Upanishads, Discourses on the Mandukya Upanishad, These discourses are based on the sutras of the Mandukya and Isa Upanishads. Philosophia Ultima Chapter 14: Wholeness -- A Single Word Contains It, Question 1

The first question

Question 1

OSHO: ARE KRISHNA, MAHAVIRA, BUDDHA AND LAO TZU ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR THE POVERTY IN THE WORLD, JUST AS JESUS CHRIST IS? I MYSELF WANT TO SERVE THE POOR AND THE DOWNTRODDEN. CAN I DO IT WITH YOUR BLESSINGS?

Sangam Lal Pandey

YES, THESE PEOPLE ARE RESPONSIBLE for the poverty in the world. Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tzu, are as much responsible as Jesus Christ, for the simple reason that they all insisted on the inner AGAINST the outer. And the outer has to be developed as much as the inner, otherwise man loses balance If you only grow in the outside world you become rich, but inside you become just a beggar. And vice versa is also true: if you emphasize only the inner journey you certainly become rich in meditation, in awareness, but you become poor on the outside.

It is certainly easy to take care of one side -- easy because you don't have to be continuously balancing between two polar opposites. But life consists of polar Opposites. Life is like a tightrope walk: the tightropewalker has to balance himself each moment; not for a single moment has he to stop balancing. The moment he stops balancing he falls from the rope. Yes, sometimes he will lean to the left so that he does not fall to the right, but when he leans too much to the left again the danger of falling.... He immediately has to balance it by leaning towards the right, but not too much. A constant alertness is needed, only then can one remain total, whole. And to be whole is to be holy.

That's the message of the Upanishadic philosophy, of the Mandukya Upanishad: wholeness -- a single word contains it. Albert Einstein is not whole, neither is Mahavira whole. Both have chosen one part, one aspect of the coin, but the neglected aspect is bound to take its revenge. And humanity has lived up to now in a very lopsided way.

It hurts, I know, when I say that Jesus Christ Krishna, Mahavira, Buddha, Lao Tzu, are responsible for the poverty of the world, but what can I do? I have to say the truth AS it is. I feel sorry for you because it is going to hurt you, but MY responsibility is towards truth, my commitment is towards truth. And the truth is that in different ways all these people HAVE helped man to remain retarded.

Krishna is a fatalist, a determinist. He believes that things happen because God has decided them to be so, so nothing can be done about it. He helps you to settle with things as they are. Certainly it helps inner growth, because on the outside the struggle ceases. If you are poor, you are poor -- God has determined it so. It is your fate to be poor; there is no possibility of avoiding it, you cannot escape it. You have to accept it, you have to be satisfied with it.

Yes, it helps in a way -- in that it turns your whole energy inwards. Outside there is no freedom; then your whole energy can have freedom only on the inside. You are free to grow towards enlightenment, towards God-consciousness, but the outside world will remain the same. You are impotent as far as the outside world is concerned -- and poverty and richness ARE in the outside world.

Krishna certainly helped this country to remain poor.

Mahavira and Buddha both believe in the theory of karma: you are poor because in your past lives you have committed grave sins; you are suffering as a consequence. It is better to suffer silently than to complain, because if you complain you are again creating bad karma for the future; in the next life you will again suffer. So the poor person has to accept that he is poor because of his past lives.

Now, you cannot undo the past -- it has already happened. It is a different kind of determinism, fatalism -- only a different kind, a different sort, with a different logic behind it, but the total outcome is the same. The rich person is rich because of his past lives and the poor person is poor because of his past lives. As far as the present is concerned you have to live in total acceptance. Again, this acceptance will help you to become more meditative, because there is nothing to do on the outside. The energy involved in the outside is released; it becomes available for inner growth. But without a subtle balance with the outside world, the inner growth makes you only half, it never makes you whole.

