Miracles are mostly fiction

Question 1:

Zareen, I do not believe in miracles, but still miracles happen. Because I do not believe in them, I cannot claim to be the doer. At the most I am also a watcher.

The miracles that Jesus did are trivia: walking on the water, or turning water into wine, or bringing Lazarus from death back to life. To me they are not miracles.

I am reminded of one of the greatest mystics this land has produced: Ramakrishna. He was one of the simplest men possible. One day a great saint who was well known for his miracles came to see him. Ramakrishna was sitting on the river bank in Dakshineshwar near Calcutta, where the Ganges becomes so huge and so beautiful. The saint was very proud of the miracles that he used to do. And he had come with the specific purpose of showing Ramakrishna that his religiousness is worthless.

He said with great pride and ego in his heart, "What are you doing sitting under a tree? Let us go for a walk on the Ganges, on the waters."

Ramakrishna said, "You have come a long way. Just rest a little and then we can go for a walk on the Ganges."

The man sat down and Ramakrishna said, "Can I ask one thing: how long it took you to learn the art of walking on water?"

The man said, "Almost thirty-six years."

Ramakrishna laughed and he said, "When I want to go to the other shore - just two paise, and that too, the boat-man never takes from me, seeing that I am a poor man. Thirty-six years you have wasted on an art which is only worth two paise. You must be an idiot."

Even if you can walk on water, it does not make you spiritual, it does not give you a glimpse of the divine. On the contrary it takes you further away from God. You become more egoistic, because you can do something which others cannot do.

Jesus brings Lazarus back to life. Naturally it appears to be a great miracle - but it is not, because Lazarus is not transformed, and living a few years more, repeating the old routine again, he has to die. His being brought back to life has not given him anything of the eternal. The same story is repeated in Gautam Buddha's life, and there you can see the difference between a real miracle and a pseudo miracle.

A young son died, and that son was the only hope for his mother. The father had died, his other brothers and sisters had died and the mother was living only for this boy. And this boy too, died. The mother went almost mad. She was crying and weeping and asking everybody, "Tell me the address or the name of a physician who can heal my boy back, because I cannot live, I have no reason to live anymore. I have been carrying so many wounds: my other children died, my husband died. But I kept myself in control, just for this small, beautiful boy, and now he has also gone."

Somebody said, "Don't be worried, Gautam Buddha has come just today in the town. He is staying outside the town in the mango grove. You take the boy to Gautam Buddha."

The woman, with great hope and great longing went to Gautam Buddha, taking the corpse of the dead boy. She put the dead body at Gautam Buddha's feet and said, "If you are really spiritual, if you are awakened, then give my child his life back."

Gautam Buddha said, "That is not difficult. Just one small condition you have to fulfill."

The woman said, "I will fulfill any condition."

He said, "It is not a big condition. I know your whole village grows crops of mustard seed. You go and bring from some home just a handful of mustard seeds."

The woman started running; she said, "I will be coming back within a few minutes."

Buddha said, "You have not heard the whole condition. The condition is: the mustard seed should come from a family where nobody has ever died."

The woman was in such misery, she could not see the point. She rushed from one home to another.

And people said, "We can give as many mustard seeds as you want. We can bring the whole village's mustard seeds, if your son's life can come back. But our mustard seeds will not be of any help, because so many people have died in our family, and you cannot find a family where nobody has died."

The number of dead people in every family is more than the number of the living. Your fathers died, your forefathers died, and so on, and so forth - since Adam and Eve people have been doing nothing but dying. The queue is so long behind each person - of dead people.

But she went from house to house and slowly, slowly, by the evening she became aware. Her tears dried up; she came back to Gautam Buddha, touched his feet, and said, "Forget about the boy, in this world everybody has to die. It does not matter when one dies. You initiate me as a sannyasin, so that I can experience something of the deathless, something of the immortal, something of the eternal that lives forever."

Buddha said, "You are intelligent and you have understood my point."

The woman became a sannyasin, and not an ordinary sannyasin. She became enlightened before Buddha died. She was his first woman enlightened disciple, Kisha Gautami was her name. I call this a miracle.

Apparently, it seems, bringing Lazarus back to life is a miracle. But what is the point? He will die again; you have not given him the taste of immortality. Real miracles are invisible to the ordinary mind. I don't believe in these miracles, because they are not miracles.

Zareen, you are asking about my miracle. I have never done anything deliberately, because to do anything deliberately is to go against the natural flow of existence. I am in a total let-go. Yes, things have been happening around me. I cannot take the credit for those things, because I have not done anything.

People have come to know for the first time the mysteries of love, the mysteries of life. People have entered into their very interiority, into their subjectivity, where one meets oneself.

And that is the greatest miracle in the world, to meet oneself.

