The greatest discovery there is

Question 1:

There are many things to be understood.

First, the psychology that prevails all over the world is Western psychology. Eastern psychology has been completely forgotten. Even in Eastern universities, everything is from the West - borrowed, second-hand - particularly with psychology.

But the East has devoted thousands of years to human consciousness and it has come to very basic realizations about human evolution. To ignore Eastern psychology is to ignore man's future and his evolution. Because nature has completed its work. Nature cannot go beyond man; it has come to its ultimate production. Now, the whole burden of evolution is on human shoulders.

But unfortunately, Western psychology is materialistic, which means it denies man a soul, a spirit, a being which is immortal beyond this framework of your body.

This happened because of a natural historical coincidence. All the sciences are about matter.

Physics is about the most interior constituents of matter - so is chemistry, so is the whole panorama of human scientific endeavor. Psychology is in wrong company. All these sciences are studying objects. Psychology's world is the subjectivity of man, not the objects around him.

But because in these three hundred years sciences have been developing on a materialist basis...

and they have been succeeding, the very word scientific has become prestigious. Just to say that something is "scientific" is enough to say that is right. Once you hear the word scientific, you have already agreed, there is no question of argument anymore. If science has established something, then there is no need to doubt it. The scientists themselves have doubted enough and have tried from every possible angle; if they have come to a conclusion, it must be so.

In the midst of scientific progress, psychology was born. Naturally, it chose to be part of scientific growth.

Another thing has been happening for three hundred years: Christianity has been behaving with scientists and science in a very crude, primitive, superstitious, illogical, violent way. And because science went on succeeding in spite of the opposition of the religions, the religions lost their prestige, their credit, and science became the only rightful search for truth. In such an atmosphere, psychology was born.

Everybody was trying to prove that whatever he was doing was scientific; unless it was scientific, it would not be accepted by humanity at large.

And you can see the dichotomy in the very name of psychology. Psychology means the science of the soul. But the scientific attitude is to deny the existence of the soul, because there is no possibility of catching hold of it. There is no possibility of dissecting it, no possibility of taking it into the lab and doing all kinds of experiments before they can say yes, there is something like the soul, which is immortal. Because it is invisible. All forces are invisible, all energies are invisible. Energies and forces are known not by themselves, because they are not visible. They are known by their effects, because the effects are visible.

Nobody knows what electricity is - not even Thomas Alva Edison, who discovered it. But everybody knows how to switch it on, how to switch it off. Electricity, as energy, is not visible. You are seeing the light but the light is not electricity, it is an effect of its presence. We infer that electricity must be there because the light is on.

And there is enough evidence that the soul must be there in man because there are so many effects indicating towards it. Without a soul, man is a machine. But have you ever heard of machines revolting? going through a communist revolution? - machines throwing away one government, creating another government? No, machines are not concerned. They are not even prejudiced.

They will work perfectly under communism, they will work perfectly under capitalism... to them, there is no question because there is no consciousness. A machine cannot say: "I cannot do this because this is immoral, criminal." If machines could do that, there would be no war - because no weapon will agree with your politicians.

If the atom bomb had been asked whether it wanted to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the bomb would have laughed: "Why should I destroy? They have done no harm to me. In fact, I don't know those people; there is no reason at all for me to destroy them. And I refuse to be a slave in an act which is irrational."

Machines don't think, don't have consciousness, don't have a heart, don't feel.

It is certain that man is not a machine because he has qualities which machines don't have. Those qualities are indicative of a certain mysterious phenomenon inside, at the very center of our being - a flame of light, a flame of awareness. But science will accept it only if your consciousness can be put into their test tubes, if they can play around with your consciousness. But this, by the very nature of consciousness, is impossible.

Psychology accepted a very stupid definition: that it is a science. If I am allowed to rename it - and I have the right because I have renamed more people than anybody has ever done in the whole of history! so renaming is something which I have been doing continuously for years - I would call it parapsychology. In the East, it has been parapsychology: psychology of the beyond. And man has so much space beyond himself - the whole universe - that to give him a definition, to say that he is just matter, is to reduce him to the lowest denominator. Only his body is matter, the house in which he lives.

