoken against your God -- but he was speaking only against your chains.

This is the reason why I have been condemned by all the countries of the world, all the religions of the world -- because I'm speaking against their slavery. It is polished, decorated, and they have always lived in it. Their parents and their parents' parents... a long line of slaves. How can they drop their inheritance? You get in inheritance nothing but slavery. And even if you don't take it seriously, still it is serious.

I have heard... three rabbis were talking about their synagogues. The first rabbi said, "My synagogue is the most advanced because in my synagogue, while I am delivering the sermon, people are allowed to smoke, gossip, talk. I have given them total freedom."

The other two rabbis laughed. The second one said, "This you call advancement? Come to my synagogue. I have given them freedom to drink alcohol, and when they become drunk they shout, they scream, they fight, but I continue giving my discourse. This is freedom."

In a synagogue women and men cannot sit together; there is a curtain between them. And the second rabbi also said, "The curtain has been removed. Now women and men sit together. I don't even interfere... whether it is your wife you are sitting with or not. Even boyfriends and girlfriends are allowed to do all kinds of loving things -- kissing, hugging -- and my discourse continues. We have entered into the era of freedom."

The third rabbi said, "You are both idiots. You should come sometime to my synagogue. I have placed a board in front of the synagogue, saying that on every Jewish holiday the synagogue will remain closed. This is freedom. Why waste people's time? At least on a holiday let them have all kinds of entertainment available to them."

But these are not freedoms. They are all still Jews. Unless you drop your Jewishness, your Hinduism, your Jainism, your Mohammedanism, unless you are completely clean of the past, unless you are no longer dominated by the dead and no longer enchanted by the unpredictable future, you are not free. Freedom is here and now -- neither the yesterday nor the tomorrow, but this very moment.

A man of understanding unburdens himself.

And all the chains that have been heavy on his heart -- although he had become accustomed to that heaviness -- disappear.

I am saying it to you with absolute authority, because it is my experience. The moment your chains disappear you start growing wings for the sky. Then the whole sky, full of stars, is yours.

AND MY HEART BLED WITHIN ME; FOR YOU CAN ONLY BE FREE WHEN EVEN THE DESIRE OF SEEKING FREEDOM BECOMES A HARNESS TO YOU....

A very profound statement: The very desire for freedom can also become a fetter. All desires fetter you; freedom is not an exception... for the simple reason that all desires live in the future. A man who is free does not even know anything about slavery or freedom, he enjoys his freedom. It is his very quality of being.

AND MY HEART BLED WITHIN ME; FOR YOU CAN ONLY BE FREE WHEN EVEN THE DESIRE OF SEEKING FREEDOM BECOMES A HARNESS TO YOU, AND WHEN YOU CEASE TO SPEAK OF FREEDOM AS A GOAL AND A FULFILMENT.

All goals are bound to be in the future, and all desires for fulfillment in the future are nothing but a cover-up of your misery in the present. Your tomorrows go on giving you promises -- it is only one day, it will pass; tomorrow I will be free.

But tomorrow never comes, has never come. You will never be free. The tomorrow is only a consolation. Instead of bringing freedom to you, it is going to bring death to you. And all the days that you lived, you lived as a slave, because you never bothered about the present.

I say unto you that the present is the only reality there is. The future is your imagination, and the past is your memory. They don't exist. What exists is the present moment.

To be fully alert in the present, to gather your consciousness from past and future and concentrate in the present, is to know the taste of freedom.

YOU SHALL BE FREE INDEED WHEN YOUR DAYS ARE NOT WITHOUT A CARE NOR YOUR NIGHTS WITHOUT A WANT AND A GRIEF....

It seems man has fallen into such a trap. He is not even as free as the birds of the sky, or the wild animals of the forest. There are so many fetters around him, and he has accepted them. In fact, what is your care right now? What is your anxiety right now? What is your anguish right now?

In this silence, you are absolutely free.

When your days are free of care, your nights are bound to be without grief, because the same day is reflected in your nights. If, the whole day, you are disturbed and worried, and hankering and desiring, and feeling frustrated, your nights will be nightmares. But if you are living each moment in its totality, with intensity, with your wholeness, your nights will be calm and quiet, relaxed and peaceful. Not even a dream can disturb you, because dreams come from unfulfilled life, from repressed life.

The Western psychology has missed the point completely -- particularly, psychoanalysis; it goes on analyzing your dreams, without bothering about the source. The source is in your waking hours, but you are so fettered, so imprisoned in your religion, in your morality, in your etiquette, in your manners, that you cannot live. All these unlived moments will return to you when you are asleep, because anything unlived slips into your unconscious. If you are living fully....