People have become silent, serene, calm and quiet. People have become one organic unity. Such a deep harmony has happened to them that their whole life is resounding with music and poetry.

I have seen the crippled, and almost everybody is crippled by society, gaining strength and dancing in abandon. Dancing to the point where the dancer disappears and only dancing remains. Singing to the point where the singer disappears and only singing remains.

These are the moments which open the doors of the divine. These are the moments you are no more your ordinary self, you become part of the ultimate, of the universal self.

These are miracles. Changing water into wine is a criminal act, not a miracle. But without water I have seen my people so drunk; in their drunkenness they realize their divineness. But I have not been doing anything. I have not been here for many years. The day I disappeared, miracles started happening around me. Love has blossomed, people have become awakened from their sleep of many lives.

But you cannot attribute them to me. At the most my presence is just a catalytic agent. Perhaps it triggers something in you; transforms you, brings to you new dreams, and new realities, and new spaces. But remember, you are not to be grateful to me. You have to be grateful to existence itself, that it has given you the opportunity.

The people who claim miracles for themselves are not religious people. They don't know even the taste of spirituality.

The spiritual person is absent as a person and present only as a presence - just a light. It all depends on you to become aflame from that light or not to become aflame. That light is available, you can use it and become light yourself; it is your decision. Hence, if you want to see a miracle, you can see it happening in your own life. All other miracles are mostly fiction. Nobody has ever walked on water. It is not only about Jesus - it is about anybody; Mahavira, or Buddha, or Bodhidharma, or Zarathustra, many miracles are attributed to them - and those miracles are such trivia. The real miracles remain invisible, unrecorded in history because only the person who goes through the process of the miracle knows it, and even he cannot prove it, he cannot give any evidence for it.

I have been a watcher here. I have seen you change from death to life, I have seen you change from darkness to light, I have seen seen you change from a life of lies to the glory of truth.

But I am a watcher, I am not a doer, the whole credit goes to existence itself.

Question 2:

Prem Prasado, Jalaluddin Rumi is one of the greatest Sufi mystics. He is the only mystic whom Sufis have called Mevlana. Mevlana means, our Beloved Master.

A few people I love immensely. Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi is one of them, and the reason I love him is that he was not life-negative, but life-affirmative. And the meditation that he has found and which has continued for seven hundred years among a small stream of mystics was the meditation of a certain kind of dance. His followers are called whirling sufis.

You must have seen small children - they like to whirl; and everybody stops them, because the fear of the parents is that the child may fall, may have a fracture, may get hurt. But in spite of all prohibitions, children love to whirl. And nobody has inquired why children love, all over the world, irrespective of race, nation, religion, why children love to whirl.

Jalaluddin Rumi, seeing children whirl, thought that there must be something that the children feel but they cannot express, and perhaps they are not fully aware what it is. So he tried whirling himself, and he was amazed that if you go on whirling there comes a moment when the center of your being remains static and your whole body, mind, brain, everything, whirls.

And that center which does not whirl, is you, the center of the cyclone. The whirling is almost like a cyclone, but exactly in the middle of the cyclone you will find a point which has not moved at all.

Every wheel needs a center on which to turn, and the center has to remain unturning. You see in bicycles, in bullock carts, wherever there is a wheel, there is something in the center which is unmoving.

Once Jalaluddin became aware that you can find the unmoving center of your being, he tried for thirty-six hours non-stop, without eating, without drinking - he was determined to whirl to his absolute capacity, not to hold back anything... unless he falls, he is not going to stop. Thirty-six hours he whirled, a great crowd watched. The crowd went on changing; people had to go to eat and then they came again. People had to do their work and then they came again; thirty-six hours is a long period. And after thirty-six hours he fell down. And people heard a great laughter.

Jalaluddin was laughing loudly, and he said, "You think you have seen me falling, I have also seen myself falling. These thirty-six hours I have not moved a single inch. Now I don't have to go to Mecca in search of God, I have found him. In the unmoving center of my own being, he is."

The followers of Rumi don't have great scriptures, don't have any rituals, except whirling, and a few beautiful poems by Jalaluddin Rumi, which he used to sing after whirling and falling. He will get up and he will be so drunk - in that drunkenness he will sing a song, and those songs have been collected. That is the only literature the followers of Rumi have.

These lines are also from one of the poems of Rumi. Each sentence is impeccable - not only true, but also utterly beautiful.

We are the mirror, that's what I have been saying to you again and again; that we are not the doer, we are only the mirror. Don't get identified with your doings, with your actions; remain a witness, just a watcher. But we are not taught the most essential things of life, we are taught all kinds of stupid things.

The most essential is the art of watchfulness.

