The greeting

Mankind has created false things for everything that is true. There is a great market for the false things; for the truth there is almost no competition. Only rarely a person goes in search, risking his whole life, to know the meaning of existence and himself.

It is cheaper to borrow it from scriptures, from libraries, from the past inheritance. The universities are doing the great job of keeping man away from truth. The learned men, the scholars, the rabbis, the pandits, their whole function seems to be how to prevent seekers, because even if one man comes to know the truth he creates a great challenge in many other souls. And he also creates an awareness in millions of people that what they have been thinking as true is not true; they have been deceived.

And their so-called great men are all phony. Their greatness is not more than acting. They are acting the way a great man is, spontaneously; hence you will find in your so-called great men many, many faces. They use those masks as a situation needs, or in a certain circumstance, and they immediately change their mask if the situation changes. And when they are at ease, alone, they are as small people as you can find anywhere in the whole mob. Their heights are only of words; their experiences are all stolen; their grace is not more than skin-deep. But the ordinary humankind they are able to deceive, because you have never known the real great man. You don't have anything to compare with. You cannot call the false the false unless you know the real.

This fragment from Zarathustra this evening begins as one of the so-called higher men, the king, addresses Zarathustra. Why is he being called the so-called? In fact all your kings, all your presidents, all your prime ministers are only so-called higher men. They are chosen by the masses, and the masses cannot understand what is real and what is false. The masses are blind. The masses simply believe in any deceiver. Anyone who is articulate enough in promising the masses becomes a great man.

And you see, every day, your great men disappearing - as their power disappears, their greatness also disappears. It was not something, a quality of their soul, a manifestation of their consciousness; it was just the chair. The chair was bestowing on them all their greatness. The kings were not chosen; they forced themselves violently on the masses. Out of fear they were accepted, out of fear they were respected. But greatness is never out of fear. Greatness is a magnetic force; it attracts you not by violence but by love. It proves itself not by the sword but just by its tremendously fragrant presence.

Just look at your great men, the so-called higher men, and you will be surprised that behind their masks are hiding very little, very mean and very ugly human beings. That's why the king is referred to as the so-called higher man. But even a so-called higher man in the presence of a man like Zarathustra forgets to pretend, forgets his act; he opens up, becomes available in his reality. These words will show it.

The king said to Zarathustra: JUST TO SEE THIS WOULD WE CLIMB HIGHER MOUNTAINS THAN THIS MOUNTAIN. Just to see you.

He has completely forgotten that he is the king. He has completely forgotten that Zarathustra is nothing but a beggar. But this is the beauty of existence - that there are kings who are beggars and there are beggars who are kings. Zarathustra may be a beggar, but the moment you encounter him you will suddenly realize: he may not have a kingdom, but he is a great king.

Perhaps his kingdom is of the inner world.

JUST TO SEE THIS WOULD WE CLIMB HIGHER MOUNTAINS THAN THIS MOUNTAIN. FOR WE HAVE COME AS SIGHTSEERS, WE WANTED TO SEE WHAT MAKES SAD EYES BRIGHT.

We had seen people coming to you, and when they had come back we were surprised: what a miracle is happening. When they had gone they went with sad eyes, and when they had come back all that sadness had disappeared; their eyes were bright. When they had gone they were heavy, loaded with a thousand and one worries, tensions and anxieties, and when they came down from the mountains they came just as the rivers come dancing, so fresh, so alive - as if they are newly born. It is these people who have brought us here.

We had come originally just as sightseers, just out of curiosity - what is happening? But seeing you has changed everything. We are no longer sightseers. We have seen, for the first time, a man who is worthy of being called a man. We could have climbed higher mountains to see you. Just to see you is such a tremendous experience, so transforming, that one feels at a loss how to understand it. It is beyond reason and beyond logic: just to see a man and all your sadness disappears, and suddenly your heart is full of songs.

NOTHING MORE GLADDENING GROWS ON EARTH, O ZARATHUSTRA, THAN AN EXALTED, ROBUST WILL: IT IS THE EARTH'S FAIREST GROWTH. A WHOLE LANDSCAPE IS REFRESHED BY ONE SUCH TREE. NOTHING MORE GLADDENING... and the man is a king and he has seen much. He has a kingdom and he may have great treasures; he may have beautiful wives. He has tasted all that is available in the world. Still he says:

NOTHING MORE GLADDENING GROWS ON EARTH, O ZARATHUSTRA.... We have not seen anything more gladdening. Our hearts are dancing. We cannot believe it, but we have to believe it in spite of ourselves. Just your very presence makes us feel rejuvenated. You are a robust will, exalted. It is the earth's fairest growth. We have seen millions of people, but you are the fairest growth on the earth. A whole landscape is refreshed by one such tree. Even if you are alone, the whole landscape is changed by your presence.

