Gorbachev: a new beginning

Question 1:

Amrit Chinmayo, I can understand your sadness for those friends in the Soviet Union who cannot reach me. But the night in Soviet Union seems to be coming to an end. The man, Gorbachev, is, perhaps for the first time in the whole history of the Russian Revolution, a man who has an insight into human values and is trying his best to make the Soviet Union a really communist democracy, an open society.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is not a permanent part of Karl Marx' utopia. It is only for the interim period, while the society is becoming established in the new form and the old form is disappearing. Once the old form is gone, once the capitalist mind is no longer there, the necessity for dictatorship and a closed society automatically has to disappear. It is a long time since the revolution happened and enough time to allow the dictatorship.

Gorbachev is a new beginning. Perhaps he is not only bringing an open society in the Soviet Union; he will also be helping the outside world to become really open. It has only been a hypothesis up to now; it is not a reality.

If half the world is closed, the other half cannot remain open. It is as if half of you is dead, and the other half is expected to go on living. Life is an organic unity on many layers, in many dimensions. This beautiful planet of ours has a totality. The division between the Soviet and the American blocks is ugly. And more particularly, any division between human beings -- either in the name of religion or in the name of nationalities -- is primitive and barbarous.

Man is one. His problem is one, his misery is one -- his ecstasy is also going to be one.

In the whole field of politics, Gorbachev seems to be a category in himself. He cannot be categorized with other politicians. It is going to be very difficult for him to make the Soviet Union an open society. But the man seems to be courageous and intelligent, and it is a challenge to him to make his people live in freedom -- freedom of thought, freedom of movement, freedom of expression.

I have been watching his steps. He is going slowly, but going steadily. The change has to come very slowly, because the whole bureaucracy has enjoyed dictatorial powers for more than half a century; and the Communist party has enjoyed more power than any party in the whole history of man. To relax the lust for power is one of the most difficult things in the world.

But life is full of mysteries. In the first place, Karl Marx, the founder of communism, had not even dreamt that communism would happen in the Soviet Union. If he is awakened from his grave and told about the Russian Revolution he will be shocked because it is against all his calculations, against all his arguments. That's what I mean when I say life is full of mysteries. It never follows the logical, the mathematical way; it goes zig-zag, like a river moving in the mountains towards the ocean. Life does not run like railway trains on settled rails -- it is not predictable.

According to Karl Marx, communism was going to happen in America, and logically he was right. Where one part of humanity has become immensely rich and another part has become immensely poor, where the division between the poor and the rich is so big that it becomes, at a point, intolerable, it has to be changed, the society has to go through a revolution. America should have been the first to go through the revolution. But that is what logic predicts. Life has its own ways. It happened in a very backward country which was not even capitalist.

According to Karl Marx, communism can happen only when there is a very developed form of capitalism and a class struggle. Russia was still a pre-capitalist country, still living under feudalism, under the czars. There was no capitalist class, and there was no proletariat. Karl Marx could not have logically conceived that Russia would be the first communist country, the first to have the great revolution. But it happened like that:

Russia was the first and China was the next -- and Marx could not have thought either of Russia or of China.

Perhaps it is going to be again a mysterious phenomenon. People think America is a democracy -- which is utterly false. And people think that in America there is freedom of expression, freedom of individuality, that what the constitution of America says is not only written in the constitution but is lived by the country, and that the government exists for the people, by the people, of the people. Nothing can be farther away from truth.

America is the most hypocritical society today in the world, and the most dangerous to the human future.

Gorbachev's coming into power is a great hope, because the man does not seem to be a politician. He is a man in politics, but he is not a politician. His vision is for a better humanity -- it is not confined to the Soviet Union alone. And he is slowly relaxing the dictatorial bureaucracy that has grown up like a monster in the past sixty years.

He is taking one of the most risky steps. If he succeeds... and I hope that he will succeed For sixty years half of humanity has lived under such tremendous slavery that it can be expected that a second revolution will come. And a second revolution will be bigger than the first, greater than the first. The first revolution in the Soviet Union destroyed feudalism; the second revolution will destroy the dictatorship and the slavery of millions of people.

