Prologue part 3

EVERY STATEMENT of Zarathustra is so pregnant with meaning that it is almost impossible to bring out all the implications, to open up all the mysteries hidden in it. And it becomes more difficult because he is absolutely against any tradition, any orthodoxy, any past. Ordinarily, our statements can be interpreted in the light of the past. They contain the past. They are conclusions of the past.

With Zarathustra, the situation is just the opposite. His statements contain the future, and the future is vast, the future is multidimensional. We can say definite things about the past because it is dead.

About the future, we can only say probabilities, possibilities, potentialities because the future is open.

It has yet to happen, and there is no possibility to predict it - that's its beauty, that's its unknowability, that's its grandeur.

Looking at the future, you can feel only a deep awe, a wonder, a surprise. In each nook and corner, so many treasures are hidden that unless you come to them, there is no way to say anything about them.

Gautam Buddha is simple, so is Jesus, so is Mahavira - they are all conclusions of the past.

Zarathustra is a prophecy for the future.

This should be remembered: that he is the most unpredictable mystic in the whole history of man. WHEN ZARATHUSTRA ARRIVED AT THE NEAREST OF THE TOWNS LYING AGAINST THE FOREST, HE FOUND IN THAT VERY PLACE MANY PEOPLE ASSEMBLED IN THE MARKET SQUARE: FOR IT HAD BEEN ANNOUNCED THAT A TIGHT-ROPE WALKER WOULD BE APPEARING.

Man is so miserable, that he wants to forget his misery in any kind of entertainment, howsoever stupid it may look to those who have a little intelligence. All our games are childish, but millions of people are so interested in them, as if they are going to give them a new life, a transformed being, as if they are going to take away their misery, their dark night of the soul.

If it is announced that a tightrope walker is appearing, thousands of people will assemble, just to see somebody walking on a tightrope - as if these people don't have anything significant to do in their lives; as if they don't know what to do with the time that existence has given them.

Zarathustra found this assembly. Certainly, these were not the people who deserve a Zarathustra and his message, but these are the only kind of people all over the earth - there is no other kind. Hence, ZARATHUSTRA SPOKE THUS TO THE PEOPLE... without bothering whether they deserved it, whether they would even be able to comprehend what he is saying.

He is like a raincloud, so burdened with wisdom that he wants to rain anywhere. He wants to empty himself. The riches of his joy, his silence, his blissfulness have become so heavy that he needs anybody to share them. The question is not whether they deserve it or not. Certainly, this was not the assembly to hear him; but a raincloud even rains on stones, rocks, on infertile land. The raincloud cannot discriminate; his whole problem is how to unburden himself.

The first sentence that he uttered contains his whole philosophy, his whole religion:

I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN.

Man is something that should be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? Nobody has said it so pointedly, so clearly that man has to transcend himself; that he has to go beyond himself; that man is something that should be overcome. You should not be satisfied by just remaining man.

You should move beyond all that is human. Everything that is within you belongs to man.

To be a superman means dropping your mind, dropping your ideologies, dropping your instincts, dropping your intelligence, moving totally beyond all your conceptions about man. The superman is his teaching; and his insight about it is derived from a very natural phenomenon.

ALL CREATURES HITHERTO HAVE CREATED SOMETHING BEYOND THEMSELVES.... That's the whole theory of evolution: every creature has produced something beyond itself. The apes have created man. You cannot even conceive that they are your forefathers. The distance is so much; the transcendence is so great.

Scientists say life began in the oceans, with a fish. From the fish to man, every creature has been giving birth to something that transcends him. But suddenly, coming to man, the whole evolution has stopped. Man simply gives birth to another man.

AND DO YOU WANT TO BE THE EBB OF THIS GREAT TIDE, AND RETURN TO THE ANIMALS RATHER THAN OVERCOME MAN?

WHAT IS THE APE TO MEN? A LAUGHING-STOCK OR A PAINFUL EMBARRASSMENT.