TO THE PINE-TREE, O ZARATHUSTRA, DO I COMPARE HIM WHO GROWS UP LIKE YOU:

TALL, SILENT, HARD, ALONE, OF THE FINEST, SUPPLEST WOOD, MAGNIFICENT - AT LAST, HOWEVER, REACHING OUT WITH STRONG, GREEN BRANCHES FOR ITS DOMAIN, ASKING BOLD QUESTIONS OF THE WINDS AND STORMS AND WHATEVER IS AT HOME IN THE HEIGHTS.

The king says to Zarathustra, "I can only compare you to a pine tree - high in the sky, dancing in the wind, in the rain, in the sun, reaching to the very stars, with tremendous will asking questions to the storms. Your very presence has made the heights divine, magnificent.

REPLYING MORE BOLDLY, A COMMANDER, A VICTOR: OH WHO WOULD NOT CLIMB HIGH MOUNTAINS TO BEHOLD SUCH TREES?

O ZARATHUSTRA; AT YOUR GLANCE EVEN THE RESTLESS MAN GROWS SECURE AND HEALS HIS HEART.

A GREAT LONGING HAS ARISEN, AND MANY HAVE LEARNED TO ASK: WHO IS ZARATHUSTRA? You may not be aware of it - you live in the mountains - but in the plains thousands of people are asking a single question: Who is Zarathustra? Your fragrance has reached far ahead of you. Your name is ringing in millions of hearts, creating a great desire, a great longing, of which they have never been aware - to reach to the heights, to find ways to transform their potential into a reality, to make their dreams come true. All that was dormant in them... just hearing about you and the miracles that are happening around you, the dormant, the sleeping potential is slowly uncoiling like a serpent.

AND HE INTO WHOSE EAR YOU HAVE EVER POURED YOUR SONG AND YOUR HONEY:

ALL THE HIDDEN MEN, THE HERMITS AND HERMIT-COUPLES, SAY ALL AT ONCE TO THEIR HEARTS:

'DOES ZARATHUSTRA STILL LIVE? THERE IS NO LONGER ANY POINT IN LIVING, IT IS ALL ONE, EVERYTHING IS IN VAIN: EXCEPT WE LIVE WITH ZARATHUSTRA!'

Those who have tasted your songs, in whose ears you have poured your honey, your love, your consciousness, they feel that if you are no longer alive then there is no point in living for them too.

Without you the whole earth becomes meaningless. You are the very earth and the meaning of the earth. You are the very life and the very salt of the life to many, many people. Those who have tasted a little bit of your existence are no longer the same: they have moved from being ordinary human beings towards something higher, something greater.

NOW THE WAVES RISE AND RISE AROUND YOUR MOUNTAIN, O ZARATHUSTRA, AND HOWEVER HIGH YOUR HEIGHT MAY BE, MANY MUST REACH UP TO YOU: YOUR BOAT SHALL NOT SIT IN THE DRY FOR MUCH LONGER.

In a very poetic way, in a very cultured, learned way the king says to Zarathustra, "Now waves and waves are rising around your mountain, just to reach to you." Whatever the king is saying is under the magnetic, charismatic influence of Zarathustra.

This has always happened.

People who have come to Gautam Buddha have forgotten their personalities, have forgotten their masks, have opened their hearts. People who have come to Pythagoras or Heraclitus have suddenly found that they can throw away their clothes and be utterly nude; there is nothing to hide. In fact, they would like a man like Zarathustra or Gautam Buddha to see through and through their being, because their very seeing is going to cleanse them of all the rubbish that they have been carrying perhaps for many lives.

AND HOWEVER HIGH YOUR HEIGHT MAY BE, MANY MUST REACH UP TO YOU: YOUR BOAT SHALL NOT SIT IN THE DRY FOR MUCH LONGER.

AND THAT WE DESPAIRING MEN HAVE NOW COME INTO YOUR CAVE AND ARE ALREADY NO LONGER DESPAIRING.