Gorbachev to me is almost a reincarnation of Lenin. In the world of politics, he is the only man I have any respect for.

Amrit Chinmayo, it will not be a long time until the Soviet Union becomes an open society, and it will be possible for my sannyasins to come to me. It will be possible for them to be sannyasins openly.

I have dedicated my book on human rights to Gorbachev and Sakharov -- I have never dedicated any of my books to anybody before -- because I can see a ray of light in this man, and a courage to create a second revolution which will be bigger than the first. The sannyasins in the Soviet Union should help this second revolution to the utmost of their capacity. Gorbachev needs every support of all those who believe in freedom, who believe in individuality, and who respect differences in people; who are not of a fascist mind to impose themselves on others, but of a democratic spirit to help everybody to be himself.

Gorbachev has a task which not only can make the Soviet Union an open society, but will prove that all condemnation by the American politicians of the Soviet Union is utterly false and baseless. The Soviet Union becoming an open society will take away all the power that America has accumulated by creating fear in the world against it. If that fear disappears, the power of America will disappear with it. America does not want the Soviet Union to become an open society.

Now it has to be understood by every Soviet citizen, and every level of humanity, that it is absolutely urgent that the Soviet Union becomes open, available, so that all condemnations fall on their own, and America is proved to be cheating the whole humanity. This will be the real victory of the Soviet Union.

The question of a nuclear victory is simply not possible. And Gorbachev is the first man who has seen the fact that with the invention of nuclear weapons, the third world war has become an impossibility -- because nobody can win, nobody can be victorious. If a third world war happens, everybody will be destroyed. There will not be somebody left even to write the history of what happened in the third world war.

It is again those mysterious things I talk about.... Gautam Buddha could not prevent people from fighting; Jesus could not prevent people from fighting; Leo Tolstoy, Prince Kropotkin, and all the people who have been against war, have not been able to prevent people from going to wars. What has prevented them is the invention of nuclear powers.

Now war is simply impossible -- unless humanity decides to commit suicide. And humanity is not in a position to decide for suicide. There is a tremendous longing in every heart to live, and to live joyously. A third world war is out of the question.

Gorbachev's greatness is in his insight that now America has to be defeated in a different way.

The Soviet Union becoming really democratic -- a freedom-loving society -- will be the defeat of America. It just has to penetrate into all people who have power in the Soviet Union that history has brought them to a point where they can win over America without any war. Just by bringing freedom to their own people they will take the mask off America -- its so-called, pseudo, democracy. And Gorbachev is trying slowly to bring the people....

For this new kind of war, who is more free? Who is more independent? Who respects the individual? Who respects individuals' differences, their freedom of expression, their freedom of creativity? Now this is going to be the real war! And the Soviet Union can be victorious without fighting. Fighting is no longer possible.

For the first time a totally new kind of war has come into existence, and Gorbachev must be given the credit of seeing it. And he is not missing the opportunity -- every moment he is moving towards an open society.

Amrit Chinmayo, give the message to my sannyasins in the Soviet Union: "Your day has come." Just as the first revolution had come unexpectedly to the Soviet Union, even more unexpectedly the second revolution is coming -- it has already begun. They should rejoice and make every effort to help Gorbachev in making the Soviet Union the land of freedom, love, friendship, respect to human life. It is going to happen -- you can take it from me, almost as a prediction.

Just a few days ago, I was seeing one of the most significant books to be published in this century, MILLENNIUM. It is a deep research into Nostradamus and his predictions.

Eighty thousand copies were published -- which is very rare -- and they were sold within weeks. Now a second publication, a second edition, is happening in America, another is happening in England, and the book is being translated into many other languages -- Dutch, German....

Nostradamus was a great mystic with an insight into the future. And you will be surprised to know that in his predictions, I am included. Describing the teacher of the last days of the twentieth century, he gives eight indications. Krishnamurti fulfills five, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi fulfills three, Da Free John fulfills four -- and I was amazed that I fulfill all eight.