He is not the body and he is not the mind: he is beyond both.

Western psychologists, thinkers and philosophers are very well acquainted with my thinking, but strangely enough, very few of them seem to have guts to stand against the vested interests.

One of my sannyasins, a world-famous economist, received the Nobel prize three years ago and naturally, when he received the Nobel prize and the honor, the first idea in his mind was: "Will it ever be possible for these people to understand Osho and recognize him?"

He asked the president of the Nobel Prize Committee... and now that he is a Nobel prize winner he can propose anybody's name - only a member of the Nobel committee can propose a name. So he asked the president: "You have also been reading Osho, why is everybody silent about this man?

We should take the matter in hand. His books should be considered for a Nobel prize."

The president of the committee said, "Say it in such a way that nobody else hears - at least, his name should not be heard by anybody. I love the man. I know you love the man, and I know a few more people love him; but it is almost impossible for the committee to decide to give him a Nobel prize because this committee consists of people who have already brought names given by their governments.

"Osho has no government. On the contrary, all the governments are against him; all the religions are against him. And these people here cannot gather enough courage to be against the religions and against the governments, to go against the rich people who are dominating and to propose Osho's name. But I would suggest you not get into trouble, because there will be international pressure not to give him the Nobel prize. I have received a few suggestions to give him the Nobel prize but I have received a hundred times more letters saying, 'Be alert! This man should not get the award!' And I don't want to get involved in a worldwide controversy.

"The moment you offer this man's name there will be a worldwide controversy about it. I am a non- controversial man." All politicians are non-controversial. They cannot afford to be controversial. It needs a lion's heart, and your politicians are simply rats.

There must also be some jealousy involved in it, because I am the only man, with the whole world against him, homeless.... They can manage to crucify me. And in fact, I belong to the category of people who have been crucified. I don't belong to the Nobel prize winners. My prize can be only like the poison to Socrates, crucifixion to Jesus, death to Al-Hillaj Mansoor - those are my rewards.

So they are unnecessarily jealous. Even if they decide to give me the Nobel prize, I refuse it beforehand - in advance. I don't want to take any chances. I don't have any respect for your rewards or your prizes.

I was a student in the university, participating in an all-India debate - almost fifty universities were participating. Knowing that I cannot speak very loudly, that if there are ten thousand people, I cannot reach them, they played a trick: they removed the microphone. At least one thing became certain: I am not going to get the first prize. Because only the first two or three rows in front of me could hear me, and the judges were sitting behind - they would not be able to hear a single word. The mike was there. When I arrived it was being used - the president, the vice-chancellor of that university, were speaking.

And then they started whispering to each other.

I was sitting just behind them. I figured out that they are thinking to remove the mike so that at least I could not get the first prize. Anybody else could get it, that did not matter.

They had put my name first, so I said, "I am not interested in any prize, so include me out!" And I took the mike and I said, "I will use my time to talk to the students and to the staff. You need not be worried, just cancel my name on your list of people who are going to win the prize. I think now there is no problem for you if I use the mike."

I used the mike. I reached every judge and every person and in the end I said: "This was a conspiracy, because I speak slowly. I am not a street orator. I would ask you - the ten thousand people: students, professors, invited guests - what do you want? Should I remain on the list or should I drop the idea of the prize?"

They all raised their hands saying, "You should remain on the list." And the whole thing turned completely upside down because only I used the mike and nobody else used the mike, so the judges could not hear anybody.

One judge told me: "This has been so hilarious! What they wanted turned out just the opposite. We were very happy that you managed well.

We wanted to hear you; we have come to hear you - not to hear all these childish debaters."

The same is the situation with awards all over the world: childish people, for reasons of politics, are getting Nobel prizes. These people may be famous intellectually but they are not people of genius.

They are not people who have love in their hearts, justice, fairness. There is jealousy, and it takes such stupid forms that you cannot believe it.