The king said, "We had come here sad, depressed and in deep despair. And you have not uttered a single word. You have not done anything to us and we are already no longer despairing. We are already no longer sad."

This has been called, in the East, satsang. This is something which is unique to the East. The West has never been able to develop anything parallel to it, because it simply means: to be with the man who has arrived. It is not necessarily needed that he should speak. It is not necessary for you to ask, but just being in his presence is a great experience. His very vibe is transforming; his joy is contagious; his silence finds ways to enter into you; his heart suddenly starts moving your heart in a harmonious dance.

THAT IS ONLY A SIGN AND AN OMEN THAT BETTER MEN ARE ON THEIR WAY TO YOU. And to recognize that better men are on their way to you is something surprising, because the king, in his world, is the highest - who can be better than him?

But suddenly before Zarathustra he feels his smallness and he feels that all his kingdom and all his treasures are valueless. This man's kingdom is of eternity; this man's kingdom cannot be conquered.

Even death cannot take it away. And we have been wasting our time playing with toys; we have been children. It is a moment of great truth when he says, "Perhaps we are just the beginners, and better men are on their way to you."

FOR THIS ITSELF IS ON ITS WAY TO YOU, THE LAST REMNANT OF GOD AMONG MEN, THAT IS: ALL MEN POSSESSED BY GREAT LONGING, GREAT DISGUST, GREAT SATIETY. The people who are utterly satisfied in the ordinary world suddenly find, in the presence of a man like Zarathustra, that there is much more to be discovered yet. They have become satisfied too early.

Perhaps their longing was not great enough.

There will be people who are disgusted with the mean and ugly humanity, and, seeing you, will find that if man is disgusting, it is not his nature; perhaps he has gone astray. It is not his fault; perhaps there was nobody to help him to be on the right way. Here is a man who is a joy to see, a bliss to feel. And there will be coming, men possessed by great longing who don't know exactly what they want. But one thing is certain: that whatever this world can give is not enough.

They want more. They want something immortal, they want something eternal, they want something divine. All that is mundane makes no sense to them; all that can be taken away by death has no meaning to them. They want to find something which is beyond death, which cannot be destroyed by death. They may not be aware of what they are actually asking for, but hearing your name they must be on the way.

ALL WHO DO NOT WANT TO LIVE EXCEPT THEY LEARN TO HOPE AGAIN - EXCEPT THEY LEARN FROM YOU, O ZARATHUSTRA, THE GREAT HOPE!

Seeing you, only one word arises again and again: you are the great hope. Seeing you, it can be trusted that man can reach heights unimaginable, that man can reach depths abysmal, that man can touch stars, that man can contain the whole universe, that man can expand his consciousness to the unlimited universe itself.

ALL WHO DO NOT WANT TO LIVE.... They are tired of ordinary living: the mundane, the routine, the mechanical. Those who have lost hope, they will be coming to you, because your fragrance has reached them.

EXCEPT THEY LEARN TO HOPE AGAIN - EXCEPT THEY LEARN FROM YOU, O ZARATHUSTRA, THE GREAT HOPE!

TRULY, YOU MAY ALL BE HIGHER MEN (ZARATHUSTRA RESPONDED): BUT FOR ME - YOU ARE NOT HIGH AND STRONG ENOUGH.

The king has said everything in praise of Zarathustra. You cannot improve upon it. What more can be said? But Zarathustra is not concerned what the king has said about him; Zarathustra is concerned with the situation the king and the other waiters in his care are in. When you come to a master he is not interested in what you say about him; he is more interested in what you are.

TRULY, YOU MAY ALL BE HIGHER MEN (ZARATHUSTRA RESPONDED): BUT FOR ME - YOU ARE NOT HIGH AND STRONG ENOUGH.

FOR ME, THAT IS TO SAY: FOR THE INEXORABLE THAT IS SILENT WITHIN ME BUT WILL NOT ALWAYS BE SILENT.

For my inner silence knows perfectly well that you are very small. Your words cannot deceive me.

That's why it is said that the masters are as soft as rose petals, and as hard as any sword can be.FOR THE INEXORABLE THAT IS SILENT WITHIN ME... you are neither high nor strong enough. And my silence will not always remain silent. The time is coming when my silence is going to shower into many and millions of expressions. But those expressions will be understood only by those who have really ears to hear the silent music, and who have eyes to see the purest light.

