Of the apostates

- LAUGHED THEMSELVES TO DEATH!

Zarathustra is trying, from every possible aspect, to understand why man has not evolved as he should have - why he has remained childish, why the superman has not yet arrived. What are the causes that are preventing his coming, and how can those hindrances be removed and the closed doors opened, and the superman welcomed? He is not leaving any aspect unexplored. His search into the possibility of man transforming into a superman is exhaustive. Nobody has ever thought about the superman so much.

People have been thinking about all kinds of hypothetical things. For centuries they have pondered over the existence of God. Some have even denied Him, many have accepted Him, few have ignored Him. A few have taken the stance of the agnostic - that it is not possible to know anything about God and we do not know whether He exists or He does not. But thousands of philosophers and millions of books, treatises have been devoted to something for which not a single proof exists.

Zarathustra is alone in contemplating the superman. The superman is not a hypothesis, because man is already in existence; he can be refined, all that is ugly in him can be destroyed. All that makes him small can be removed, and the superman will arise in man's consciousness without fail.

Zarathustra is not concerned with any fiction, he is utterly a realist. It is not a dream that cannot be fulfilled, it is a dream that has every potential for fulfillment.

Superman is not somewhere in the sky, superman is within you. Superman is you in your purest form, in your most conscious awakening, in your experience of eternal life, in your purification of love. It is very close by - it is just your neighbor.

You have only to transcend yourself. You have to come out from your dark holes. You have to risk a little - the familiar for the unfamiliar, the known for the unknown, the comfortable for the dangerous - and you will be pregnant with the superman, you will give birth to the superman.

God was the past, superman is the future. Nothing can be done about the past; everything can be done about the future. God was your creator, superman is going to be your creation - and this makes a difference, so vital, so immense and immeasurable, that there is no possibility to make a bridge between God and the superman. God is always somewhere in the graves and superman is always somewhere in the future potentiality of your life, of your love and your consciousness.

This evening Zarathustra is approaching the superman from still a different angle, one he has not approached yet.

He says, HE WHO IS OF MY SORT WILL ALSO ENCOUNTER EXPERIENCES OF MY SORT, SO THAT HIS FIRST COMPANIONS MUST BE CORPSES AND BUFFOONS. First he is saying, "Whoever is of my sort, whoever has a clarity of consciousness exactly the same as I have is bound to have the same kind of experiences. That can be predicted, because your experiences depend on the quality of your consciousness. The higher your consciousness is, the more blissful, more peaceful, more joyous experiences start blossoming in you.

At the highest peak a Gautam Buddha, or a Mahavira, or a Zarathustra are no longer three persons.

Because three silences cannot remain separate, three ecstasies cannot remain separate - three zeros are bound to become one zero.

It has to be understood, that things which make you separate are always painful. There is no way to participate with you in your migraine, in your anxieties, in your anguishes. Misery makes people separate; blissfulness brings them close. And as they reach to the purest form, the highest peak, they are no longer separate beings but one heart, one love, one joy, one ecstasy. In the ultimate we are one. Only in hell are we many. The more you feel yourself separate from others, the more you are living a life of misery, suffering - a life which is not worth calling a life.

Looking at the earth you will find so many separations, so many discriminations. Looked at deeply, they are not accidental. So many nations, so many religions, so many sects, cults, and creeds only point to one truth: that man has fallen so low in the dark abysses of existence that he cannot make any connections, any bridges with anyone.

It is one of the most surprising facts, that at the lowest you are lonely, because you cannot make bridges around you. You have forgotten the language of love, you have forgotten how to communicate, how to relate. You are lonely in the darkness - just tears of agony and a cry of tremendous pain.

On the highest peak of blissfulness, again you are alone, but not lonely. You are alone, because at that peak whoever reaches it merges into one orgasmic experience, into one oceanic experience - just as rivers go on merging into the ocean. They may be coming through different paths, from different mountains, from different lakes, passing different territories, but in the ocean they suddenly lose all their boundaries. They become as free as the ocean is.

Gautam Buddha is reported to have said, "Taste the ocean from anywhere and you will find the same taste." It does not matter from where you have tasted the ocean. At the highest peak again one becomes alone. But this aloneness is a togetherness, this aloneness is a tremendous merger.

