The radiation of enlightenment

Question 1:

Narendra Bodhisattva, the question that you have asked has been asked for centuries. Perhaps it is one of the oldest questions mankind has raised whenever there was a man who has come to know himself. It was felt around Gautam Buddha, it was felt around Lao Tzu, it was felt around Mahavira, and thousands of others who were more blessed than the ordinary humanity.

But it has been felt only by those who were receptive, those who were in deep love; it has not been felt by those who were closed. It has not been felt by those who had come just like spectators - by the curious - but only by the disciples, and more clearly by the devotees.

So two things are involved in it. A man who has come to know himself - certainly all the darkness that was within him is no more. He has become purely a luminous phenomenon, and his luminosity is very delicate and very subtle.

It is not like the radiation that comes from an atomic explosion. The radiation from an atomic explosion will affect all; whether you are open or closed doesn't matter. The radiation from an atomic explosion is a violent aggression against anyone who comes across it.

But the radiation of one who is awakened is a very delicate phenomenon. It is just like a fragrance:

if you have the understanding and the courage to receive it, only then will you be able to know it; otherwise, thousands of people passed by Gautam Buddha realizing nothing. They were puzzled why others were feeling so much, why others were in tears of joy.

The radiation of the awakened, of the enlightened, is nonaggressive; that is one of the most significant things to be understood. In no way is it going to transgress your individuality unless you invite it, unless you are in a state of welcome, unless you are waiting for it. Unless you are ready to be a host it won't knock on your doors.

And naturally, if it does not knock on your doors you will feel that all these people who are experiencing radiation, light, joy, seem to be a little strange, because the majority of humanity has not felt it. The majority of humanity is completely closed - not even a single window of the heart is open.

It is almost the same as if a blind man denies that there is sun and there is light. As far as he is concerned, he is right. He has never seen the sun and he has never seen the light.

I have told you the most illuminating story, about Gautam Buddha and a blind man. It contains so much that if you can comprehend it in its totality, it may help you to open your eyes, to open your heart.

A blind man was brought to Gautam Buddha, and the people who had brought the man told Buddha, "This man is not only blind, he is a genius in logic, in argumentation. We all know there is light, we all know there is sun, there is moon, there are stars, but we cannot convince this man. He lives in our village and he argues so well against all of us that sometimes we start thinking that perhaps we are deluded.

"His arguments are very strong. He says, 'I am absolutely willing to accept your sun, your moon, your stars, your light - but just let me touch your light. I want to feel it. If touching it is difficult, let me smell it. If that too is difficult, beat it like a drum so I can hear the sound of your light. Or I am ready even to swallow it, to have some taste of it.

"'But unless at least one of my four senses is convinced, I can only say to you that you are in an illusion. And moreover, I feel that you want to humiliate me by declaring this stupid idea about light, so that you can claim you have eyes and I don't have eyes. You want simply to insult me.'"

Hearing that Gautam Buddha was passing by the nearby village, they rushed there. They thought that perhaps this would be the only moment, the only chance and opportunity to take this blind man to a man who is ultimately awakened and may be able to convince him about light. If he fails, then there is no hope.

Gautam Buddha laughed and he said, "As far as I am concerned, I absolutely agree with the blind man, because he confirms my attitude about truth. Unless you experience it, don't believe it. And because he cannot experience light, it does not matter whether light exists or not; he is absolutely correct not to believe in it. Every belief is far more dangerous than blindness, because every belief is spiritual blindness."

The blind man for the first time could not believe that somebody of the status of Gautam Buddha would support him. Tears came from his blind eyes. Gautam Buddha said, "Don't be worried. I have the best physician of the land with me." A great king, Prasenjita, had offered Gautam Buddha his own personal physician, because he was fragile, old, and he needed somebody to look after him.

So Gautam Buddha said, "Don't be worried. I will call the physician; he is just in another camp. Let him treat you. You don't need an awakened man, you need a physician, talented, a genius, because no other argument can convince you. And you should not be convinced by any other argument."

The blind man was taken to the physician, and Gautam Buddha said, "Stay in this village till you have cured his eyes."

It was not a difficult job. Within six months the man's eyes were cured, and the moment he saw the light he rushed to the other village, far away, where Buddha was. Dancing, in utter joy, he fell at Gautam Buddha's feet and told him, "If I had not met you I would have remained blind. In fact I was defending my blindness with all my arguments. But you are a man of tremendous discrimination.

You did not argue with me; you simply said, 'I am not a physician and your problem can be solved only by a physician.'"