Freud would have been very much surprised to know, if he had come to the East, and gone to see the aboriginals who live deep in the forests.... I have visited them, and the most surprising thing was that they don't have any dreams. They know the real depth and relaxation of life. Naturally, in the morning they are more alive, more young, more fresh, to face the day and to live it again totally. The condition of the civilized man is just the opposite. He does not only dream in the night. Anytime, sit in your chair, relax, and close your eyes, and some dream starts floating by.

You are not living.

You are only desiring to live.

You are hoping to live someday, hoping that this night is not going to be forever, that sometime there must be the dawn. But for the slave there is no dawn. He has to live in darkness, without even becoming aware that there is such a thing as light.

Don't take your so-called life for granted. This is not life at all. You have to go through a revolution; and that revolution has nothing to do with any politics, with any economics. It has something to do with your spirituality, and an awareness -- when your innermost core is full of light, your outer light also starts reflecting it.

YOU SHALL BE FREE INDEED WHEN YOUR DAYS ARE NOT WITHOUT A CARE NOR YOUR NIGHTS WITHOUT A WANT AND A GRIEF,

BUT RATHER WHEN THESE THINGS GIRDLE YOUR LIFE AND YET YOU RISE ABOVE THEM NAKED AND UNBOUND.

Because they are old, and old companions to you, they will again and again try to make you unfree. But you should be aware always to transcend them. You should watch them coming, and say to them good-bye forever. That is, to me, the essential meaning of sannyas. Then suddenly you become part of these beautiful trees... with beautiful roses, with great stars -- they are all free.

Except in man, there exists no slavery in the world.

And to get out of it is not difficult. It is not a question of your slavery clinging to you. The reality is: you are clinging to your slavery.

It happened one time: I was standing by the side of a great river, in full flood, and it looked like a blanket was going down the river. One man, a fisherman, immediately jumped to catch hold of the blanket, and the moment he got hold of the blanket, he started shouting, "Save me, help me!"

I could not understand it. I said, "I don't understand it. If the blanket is too heavy, drop it.

He said, "It is not a blanket, it is a living wolf, and I saw only his back and thought it was a blanket." I said, "Then leave me alone."

But the situation of your slavery is not that of the fisherman; it is not that your slavery is clinging to you. The fisherman was in a difficulty, because now the wolf was clinging to him.

Your chains are your responsibility.

You have accepted them; they are there. In full awareness, say to them, "Good-bye, you have been long with us. It is enough, we depart."

A simple awareness is needed to bring freedom to you, but there are some vested interests in clinging to your slavery.

I was a teacher in the university, and for almost twenty days I was out of the town, moving around the country. That much leave is not possible; although within ten days of every month, I was completing the course with the students. I asked them, "Have you any complaint?"

They said, "We are grateful to see the fact that for a small course, two years are wasted... not more than six months are needed." But the vice-chancellor became disturbed, because again and again he found that I was not in the university.

I had my own device: there were beautiful trees, but strangely, all the trees had died. There was only one tree which was still green and with shade, so I used to park my car under that tree. It had become known that nobody should park his car there. Once or twice, people had tried, and I had called my students to remove the car... wherever it goes, let it go, but this place is reserved. So whenever I was going out of the town, I used to send my car with my chauffeur, and the vice-chancellor, seeing my car under the tree from his window, was satisfied that I was there.

One day he was taking a round of the whole university, and he found my class was empty. He asked the students, "He is supposed to be here, and his car is parked exactly under the tree. And I have been always suspicious: I have been reading his discourses -- sometimes in Calcutta, sometimes in Amritsar, sometimes in Madras -- and I have always been puzzled; his car is there."

I used to drive my car, and I had told my chauffeur, "Lock the car and enjoy yourself for one or two hours in the garden, and then take the car back home."

He said, "Well, what is the point?"

I said, "You don't be worried about it; it is not your problem."

So when I came back from Madras one day, the vice-chancellor called me and asked, "It seems you are a master of yourself. You never ask for leave, you never even inform me."

I said, "Just give me a piece of paper," and I resigned.

He said, "What are you doing?"

I said, "That is my answer. Are my students, in any way, suffering by my absence? Have they said to you that their courses are not complete? It is sheer nonsense to waste their two years. My job is to teach them their full course. It does not matter in how many days I do it."