One man has written a letter to the German parliament that I am a hidden Catholic and in fact, I am working to spread Christianity, Catholicism. Now even Christ must have laughed, although he is not a fellow who would even smile, but at this point he must have laughed. Because I am a hidden Catholic, I should not be allowed in Germany. This is the intelligentsia! But because I have been against our so-called intelligentsia too, the problem has become more complicated.

I am all for intelligence and not at all for intellect and I make a very clear-cut distinction between the two. Intellect is part of the mind - you can go on becoming bigger and bigger and more and more knowledgeable by accumulating information: you will be thought a great intellectual. These are the people who constitute our intelligentsia. All that they know is borrowed.

Intelligence arises only when meditation has blossomed. It is the fragrance of your silence - the song of your silence. It is a totally different thing because its source is different.

Intellect functions as part of the mind, intelligence functions when mind stops functioning.

Intelligent people around the world are with me and that's what counts. I don't care about the crowd.

My only concern is about those few people who have intelligence enough to enter deeper into their being, because as they open up more and more inside they start changing on the outside. One day, suddenly there is an awakened being and all his actions are full of the light, of the beauty, of the truth of what he has attained within himself.

They are with me. They have been coming from all over the world. All the governments are preventing them, but whenever there is something valuable, something so valuable that all those powerful people look like pygmies in comparison, they are naturally afraid. They would not like me to exist.

But now it is too late. If they do any harm to me they will destroy their own society, their own economic structure; they will destroy their own prestige, their own credibility. And they will not harm my cause, they will help it immensely.

I don't want their Nobel prizes - just a small crucifixion will do. I would have preferred an electric chair but to carry an electric chair to the place does not suit me. And it is less dramatic too. A wooden cross is far more dramatic.

They are full of jealousy on every point because none of them has been able to answer all my criticisms of the past and its history. They are irritated also because they cannot find any way to somehow put a stop to my increasing number of friends and increasing number of enemies. Both are mine; they both relate to me. Without me, both would be at a loss. Somebody would lose a friend, somebody would lose an enemy - the whole world would be at a loss.

But my people are going to change the whole situation - not by any effort, but just by living the way I have been showing you. You are going to be my ultimate witnesses. Whether I was right or wrong will be decided by your actions, by your being.

Question 2:

The truth is, with numbers, at the most I can remember up to three. After that, I don't know what number comes.

Secondly, all the questions that I choose have a certain coherence, a certain inner unity. It may not be apparent to you.

When I speak, if I go into one question in absolute detail, then I cannot deal with another question on that day. One question will be enough for two and a half hours. So I have my way; I introduce the first question, answer its essential points; then I take the second question, answer its essential points, and if there is any point there that can emphasize something in the first question, I bring in the first question again. And it is not done in any systematic way because I have not prepared it. It is just my sensitivity and my spontaneity. I simply go with whatever response arises in me.

So my answer to five questions is like a spiral: I may come to the first question many times but in the end, all those five questions and the answers given to them will make a whole answer. Perhaps those five questions were five aspects of one question that you are not aware of. Because in fact, there is only one question. We can ask millions of questions but the answer is one - there is no way to have many answers.

Because the basic question is one, hence the basic answer is one - the remaining is just play.

Yes, they will all fit like a puzzle in a deep harmony - but while I am answering you, I'm more concerned with you than with your question. I am more concerned with the answer than with the questions. I am more concerned to bring all the questions to a certain synthesis so that the one answer can be acceptable.

And these problems are there: I cannot remember. I try my best... up to three I somehow manage.

By that time, it is enough. Then I start using the wrong numbers. My memory is not very good.

So while I am answering a question - and your questions are not simply one question. Each of your questions can be divided into three or four or five questions. So I start answering one - by the time I have answered it, I have forgotten the other three or four. Rather than waiting for them to come back, I proceed to the second question.

Sometimes, while answering the second question, I start remembering what has been left incomplete in the first, so I have to complete it in the second. By that time, I have forgotten what the second question was all about. So I wait - perhaps in the third question, when I am answering it - some word, some sentence, some story, may remind me.