With all those who have arrived there is a melting, you cannot keep yourself separate.

Even in ordinary life you may have observed the fact: when you are laughing, suddenly you are one in your laughter, and when you are crying you are alone. When you are joyous and dancing you start melting into each other, and when you are miserable all the bridges are broken; you have suddenly become absolutely lonely in a vast universe.

Zarathustra is right: whoever has my sort of will is bound to encounter experiences of my sort, because all experiences depend on your consciousness. Experiences don't depend on outside things, they depend on your inner growth, inner vision.

There is an ancient story: A king, his prime minister and his bodyguard have all lost their way in a deep forest where they have been hunting. The sun is setting and they come across a blind beggar sitting under a tree. The first man to come to the blind beggar is the bodyguard.

He says to the beggar, "What are you doing here, you blind man?"

He said, "I am not doing anything. I don't have any other place. The whole day I beg and in the night I come here to rest."

And the bodyguard said, "Can you tell us the way to the town?"

He said, "Of course, but first I will tell you, that you seem to be a very lower kind of person. Perhaps you are a constable, a bodyguard, who does not even know how to talk to an old blind man."

Then comes the prime minister and with great etiquette he asks the old man, "I have lost the way. It would be very kind of you if you could help me to find the way."

The old man says, "Just now, one man - perhaps he was part of your party - has passed and I have shown him the way. Was he a bodyguard?"

The prime minister said, "You are blind, how could you figure it out? You seem to be immensely wise. Yes, he was a bodyguard. Forgive me if he has misbehaved with you."

The blind man said, "Nobody can misbehave with me. Life has misbehaved with me. But I can say about you, that you are a man of manners. Perhaps a member of the court of the king, or maybe the prime minister."

Then came the king. He touched the feet of the old man and said, "There is no need to remain here in the open under the sky - the clouds are gathering. You can come with me to the palace, and you can show me the way to it. We have been hunting and we have lost our way."

The old man said, "Just by your compassion you show the quality of your consciousness. You certainly are the king of this kingdom. And it is not just a coincidence, you have the qualities to be the king. Just before you, your prime minister passed me, and before that your guard passed me."

The king said, "You are blind, how can you manage to figure out who is who?"

The blind man said, "It would have been better if you had not asked that question. Once, I was also a king of a small kingdom. I lost the kingdom, but I have not lost the memory, the consciousness.

There is no need for me to see, just the manners of a person are enough to show me to what category he belongs. Your grace makes you a king, not vice versa."

The king took him to the palace and he made him his permanent guest. He would not allow him to beg anymore.

He said, "A man who can, just by manners, decide the quality of a person - his profession, his category of consciousness - is a sage. His outer eyes may be blind, but his inner eyes are fully open."

If you look into different people's lives you start finding that their very consciousness is being expressed in their words, in their movements, in their behavior. Because from where are all these going to arise? The consciousness is the source of all that you are, and as your consciousness changes you start changing in your behavior, in your manners. Even the smallest things in your life start changing.

Zarathustra is right: when you have my sort of consciousness you will understand what I am saying immediately. There will be a deep rapport. He says: if you are a man who has become awakened, whose superman is no longer asleep, your... FIRST COMPANIONS MUST BE CORPSES AND BUFFOONS.

For the superman the ordinary man is just a corpse, a breathing corpse. His behavior is not of authentic life, he is just somehow surviving. Perhaps he has forgotten how not to breathe. Just as an old habit he goes on breathing, goes on producing children, goes on eating; eating all kinds of junk without ever thinking why he is eating it.

I have heard about a man whose wife was getting fatter and fatter and fatter. Her whole work was simply to sit on the sofa and go on eating, drinking. If there was nothing to eat, there was at least chewing gum, but her mouth was continuously at work.

He went to a psychologist and asked him, "Can you suggest something to me? I'm tired. I have told her many times, but it seems meaningless. She has become so ugly, but she goes on gathering fat.

That's her whole work, twenty-four hours a day."

The psychologist said, "You take this with you." He took out from his file a picture of a very beautiful naked woman - very proportionate body, charming and attractive.

The man said, "How is this picture going to help?"

The psychologist said, "You do one thing: you just paste it inside the fridge, so each time she opens the fridge.... And she opens it the whole day, to take this thing out, to take that thing out. So each time she will be reminded of what she is doing to her own body. Once she was also as beautiful as this woman."