In the evening he came to my house, and he said, "Don't leave us."

I said, "What has happened, has happened, and I cannot enter your university for the simple reason... you just see, I have burned all my certificates, because I don't want bridges with the past. I will never need these certificates. Now I am an uneducated man."

He said, "I will not say anything to anybody."

I said, "That is not the point. I really wanted to resign, but I was simply waiting -- it should come from you, not from me."

Almustafa is saying:

BUT RATHER WHEN THESE THINGS GIRDLE YOUR LIFE AND YET YOU RISE ABOVE THEM NAKED AND UNBOUND.

My father was worried, my friends were worried. My students came, saying, "Please take your resignation back."

I said, "That is impossible. I don't have any qualifications to be your teacher anymore."

My father was saying to me, "Even if you have resigned, what is the point of burning all your certificates and qualifications?"

I said, "What is the point of keeping them? Keeping them means, somewhere deep down, the desire is still there... perhaps you may need them, cling to them. I am now completely free of all that education which has not given anything to me, and I don't want to carry those wounds -- they are not certificates -- always with me."

After two years, the vice-chancellor asked me, "At least once in a while you can come, to address the whole university." So I went. He took me into his room, to the window from where he used to see my car. He said, "A strange phenomenon -- only that tree was green. Now that too has died."

I said, "Life is mysterious. Perhaps the tree had fallen in love with me, perhaps the tree was living just for me, because for nine years continually my car was waiting under the tree, and I had become very friendly with the tree. It was not only a question of parking the car under it, I always thanked the tree. Once in a while, when my chauffeur was with me, sitting at the back, he would say, "You are really crazy -- thanking the tree?"

I said, "The tree is so loving. Out of all the trees in the line, it is a very beautiful tree -- gulmarg, with red flowers. When spring comes you can hardly see the leaves; there are so many flowers that the whole tree becomes red." The same kind of trees had all died, but she remained with me alive for nine years. Still somebody else parks his car there, but perhaps he has not even bothered to thank the tree, has not shown his gratitude to the tree.

The moment you are free of past and future, just sit by the side of a tree, whisper something to the tree, and soon you will know that it responds. Of course, its response is not going to be in words; perhaps it showers its flowers on you; perhaps it dances in the wind. And if you are sitting very close, your back touching the tree, you will start feeling a certain new sensation that you have never felt before. The tree is vibrating with love for you.

This whole existence is full of love, full of freedom -- except the miserable man; and nobody is responsible for it except you. And it is not a question of gradually dropping....

Many people have come to me and said, "We understand you; gradually we will drop...." But slavery is never dropped gradually: either you have understood and you are free, or you have not understood and are just pretending to understand.

Freedom does not come in fragments, neither does slavery go in fragments. When you bring a light into a dark room.... Have you not seen it? -- does the darkness go in fragments: a little part, then another part, making a queue, going out of the room? Or does the light come in fragments: a little light, then more, then more? No, the moment you bring the light in, there is no darkness. The very understanding of what freedom is... and you are free. It is not a question of time, or gradualness.

AND HOW SHALL YOU RISE BEYOND YOUR DAYS AND NIGHTS UNLESS YOU BREAK THE CHAINS WHICH YOU AT THE DAWN OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING HAVE FASTENED AROUND YOUR NOON HOUR?

There is no other way. All those chains, you started in your very childhood... perhaps in the name of obedience, in the name of your love for your parents, in the name of trust in your priests, in the name of respect for your teachers -- good names. Always remember to remove the label and see what the content is inside, and you will be surprised: slavery is being sold to every child in beautiful names. It will be difficult for you to drop that, unless you see that it was not the slavery that you were attached to, it was the label that was given to it.

It was a constant fight with my father. He was a loving man, very understanding, but still he would say, "You have to do it." And my response would always be, "You cannot say to me, `You have to do it,' you can only suggest, `If you like, you can do it; if you don't like, you are free.' It has to be basically my decision, not yours. I am obedient towards the truth, towards freedom. I can sacrifice everything for truth, for freedom, for love, but not for any slavery. Your `should' stinks of slavery."

Soon he understood that I don't belong to the obedient or the disobedient. I am not saying, "I will not do it," I am simply saying, "Withdraw your `should.' Give me space to decide whether I want to say yes or no, and don't feel offended if I say no.

"It is my life, I have to live it, and I have every right to live in my own way. You are much more experienced; you can suggest, you can advise, but orders I am not going to take from anyone. Whatsoever the cost, whatsoever the consequence, orders I am not going to take from anyone."