AND JUST SO SHALL MAN BE TO THE SUPERMAN: A LAUGHING-STOCK OR A PAINFUL EMBARRASSMENT.

YOU HAVE MADE YOUR WAY FROM WORM TO MAN, AND MUCH IN YOU IS STILL WORM.

In fact, the whole of evolution from the fish to man is still within you. It has left its footprints in your consciousness. Every child in the nine months of mother's womb, passes through all the stages that humanity has passed, from fish to man.

We have all the tendencies which prove that, even if Darwin is not found to be right biologically, psychologically he cannot be refuted. Your mind still carries the monkey; your behavior is still below human; your humanity is not skin-deep - just a little scratch and you will find the gorilla coming out.

Just a little humiliation, and you are ready to kill or to be killed. You are carrying all the violence of all the animals; you are carrying all the instincts of all the animals.

ONCE YOU WERE APES, AND EVEN NOW MAN IS MORE OF AN APE THAN ANY APE. Because apes have not created world wars - they are simple beings. They are not piling up nuclear weapons to commit a global suicide. Man's violence seems to be unlimited.

BUT HE WHO IS THE WISEST AMONG YOU, HE ALSO IS ONLY A DISCORD AND HYBRID OF PLANT AND OF GHOST. BUT DO I BID YOU BECOME GHOSTS OR PLANTS?

Even the wisest amongst you behave in moments of weakness like fools, idiots. The idiot is not very far away; he is just hiding behind you; a little provocation and he comes out and takes you over. Your mastery is so superficial; it can be destroyed so easily.

Even the wisest amongst you is a discord; is not a harmony; is not an organic unity; is not an orchestra. There are so many voices, a big crowd, that everybody is carrying within himself. Have you not observed the crowd within? How many people live inside you? How many faces do you have? Perhaps you have not even counted; perhaps there are too many to be counted.

When a Sufi mystic went to his master, renouncing the world, his family and friends, the family and the friends and the whole village came to see him go. Perhaps they might not see him again - he was going on a long pilgrimage to find a master. Their eyes were full of tears.

He tried to console them and he said to them, "Now you should go back. This is the boundary of our town, the river. Now let me be alone. Don't delay me."

He reached the mountains and when he entered the hut of his master, the master looked at him and said, "You can come in, but alone." He looked to both sides; there was nobody else. He said, "I am alone."

The master said, "Don't look sideways. Look inside. I can see a crowd, a crowd of your friends, your relatives, your family, your neighbors - full of tears in their eyes. Just leave them outside. Until you are alone, don't enter, because I can deal only with individuals, not with mobs, not with crowds."

The man closed his eyes and was surprised. All the people that he had left far behind, were still there in the mind - their memories, their images. He went out and had to remain outside for three months, just sitting by the side of the door where people used to leave their shoes. Having nothing else to do, he would polish their shoes while they were meeting with the master.

But his desire and longing were sincere. Polishing the shoes of the visitors for three months, slowly, slowly, the crowd dispersed. And one day, the master came out, took his hand in his hands, and invited him in. The master said, "Now there is no need to wait outside. You are alone and our work can begin."

"Even the wisest," says Zarathustra, "are nothing but a crowd - not a single voice but so many voices, a marketplace, contradicting each other, no harmony, no accord."

BEHOLD, I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN.

THE SUPERMAN IS THE MEANING OF THE EARTH. LET YOUR WILL SAY: THE SUPERMAN SHALL BE THE MEANING OF THE EARTH!

I ENTREAT YOU, MY BROTHERS, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH....

What does he mean by superman? - exactly what I mean by the new man. I have dropped the word "super" for a certain reason. It can be misunderstood: it has been misunderstood. It gives the idea that the man who is going to succeed you will be superior. It humiliates you. And perhaps that is the reason why the superman has not arrived, because who wants to be inferior? If the superman is going to make you a laughingstock, perhaps that is the basic reason why man has not only not tried to go beyond himself, he has done everything to prevent anyone going beyond himself.

