Upanishads, Talks on the Isha Upanishad. I Am That Chapter 12: A Mystery to be Lived, Question 4

The fourth question:

Question 4

OSHO,

AREN'T YOU EVER AFRAID THAT INSTEAD OF THE CREATION OF A NEW KIND OF MAN, THIS IS THE CREATION OF A NEW KIND OF SHEEP?

Dick,

I AM NOT AFRAID AT ALL, because even if a new sheep is created it is better than the old sheep -- at least it will be new! And to be new is good, to be new is fresh, to be new opens new possibilities. Hence I am not afraid.

But you must be attached with the old kind of sheep, hence you are afraid. I can only try to give birth to a new man, but the birth cannot be absolutely guaranteed. I will do my best. It does not matter to me whether I succeed or fail. What matters is whether I tried my best or not -- and I am trying my best. And that's all that I am interested in.

I am enjoying my work. Who cares about the result? The people who care too much about the result simply waste their energy, because caring about the result takes much of their energy. Then they become worried about the result -- that is a distraction -- then the end becomes far more important than the journey itself.

To me the journey itself is enough, the search itself is more than enough. To me the means and the ends are not separate, they are inseparable. Hence what I am doing I am enjoying; what happens, that is not at all a question to me.

But why are you worried? You must be interested in keeping people in their old traps. I can do only one thing... You have heard the old proverb -- this is a new edition of that old proverb:

You can lead a hippie to water, but you cannot make him bathe.

I will lead the hippie to the water -- that much I can do -- I will persuade him, but then it is up to him to take a jump into the river or not. And who I am to throw him into the river? I can show him the way to the river, I can even lead him to the river, then it IS HIS freedom. If he chooses to remain the same I am not going to disturb his freedom, I am not going to do anything against him.

I love every person as he is. I love my work; it is not work to me at all because I love it -- it is just a play. But with you, Dick, there seems to be some problem inside you. Your question has nothing to do with my work, it has something to do with your prejudices.

You ask me: AREN'T YOU EVER AFRAID THAT INSTEAD OF THE CREATION OF A NEW KIND OF MAN, THIS IS THE CREATION OF A NEW KIND OF SHEEP?

I am trying to create the new man. Even if out of one hundred, one new man is created, that will bring the whole consciousness of humanity a step forward, a step upward. There is a possibility many will become only new kind of sheep, but then too it is not bad, that too is a gain. It is better to be alive, young, fresh, new, even though you are a sheep.

But you must be somehow deeply interested in keeping people in their old patterns; your investment must be there. Your prejudices must be those of a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Mohammedan.

Two musicians were walking in a street when a large bell from a building being demolished fell nearby with a loud clang. "What's that?" asked one.

"I'm not sure," said the other, "but I think it was B flat."

People have their own languages, their own prejudices, and they cling to their prejudices. Even though their prejudices have been a sheer misery for them, still they cling.

If you are an old sheep, Dick, at least become a new sheep -- orange! It will not be a very great revolution, but even a little change is good. Just for that little change... and a little change may open doors for greater changes.

Two hobos sat with their backs against an old oak tree. Before them flowed a rippling stream. It was a delightful day, yet one of them was disconsolate.

"You know, Slim," he said, "this tramping through life is not what it used to be. Things are getting tougher every year. I used to hop a freight chugging up a steep grade very easy, but these diesels go like mad. And I'm getting tired of spending my nights in a cold barn and on park benches, wondering where my next meal is coming from. And odd jobs are getting scarcer all the time..." His voice trailed off as he sighed.

His companion turned to face him. "If that's the way you feel, why don't you hang it all up and find yourself a real job?"

The first tramp raised his head and opened his mouth in amazement. "What!" he cried. "And admit I'm a failure?"

Even a tramp, a hobo, a beggar does not want to accept that he is a failure.

Dick, the way you have asked the question simply shows that you are an old sheep -- Catholic, Protestant -- and you are afraid of the new sheep. You are not concerned about the new man. The old sheep is worried, because what is going to happen to the old prejudices, the old conclusions, the old ideology? It seems as if it will be a deep discontinuity with the past, as if one dies and is reborn.

But those who are ready to drop the old are not sheep. The very courage to drop the old is enough to prove that they are lions! The very courage that they are ready to come out of their old skins. their old prejudices old idiologies, religions, philosophies, shows one thing very clearly, categorically: that they are not sheep. And that very courage is the hope for the birth of a new man.

You just put your old prejudices aside, and then try to understand what is happening here. Get a little bit involved, participate in what is happening here. You have lived according to your old beliefs. If you are contented, I will be the last person to disturb you; but if you are contented, why you are here? For what? You must be discontented.

This is one of the strangest things about man: even if he is discontented he goes on believing, pretending that he is contented. And whenever there is an opportunity to change -- and he is LOOKING for an opportunity to change, this Is the strangeness -- when he finds the opportunity to change, he clings with the past.