This is the situation with the majority of humanity, and that's why it was so easy to crucify Jesus.

The day he was crucified thousands of people had gathered to see the miracle of his resurrection, but none of them was seeing the man who was the real miracle. They were utterly blind and closed to the radiation of Jesus.

There is certainly a radiation which is of the highest quality, but it is available only to those who can raise their consciousness also to that height. And if not the consciousness, at least their longing, their thirst, their openness... Then even a faraway star can be seen.

But if you are standing with closed eyes and you insist on your closed eyes, then it becomes almost impossible to help you. You are your greatest enemy. You can be your greatest friend too. You are your greatest friend when you make yourself available to higher realities, to higher layers of consciousness, to farther away stars.

With the opening of your heart, your wings also start opening. With the understanding of the light radiating from the awakened one, there happens a synchronicity. Your heart also starts trembling in the beginning. Then the trembling changes into a dancing, and a moment comes when the master's heartbeat and your heartbeat become one. All division, all separation is dissolved.

Perhaps science will never be able to understand this radiation of the illumined being, because science needs something material that can be experimented upon. This is not something material; it is as immaterial as love, it is as immaterial as gratitude, it is as immaterial as poetry, as music. In life, all that is great is immaterial - and this is the greatest experience of immateriality.

Narendra, it all depends on you. There are people who may stand on the bank of a river and remain thirsty because they are keeping their back towards the river. They are adamant and stubborn; they may die of thirst but they will not change their position. Man's ego is such a barrier that it prevents everything that is a nourishment to his being and a push towards the heights.

In one of his beautiful poems, an Indian mystic, Kabir, says, "Unless you bow down and make a cup of your hands to fill it with the water of the river, you are going to remain thirsty. You may be standing in the river, but if you are not ready to bow down a little, the river is helpless. It cannot jump to your lips, it cannot jump to quench your thirst."

The ego does not allow you the opening. The ego is very much afraid of anything of the beyond.

Just a ray from the beyond and it is enough to kill your ego forever. So the ego lives in a dark cell, and no light should enter into it.

The radiation of the enlightened one is so delicate and so respectful of your individuality and your dignity that it will not interfere. It will not enter without your invitation, without your receptivity.

Even here, sometimes spectators arrive, sometimes just curious people arrive, knowing nothing - not knowing that this is not the place for the curious, this is not the place for the egoist. This is a place only for those who come with an open heart, who come with deep love and trust. It is not the purpose of this place to convey to you more information and knowledge. The purpose is to raise your being to heights which are its birthright.

Just three days ago, one man wrote a letter. Because I said that these space visitors are just hallucinations, illusory, he must have got freaked out - perhaps he has met some faraway visitor from another planet - and he wrote a very angry letter. His handwriting and his spelling show that he must be an American; he has not signed his name - an utterly cowardly person.

I never answer any question unless it is signed, because the person should take the responsibility for asking it. To whom am I going to address my answer? I cannot say, "To whomsoever it may concern..."

And his anger - which is just the other side of cowardliness - is so much that he has threatened that if I don't answer his question, he will stand up and make trouble in the gathering of seekers. I have waited for three days, but the guy has not stood up. He is afraid that if sometime in the future it is discovered that life exists on other planets and visitors have been coming to the earth, "then you will be proved wrong." His point is, can an enlightened man commit a mistake?

As far as I am concerned, my first mistake was becoming enlightened, and my second mistake was to make people aware about my enlightenment. Otherwise I would not have been tortured by all kinds of idiots and such fools.

Remember one thing, I am the first enlightened man in the whole of history who accepts that there is every possibility of his committing mistakes. I don't say I am infallible like the pope; I don't say I am omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent like Gautam Buddha, Mahavira, Krishna, because that creates problems. Christians claim these same qualities for God and Mohammedans also for their God. But their God is in constant difficulty, and Krishna and Buddha and Mahavira are all in constant difficulty because they claim something which is not right.

For example, there was no reason for Christianity, for the pope, to force Galileo to change in his book where he has written, "The common understanding is not right. People think that the sun goes around the earth, but my whole discovery, my whole life's effort has made me aware that the situation is just the opposite. It is the earth that goes around the sun."

Now, the problem was that in the BIBLE it says that the sun goes around the earth. Galileo was sick, almost on his deathbed, in his old age - he was seventy-seven - and he was dragged to the court of the pope and the pope forced him to change the statement.

Galileo, even at that age, must have had an immense sense of humor. He said, "There is no problem.

Why are you so worried? You could have just sent me the message. But can I ask what it is that is hurting you?"