Buddha and Mahavira both renounced their kingdoms, their palaces, their riches. By renouncing their palaces, their kingdoms, their riches, they condemned wealth. It did two things. One: if wealth is condemned, the poor feel very good; their egos are nourished because then poverty has something spiritual about it: "Look! Mahavira and Buddha renounced their wealth!" So what is the point of creating more wealth for yourself? If people are already renouncing, it simply stops you going in the same way from where people are coming back and telling you that it is a cul-de-sac, that it ends and leads nowhere, that soon you will come to an abyss and you cannot go further. The path is suicidal!

And when Buddha and Mahavira dropped out of the world it gave a tremendous satisfaction to the poor, it helped their egos: "Somehow we are already spiritual." Poverty started having a flavor of spirituality; being poor became equivalent to being spiritual: "Nobody can be spiritual without being poor -- so poverty is good, poverty is great virtue!"

Jesus calls the poor 'the children of God', and down the ages all the saints, except the Upanishadic seers, have been insisting on this point again and again, hammering it. It has gone deep into the very soul of man that poverty has something beautiful about it.

So the poor felt good, and because Mahavira and Buddha made them feel good... they had nothing else to feel good about. They were hungry, starving, undernourished, without shelter. Buddha and Mahavira became tremendously supportive; millions of poor people worshipped Buddha and Mahavira for the simple reason that they made them feel at ease with their poverty. AND, on the other hand, their renunciation of their kingdoms and their wealth made the rich people feel guilty, and whenever you make somebody feel guilty he is bound to respect you.

You have to understand the psychology of guilt. Whenever you make somebody feel guilty he has to compensate to get rid of the guilt. He starts respecting and worshipping Buddha and Mahavira because these people have done what he is not yet capable of doing but hopes someday to do -- if not in this life then in some other life that blissful moment will arrive when he will also renounce all the riches, all the wealth, the whole kingdom, the whole outside world. As far as the present is concerned he can do a little bit by donating his money to the poor. So the rich people started donating a little bit of their money to the poor to get rid of the guilt. And they started worshipping Buddha and Mahavira; that too was a way of getting rid of the guilt.

Both religions, Buddhism and Jainism, flourished on these two things. The poor person felt good because his poverty started having the color of spirituality, and the rich person became guilty and donated. Of course, all the Jaina scriptures say: "Donate only to the Jainas, because they are the right people. You should not donate to the unworthy -- donate to the worthy. Donate to the Jaina temples."

And you can see it. There are very few Jainas, just thirty-five LAKHS; in a country of seventy CRORES, thirty-five lakhs is just nothing -- just salt in your vegetables, just a little bit of salt in your soup. But go and see their temples -- they are the richest temples in India. And there are thousands of Jaina temples: the most architecturally beautiful, the richest, for the simple reason that they made the rich people feel so guilty that they started donating.

The Buddhists say the same thing: "Don't donate to anybody else, donate to the Buddhists -- because unless you donate to the RIGHT person your donation is futile." And who is the right person? One who follows the Buddha!

Brahmins say, "Donate only to the Brahmins, to the Hindus. Don't donate to the Jainas and the Buddhists. They are atheists, they don't believe in God."

These religions helped the poor to remain poor and helped the rich to feel guilty. And donations also help the poor to remain poor because they cannot revolt against those who are donating. How can you revolt against such well-wishers? How can you revolt against those who are creating beautiful temples for you, dharamshalas, poor-houses, orphanages, schools, hospitals? How can you revolt against such good people, such virtuous people?

So this strategy of donation became a shelter, a shield for the rich, and it became a consolation to the poor.

In India in the past ten thousand years there has never been any class struggle for the simple reason that the richer class was always helping the poorer ones in small ways. They looked, appeared friendly. They were exploiting, they were making them poor; they were the cause of the poverty. With one hand they continued to suck their blood, and with the other hand they were providing a little bit of food to them. And it was good to give a little bit of food and nourishment to the poor, otherwise how can you suck their blood? From where is the blood going to come? They should not die, they should be kept alive! To keep them alive, go on giving them a little bit in donations; then they ARE alive and you can go on sucking them.

Lao Tzu says to remain in a let-go. It is beautiful for the inner growth, but not good for the outside world. Let-go means no struggle, no revolution, no rebellion, just going with the river wherever it is going, not trying to decide the direction.