The man said, "The idea seems to be significant. I will try it. There is no harm in trying."

After six months the psychologist met him in a shopping mall. He could not believe the man was so fat, it was almost impossible to recognize him.

The fat man recognized him, "Have you forgotten me, doctor?"

He said, "I don't remember ever having seen you before."

He said, "What are you saying? You are my family psychologist. Just six months ago you gave me that picture. That picture did work, you can see it in me, but it worked in a wrong way. My wife does not look at it at all, but because of the picture I have started going to the fridge, just to have a look at it. And when one opens the fridge, then there are temptations to have some ice cream.... Because of that picture you spoiled me. My wife has gone ahead, she does not care at all about that girl.

"First she was very angry, saying, 'Why are you putting this picture in the fridge?' When I said, 'This has been suggested by the psychologist,' she said, 'To hell, with your psychologist!' Now it is too late, I cannot go back. She has gathered more weight, and you have destroyed my life too. I also cannot go back anymore."

Such is the unconscious behavior of man. With this unconsciousness, can you say a man is really alive, or is he just a robot?

For the man of awareness, the people he will find as companions first will be the corpses. They have died a long, long time ago - just people have not buried them and they are still walking around. Just out of old habit they are still doing things. But a life without consciousness is not life at all.

You have life only in the same proportion as you have consciousness.

Or you will be meeting with buffoons, who pretend to understand everything and who understand nothing at all. They are idiots, but they pretend to be very wise. The world is full of corpses and buffoons. The whole work of the buffoon is to prove himself the wise man, and to ridicule everybody else, to make a laughingstock of everybody else - not knowing that he is simply becoming a buffoon himself. It is not wisdom; wisdom is compassionate.It is simply an effort to prove: "I am wiser than you, and the easiest way to prove it is to laugh at you."

HIS SECOND COMPANIONS, HOWEVER, WILL CALL THEMSELVES HIS BELIEVERS: A LIVELY FLOCK, FULL OF LOVE, FULL OF FOLLY, FULL OF ADOLESCENT ADORATION.

These will be his second companions: the believers, who are continuously in search to believe in someone. They cannot live without belief; belief is their spiritual nourishment. And belief is always empty. It has no content in it, it is a pretender; it pretends to be true. And it is cheap; you don't have to pay anything for it. The people are ignorant but they don't want to be ignorant, and the easiest way to cover their ignorance is by acquiring as many beliefs as possible.

You will find the Christian believer, you will find the Hindu believer, you will find the Buddhist believer, and they are all in the same boat. They are carrying the same luggage, just their labels are different.

Belief as such needs a blind man, who wants to show to the world that he is not blind, that he knows everything about light. Talking about light, he thinks he is proving that he has eyes. People talk about God, people talk about the soul, people talk about truth, and by talking they convince themselves that they know about these things. They know nothing. All these are their beliefs.

Belief is the greatest poison in the world. It has prevented the superman from arising within your soul. It destroys your intelligence. It keeps you retarded. You become very knowledgeable, you become very learned, very respected, but deep down inside you there is nothing but darkness. The old ignorance is still there, intact. Your knowledge cannot make even a dent in your ignorance.

Your knowledge cannot bring any transformation to you, but it can bring honors, awards, Nobel prizes. It can make you a very respected citizen of the world. But you know perfectly well that all your knowledge is superficial, it is all borrowed. The foundation is belief - not knowing, not experience.

This creates the greatest hypocrisy in human beings. They have to pretend according to their belief system. Of course they cannot live according to it, because it is not their experience, so they have a mask in public and in their privacy they put the mask away. In their privacy you will know that they are a totally different person.

From their back door they are truer; in their drawing room they are utterly false. In the crowd they are nothing but actors on the stage; only in aloneness do they relax a little. And that's why these kind of people are very much afraid of aloneness, because the aloneness brings them the awareness of their ignorance. All their virtue, all their knowledge, all their character is just painted. Inside are all kinds of wild animals.

I have heard: A woman and a man are making love, and suddenly the woman says, "I have heard the car of my husband entering the garage. He was not expected, but sometimes he comes unexpectedly. You just hide in the cupboard."

