Question 1 A question by Maneesha: OUR BELOVED MASTER, WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT NIRVANA, OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT OUR MINDS DO NOT KNOW, IT IS EASY ENOUGH TO LISTEN WITHOUT THE MIND -- JUST ALLOWING YOUR WORDS TO FILTER THROUGH OUR CONSCIOUSNESS, TO USE YOUR WORDS TO MEDITATE. HOWEVER, WHEN YOU SPEAK ON AN ISSUE THAT MIGHT AFFECT OUR DAILY LIFE, IT IS MORE DIFFICULT TO LISTEN WITHOUT ENGAGING THE MIND. FOR EXAMPLE, APPARENTLY, THE OTHER NIGHT SOME OF US HEARD YOU ENDORSE DRUGS; SOME OF US HEARD YOU SAY THEY WERE OF NO HELP FOR SEEKERS. IF WE USE OUR MIND AT ALL IN LISTENING TO YOU, HAVE WE MISSED THE POINT OF SITTING HERE? Maneesha, your question is significant because it may be the question of many, and it arises because you are not listening. What I said the other night was neither that I want any kind of drugs, nor that I don't want them. What I said was a third thing: I said that for centuries humanity has struggled to stop drugs, but has failed. The only way to get rid of drugs is to purify drugs. And it is possible because they are chemical -- we can change their composition. And we can make them so useful that they don't destroy or harm anybody, but just give him a restful, peaceful moment to look beyond his ordinary life. That may help him to inquire more deeply, that small incident may become a search for meditation. Unless drugs can be used as a step towards meditation they are dangerous. As they are today they are all dangerous, and no government has been able to prevent them. All kinds of measures... millions of people are in jail -- particularly young people, who have been utterly destroyed by those drugs. And a simple solution... I have always wondered why the people who are in power always go for something that is impossible and don't try that which is very simple. The simplest thing is that no factories should produce any drug that destroys anything in people's minds. The drug should be a nourishment and creative of an urge towards meditation. But nobody has even proposed that. The situation is the same with all our difficulties. Those who are in power are in power only because most of the humanity is sick. Either they are sick because of undernourishment, or they are sick because of wrong nourishment. Either they are suffering from drugs, or they are suffering from anxieties and other anguishes. It seems the elite, the powerful, want people to remain as they are. Nobody wants that everybody should become a buddha. And every opportunity should be provided -- by education, by parents, by neighbors -- every opportunity to help the person to meditate. My understanding is that there is nothing in the world to be denied. I am absolutely in affirmation of everything, because even poison can be used to cure something. So nothing has to be denied, only you have to find how to use it in an affirmative way so that life becomes richer. Now, you say a few people heard that I endorse drugs. In a way, yes; however, not the drugs that are available, but the drugs that can be created, which will not be the same as marijuana or hashish or LSD. They will have a different composition of chemicals, helping your body and mind in all the possible ways. So they heard rightly, but they may interpret it wrongly. They may think, "My god, I have been thinking Osho is against drugs." And they may have rushed after the meeting, thinking, "Enough of the buddha, now find someone who is selling all kinds of drugs." But they misinterpreted me, they did injustice to me. I am not for these drugs. And you say, "Some of us heard you say they were of no use for seekers." That was also wrong. As they are, they are of no use for seekers, they are hindrances. But it is in our hands to change them. Man can reach to the moon, and he cannot transform a drug with its negative, harmful aspects to have life affirmative, life enhancing qualities. It is simply a surprise. Nobody is trying in that direction just because the religious leaders are afraid: if people become satisfied with drugs, who is going to go to the church? Who is going to go to the temples? People will simply be enjoying drugs, and without any bad effects so you cannot even speak against them. The governments will be afraid of such drugs, because soldiers will be taking them and then you cannot convince them that they have to go to war. They will become so peaceful. They have to be kept in such a state that they are ready any moment to kill anybody. But if such drugs are available then there will be such peace in the soldiers. The general may order, "Turn left!" and nobody will turn left. I have told you the story of the professor in the second world war who was enrolled because more soldiers were needed, and from every profession. He was a professor of philosophy. He said again and again, "I am not the type one needs to become a soldier. I am a professor of philosophy," but nobody heard him -- everybody was finding excuses not to go to the front. He was forced. The first day he stood in line at the morning parade and the orders were given: "Turn left, turn right. Go forward, come back." He remained standing. The general came to him and asked, "What is the matter, man? Why don't you do what you are told?" He said, "What is the point? Finally everybody has to come here where I am standing. All this exercise... can