Mathematics was first discovered in India; that's why the mathematical digits from one to ten are basically of Indian origin. You can even see the similarity in the words: three is TRI in Sanskrit, six is SHASHT in Sanskrit, nine is NAV in Sanskrit, eight is ASHT in Sanskrit, two is DWA in Sanskrit; DWA became TWA and from TWA it became two.

Mathematics was discovered for the first time in India, but it was not developed, it was not followed up, for the simple reason that the world is illusory, it is MAYA; all that is required of you is to renounce it.

In fact, the young drop-outs in the West should not be called hippies -- they are not. The real hippies are the people who renounce the world, they are the REAL dropouts. The word'hippie' means one who has shown his hips to the world and escaped. In that sense, Mahavira, Buddha, Lao Tzu, all are hippies -- literally! They all escaped from the struggle of life.

Mathematics was developed, but mathematics can be applied only to the outside world because it is a way of measuring. Do you know? -- the English word 'matter' comes from a Sanskrit root which means 'measure'; matter means 'that which can be measured'. Now, mathematics is needed only for matter, that which can be measured. The inner world is immeasurable, you cannot measure it, hence it is beyond matter; mathematics is not needed there.

The people who called the world illusory stopped all scientific growth.

The first technological devices were invented in China, but science did not develop there. And the sole cause was Lao Tzu, because Lao Tzu said that to invent a machine is to cheat nature.

The story is that an old man, a gardener, was drawing water from a well with his young son. Both were perspiring -- it was a hot summer day -- and they were pulling up the water and watering the trees.

A man of scientific mind, a Confucian, was passing by. He looked -- the old man was really old, must have been beyond ninety. At this age he was working so hard, from the early morning to the evening, and the well was very deep, sixty, seventy feet deep. "He has wasted his whole life just watering trees, and now the same will happen to his son. His whole life from the morning to the evening, he will be pulling up water." And when you have done so much work in the day, what can you do in the night? You cannot sing, you cannot play on the sitar or the guitar, you cannot play on the flute. No energy is left. You can just fall asleep, and in the morning again the same routine begins.

The Confucian scholar of scientific bent went close to the old man and said, "Have you not heard that now we have found a device which can bring the water out of the well very easily? You need not waste your life. Just a horse will do it, and far more efficiently and far more quickly."

The old man said, "Stop all this nonsense!"

The young man had gone home to bring bread, butter and a few vegetables for the old man and for himself.

He said, "And you go away from here before my son comes back. If HE hears you talking about a device, he is so young -- he may become seduced by your idea. Get lost immediately! I have heard about that device, but I believe in Lao Tzu. He is my Master and he says machines are devices to cheat nature, and I don't want to cheat nature. Nature means Tao! If you cheat nature...."

And of course, in a way it is right: when you invent a machine and it starts doing the work of man you are doing something which is not natural. Machines are not natural, and if a machine can do the work of a hundred people that simply means you have cheated nature. It is not good.

This is a famous story and significant, because China developed the first devices five thousand years ago but because of Lao Tzu and his influence all that growth was stopped. Certainly if you relax with nature you can grow inwards easily, very easily. Let-go is the secret of growing inwards, but that is not the secret of growing outwards.

These people have kept the world in poverty. And these are the people, on the other hand, who go on saying to you, "Go and serve the poor!" They are the cause of all poverty. I respect these people: as far as the inner world is concerned they have given great diamonds to the world, treasures, secret keys. But that makes man only half; the other half remains undeveloped.

My effort here is to help you to grow in a balanced way. Life is not illusory and the outside world is AS significant as the inside world, and you have to live richly in both worlds when one can live richly in both worlds. Why choose to be rich only in one aspect of your life? And only when you are rich on both the sides does a great harmony, a great balance arise in you.

Sangam Lal Pandey, you must have thought that I would not speak so about Mahavira, Krishna, Buddha and Lao Tzu. I have no commitment to any individual. I respect truth wherever it is found, but ONLY truth, and if something untrue is hanging around it I am the last person to allow it -- I will destroy it immediately.