The pope said, "It is a question of God's prestige. In the BIBLE it says that the sun goes round the earth, and if you contradict it you are telling us that God and God's son are not omniscient - they don't know the future, what is going to happen; they don't know even what is already happening.

God made the earth and God made the sun and he does not know... You will spoil our whole religion."

Now, religion is not at all concerned with whether the earth goes around the sun or the sun goes around the earth, or both go anywhere. What concern is it for the religious? - let them go. But the problem is, the omniscience: the all-knowing God becomes fallible.

Galileo said, "I will change it without making any difficulty - but one thing I want you to know: whether I change it or not, the earth will still continue to go around the sun. It is not in my hands. What can I do? - I can change it in my book, but in the footnote I will make it clear that I cannot help it; it is simply beyond my capacity. I can write anything you want me to write, but in the footnote am I allowed to state the fact?"

And in fact he changed the statement in his book, but in the footnote he said, "Don't be bothered about whatever I say; it does not make any difference. The earth still continues to go around the sun. If they don't listen to me, what can I do?"

Because Jainism does not believe in any God, naturally the number two becomes number one - in Christianity, Jesus is only number two - in Jainism, Mahavira is number one. Because Jainism has no God, Mahavira has the highest position, and he says that the moon is the place where virtuous people go. This means that up to now, only one or two Americans have been virtuous. For Mahavira it was good to say that the moon was the paradise - it looks like paradise, so beautiful - and nobody could criticize him because nobody had gone there.

But now the situation is different. Two virtuous people have visited the moon and they have not found anyone there - not even Mahavira. It is just absolute desert, unlivable, because the oxygen is eight times less than on the earth so you cannot survive; you have to continuously keep yourself going with artificial oxygen.

You cannot grow anything because there are no rains, the ground is absolutely dry. You cannot dig a well, there has never been any water. And because there is no water, that's why there are no clouds.

For the clouds to form, water is needed so that in the hot sun the water evaporates and becomes clouds. When it becomes cool the vapor again turns into water and rains. There is no water; hence there is no possibility of clouds, no rain, and nothing grows on the whole moon. The moon has never known a single roseflower.

But now Jainism and its followers are in difficulty. I was traveling in Gujarat and a Jaina monk was collecting millions of dollars to create a scientific lab to prove that all these people, Russians and Americans, are deceiving the world. They have not reached the moon; all they are sending are simply photographic tricks.

I asked him, "Why are you worried and why are you collecting so much money? What is your concern if they are sending photographic tricks? - it is good entertainment for the whole world."

He said, "It is a question of Mahavira's omniscience. Our whole religion is at stake. If these people are right, then Mahavira is wrong. And if he can be wrong in one thing, what is the certainty that he is not wrong in other things?"

This is the fear, and this is why science has been continuously fighting against religion for progress and religion has been creating hindrances of all kinds. Every progress in science will prove the BIBLE wrong, and finally it proves God wrong.

All these saviors and prophets and messengers have claimed the same three qualities: that they are all-powerful, omnipotent; all-knowing, omniscient; and everywhere present. These people... I don't belong to their category.

Whenever I see something that shows utter stupidity... I don't care about the consequences. I say unto you, even the enlightened man has the right to commit mistakes. Because his enlightenment is concerned only with one thing - knowing himself. It does not mean that he knows everything in the world, past, present, future. Knowing oneself does not mean that "whatever I say about other things is bound to be right forever."

But you don't understand the ways of a master. I am perfectly aware that there are a few scientists who guess - it is not a certainty - that there may be life on other planets. But it is only a scientific guess. And I know that many people have seen flying saucers, and six-inch-tall green people descending from them. But one thing is very strange: all the people who have seen these things are either cuckoos, lunatics, whimsical, schizophrenic - not even a single intelligent person has come across any flying saucer. It is very strange; it seems that the people who are coming in flying saucers have a certain communication with the cuckoos.

If the man who wrote the letter to me has some connection with these flying saucers and these green people... just tell them to land here and I will be the first to accept their existence. But I cannot trust lunatics; not even a single person on the whole earth who has some credibility has encountered these things. Faraway farmers, drunks, people who have escaped from lunatic asylums, only they see them. They even communicate with them - and in what language? I wonder.

If these people from other planets want to communicate with the earth, they should descend in Oxford, in Cambridge, in Harvard - somewhere where the geniuses, the intelligent, the cultured people are with whom some connection can be created. They should meet some scientists, and their acceptance will become the acceptance of the whole world.