you tell me the point of it, where they are going? Because finally they fall in, in the line. So I am already standing here. Nothing new is going to happen out of this left and right -- I am watching." The general said, "You are a very strange person. Who has recruited you into the army?" He said, "I have said beforehand that I am not the type. All these idiots -- you included -- are unnecessarily doing things. I don't see any enemy here." So he was taken to the man who had brought him -- he was the manager of the mess. He was asked, "What to do with this man? He does not listen to the orders; on the contrary, he argues. And he is dangerous because others laugh, and his arguments may spread around, others may start saying the same things. He is a very dangerous person; I don't want him in my regiment. He called me an idiot before everybody else. And in fact I cannot refute him, it is idiotic. So he was right, but I cannot have him, you put him to some other work." The manager said, "I will put him in the mess." There was a pile of peas, and he told him, "Sit down and sort out the peas -- the bigger ones on this side, and the smaller ones on this side." He said, "At least this I can do." After one hour when the manager came, nothing had happened. The professor was simply sitting there, almost meditating. The manager said, "My god, what happened? You have not done anything, you have not even touched a single pea." He said, "I am a man who never takes a single step without comprehending all the implications." The manager had never heard the word `implications'. He said, "Implications? It was such a simple task." He said, "It is not simple. You don't understand the theory of relativity." The manager said, "We don't need Albert Einstein here. Anybody can do that -- bigger ones on one side, smaller ones on the other side." The professor said, "And what about those which are in the middle? That is the problem I've been meditating on -- where to put them? They have no place, and you never told me where to put the middle ones. And this is a very complicated problem because some are bigger, some are smaller, some are even smaller, and some are even smaller than that. If I do it accurately then I will have to make a line out of the peas, which will go for miles. If you want me to do that I can do it, but I don't see in what way it serves the country. "I thought you were a sensible man, but it seems the whole company here is of idiots. The first idiot was saying, `Left, right!' And you are telling me to do a thing that is almost impossible. The line will go for miles, and who will take care? -- I will be going with the line. So without comprehending all the implications, I cannot touch anything. I had told you beforehand that my profession is philosophy." It is a trouble. Either you hear and then interpret it wrongly, or you don't hear and then you think that drugs cannot help. Both are wrong, because both are thinking of the present day drugs. And I am saying that something that has not been solved for centuries and has disturbed millions of people's lives... It is time that somebody points out to the scientists and to the governments of the world that they are unnecessarily torturing millions of people in jails. The simple thing will be to change the composition of the drugs and make the drugs healthier. But the trouble is, the government is interested in violent people, not silent people. And the priest is interested in tense, anxiety ridden, miserable people. Otherwise, who is going to pray for whom? This is the basic reason why nothing has been done; otherwise it is a simple matter, nothing can be more simple. And the same is the situation with other matters. And, Maneesha, I understand that you can listen about nirvana or anything else that your minds do not know. Do you want me to talk only about things which you don't know? That will simply mean that I do not talk. Because in fact I have talked so much about nirvana that you know about it already as much as you know about drugs -- perhaps more about nirvana than about drugs. And don't you want me to talk about your practical life? You simply want me to talk about things you have nothing to do with -- just have an entertainment and move towards the canteen. No, I will talk about your practical life and I will talk about the beyond together, because half is not possible. If you only talk about the beyond then your actual life remains the same and the beyond cannot be reached; it can never become your experience. I have to talk about the beyond so that slowly, slowly it sinks into every fiber of your being. And I have to talk about your practical life so that you can start changing that according to your life beyond. They have to become one. But right now nirvana has no meaning to you -- it is just a word. People like to talk about things which make no difference in their life. But I am not interested in that kind of gathering. If you are not interested in transforming your life, you are wasting your time here unnecessarily. Your practical life and your life beyond are one single whole; they both have to be discussed. And you have to learn not to interpret, but to listen clearly to what I am saying.
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Next: Chapter 3: Seek nothing outside, Question 2
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