You are asking me:

I MYSELF WANT TO SERVE THE POOR AND THE DOWNTRODDEN.

CAN I DO IT WITH YOUR BLESSINGS?

A man in a high-powered car swung off the highway onto a gravel patch in front of a typical backcountry store. Several old-timers were sitting on the porch, chatting and chewing tobacco.

As the driver braked the car to a fast stop, he yelled at the men on the porch, "I want to go to Farmingdale!"

After ten or fifteen seconds when no one had responded he shouted again, "I want to go to Farmingdale!"

The men on the porch seemed to be holding a whispering consultation for a moment, and then one of the old fellows walked over to the car and said, "Mister, we just had a committee meeting and we have no objection!"

I can only say that much -- that I have no objection -- but if you are asking me for my blessings, then you will have to understand my conditions. If you want to serve the poor in the way they have been served for thousands of years, then I cannot give you my blessings, because thousands of years of public service has not helped the poor at all -- in fact it has helped them to remain poor. It may give you a good feeling, that you are doing great work; it may give you a good ego -- that you are a public servant, that you are a great reformer, that look! you have sacrificed your life for the poor and the downtrodden.

I cannot give blessings for your egoistic trips, because service has not helped the poor and the downtrodden now that is an absolutely recognized fact. How long are you going to serve the poor? Ten thousand years is enough -- nothing has happened. There have been servants and servants and they have been doing great work -- missionary work -- and nothing happens out of it.

So at the most I can say to you that I have no objection. It won't make much difference, so why should I object? If you feel like doing it, go by all means and do it -- but remember it is not going to help the poor. It may help you, but it is not going to help the poor.

Just an old habit, just an old conditioning...

A Jewish man put five hundred dollars cash on the counter for a one-way ticket to Israel. "Such a deal!" he kept saying to himself.

Later on he was escorted to a boat where fifteen other retired Jewish garment-workers were sitting. The harrowing journey began when two athletic looking Anglo-Saxons jumped aboard the rowboat. The first WASP acted as captain and screamed, "Row!" and the other stood over the poor Jewish fellows with a whip.

Three months passed, and lo and behold! the rowboat reached Israel. On the way into the mooring, one old Jewish garment-worker said to the captain, "Excuse me, sir, I have never traveled this way before -- how much should I tip the guy with the whip?"

Old habits die hard!

Sangam Lal Pandey, if you want to serve the poor, I feel sorry for you -- but okay!

A minister had a habit of preaching on whatever words he happened to point his finger to when he opened the Bible. This particular Sunday morning, he opened the Bible and the finger pointed to the words:

"And Judas went out and hanged himself."

He was not in such a pessimistic mood, so he violated his procedure and thumbed through an additional few pages of the Bible and dropped his finger and it read: "Go ye and do likewise."

Sangam Lal Pandey, I have no objection: Go ye and do likewise! But if you want MY blessings then you will have to understand MY conditions. I cannot give blessings without conditions, because enough nonsense has been done in the name of service. If you really want to do service to the poor, to the downtrodden, then the first thing is: spread the message that life is not illusory, that it needs your attention, that wealth is not sin, that wealth has to be created.

And the person who creates wealth should be respected as much as a painter, musician, poet. The painter creates the painting, the poet creates the poetry -- and I don't think that poetry, painting and music can feed people. The man who creates wealth -- a Morgan, a Rockefeller, a Carnegie -- should be respected more than any Picasso, but they are condemned. These people -- Rockefellers, Morgans, Carnegies -- are condemned for the simple reason that they have been creating wealth. And you want to serve the poor people. How are you going to serve them without wealth?

So create respect for wealth, create respect for wealth-creating people, create respect for a wealth-creating system of society. Create respect for capitalism because that's what capitalism is -- a wealth-producing economic structure. Socialism is impotent. Sixty years of experimentation in Russia has proved it enough, that the people are utterly poor. Of course, now the poverty is distributed equally! So there is no jealousy because there is nobody richer than you, everybody is as poor as you are.