AND IF YOU BELONG TO ME, IT IS NOT AS MY RIGHT ARM.... Even if you want to belong to me, you cannot be my right arm. You cannot be that close, because I can see from my heights you are too small. You know beautiful words. You are also sensitive. Perhaps you have a little desire for transformation too. You are certainly impressed by the space I am in, and by the vibrations that are surrounding me;but you are not the seekers. You have come here out of curiosity, not out of a deep desire for metamorphosis, for changing yourself into the new man, into the superman.

FOR HE WHO HIMSELF STANDS ON SICK AND TENDER LEGS, AS YOU DO, WANTS ABOVE ALL, WHETHER HE KNOWS IT OR CONCEALS IT FROM HIMSELF: TO BE SPARED. You want everything without paying anything in return. You want to be glad, you want to be blissful, you want to be peaceful, you want to reach to the heights, but without any effort. This is not possible. You will have to stake yourself; you cannot be spared. Whether you know it or not, deep down you want to be spared. You simply want to rejoice and get everything without moving a single inch.

MY ARMS AND LEGS, HOWEVER, I DO NOT SPARE, I DO NOT SPARE MY WARRIORS: HOW, THEN, COULD YOU BE FIT FOR MY WARFARE? It is a struggle - the greatest struggle in life - to transcend oneself, to go beyond oneself, to make oneself a stepping-stone to a higher state of consciousness.

It is a warfare and you have to become a warrior.

I NEED PURE, SMOOTH MIRRORS FOR MY TEACHING; UPON YOUR SURFACE EVEN MY OWN REFLECTION IS DISTORTED.

To come into contact with a man like Zarathustra, one has to be ready not to be hurt - because a man like Zarathustra is not going to be polite, is not going to follow the social etiquette; he will say exactly what is true, whether it hurts you or not. And truth often hurts, because we have lived in lies for so long that truth has become a stranger to us.

Zarathustra says: I NEED PURE, SMOOTH MIRRORS FOR MY TEACHING; UPON YOUR SURFACE EVEN MY OWN REFLECTION IS DISTORTED.

I can see that your mirrors are so full of dust; you need a great cleaning. As you are you cannot start a great revolution in your consciousness. The first thing is to drop all the dust that is upon your mirror, on your consciousness.

YOU ARE ONLY BRIDGES: MAY HIGHER MEN THAN YOU STEP ACROSS UPON YOU! YOU ARE STEPS: SO DO NOT BE ANGRY WITH HIM WHO CLIMBS OVER YOU INTO HIS HEIGHT.

He is really telling them about their own higher self. He is saying, "You are only bridges. You have to be passed over. You will be left behind; and something that will pass over you will be almost a stranger to you, although it has been hidden inside you. But you have never gone into that interior of your own being. You are not acquainted with yourself. You don't know even your own address:

where are you, and who are you?

YOU ARE ONLY BRIDGES: MAY HIGHER MEN THAN YOU STEP ACROSS UPON YOU! And those higher men are hidden within you. You are steps, so do not be angry with him who climbs over you into his height.

FROM YOUR SEED THERE MAY ONE DAY GROW FOR ME A GENUINE SON AND PERFECT HEIR: BUT THAT IS FAR AHEAD. YOU YOURSELVES ARE NOT THOSE TO WHOM MY HERITAGE AND NAME BELONG.

NO! NO! THRICE NO! IT IS FOR OTHERS THAT I WAIT HERE IN THESE MOUNTAINS AND I WILL NOT LIFT MY FOOT FROM HERE WITHOUT THEM.

He is giving them a challenge: "If you want to be my companions, my fellow travelers, my right hand, then cleanse your mirror. Become a bridge for something transcendental that is hidden within you.

Give room for some stranger that was always inside you, but you had never looked at."

FOR HIGHER, STRONGER, MORE VICTORIOUS, MORE JOYFUL MEN, SUCH AS ARE SQUARE-BUILT IN BODY AND SOUL: LAUGHING LIONS MUST COME! Just being glad in my presence won't do; I need laughing lions. Gladness is a passive state. Gladness must become active, must turn into a laughter, must turn into a dance.

The longing should not be only a thought, a dream. It will become your thirst, your hunger.

O MY GUESTS, YOU STRANGE MEN, HAVE YOU YET HEARD NOTHING OF MY CHILDREN?

AND THAT THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY TO ME? It is always difficult to understand the mystics.