Perhaps man crucifies Jesus for a certain reason: Jesus was an insult to humanity. He poisons Socrates, perhaps not knowing exactly why, but I can see that the very presence of Socrates is embarrassing to him, the very height of Socrates, the clarity, the intelligence; in every way the superiority is unbearable.

The crowd cannot tolerate: Socrates has to be destroyed. He makes millions of people feel inferior.

It is not that he wants you to feel inferior, he wants you to become as superior as he is. But it is in the very nature of things: neither he wants you to feel inferior nor are you devoid of the longing to be superior. The reality is such that when there is a Socrates, or a Jesus, or a Mansoor, you suddenly feel yourselves pygmies.

Zarathustra is right: WHAT IS THE APE TO MEN? A LAUGHING-STOCK OR A PAINFUL EMBARRASSMENT. AND JUST SO SHALL MAN BE TO THE SUPERMAN A LAUGHING-STOCK OR A PAINFUL EMBARRASSMENT?

In my understanding, this is the reason why man has not listened to all those people who could have helped him to a greater, more joyful, more truthful, more authentic, more poetic and more beautiful existence.

I have dropped the word superman very deliberately. I call the coming man, "the new man." It does not carry any connotation of superiority; it does not humiliate you. It simply declares the arrival of the new. Words are not just words, they are going to make impressions on you.

Just like Zarathustra, I say unto you: I teach the new man.

My new man is exactly the superman of Zarathustra but I will not call him the superman. That is a wrong word and it has been a great hindrance in the progress of humanity, in many ways.

Adolf Hitler got the idea of superman from Friedrich Nietzsche, from Zarathustra. Adolf Hitler was not a man of great intelligence or a man of great understanding. He was almost a retarded human being, insane. But the word superman in the hands of Adolf Hitler became the second world war - it killed six millions of people.

Zarathustra would have never thought, nor would Nietzsche have ever conceived, that their philosophy would fall into the hands of a madman; nor of course, that he could interpret it according to his own understanding.

To him, the superman is a super-warrior, a super-soldier, a man of steel. He declared that the Nordic Germans were going to be the race of the coming superman; that they were going to rule over the world. In fact, it is the privilege of the superman to rule over all those who are inferior.

Strange fate of the word superman! In the hands of a madman, it became something which Zarathustra would have never dreamt.

The German race was privileged to rule over the whole world for the simple reason that it was superior; it was going to be the womb of the superman. The superman was the salt of the earth, the superman was the meaning of the earth.

The same word, superman, was used by Sri Aurobindo in India, and the meaning changes completely. In Sri Aurobindo's hand, the superman becomes the immortal man, physically immortal.

Spiritually, man has always been told, that he is immortal. Sri Aurobindo gave his own interpretation:

"I am working to find the right discipline, the right methodology to transform you into the physically immortal." And the people who were most afraid of death became his disciples.

Just as a tree can be known by its fruits, a master can be known by his disciples.

I have been in contact with many followers of Sri Aurobindo, and one of my friends was in Sri Aurobindo's ashram when he died. I had been arguing with him that this was simply nonsense, that physical immortality was not possible. To be physically immortal, you would have to change the whole program of the cells of the body and there are seven million cells in the body which have the whole program. Even scientists are not able to find a way to change their program.

If we can change their program, then perhaps things can be different. For example, if you want immortality, then man should stop at a certain age and should not grow beyond that - he should remain always young and never become old. If he becomes old, then the next step is the grave.

I told my friend, "You can see Sri Aurobindo is old and soon he will be dying. But this is a beautiful argument, because if he does not die, at least for the time being he goes on living, and his idea remains without being refuted. But if he dies, then with whom are you going to argue? - with the dead body that you used to say was physically immortal? But the person who is dead does not care, he is no more there."

One day, Sri Aurobindo died, and my friend sent me a telegram saying: "Don't be deceived by the newspaper reports. He has not died. He has gone deep into samadhi. He has gone so deep inside himself that now there is no need to breathe, no need for heartbeats. He has gone to look for the final touches of his methodology that will make people immortal."