It has been working perfectly well.

So you get all the answers - even those which are not visible on the surface. But this is not a prepared sermon. This is not a lecture in a university. I know professors who have been using the notes that they have taken in class when they were students. They have been using the same notes in teaching for thirty years. So much water has gone down the Ganges in thirty years, but they are not aware.

I also feel it's really amazing that by the end, slowly slowly, everything that has been forgotten anywhere comes to my mind, and I say okay to Maneesha only when I feel okay.

Question 3:

The first thing: Anything achieved in any life as far as conscious growth is concerned, remains with you. And whenever you start the search again, you will start from the point where you had stopped in some past life.

But it depends on a very subtle point - whether you have achieved something or just believed that you have achieved. If you have just believed, it is not going to be with you in the next life. You will have to start from scratch.

As far as you are concerned, because you feel this tremendous quality of waiting, that you have been waiting and waiting and waiting for long, that means you have never been with a master in the past but you have been a seeker, a long time seeker in the past. But you were seeking on your own, a lonely wanderer in search of the miraculous. Because you were not with any master, not with any school where many people were working together for their inner consolidation, you don't have any memory of such a thing. You have only one feeling, of waiting. That shows that for many lives you have been waiting.

And perhaps the time has come and now you may not need to wait anymore because I am ready to give you that which you have been seeking - whether you know or not. You may not know exactly, precisely what you are seeking, but one thing is certain: that you are incomplete, you are hollow, you are utterly, negatively empty. This much is certain: that you are not complete and entire. Hence, you are waiting for something to make you whole.

That time has come.

Your love, your gratitude, your trust in me shows that unknowingly, you were searching for a master who does not belong to the old but belongs to the future.

Every intelligent person is searching for the master who belongs to the future. Idiots are searching for masters in the past. The more ancient they are the more valuable they are thought to be.

Now you can relax. It may have taken many lives to come to me - now remember, going away from me will take even many more lives. So it is better now to settle. Wandering is good, but only to a limit. You have wandered enough. It is time to retire from this wandering.

Question 4:

It is true. If you meet a man of a higher development in consciousness, you will not be able to understand the man; communication will be almost impossible. But you are saying and seeing only one side of the phenomenon.

You will not be able to understand a man of higher consciousness but he will understand you - more than you understand yourself. He has passed through the same stages that you are passing. He's well-acquainted with the whole territory and he is standing on a high place from where he can see far and wide.

On your part, if you can understand only this much - that understanding will be difficult because his consciousness is higher - then your question will be: "First raise my consciousness so that I am at a point from where communication is possible." You will not ask other questions because his answers will not make sense to you. The only question you can ask is: "I am here, ready. Give me a lift!" And this can be done.

This is actually what is being done here.

Your meditations, my sittings with you, your own individual efforts - all together are creating only a higher consciousness in you. And whether you understand me or not is immaterial - I understand you perfectly well.

You may be blind, I am not. And I am holding your hand tight - so you may not be able to find the door yourself, but just don't try to escape!

Allow me to hold your hand. I will take you out of the door into the open.

The greatest problem is not that you don't understand what comes from a higher consciousness. The greater problem is, you think that if you cannot understand him that means he is talking nonsense.

You have closed the doors. The sun has come even up to your door - you close the door in the very face of the sun.

The sun will come again tomorrow morning. People like me don't get tired because you have not been listening, you have been closing the door, you have been rejecting. The person with the higher consciousness understands it - that these are all childish ways of protecting one's ego. He is not going to be angry with you.

In these thirty years, I must have passed millions of people - talked about their problems, given them every help they wanted for their further growth: instructions, disciplines. But while the person was listening, I was also aware to what category the person belongs: Is he listening or is he just being polite, and deep down he thinks he knows everything? He need not bother about meditation. He need not think about changing his lifestyle so that the new consciousness becomes easier to grow.

With the old lifestyle it is difficult, it is almost like a rose bush growing in stones and rocks. Once in a while it happens, but that is not the rule - that is the exception. And you should always remember the rule, not the exception.