A doctor was consulted by a prizefighter who was troubled with insomnia.

"Have you tried counting sheep?" asked the doctor.

"Yes, but it doesn't help. Every time I get up to nine I jump up!"

An old prizefighter! The moment he gets to nine he cannot resist. Instead of giving him a good sleep it will disturb him -- he jumps up. People function mechanically, unconsciously. Your question has come out of your unconsciousness, Dick.

The tavern was near an army camp, and the pretty barmaid was popular with the enlisted men, especially since she preferred them to the overbearing officers.

One night a polite young private was sitting next to a cocky first lieutenant who tried to date her. When the lieutenant went to the men's room she put her face close to the private and whispered, "Now is your chance, soldier!"

The private looked at the tempting red lips and then cried, "That's right!" And he hastily drank the officer's beer.

You are here but not really here. And the way I talk must be so difficult for you to understand. If you have been listening to the sermons by the priests in the churches or m the temples or in the mosques, then what I am saying here will look very irreligious, will look very strange to your Ideas of what spirituality should be. But I cannot talk the way your are accustomed to hearing. You may be waiting for some esoteric bullshit!

Kohn was home from seeing his doctor and meets his friend who asks, "Wha-wha-what is wrong wi-with you?"

"I've got prostatitis," replies Kohn.

"Wha-what... wha-wha-what is that?"

"I piss the way you talk!"

The new man can only be created with everything new: the way I talk, the way my people live, the way they behave, all has to be totally different from the old man. The new man cannot believe in your rotten morality -- your morality has only created hypocrites. The new man can live only authentically; he cannot be concerned with your moral and immoral ideas. He can live only meditatively. He cannot be thought as a man of character, the way you have become accustomed to think of religious people.

The new man will not be a man of character, the new man will be utterly characterless . But when I say "characterless". please don't misunderstand me; I am not talking the way you understand. To me the characterless man is the only man who has character. Characterless I call him because he does not follow any dictates from the outside. He lives according to his own light, he lives meditatively. His character does not come from his conscience.

Conscience is an agency implanted in you by the society, it is not yours. Don't call the conscience as yours -- it is not yours. It belongs to the Christian church, it belongs to the Hindu religion, it belongs to the Jain philosophy, it belongs to the communist ideology. It has nothing to do with you; it is implanted by others in you. It is a very subtle strategy to dominate you from within. On the outside they have put a policeman, the magistrate, the court, and in the inside they have created a conscience.

The real man, the new man, will live according to consciousness, not according to conscience. Of course, whatsoever HIS consciousness feels right he will do, whatsoever the risk, whatsoever he has to pay for it. Even if he has to pay with his life he will be ready to pay it, because there are higher things than life itself. Consciousness is far more higher than life. But he will not follow conscience.

The man of conscience is known as a man of character -- that's why I call the new man characterless, because he will not have any conscience, he will function out of consciousness. His commandments will be coming from his own center, and when they come from your own center they give you freedom. And out of freedom life takes a new flavor, a new beauty. You DO the right, but now the right is not decided by others. It is no more a slavery, it is absolute freedom.

The new man will live out of meditation, out of consciousness, out of his own inner light. The new man will be an individual, not part of any collectivity.

My sannyasins here are not a collectivity. Each of my sannyasins is related to me directly. It is not a church, it is not an organization: it is a love relationship. And because they all love me, of course they start feeling love for each other too; that is secondary. Their love towards me is primary, then their love for other sannyasins is secondary; they are fellow-travelers. But nobody is bound to follow me or to follow anybody else. It is a commune of fellow-travelers. fellow-seekers.

There is no qualitative difference between me and my sannyasins. The only difference is a very slight one, very small one: I am aware of my inner world, they are not aware, but they have the inner world as much as I have it. I don't have it more, they don't have it less. They have the whole kingdom of God within themselves. I am not special in any sense. I am not claiming that I am the son of God, I am not claiming that I am an AVATARA of God, I am not claiming that I am a teerthankara. I am simply saying one thing: that I was asleep, now I am awake; you are asleep and you can be awake also. I have known both states -- the state of being asleep and the state of being awake -- and you know only one state, of being asleep.

But remember, the person who is capable of sleeping is capable of awakening. The very fact he can sleep is an indication that he can be awake! There is no difference at all.

I will go on trying to help people to be awake. The awakened man will be the new man. He will not be Christian, he will not be Hindu, he will not be Mohammedan; he will not be Indian, he will not be German, he will not be English. He will be simply an awakened being.

But, Dick, it is possible that there may be a few people who will only turn into a new kind of sheep, but that too is not bad. As far as being the old sheep is concerned, it is better than that. So if your are an old sheep, become a new sheep, and from there the journey starts, a possibility. If the old sheep can become a new sheep it is a radical change. The sheep deciding to be new -- it is a revolution. And if this much is possible, then much more is possible too.

Upanishads

I AM THAT

Chapter-12

A Mystery to be Lived