The man could not find any other way to escape. Naked, he is standing inside the cupboard. The husband comes in and says that he had to come home for something that was needed immediately - he was a detective in the police department. While he is talking to his wife the man, standing naked in the cold night, shivering, hears a small voice just by his side. A little boy is saying, "It is very dark here."

He said, "Keep quiet! I will give you ten dollars." The boy said, "But it is very dark!" He gives him twenty dollars.

The boy said, "I will scream, because it is really dark." He said, "Strange... I have got only fifty dollars. You take it all, but have mercy on me. Don't scream."

The next day the boy asked his father, "I want to purchase a bicycle." The father said, "Bicycle? But I don't have that much money."

The boy said, "You don't be worried about the money. I have enquired, it costs only fifty dollars and I have got fifty dollars." He showed him the fifty dollars. The father said, "But from where did you get these fifty dollars?" About that he keeps quiet.

The father says, "Unless you tell me where you got these fifty dollars from, I'm not going to take you to the market." But the boy said, "I cannot say. You want to destroy my very source of income? - because once I say it, it is finished."

The father said, "Strange source of income, that you cannot say anything about it." He said, "I cannot say anything about it because once I say it, it is finished. And I don't want to finish my source of income."

The father said, "Then do one thing. It is Sunday, first we will go to the church... you confess to the priest, don't tell me, and the priest will not tell anybody else."

He said, "That's right! That I can do." He goes into the confessional. It is a small booth, and the priest is sitting behind a curtain. The boy says, "It is very dark here," and the priest says,"You son of a bitch, you are starting it all over again!"

These are your priests: they have one face in the church, another in reality. But it is not only about the priests, it is about almost everybody - nobody is sincere. And this insincerity has come into the world because we have been told to believe, rather than to seek and search.

The world needs to be freed entirely from all beliefs, and there will be a great revolution. You will see for the first time people's original faces, their sincere individualities. You will be amazed what kind of society you have been living in, where everybody was a hypocrite.

These will be your second companions, Zarathustra says, if you are an awakened man: A LIVELY FLOCK.... They are not as dead as the first lot, because their belief gives them a false hope that now they are saved. Saved by Jesus Christ, saved by Krishna, saved by Gautam Buddha... but saved anyway, whoever is the savior.

FULL OF LOVE... although their love is very superficial. It cannot be very deep, because their very foundations are not very deep - they are believers. But they will learn to act: how to be loving, how to show love.

FULL OF FOLLY.... That is natural, because they don't know anything and they believe they know everything. So on every step they do something foolish.

FULL OF ADOLESCENT ADORATION.... The childish mind always wants to adore somebody: the father, the mother. Their God is nothing but the projected idea of their father.

HE AMONG MEN WHO IS OF MY SORT SHOULD NOT GRAPPLE HIS HEART TO THESE BELIEVERS; HE WHO KNOWS FICKLE-COWARDLY HUMAN NATURE SHOULD NOT BELIEVE IN THESE SPRINGS AND MANY-COLORED MEADOWS!

'WE HAVE GROWN PIOUS AGAIN' - THUS THESE APOSTATES CONFESS; AND MANY OF THEM ARE STILL TOO COWARDLY TO CONFESS IT.

Zarathustra says, "Anybody who has any awareness, any consciousness, even a ray of light in his life will not be deceived by the crowd of the believers - they are all cowardly."

The day Jesus was crucified all his twelve apostles escaped. There were thousands of people there to see the crucifixion; they were all waiting for some miracle to happen. Only those twelve apostles were not there. They were afraid that if somebody recognizes them - they were well known, they were moving continuously with Jesus in the small country of Judea - if somebody recognizes them, it can be dangerous, it can lead them to the same fate as Jesus Christ. If they can crucify Jesus...

they are very small flies. But these cowardly people have become his twelve messengers in the world. Now the Vatican pope represents these apostles.

Zarathustra is saying, "Don't believe in your believers! Beware of it; they don't deserve it, they are not worthy of it."

BUT IT IS A DISGRACE TO PRAY! NOT FOR EVERYONE, BUT FOR YOU AND ME AND FOR WHOEVER ELSE HAS HIS CONSCIENCE IN HIS HEAD. He is saying, "Remember this too, that a man of conscience, a man of consciousness cannot pray." Pray to whom, and pray for what, and pray why?