I have heard, a drunkard came home in the night. And however drunk you may be, the closer you come to home, as you remember your wife, you almost start becoming sober... just the remembrance. And that day was special, because the wife had got so tired... in the middle of every night he will come, and she will have to get up and open the door, and then the fight.... So she had given him the key that day and told him, "Now behave! When you come home be as silent as possible."

So he was moving very silently - and a policeman was watching. He thought, This is strange, it is his own house, and he is going as if he is a thief. And finally the drunk tried hard to find the lock.

Somehow he managed to find the lock, holding the lock in one hand and the key in another, but he could not manage to make the key enter into the lock. Both his hands were shaking. He said, "This is strange. Is there anybody to help me? The house is shaking."

The policeman came and he said, "What is the matter?"

He said, "You just hold the house for a moment, so I can open the lock."

The policeman laughed. He said, "You just give me the key and I will open the lock." So the policeman opened the lock.

The drunkard wanted no trouble that day. The wife had been really very graceful in giving the key.

But on the way he had been fighting with another drunkard, and the other drunkard had scratched him, and blood was oozing from many places in his face. So first he entered into the house, very cautiously - but he stumbled, and the wife said, "Who is there?"

Suddenly he remembered his wife's dog, so he just went close to the bed, and started rubbing his nose and his tongue on her feet. So she thought that it was the dog, turned and went back to sleep.

Then he entered the bathroom, looked into the mirror and said, "My God, in the morning she will find out; so many places blood is coming, where that friend of mine has scratched...." So he took some ointment that was there in the bathroom and put the ointment on every scratch, covering it completely, so that in the morning the wife cannot find out.

And in the morning when the wife went into the bathroom, she shouted, "You idiot! You come here.

Who has destroyed my mirror? Who has painted it with the ointment?" This was his doing. Seeing the face in the mirror, naturally he went on putting the ointment on the face in the mirror.

You are not a drunkard, but spiritually you are all asleep. And unless you become a watcher of your own actions, of your dreams, of your thoughts, of your desires - there is no way of transformation, of becoming awake, getting out of this rut of sleep which you have continued in for many lives.

Rumi is right when he says, "We are the mirror, as well as the face in it."

We are the watcher and the watched. There is no separation between us and existence. We are part of one whole, just as my two hands are part of one organic unity. I can manage that they fight with each other. I can manage that they are friendly, loving and warm to each other. I can hit one hand with the other hand and wound it.

When you are seeing the tree, or the moon, or the river, or the ocean, you are the mirror and the mirrored too. It is one existence.

This is the basic conclusion of all the mystics, that the whole of existence is one entity, there is no duality. All duality deep down is joined into one existence.

WE ARE THE MIRROR AS WELL AS THE FACE IN IT.

WE ARE TASTING THE TASTE THIS MINUTE OF ETERNITY.

Just be watchful this minute. In this silence you are tasting something which is beyond time.

We are tasting the taste of this minute of eternity. We are pain, and what cures pain, both. We are agony and we are ecstasy. We are hell and we are heaven, because there is no contradiction in existence. They are all joined together. We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours it.

You can find many contradictions in life. And you can also find that they are all complementaries.

It is something very strange, that all the mystics, whether they were born thousands of years ago, or they are alive today, all fundamentally agree on the essential points of spiritual growth and realization.

For example: the silence, this minute, gives you not an explanation - but it gives you an experience.

Dancing and singing, allow yourself to be so completely overwhelmed that nothing is left behind. And you have entered into the temple of God, where you are the mirror, and you are the face mirrored in it; where you are the seeker and you are the sought; where you are the devotee and you are the God at whose feet you are offering yourself.

It happened in Ramakrishna's life... a very strange incident. One great painter wanted to paint the picture of Ramakrishna. After great persuasion Ramakrishna agreed. When the painting was complete, the painter brought it to offer to Ramakrishna. As he gave the painting to Ramakrishna...

Ramakrishna touched the feet in the painting with his head. The painter could not believe it. He had heard that that man is mad, but now there was no question: he is certainly mad, touching his own feet with his head!

Even his disciples became embarrassed. A great silence fell. Finally one disciple asked, "It is your own painting, your own picture - and you are touching its feet with your head? You do such things...

people think you are mad, and you give them every kind of evidence. Even we become embarrassed when people ask us, ?Why do you go to Ramakrishna, can't you find anybody else who is sane?'"

Ramakrishna said, "Have I committed any wrong? I have not touched my own feet. I have touched the feet - because the painting is of somebody who is in deep silence, in samadhi, in tune with God.

You are right, I must be mad, because now I recognize it is my own picture. But at that moment I only felt that the painter has done a great job. He has not only caught the body of the person, but also his spirit." And Ramakrishna kept that painting his whole life, just behind his bed. It is still there.