And slowly, slowly he dropped his "should." He started saying, "There is this problem. If you feel right, you can help me; if you don't feel like helping, it is your decision."

I said, "This is what real love should be."

IN TRUTH THAT WHICH YOU CALL FREEDOM IS THE STRONGEST OF THESE CHAINS, THOUGH ITS LINKS GLITTER IN THE SUN AND DAZZLE YOUR EYES.

What do you call freedom? -- mostly the political, the economic, the outside freedom, which is not in your hands, which has been given to you. It can be taken away. Only that which has grown within you cannot be taken away from you; hence, Almustafa says:

IN TRUTH THAT WHICH YOU CALL FREEDOM IS THE STRONGEST OF THESE CHAINS, THOUGH ITS LINKS GLITTER IN THE SUN AND DAZZLE YOUR EYES.

It happened in Uruguay: The president had been reading my books, listening to my tapes, and he was very happy to welcome me to become a permanent resident in Uruguay. All the forms were ready. He had given me a one year's permanent residency card, so that all the bureaucratic procedure was fulfilled, and nobody could say that I had been favored. And he said, "Then I would like to give you three years' permanent residency, which will turn automatically into your citizenship."

Uruguay is a small country, but very beautiful. I asked him, "Why are you interested in me? -- because all the governments are passing orders that I should not enter their country. Not only that, my airplane cannot land at their airports.

He said, "They don't understand you."

The day the president was going to sign the forms, the American ambassador was continually watching, and the American government dogs of the CIA and FBI were following me everywhere. Their plane was either ahead of me or behind me. When they saw that he was going to sign for a permanent residency, which would turn automatically into citizenship, they immediately informed Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan phoned the president of Uruguay, and said, "My message is not big, it is small: either force Osho to be deported within thirty-six hours from your country, or I will cancel all the loans for the future that we have agreed on" -- which amounted to billions of dollars -- "and I will demand back all the dollars that we have given to you as loans in the past. If you cannot pay, then their interest rate will be doubled. You are perfectly free to choose."

I have never seen such a soft-hearted person. With tears in his eyes, he said, "Osho, I am utterly helpless. For the first time, your coming to Uruguay has made us aware that we are not free. Our country is economically a slave. Our sovereignty, our freedom is just fake. These are the alternatives given to me.

"I asked Ronald Reagan, `What is the need to deport Osho? I can simply ask him to leave -- because for deportation, when he has a one year permanent residency, he would have to commit a heinous crime like murder, then only can he be deported.' But Ronald Reagan insisted, `I have said what I wanted to say -- he has to be deported.'"

The president's secretary came running to me and said, "It is better that your jet plane leaves from a small airport, not from the international port, because there the American ambassador is present to see whether you are being deported or not."

It was an absolutely illegal demand, a criminal demand -- a man who had not left his room... all those days I was there.

I said, "On what grounds can you deport me?"

He said, "There is no question of demand, no question of any law. It seems that for you, law does not exist."

The president arranged my flight, just because he was feeling so guilty. He was going to give me citizenship, and now he is deporting me for no reason at all. But those American government dogs, seeing that my jet plane had moved from the international airport... where could it go? They immediately came to the small airport and forced the president to send all the necessary papers for deportation. I was delayed for two hours. The papers had to come, they had to be filled in to show that I am deported; my passport had to be stamped that I am deported.

My passport is really a historical thing. I have told my people to preserve it. The twenty-first century is coming, and exactly twenty-one countries have deported me, without any reason.

My attorney came running. He said, "This is absolutely illegal, we can fight it in the court."

I said, "I will not fight with a man who had tears in his eyes and felt so wounded, so humiliated: `... because we cannot pay the debts, and we cannot afford the rejection of future loans.'"

Political empires have disappeared from the world not because of your freedom struggles, but because imperialists have found an easier way of keeping you enslaved, while giving you a superficial idea that you are a flowering, independent, free country.

All these people use very beautiful words -- they are "helping." First, the poor countries used to be called, just three years ago, "undeveloped" countries, but that word, "undeveloped", hurts the ego. Now they are called, "developing countries." Just the word has changed, but the "developing countries" hides the wound.

They are all economically enslaved.

A man's life is small.

Don't waste it in any other kind of freedom.

Be decisive about it: You have to be free in your soul, because that is the only freedom there is.

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.

Kahlil-Gibrans-Prophet

THE MESSIAH, VOL 2

Chapter-1

In this silence