The American poor person is in a far better condition than the Russian commissar. But in Russia one thing has happened: you cannot rebel, you cannot go against the system. You are constantly watched,

Two pins are walking along the Red Square in Moscow. Suddenly one says to the other, "Watch what you're saying, Ivan, there's a safety-pin behind us!"

The communist party in Russia had a membership drive. The rules were as follows: any communist who could recruit a new member would no longer have to pay dues. If he got two members he would be permitted to leave the party. And if he recruited three members he would receive a certificate stating that he had never belonged to the party in the first place.

The statue of Stalin in Lenin Square is so big that it gives shade from the sun in the summer, protection from the wind in winter, and the birds an opportunity to speak for all.

Sangam Lal Panday, create an atmosphere in the poor that the world is not illusory, that wealth is not a sin that creating wealth is one of the most creative activities. I am teaching my sannyasins... believe me, in the new commune we are going to grow money on the trees!

Secondly, help the poor to understand that no more children are needed. This will be real service. I don't call Mother Teresa's service real service. First you help them to create orphans, because the Catholic church is against contraceptives. If you are against contraceptives there are going to be orphans. First create orphans by being against contraceptives, then open orphanages and win the Nobel Prize. Such simple arithmetic! Allow the beggars to reproduce children, as many as they want, because to prevent nature is not good. And these same people go on opening hospitals.

If preventing nature is not good, then if somebody is ill, don't give him medicine -- that is preventing nature. In fact you are murdering amoebas... and in millions! It is not good. All germs that you kill are souls, potential Buddhas. Sooner or later they will all become Buddhas, and you are killing them. On the one hand open hospitals so people can be prevented from dying, people can be prevented from getting diseases, and then tell them that reproducing children is their birthright.

So beggars will create more beggars. And you will have to open more hospitals, and you will have to open more orphanages, and you will have to feed the poor... and you will enjoy the trip! How good it feels when you are feeding the poor, serving the poor.

I have visited many Rotary Clubs in this country many times. Rotarians seem to be the most stupid people in the world -- that's my experience. They are the richest of every town, every city, the topmost people.

But on the Rotarian desk, the president's desk, there is a board saying 'We Serve'. And what do they do? They distribute medicine, food packets, clothes.

These things are not going to help. This is not service, this is a conspiracy to keep the poor hoping that somehow things are going to be better -- one just has to wait. And they have been waiting for thousands of years.

So if you really want to help the poor, Sangam Lal Pandey, teach them to use contraceptives, help them to use all kinds of birth control methods. Help them to be operated upon: help the women to be sterilized, help the men to be sterilized. This will be TRUE service. Then I can give you my blessings. Help the people to understand more about technology, more about science. They don't need the Bible, they don't need the Gita, they don't need the Koran -- they have had those things long enough. They need better technology, they need electricity, they need machines. Help them to become more science-oriented. That will be REAL service.

If we can reduce the population, if millions of people can decide not to have children at all.... Look at my sannyasins. five thousand sannyasins are here and only three hundred children. And my sannyasins are not celibates: they are celebrants! So what has happened? They have simply understood the fact that the world is already overpopulated. It is an ugly act to go on reproducing children. Those three hundred children are also here because they were born before these people became sannyasins. Once a person becomes a sannyasin, his first duty is to understand what the situation is. The world is already overpopulated, it is BOUND to be poor. Withdraw, don't reproduce. Drop that old stupid idea that you have to leave a few children in the world. You are enough! Your parents have done a great service to the world, now you be more compassionate.

Sangam Lal Pandey, if you really want to serve the poor, then you will have to understand my conditions. And then, certainly, go and help them -- but first you will have to practice what I am saying.

In India, unless you produce at least one dozen children you are not thought to be man enough. Stop producing children! In fact, to use sex only for reproduction, as Mahatma Gandhi says, as the Polack Pope says... Mahatma Gandhi also seems to be a hidden Polack -- they all say you have to use sex only for reproductive reasons, otherwise it is sin. I say just the opposite: if you use sex as fun, it is virtue; if you use it for reproduction, it is sin.

Upanishads

PHILOSOPHIA ULTIMA

Chapter-14

Wholeness -- A Single Word Contains It