While his wife was alive she used to make the bed every day, even after his death. She used to bring food to his room. She used to cook all those delicious things that Ramakrishna liked.

People started saying, "One madman is dead, now this mad woman..."Sharda was her name. Even disciples of Ramakrishna used to ask her, "When he is dead, what is the point of twice every day making food for him, every night, making his bed?."

She said, "Should I believe you, or should I believe him? Because when he was dying, I asked, 'Are you really dying?' And he said, 'Nobody dies. And you need not change your dress.'" This is the custom among the Hindus, that the widow cannot use colored clothes, she cannot use ornaments, she has to shave her head.

Ramkrishna said, "You are not to do anything, because I am not going to die, I'm simply leaving the body, but I will be here, now, always."

"So whom I am to believe?" Sharda used to say. "And if he is always here now, I cannot resist the temptation of preparing things that he used to like. I may not be able to see him, but he must be able to see me, and that is what is significant - not that I should see him, but that he is watching.

And for his whole life his teaching was a simple word: watchfulness."

We are the mirror as well as the face in it.

Question 3:

Devageet, it is the same thing. You need not know anything about the Buddha. If you can dance totally, if you can laugh totally, if you can surrender yourself to existence - that is what I mean by a sannyasin: one who is surrendered. Then nothing else remains for you to do. That's what makes you divine, that's what makes you a Buddha.

You are saying, "I can see through your game."

Just a little bit. If you had seen the whole game, you would not have asked the question. You are saying that I am giving you enough rope to hang yourself, and you are ready to do it gladly - but you can't find your neck. Devageet, you have already hanged yourself. Where can you find your neck?

It is gone. You only have the rope.

You are also saying, "You are not going to get rid of me that easily." That's why I say, you are seeing only just a little bit of the game. You are no longer there. In laughing, in dancing, in singing, you have hanged yourself, and now there is no question of getting rid of you.

The problem arises only with those people who dance half-heartedly. Who hang, but hang themselves half-heartedly.

I have heard the story of Mulla Nasruddin, who was going to commit suicide. He always consults me on serious problems, and he said, "I am going to commit suicide."

I said, "That's very good, because one man less - the world is better. And anyway, you have lived long enough, this is time."

He said, "Any suggestions?"

I said, "Don't take any chances. Take a rope, go to the river, you know a high cliff... and just on the cliff there is a big tree. So you hang yourself from the tree. Most probably you will succeed, but you are not a great success in life, you have always been a failure, so also take a tin of kerosene oil. Hang yourself first, then pour the oil on yourself. And just now somebody has brought a gift for me: a lighter, so you take this lighter and set fire to yourself. And don't forget to take your gun. If everything fails, shoot yourself in the head."

He said, "That's good. Now there is no chance of missing."

I said, "Only one method is enough, and I am coming behind you, if there is some need. I will help you."

He said, "You are a great friend. Because I have asked other friends, and everybody said, Don't talk about such things, never even think of suicide, and you are suggesting all these things. You have presented me with a beautiful cigarette lighter."

So I went with him, I just said, "There, you try."

He put the rope around his neck, but half-heartedly. He had to do it, because I was there watching.

And then he poured the kerosene oil; and he went on looking at me, and he put the fire.... And then he shot, but not into his head, he shot the rope - so he fell into the river. The fire was gone, because of the river. And I shouted, "It is okay, you drown!"

He said, "I cannot do that because I know swimming." And he came out.

I said, "You are something. When you wanted to die, why did you start swimming?"

He said, "You have never tried such a thing, I did everything, because of you! And then when I got the chance to swim out of the river I did not miss. Here is your lighter, you keep it. It may help somebody else."

But I said, "What about your suicide?"

He said, "Who wants to commit it?"

But I said, "You had come to ask me."

He said, "Just by the way I wanted to be informed about... one never knows. One should collect all kinds of information. But you are such a man, you became so insistent with me, that rather than giving me information, you forced me to have an experience!"

I said, "That's my weakness. People ask me for explanations, and I try to give them experiences."

Devageet, you are finished. You cannot even swim out of the ocean of my dancers and my singers and my musicians, and my sannyasins. There is no hope.

So just relax and drop that rope, it is useless now for you. It may be useful for somebody else, because new people are coming every day.

Question 4:

Anand Dhiren, you need not worry about it, that is my business.

The grass is growing by itself perfectly well. You don't worry about the grass, you just dance totally.

That's how small things become disturbances. Worrying about the grass, whether it is growing or not, will disturb your dance, will disturb your meditation. You leave this to me.

For what I am sitting here? Just to keep an eye that the grass goes on growing. And I have put a net all around... you think it is to prevent the mosquitos from coming in? You are wrong. It is to prevent dancers from going out and destroying the grass!

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.