A man of consciousness accepts his responsibility, he does not want to throw the responsibility on the shoulders of God. He knows, even if he is in pain, not to be affected by it but to remain alert and watchful, because everything passes by - just as pleasure passes by, pain also passes by.

It is cowardly to pray. Praying for help means you are becoming submissive, you are ready to surrender your dignity, your pride, your humanity. It is a disgrace to pray, says Zarathustra. Twenty- five centuries ago, Zarathustra roared like a lion. Even today people will feel afraid to say that it is a disgrace to pray - but the truth is the truth.

It is not graceful to pray.

What is graceful is to transform yourself. What is graceful is not to ask any help from any fictitious God, or any pretender who says that he is a savior.

He is saying: This disgrace is... NOT FOR EVERYONE, BUT FOR YOU AND ME AND FOR WHOEVER ELSE HAS HIS CONSCIENCE IN HIS HEAD. For you it is a disgrace to pray, but not for everyone.

Almost the whole world is praying in different places - in synagogues, in churches, in gurudwaras, in temples, in mosques. It makes no difference where you are praying, it makes no difference to which God you are praying, the essentiality is the same: that you are being disgraceful to yourself, that you are not asserting your individuality and its uniqueness.

You are not saying, "I will carry... if pain is going to be my life, I accept it. If death is going to be my fate, I will welcome it, but I will not ask for some savior to interfere. I will remain on my own, I will remain myself." Prayer is betraying you and your very being.

YOU KNOW IT WELL: THE COWARDLY DEVIL IN YOU WHO WOULD LIKE TO CLASP HIS HANDS AND TO FOLD HIS ARMS AND TO TAKE IT EASIER: - IT WAS THIS COWARDLY DEVIL WHO PERSUADED YOU: 'THERE IS A GOD!' This is a tremendously strange statement, but at the same time a very true statement too. It was the cowardly devil inside you, who persuaded you that there is a God. All the religions have been saying that the devil is against God.

Zarathustra is saying, "The devil is the inventor of God, and the devil is simply a symbol of your cowardliness. It is your cowardliness which has invented a God - just to support you, just to protect you, just to be a father to you. You are not mature, that's why a father figure is needed."

Zarathustra would like you to be mature enough that you don't need a father, that you drop all your cowardliness. And with your cowardliness your God will also disappear like a dark shadow.THROUGH THAT, HOWEVER, HAVE YOU BECOME ONE OF THOSE WHO DREAD THE LIGHT, WHOM LIGHT NEVER LETS REST; NOW YOU MUST STICK YOUR HEAD DEEPER EVERY DAY INTO NIGHT AND FOG!

Your cowardliness has made you afraid of life, has made you afraid of truth, has made you afraid of anything that disturbs your comfortable belief.

I am reminded of a man in my village.... Hindus have two prominent gods - I said two prominent gods, because they have thirty-three million gods. The time they invented thirty-three million gods was the time when India had a population of thirty-three million, and it seemed perfectly right and mathematical that everybody should have a god. Why not? Why be so miserly, and why be so monopolistic? Why create one god? - because the very idea of one god is fascist, it is Nazi.

The Indian idea is perfectly true: for thirty-three million people, thirty-three million gods; everybody can have his own god. It seems more graceful and more democratic. And you can do whatsoever you want with your god, it is nobody else's business.

But two gods have become very prominent: Krishna and Rama. Both are Hindu incarnations of God. But such is the mind of man, he will create conflict everywhere. There are followers of Rama who will not go into the temples of Krishna, and there are followers of Krishna who will not go into the temples of Rama. And not only ordinary people, but a very great poet, Tulsidas. As a poet he is certainly a great poet, but as a religious person he is as childish as any retarded man can be.

His biographer, Navadas, writes about an incident: He took Tulsidas to Vrindavan, which is the place of Krishna, and where there stands one of the most beautiful statues of Krishna. And Navadas said to Tulsidas, "It will be unfortunate if you don't go to Krishna's temple. The statue is worth seeing, just as a piece of art. Don't think that he is God"... because he cannot think of him as God, he is a follower of Rama.