I can see while I am talking to you whether you are closed. If I see that somehow your closed doors can be opened, that perhaps you can be persuaded - if not for spiritual growth then for something else; perhaps for a tantra group... just get caught in the net, then I will see - once you are caught things go on becoming easier.

There is a point of no return. And you all have to remember when that point comes in your life that you cannot go away from me, that it has become impossible. That even if I leave the body, it will not make any difference.

You have found your master, and the master has found his disciple. And this is the greatest discovery there is.

Question 5:

Your father is right. That's why I have gone beyond enlightenment - now I can tell dirty jokes. Just because of enlightenment, I am not going to leave telling dirty jokes. But tell your father that to an enlightened man no joke is dirty. Either it is meaningful or meaningless, but no joke is dirty.

Why have jokes been called dirty? Just small things, but they carry so much past history. Because man's body below the belt is dirty. It is a stupid idea, because your whole body functions as a single unit, it is not divided anywhere. Your blood is circulating continually, twenty-four hours a day. The blood that was in the brain is now in the feet. In the brain, it was not dirty. In the feet, my God! And it is the same blood!

Because sex has become condemned by religions, any joke that has any relationship with sex has become dirty. It is their attitude about sex that makes the joke dirty. Otherwise, ask your father what is dirty in it. Ask him to pinpoint it.

And the greatest miracle in the world is that your father could give birth to you. Perhaps he has given birth to many others. He can make love but a joke about love becomes dirty. The action is perfectly alright, your father doing all kinds of gymnastics is right. Without those gymnastics you would not be here, but a joke about it is wrong.

What kind of society are we living in? There seems to be no rationality.

A young boy went to the bathroom in the night. He had to pass through his parents' room and the boy saw the mother was performing fellatio on the father - look up in the dictionary what fellatio is, because I will not tell you the meaning - and the boy came out of the room scratching his head and saying, "These people sent me to the doctor because I was sucking my thumb!"

And these are the people - in the morning they will be in church, all holy. But an innocent joke will be condemned as dirty.

Why are so many jokes related to sex? Why have they become dirty? Because sex has been suppressed and condemned. This condemnation and this continuous repression has made everything related to sex, dirty. But the whole condemnation is wrong.

And your father must have suppressed his sexual instincts, because in my books, he found only dirty jokes! He could not find any method of meditation? He could not find something that could give him more maturity, more integrity, more individuality?

It happened that Dr. Johnson wrote a very exhaustive dictionary of the English language. Of the old dictionaries, his is the best. The book was published and on the second day - it had just been in the stores for one day - on the second day, three old women, seventy, seventy-five, eighty, they reached Johnson's house and they said, "So you are the fellow who has written that dirty dictionary!"

He said, "Dirty? What do you mean by dirty dictionary? Everybody is praising it, saying that it is the best dictionary!"

The women said, "Those people don't know what is inside. There are three words which are dirty!"

A twelve-hundred-page dictionary.... Those three old women did a great search - the whole night it seems - and they found only three words!

Dr. Johnson said, "It seems you were looking only for these words. There are thousands of words in that dictionary, how did you manage to find these three words? Unless you were looking for them, there is no other possibility."

But why should a seventy, eighty-year-old woman look for some dirty word, some obscene word?

It gives some kind of satisfaction. Even when old people become unable to experience love in the biological sense, still the urge is there. But that urge starts expressing itself in condemnation. So you remain holy, pure and you can condemn. But your very interest in it shows something deeper about your mind.

A joke for your father...especially for your father!

An old man went to a doctor and he said, "Do something! Give me some injections to make me sexually powerful."

The doctor said, "Pop, how you old are?"

He said, "I'm only ninety."

The doctor said, "Ninety?" He said, "Okay, let me first examine you. Show me your sexual organs."

The old man took out his tongue and one finger.

The doctor said, "What is the matter? This tongue and this finger?"

He said, "Yes, doctor. These have been my sexual organs for forty years."

So tell your father that before such a condition comes, enjoy a little!