In this book MILLENNIUM, they have made a chart of the teacher about whom Nostradamus is predicting -- that his people will wear red clothes, that he will come from the East, that he will be arrested, that his commune will be destroyed, that flying birds will be his symbol, that his name will mean moon.... Three hundred years ago that man was seeing something that fits perfectly with me -- my name means "the moon." And in their chart they have declared me the teacher of the last part of the twentieth century.

I can see as clearly as Nostradamus:

I predict that Gorbachev is going to succeed in bringing the second and greater revolution to Russia, and his revolution in the Soviet Union is going to affect everything in the whole world.

I would like my sannyasins to meet him -- they have to meet him to present my book that I have dedicated to him. Invite him to come to my people here whenever he needs a little encouragement and hope, whenever he needs a spiritual support, a nourishment. And tell him that his meetings with Ronald Reagan are not going to fulfill anything, but if he dances with my sannyasins he will gather a new spirit, a new joy to accept the great challenge that is his destiny.

And it will not be long before sannyasins from the Soviet Union will be allowed to come here, and my sannyasins from other countries will be entering into the Soviet Union.

I have gone around the world -- except to the Soviet Union. It will be an immense help for Gorbachev to make the Soviet Union an open society if he invites me and my people.... Nobody else can destroy the people who are full of lust for power, and nobody else can revive the spirit of the people which has been repressed for sixty years.

If my people just go and sing and dance and move around in the Soviet Union, they will create an atmosphere in which Gorbachev can work more easily for the second great revolution. This is my message for my sannyasins, and for Gorbachev, and for Sakharov.

So when you go back, meet Sakharov and tell him from me that he should make arrangements for my sannyasins in the Soviet Union to meet with Gorbachev. He is the right person, in the right place, in the right moment.

Question 2:

Satyadharma....

A new flood is foretold, and nothing can be done to prevent it. In three days the waters will wipe out the world. The leader of Buddhism appears on television and pleads with everybody to become a Buddhist. That way they will at least find salvation in paradise.

The pope goes on television with a similar message: "It is still not too late to accept Jesus," he says.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh takes a different approach: "Look guys, we have three days to learn how to live under water."

Question 3:

Paritosh Lore, love brings freedom. And a love that does not bring freedom is not love.

Love is not domination. How can you dominate someone you love? How can you make him dependent, and still be loving? But that's what goes on happening in the world in the name of love -- something else -- a lust to power, to dominate the other. Naturally independence cannot be allowed. Every effort is made that the other should be a carbon copy of you. You are afraid of the freedom of the other, because freedom is not controllable, and freedom is not predictable. So all so-called love tries in every way to destroy freedom -- and the moment freedom is destroyed, love dies.

Love is very fragile, just like a rose flower. You have to allow it to dance in the rain, in the wind, in the sun.

Love is like a bird on the wing, having the whole sky as its freedom. You can catch hold of the bird, you can put it in a beautiful golden cage, and it seems it is the same bird that was flying in freedom and had the whole sky to itself. It only appears to be the same bird.

It is not -- you have killed it. You have cut its wings, you have taken away its sky. And the birds don't bother about your gold. However precious may be your cage, it is imprisonment.

And that's what we are doing with our love: we create golden cages. We are afraid because the sky is vast. The fear is that the bird may not return. To keep it under your control it has to be imprisoned. That's how love becomes marriage.

Love is a bird on the wing: marriage is a bird in a golden cage. And certainly the bird can never forgive you. You have destroyed all its beauty, all its joy, all its freedom. You have destroyed its spirit -- it is just a dead replica. But you have made one thing certain, that it cannot escape you, that it will be always yours, that tomorrow also it will be yours, and the day after tomorrow....

Lovers are always afraid. The fear is because love comes like a breeze. You cannot produce it, it is not something to be manufactured -- it comes. But anything that comes on its own, can go also on its own, that is a natural corollary.