But Tulsidas refused, and Tulsidas said, "I can only enter a temple which belongs to Rama. And if Krishna wants Tulsidas to enter into his temple, then he has to change his form and stand like Rama with a bow in his hand." That is Rama's symbol, the bow and the arrows; just as the flute is the symbol of Krishna. He said, "I will not enter, unless Krishna wants."

Do you see the ego of the believer, the futile ego of the believer, the folly of the believer, that if Krishna wants Tulsidas to enter into his temple... why should Krishna want it? But Tulsidas is a great poet. If he wants Tulsidas to enter into his temple then he has to take the form of Rama. Only then can he enter; otherwise not.

In my village there was a small temple and a small ashram of Krishna. And the old priest was not even ready to hear the name of Rama. He used to pass through the streets with both his fingers in his ears, because children and urchins would shout around him, "Rama!" and he could not hear this bad name.

When he was dying, I was present in his temple. As I heard that he was very sick, and dying...

because I was one of the torturers of the old man. I said, "Just to say goodbye" - an old friendship.

I had been following him wherever he would go, because there were times when he had to take his fingers out - if he was to purchase vegetables, he would have to take his fingers out - and that was the time when I would shout "Rama!"

Immediately he would put his fingers back in and he would say, "You are the worst rascal of the boys in this town, because you follow me, but you never shout when I am keeping my ears closed. You watch for the right moment. And of course I have to sometimes...."

He would be taking a bath in the river - now and then he would have to take one - and immediately I would appear from the water, shouting, "Rama!" And immediately he would close his ears. And he was so angry.

When he was dying, I said, "It is not right for me not to go," so I went in. His disciples tried to prevent me. I said, "Don't prevent me, because this is the last farewell and we have been companions for so long." So I went in, and because he was dying he had forgotten to put his fingers in his ears. I went close to him - it was dismal and dark in his cottage - and I whispered in his ear, "Rama."

So he said, "You have come. But now I am so weak, I cannot even raise my hands."

I said, "Then I will say again the name 'Rama.' Just for the last time, before you leave the body."

He said, "Don't do that to me, because I am a devotee of Krishna and at the last moment I should remember Krishna; and if you remain here by my side I will remember Rama, not Krishna. You are so much associated with him. For years you have been shouting... just let me die peacefully!"

These are the believers - so afraid. Even the word... they will not read some other religion's scriptures for the simple fear that some doubt may arise. But if your belief is so superficial, and so afraid, and so cowardly, it is not going to save you. It is going to drown you in darkness and a lower state of consciousness.

THE HOUR HAS ARRIVED FOR ALL PEOPLE WHO FEAR THE LIGHT, THE EVENING HOUR OF EASE WHEN THERE IS NO - 'EASE' FOR THEM.

He is saying that evening is coming; the hour has arrived for all people who fear light, because light may expose them. THE EVENING HOUR OF EASE.... For them it should be a welcome time, that now there will be no light - all over darkness. They can live with their belief, without any exposure.

But there is no ease for them, because a man of belief cannot relax. The moment he relaxes, doubts arise. He has to remain tense, and he has to remain on guard that no doubt should arise. Because he has repressed all kinds of doubts inside himself; any moment of relaxation, and all those doubts are going to surface.

AND SOME OF THEM HAVE EVEN BECOME NIGHT-WATCHMEN: NOW THEY KNOW HOW TO BLOW HORNS AND TO GO AROUND AT NIGHT AND AWAKEN OLD THINGS THAT HAVE LONG BEEN ASLEEP.

I HEARD FIVE SAYINGS ABOUT OLD THINGS LAST NIGHT BESIDE THE GARDEN WALL: THEY CAME FROM SUCH OLD, DISTRESSED, DRIED-UP NIGHT-WATCHMEN:

'FOR A FATHER HE DOES NOT LOOK AFTER HIS CHILDREN ENOUGH: HUMAN FATHERS DO IT BETTER!'

Even if you become a night-watchman.... The people who are living in beliefs are afraid of sleep too, because in sleep the dreams may come; and the dreams are going to be the dreams of their repressed doubt.

Sigmund Freud came across people who had dreams of repressed sex, but that is only one part of the story. Sigmund Freud never became aware that there are other kinds of repressions. People who have repressed their doubts, in their dreams, their doubts start floating in the consciousness.