They kept his body for three days - waiting, singing, praying and hoping that he was not dead, but after three days, the body started stinking. Then they became afraid that to keep the body now was dangerous. People would start spreading the news that the body was stinking, that the man was dead.

The believers were so blind that they immediately put his body into a marble grave, and they still continued to believe that he is working hard inside the grave to find out the secret formula. The Mother, who was in charge of his ashram, really lived for almost a century. That was a proof. Even at that age, she was playing tennis, going to swim but one day she also died.

My friend came, very frustrated. I said, "What is the problem? Your belief is not absolute; otherwise, instead of one man, one man and one woman - both are going into their graves to find out the secret of physical immortality. And naturally a woman also needs to know because, who knows, there may be different secrets for man and for woman. There is no need to be frustrated."

He said, "You are making a laughingstock of me. You have always been against and now you are telling me that I should go back, that those two persons have been deceiving."

I said, "They were not deceiving you, you were deceived, that is true, and you were deceived because of your own fear of death."

I know many followers who are now frustrated because they had gone there to become superman; and superman in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy means "physically immortal," a god in the body. Words can be given any kind of meaning. I have dropped that word completely because both Adolf Hitler and Sri Aurobindo contaminated it completely.

I use a very neutral term: the new man. That was originally the meaning of Zarathustra, that man should not stop where he is. He has many more possibilities to grow, he has not come to the end of the street - there is a long journey ahead. I would like to change this much: the new man is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the new man shall be the meaning of the earth.

What is the new man? - A man who has dropped all conditions forced upon him from the past; who has dropped all knowledge that is borrowed; who is in search of his own truth, of his own being. His religion is individual, no more an organization, no more a crowd, no more a collectivity. His religion is not synonymous with social morality. His religion can be reduced to a single word, meditation - a state of no-mind, in which he can experience the essential core of his being, which is immortal, which is eternal.

Thousands of possibilities open as you enter into your own subjectivity. You start being showered by absolutely new experiences, you cannot even dream about them. You don't have words for them, you don't have images for them: ecstasy, blissfulness, peace that passeth understanding, a living silence - not the silence of the graveyard but the silence of a garden. A silence which is also a song.

A silence which has a music in it, a soundless, music, and an overflowing love in all directions, not addressed to anybody.

Just like a fountain, you have so much, and all your sources are bringing more and more love to your being that there is no other way than to shower it - without being concerned whether it reaches the deserving ones or the undeserving, whether it reaches the saints or the sinners, without any discrimination. A compassion arises because now you know you are part of the whole - to destroy anything is to destroy something of you, to kill anyone is to kill your own part.

The new man will not be higher or holier than you, he will be totally different from you - there is no question of comparison.

You are only a seed.

The new man will be the flower.

It will be your dignity, not your humiliation. You are only potential - it will be your actualization. You are dormant - it will be dancing and alive. It will be your fulfillment. It will be totally different from you and yet it will be your very essence. It will be your glory; it will be your fragrance.

The new man can bring a new humanity, a new world, a new earth.

Zarathustra says, "'I entreat you, my brothers..." In his mind there is no question of superiority.

Gautam Buddha cannot address you as "my brothers." Neither can Mohammed address you as "my brothers," nor can Mahavira address you as "my brothers," nor can Jesus. They are so holy and so sacred - so high. How can they call you their brothers?

I am reminded of my first encounter, which started a lifelong friendship with Morarji Desai. We both were invited by a Jaina monk, Acharya Tulsi, to address a big conference. Morarji Desai was, at that time, finance minister of India, under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister.

Before addressing the great crowd that had gathered, almost fifty to sixty-thousand people, Acharya Tulsi wanted to meet with the guests separately. There were thirty persons invited from all over India.