What I was saying was that at this moment it is simply a cuckoo phenomenon. I am not saying that in the future there may not be some connection with other planets - who am I to predict about the future? And if the future finds my statements incorrect, that's perfectly alright; that's how humanity progresses. If I am entitled to find incorrect statements in Jesus, Buddha and Socrates, how can I be so illogical and irrational as to not allow the future to find incorrect statements from me? That is how humanity progresses.

If everything was written once and for all five thousand years ago in RIGVEDA, then there is no possibility of progress. And all these people have been very insistent: for example, Jesus said, "I am the only begotten son of God." Why this emphasis on "only begotten son"? There can be other cuckoos who can declare, "I am a cousin to Jesus"..."I am Jesus' younger brother,"..."I am his..."

Neither does Jesus have any certificate, nor do these people have any certificate. What is the solution? How are you going to decide?

Mohammed says, "I am the last messenger of God." Why the last? - life still continues, existence still continues. But Mohammed wants to make it certain that nobody ever finds anything to be corrected in his statements. God has sent his final message to humanity; now there is no question of any improvement.

That's why Mohammedans are one of the most poor in their literature, in their philosophy - because the doors are closed. Not a single person has written a commentary on the KORAN, because you cannot be allowed to write a commentary on the KORAN. The KORAN cannot be corrected, cannot be made a question of dispute between different interpretations; hence no commentary has been allowed.

I have commented on hundreds of mystics, many of them Sufis who are in revolt against the orthodox Mohammedan structure. When Sufis heard about my commentaries on Sufism, at least two or three times a year I received beautiful printed copies of the KORAN, with letters saying, "You are the only person who can write a commentary, because you are not a Mohammedan. Mohammedans cannot do anything against you; they cannot expel you."

But my problem was different. Many times, listening to their invitation, their love, I opened the KORAN, read a few pages. There is nothing to comment on. It is written by an illiterate Mohammed who could not even make his own signature. He has dictated it, and others have written it. It is such a childish thing.

I have tried my best to find a few fragments here and there; then I will choose those fragments and comment on them. But I have been a failure - and this has happened many times, because each time a deep, loving, respectful request came to me, I thought, "Let me look again." But it is the same KORAN; there is nothing that has to be commented on and if I really commented then I would have to contradict it on every point.

Evolution means nobody is infallible. It is a misunderstanding that the enlightened man cannot commit mistakes; the enlightened man is not a chemist, is not a druggist, is not a doctor, is not a tailor, is not a shoemaker.

What do you want the enlightened man to be - all-knowing? I cannot even make a cup of tea; in my whole life I have never made one, just out of fear that it may prove I have committed a mistake! I don't do anything, out of the consideration that if you don't do anything, at least one thing is certain:

you are infallible. The moment you do something, there is every possibility to commit a mistake!

Self-knowledge does not mean omniscience. To know oneself does not mean you know all the stars, astronomy; it does not mean you know all physics, it does not mean you know nuclear weapons.

But I am the first man in the whole of history who is accepting authentically and sincerely that self- realization, or awakening, or enlightenment, or buddhahood, is confined to a certain sphere. It is confined to one's own consciousness. All darkness disappears; one becomes a luminous being.

One is utterly blissful, ecstatic, one's life becomes a living poetry. If people approach such a person with joy, with love, with openness... certainly enlightenment is contagious and there is no cure for it.

Just to make you a little less serious, because I hate seriousness... All these talks about enlightenment and awakened people are so desertlike that I have to plant in a few places some oases.

Two rival poets met in a tea shop, and over a pot of tea each started boasting about the progress they had made in their careers.

"You have no idea," bragged one, "how many people read my poetry now. Why, my readers have doubled."

"Wonderful! Congratulations!" cried the other poet, enthusiastically, pumping his hand. "I had no idea you got married!"

A playboy with a permanent leer on his face got into a crowded lift in the hotel where he was staying.

The lift was operated by a very pretty young girl and as she let people off at each floor she was finally alone with the playboy. He came up close to her and said, "Sweetheart, I imagine you must be tired after a day of all these stops and starts?"

"The stops and starts," she replied, "don't bother me. What I can't stand is the jerks."

Question 2:

Anand Anado, before I answer your question, there is another question also which will make your question complete.

Question 3:

Mukesh Bharti...

A Lufthansa airliner had to make an emergency landing at sea. The captain assured the passengers that they would be picked up shortly and that the plane would remain afloat for at least thirty minutes. After twenty minutes had passed no rescue boats had arrived, and the captain announced, "Everybody who can swim, get on the left wing. And everybody who can't swim get on the right wing.