Love comes, and flowers blossom in you, songs arise in your heart, a desire to dance...

but with a hidden fear. What will happen if this breeze that has come to you, cool and fragrant, leaves you tomorrow?... because you are not the limit of existence. And the breeze is only a guest -- it will be with you as long as it feels to be, and it will go any moment.

This creates fear in people, and they become possessive. They start closing their doors and windows to keep the breeze in. But when your doors and windows are closed, it is not the same breeze. The coolness is lost, the fragrance is lost -- soon it is disgusting. It needs freedom, and you have taken away the freedom; it is only a corpse.

In the name of love people are carrying each others' corpses, which they call marriage.

And to carry corpses you have to go to a government registrar's office to make it a legal bond. Love cannot allow marriage. In an authentic world marriage will be impossible.

One should love, and love intensely and love totally, and not be worried about tomorrow.

If existence has been so blissful today, trust that existence will be more beautiful and more blissful tomorrow. As your trust grows, existence becomes more and more generous towards you. More love will shower on you. More flowers of joy and ecstasy will rain over you.

Paritosh Lore, in your sixty-three years` life whatever you have known in the name of love was not love. It may have been infatuation, it may have been biological attraction, it may have been a conspiracy of hormones against two individuals -- but not love. You have known love for the first time... because this is the only criterion: your freedom grows deeper, your independence becomes more solid and integrated and crystallized.

This is the only criterion that love has visited you, that love has been a guest in your heart.

And who cares about tomorrow? The people who care about tomorrow are the people who don't have today, who are miserable right now and try to hide it, try to ignore it in the hope, in the desire, in the dream for tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes, this is one of the difficulties. It is always today that comes. And you become accustomed to being miserable today, and hoping, desiring, dreaming for tomorrow. You have missed life.

People have become so accustomed to tomorrows that they are not only thinking of tomorrows in this life, they are thinking of life after death.

People used to ask me, "What will happen after life? What will happen after death?" And I used to say to them, "Whatever is happening before death, the same will continue. Are you blissful today? -- because tomorrow will be born out of today. Today is pregnant with your whole future."

Love intensely, joyously, totally, and you will never think of creating a bondage, a contract. You will never think of making the person dependent. You will never be so cruel -- if you love -- as to destroy the freedom of the other. You will help, you will make his sky bigger.

There is only one criterion of love: It gives freedom, and it gives unconditionally.

You have experienced love for the first time, but it is not too late -- although you are sixty-three years old. Love transforms old age into youth. If you can go on loving to the very last breath, you will remain young. Love knows no old age. Love knows no death. If you can go on loving, your love will continue beyond death too. Love is the most precious experience in life.

People unnecessarily waste their time in empty words like "God." I was looking at the famous book, WAITING FOR GODOT. In fact he wants to say "God," but has not the courage -- it will offend many people -- so he has created a word, "Godot," which will remind you, you will understand. But I thought perhaps in some language "Godot" means" God," and that language can only be the German.

One of my old sannyasins, Haridas, who is on the way -- soon he will be here -- I asked him, "What is the German word for God?"

He said, "For God? The German word is Gott!"

I said, "That is even more dangerous than Godot -- Gott!"

Nobody has got it. But people are wasting their time....

Be more realistic, be more pragmatic. Don't betray the earth... and then you will see there is nothing more important than love, and love grows only in the atmosphere of freedom.

That makes your complete religion.

Love, growing in freedom, is all that religion should mean. There is no other religion than love and freedom -- and they are one phenomenon.

Freedom is empty without love -- dry, desert-like.

Love is dead without freedom -- a corpse.

Together they are all. Together they are more than you can imagine life to be. You have Gott it!... I love the word. It seems to be the best -- "God" is far away, "Godot" is fictitious, but "Gott" is more earthly.

But it is possible only where love blossoms in the sky of freedom. And whenever it happens, at whatever age it happens, it brings youth to you, it brings spring to you.

Millions of people are unfortunate -- they live and die without knowing what love is, and without knowing the joy of giving freedom. And unless you are capable of giving freedom, you are not worthy of getting it either.

Paritosh Lore, what has happened to you is a great blessing. You should pray that it happens to all.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

The Golden Future