They speak a language of their own. They don't care about your grammar and they don't care about your linguistics. They can't care. They can't help it; they have to find their own language, their own expressions.

Zarathustra is saying: O MY GUESTS, YOU STRANGE MEN, HAVE YOU YET HEARD NOTHING OF MY CHILDREN? Unless you become my children, unless you become so innocent.... Get down from your wisdom, get down from your heights, get down from your learnedness! Someone is a king, someone is a pope, someone is a saint - get down from these heights and be my children - because in Zarathustra's language the child is the highest state of consciousness.

The camel is the lowest, the lion is in the middle, and the child is the last. The camel has to become a lion, and the lion has to become a child. These are his symbols - because the camel is a born slave; he is very ready to kneel down and very happy to be loaded. And millions of people are in the state of the camel.

Only once in a while some camel simply stands up and gives a lion's roar - refuses to be a slave, refuses to be loaded. And even more rarely a lion becomes so innocent, just like a newly-born baby. That is the highest consciousness, the purest mirror. And he is saying: HAVE YOU HEARD NOTHING OF MY CHILDREN? AND THAT THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY TO ME?

SPEAK TO ME OF MY GARDENS, OF MY BLISSFUL ISLANDS, OF MY BEAUTIFUL NEW RACE, WHY DO YOU NOT SPEAK OF THEM? Why are you talking about me? It is absolutely futile. Don't waste your time in praising me, but expose yourself. Speak to me of my gardens. Are you my garden? Are you ready to become my garden? Speak to me of my children. Are you ready to become my children? Of my Blissful Islands - individuals, integrated, absolutely free, ready to fly to the sky, to the farthest star; of my beautiful new race - a new man, the superman: Why do you not speak of them? - because that will be speaking about your own future, that will be speaking about your own potential, that will be speaking about your own possibilities. That will be meaningful.

THIS GUEST-GIFT DO I BEG OF YOUR LOVE, THAT YOU SPEAK TO ME OF MY CHILDREN.

IN THEM I AM RICH, FOR THEM I BECAME POOR: WHAT HAVE I NOT GIVEN. I have given everything to bring a new race of men into the world. Speak to me of the new race. Are you going to be part of it? Are you ready for that great revolution? It is going through a fire test.

In my children, in the new race, I am rich, and for them I have become poor. I am living in solitude, possessing nothing. I have renounced everything of the world, of the so-called mankind, because it was all disgusting; it was all too ordinary, too mundane. I have become poor just in order that I can create space for the new race of men to come in.

WHAT HAVE I NOT GIVEN, WHAT WOULD I NOT GIVE, TO POSSESS ONE THING: THESE CHILDREN, THIS LIVING GARDEN, THESE TREES OF LIFE OF MY WILL AND OF MY HIGHEST HOPE! Don't talk about me but talk about your readiness. How far are you ready to go with me?

Are you going to be just a sightseer, fulfilling your curiosity? Will you go back and talk about me? Is that all, or are you going to stay here? Unless the old dies and the new is born... are you ready to become the womb for the new race?

... these CHILDREN, THIS LIVING GARDEN, THESE TREES OF MY WILL AND OF MY HIGHEST HOPE! Zarathustra is not impressed by what the king said to him. You cannot impress a great master by praising him. The king praised him the same way as the king was praised by his courtiers. He used beautiful words, he tried his best, but it is impossible to deceive a man like Zarathustra. His eyes are almost like X-rays; they go to your very being, to your innermost core. They don't bother about your words; they only care about your being.

His response may look a little too hard, because the king was very courteous. But to a great master like Zarathustra courtesy and etiquette and manners are all games. They are good in the marketplace but not in the solitary cave in the mountains, where someone has reached to his ultimate consciousness. You should not take there your toys.

It would have been absolutely right for the king just to sit by the side of Zarathustra, or to touch his feet, or to put his head onto his feet and remain silent. It would have been perfectly right to sit by the side of Zarathustra and let his tears come, and say what his heart is feeling: his joy, his gladness.

Or perhaps he could have danced, forgetting all mannerisms, forgetting all the etiquette of his court.

If he had danced to abandon, if he had danced to such an extreme where the dancer disappears and only the dance remains, perhaps Zarathustra would have responded differently - because then he would have been one of his children, one of his islands, one of the trees of his garden.

Then he would have fulfilled his hope: his hope for a new race of men.

... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.