Now for the people on the left wing - when the water gets to your knees, start swimming. And for the people on the right wing - thank you for flying Lufthansa."

Anado and Mukesh Bharti, those who are in the front row are the people who cannot swim, and those who are not in the front row are the people who can swim. Okay?

Question 4:

Prem Amiyo, it is one of the most beautiful experiences to have a pure longing, not knowing for what.

The moment you know for what the longing is, the longing becomes a desire - and a desire is a hindrance, a bondage. But a pure longing, a heartache, not knowing at all for what, no objective in the vision, no goal to reach, but just a pure fire - it burns all the hindrances, it burns all the rubbish that centuries have put around you.

This is the fire that Zarathustra taught his disciples to worship. But as it has happened with every great master, the followers of Zarathustra are still worshipping fire. You will be surprised to know that even here in India, when the followers of Zarathustra escaped from Iran against Mohammedan invasion and against Mohammedans' forceful conversion of people into their religion... Mohammedanism knows only one argument, and that is the sword: either be a Mohammedan or they will cut off your head. They don't allow any other alternative.

So at one time the whole of Iran was full of the followers of Zarathustra. Now there are no followers of Zarathustra; they have all been converted into Mohammedanism - but a few escaped and landed in India. So a great religion has become confined to a small space, Bombay.

But they have not forgotten one thing - the fire. Still, after twenty-five centuries, in Zarathustra's temples that ancient fire continues to be burned. They never allow it to go out; they go on putting new fuel, watching twenty-four hours a day that the fire should not go out. Zarathustra had taught them that once the fire goes out you are dead.

But Zarathustra was talking about the fire that Prem Amiyo is asking about. It is the fire of pure longing that burns in your heart and that burns everything that is not you. And out of this fire comes your twenty-four-carat gold character - you in your authenticity.

Don't be puzzled about it. It is natural when for the first time you feel something like a longing but with no object; it is puzzling to the mind. Mind knows the longing for money, the longing for sex, the longing for power, the longing for prestige. But longing without any object... it goes beyond mind.

But it is the most beautiful experience to go through this fire. It is not hot; it is cool, it is calm, it is something magnificent. It makes you a temple. It will burn everything false and unauthentic in you.

It will kill your hypocrite, it will destroy your divisions of being, your schizophrenic structure of mind.

It will bring you into your utter purity and innocence. Your mystic rose will blossom in this fire.

So be happy, sing and dance. You are on the right path.

Two old English gentlemen were sitting in their London club when one said, "Ah yes, my late wife was a most remarkable person, a very religious woman. She never missed a day in church and at home it was prayers and psalm singing from morning to night."

"Remarkable, " said his friend, "how did she come to die?"

The first man puffed on his cigar and said, "I strangled her."

Prem Amiyo, don't let others know about your fire. Don't let others know the transformation that is going on within you, because people become more antagonistic about your inner transformation than anything else. They can tolerate your having great power as a president, as a prime minister, or being the richest man in the world. This they can tolerate.

But they cannot tolerate it if your essential being in its crystal clear purity starts soaring. This is a great insult to them because they feel that this was possible for them too, but they have been wasting their time in stupid games. Now you remind them of what they have missed. The only way to forget is to destroy you.

All the great illumined people have been killed, destroyed, poisoned, for the simple reason that the crowd could not tolerate it, it was too much. They were flying so high that it was hurting millions of people: "They belonged to us, they have been amongst us, and it is humiliating that they have attained such height and such flight and we are still crawling on the earth. The only way to forget our humiliation is to destroy them." They don't think of the other possibility.

A few think of it, and those few go through the transformation. Those few are very blessed. Those few start looking at those who have reached to the height as their pioneers, as glimpses of their own future and their potentiality. They start also moving in the same direction.

But these people are very few. The majority take the easiest course, and that is to destroy those who create unnecessary disturbance, the disturbance in your business, disturbance in your love affairs, disturbance in everything.

The greatest wound is in the ego - that you cannot reach to that height and somebody else has reached.

And the last thing, for everybody:

The U.S. Navy was looking for recruits to fight in its latest war against Iran. Due to lack of interest, the draft was reintroduced and an unfortunate young student was called up. During his physical examination he pretended to have poor eyesight, in order to be judged unfit to fight.

But the doctor did not believe him, so he sent for a gorgeous young nurse and told her to take off her clothes. "Describe what you see, young man," the doctor demanded.

"All I see is a blur, doctor," the student replied.

"Well," said the doctor, "your eyes may not be as good as they should be - but your missile is pointing straight at the gulf."

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.