All saints are afraid of sleep. They cut their sleep as much as possible, because when they are awake they can keep their beliefs and they can keep their doubts repressed but when they are asleep it is not within their control and the repressed is going to surface. Even though they have become night-watchmen, so that they don't have to sleep, still doubts arise.

Zarathustra says, I have heard a few things one night-watchman was saying about God:

'FOR A FATHER HE DOES NOT LOOK AFTER HIS CHILDREN ENOUGH: HUMAN FATHERS DO IT BETTER!' This is a doubt.

'HE IS TOO OLD! HE NO LONGER LOOKS AFTER HIS CHILDREN AT ALL' - THUS THE OTHER NIGHT-WATCHMAN ANSWERED.

'HAS HE ANY CHILDREN? NO ONE CAN PROVE IT, IF HE DOESN'T PROVE IT HIMSELF! I HAVE LONG WISHED HE WOULD PROVE IT THOROUGHLY FOR ONCE.'

'PROVE IT? AS IF HE HAS EVER PROVED ANYTHING! HE FINDS IT HARD TO PROVE THINGS; HE THINKS IT VERY IMPORTANT THAT PEOPLE SHOULD BELIEVE HIM.'

'YES, YES! BELIEF MAKES HIM HAPPY, BELIEF IN HIM. OLD PEOPLE ARE LIKE THAT!

... HAS NOT THE TIME FOR ALL SUCH DOUBTS LONG SINCE PASSED? They are worried:

these are doubts, and we were thinking that the time for doubts has long since passed - but these doubts are still there. Doubts never go, unless you know.

Only your own knowing destroys doubts.

Believing never does that; in fact it keeps them alive and nourished.

WITH THE OLD GODS, THEY HAVE LONG SINCE MET THEIR END - AND TRULY, THEY HAD A FINE, MERRY, DIVINE ENDING!

THEY DID NOT 'FADE AWAY IN TWILIGHT' - THAT IS A LIE! ON THE CONTRARY: THEY ONCE - LAUGHED THEMSELVES TO DEATH!

THAT HAPPENED WHEN THE MOST GODLESS SAYING PROCEEDED FROM A GOD HIMSELF, THE SAYING: 'THERE IS ONE GOD! YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME!'

This is what the Old Testament says, this is what the Christians believe, this what the Mohammedans believe: there is only one God, and there is no God except the one God that they believe in. But Zarathustra says, "This statement is the most godless statement." Why is it godless? - because the very idea of one God is against the very nature of existence.

Every soul has the right to reach to the peak and become a god. That's what Gautam Buddha believes, that's what Mahavira teaches, and that's what Zarathustra is saying. Buddhism doesn't have one God, Hinduism doesn't have one God - the idea of one is monopolistic; it is something like monogamy, it is ugly. Why, in such a vast universe, should there be only one God? Why make this universe so poor? - just one God!

Let there be a variety of gods, just as there is a variety of flowers. Let there be a variety of flowering consciousnesses - different, unique, in their own right - and existence will be richer. That's why Zarathustra says it was a godless saying. And because one god said it, all other gods laughed to their death. They laughed so much, "This old idiot must have gone mad. What is he saying? He is destroying the dignity of the whole existence and pretending to be just himself, the only God."

AN OLD WRATH-BEARD OF A GOD, A JEALOUS GOD, THUS FORGOT HIMSELF:

AND ALL THE GODS LAUGHED THEN AND ROCKED IN THEIR CHAIRS AND CRIED: 'IS NOT PRECISELY THIS GODLINESS, THAT THERE ARE GODS BUT NO GOD?'

HE WHO HAS EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR.

What does Zarathustra want you to hear? 'IS NOT PRECISELY THIS GODLINESS, THAT THERE ARE GODS BUT NO GOD?'

That's what I have been telling you again and again: the whole existence is divine.

There is godliness everywhere, but there is no single God as a person. The day we drop the idea of a single God as a person, all our religions and their discriminations will disappear. Then there is only godliness - without form, just a quality, a fragrance. You can experience it, but you cannot pray to it; you can enjoy it, but you cannot make a temple around it; you can dance with it, you can sing with it, but you cannot praise it.

You will not find words to praise it, but you can sing a song of joy. And you can dance so totally that the dancer disappears and only the dance remains - that is true religiousness and true gratefulness.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.