Acharya Tulsi was sitting on a high podium and all the guests were sitting on the ground. Morarji Desai was just sitting by my side. And as he came in and sat by my side, I could feel the vibe of anger. I could not understand why he should be angry - what is the problem? - but soon it became clear that there was a problem. As soon as all the guests had come, before Acharya Tulsi could say anything, Morarji Desai said, "Before anything else has to be discussed here, I want to ask two questions. My first question is that, when I came in..."

Traditionally, in the East, we great each other with folded hands. That is a very significant greeting; it means, I bow down to the god within you. It is not so mundane as shaking hands; I call shaking hands mundane because its origin is out of fear. You have to shake hands to show that your right hand is not carrying any weapon, to make the other person clear that your intentions are friendly. It is just to be safe and secure. Folding both your hands and bowing down your head is a recognition of your dignity.

Morarji Desai said, "I did the namaskar" - that's what it is called - "but you did not reply. On the contrary, you raised your one hand, which means 'I bless you.' I am not your disciple and I don't want anybody's blessings. I was your guest; you insulted me.

"Secondly, why are you sitting on a high podium? This is not a meeting that you are going to address.

This is just a friendly introduction to the guests. You should have sat with us. I want answers to these two things. Only then can anything else be discussed."

There was a great silence. It became very awkward. And Acharya Tulsi had no answers although, if he had been a man of a little understanding, the answer was so simple - he could have folded his hands: But a Jaina monk is not allowed to do that. He cannot be respectful to ordinary human beings, he is a holy man. You can touch his feet. He cannot even respect you as his equal.

Otherwise, the answer was very simple: he could have stepped down from the podium and sat with us. There was no need to say anything, just to step down from the podium, sit with us, fold his hands, and Morarji Desai's question was answered.

Such is the stupidity even of your great religious leaders. Acharya Tulsi is a great religious leader of a particular Jaina sect.

Seeing that the situation had become very awkward, I asked Acharya Tulsi, "Although the question has not been asked of me - the question has been asked of you, but you don't seem to have the answer - I have the answer. If you are ready, I can answer Morarji Desai." He was very happy to somehow change the atmosphere that Morarji Desai had created and I said to Morarji Desai also:

"You have not asked me. If you are ready to listen to me, I can answer you but I need your permission too."

He said, "It does not matter. I want the answer. Whoever can give the answer is welcome."

I told him, "Morarji Desai, twenty-nine other guests have come before you. Everybody was in the same situation, but nobody raised the question. I want to know why you raised the question.

Certainly, your ego is hurt; otherwise, what is wrong in receiving the blessings? He is an egoist; he cannot fold his hands with respect towards you. You cannot receive his blessings; they become insults to you. You both are egoists - and just look at the roof!"

There was a big spider. I said, "That spider is sitting higher than Acharya Tulsi. If just sitting on a higher podium makes one holier, then that spider seems to be the greatest saint here. Acharya Tulsi is stubborn and stupid; otherwise, he should have come down. Even now there is time, he can come down. You both belong to the same category.

"If you were also sitting on the podium, you would never have asked the same question. I know perfectly well you sit on podiums while many people are sitting on the ground. You have never asked, 'Why am I sitting on the podium?' It is not that Acharya Tulsi is sitting on the podium, the question is really why are you not also sitting on the podium? Neither he has courage to come down, nor you have courage to go up."

I said, "Now we can start the discussion, leaving aside these two persons. If they don't want to participate, the door is open."

Since then, he has been angry with me. While he was prime minister, he was phoning almost three times a week to the chief minister of Maharashtra, early in the morning, at six o'clock, saying "Do something - Osho's work should be stopped; his ashram should be somehow destroyed. Create legal problems - do anything that you can."

This was reported to me by the chief minister himself: "What can I do? Three, four times every week, at six o'clock, I hear the phone. I know it is about you and your ashram. Whether he sleeps or not, whether he goes on the whole night thinking about you and your ashram.... It seems that if your ashram is destroyed, India will have no problems at all; you are the only problem."

He created as many problems as possible. He is no longer prime minister, but bureaucracy goes on carrying whatever he started - in so many courts, in so many ways.

Zarathustra is very special in this way. He calls: "I entreat you, my brothers...." That's what he said to the old saint while coming down to the world. "I am going to mankind, I love mankind. I want to become a man again. I don't want to remain a monk forever. It was good to be alone. It was a great experience to be in silence for ten years, but now my cup is overfull and I want to share - I am going down to be a man again."

I ENTREAT YOU, MY BROTHERS, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH. This is such a pregnant statement. Remember it, because all the religions are teaching just the opposite: Betray the earth, renounce the earth, renounce the world. To be in the world is to be a sinner; to renounce it, one becomes a saint.

Zarathustra is saying, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH, AND DO NOT BELIEVE THOSE WHO SPEAK TO YOU OF SUPERTERRESTRIAL HOPES! - of heaven, of paradise and of all kinds of pleasures that will be available there if you renounce the earth. The only condition is to renounce the earth and its pleasures; and there, faraway in the sky, angels are waiting to welcome you.

All the religions have made every possible pleasure available to the saints in heaven. The same pleasures that are condemned here are made available millionfold. One cannot conceive the illogicality of it, the insanity of it.

Mohammedanism condemns alcohol and gives the hope that those who renounce alcohol, will have, in paradise, rivers of alcohol. It is not available in bottles: you can swim in it, you can drown in it, you can drink. There is no prohibition; no license is needed; you don't have to pay any money.

Beautiful women are available who are always young. They have been young so long that one is afraid that their youth is so old; it cannot be fresh, it will be stinking. For millions of years, they have remained stuck at the age of sixteen, they don't grow.

Here, woman is condemned by all religions as the source of sin, as the source of bondage. And in the other world, the same woman is made available and the same is true about all pleasures.

Zarathustra is absolutely right. Do not believe those who speak to you of superterrestrial hopes; they are poisoners, whether they know it or not.

My heart feels so immensely happy, just thinking that twenty-five centuries ago, a man was capable of saying, that they are poisoners - all the priests, all the so-called religious people. They have only poisoned humanity. They have destroyed humanity's joys, its laughter, its dance - they have crippled everybody.

ONCE BLASPHEMY AGAINST GOD WAS THE GREATEST BLASPHEMY, BUT GOD DIED, AND THEREUPON THESE BLASPHEMERS DIED TOO. TO BLASPHEME THE EARTH IS NOW THE MOST DREADFUL OFFENCE AND TO ESTEEM THE BOWELS OF THE INSCRUTABLE MORE HIGHLY than the meaning of the earth. There is only one blasphemy, according to Zarathustra, and that is blasphemy against the earth and the earthly joys, earthly pleasures.

He is one of the most realistic, pragmatic and practical philosophers the world has ever known. He loves the earth, and he loves all that the earth contains. He has made the earth sacred; and he is alone - a category in himself.

I am in total agreement with Zarathustra because this is my insight too - that unless you are capable of enjoying this moment, here-now, you will not be able to enjoy, ever, anything, anywhere else; because the other moment is going to be born out of this moment. The other world - if there is any other world - is going to be an extension of this world, a continuity. If something is good here, it is going to be good there; and if something is wrong here, it is going to be wrong everywhere in the whole universe. This is a simple, logical, rational approach to life.

Beware of the poisoners. The problem is that they are your leaders - in politics, in religion, in society, in education, everywhere poisoners are your leaders. Beware of them. Beware of your leaders. They are blind and they are leading other blind people. They have brought the whole world to this dangerous situation; they have brought the whole world almost to the point of a global suicide.

The whole credit goes to your religious, your political, your philosophical leaders.

It is still time. If anything has to be renounced, renounce the poisoners.

Anybody who is against the earth, is against you, because you are sons and daughters of the earth.

Just as the trees are, just as the birds are, this earth is your mother; and anything that grows on this earth is your family.

To make this whole world a big family, an ocean of love, is the only religion I can think of. All else that has been talked about as religion is hypocrisy.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.