I am an ardent fan and a follower of OSHO, which puts me in a difficult situation. How do you review the speeches of a person like OSHO, who you respect for his thinking and articulation? And what do you do when the speeches are on a subject called Krishna. For one, it is simply tough because one believes that OSHO was a victim of being much ahead of his time. And that, indeed, the blessed soul of OSHO visited planet earth between. 11th December 1931 and 19th January 1990.
For my spiritual avatar, I use ‘Swami Saachidanad Bharati’ as my name. The name would have been chosen if I had joined OSHO in the late eighties. The possibilities did exist at some time. However, the master himself gives you the way. He tells you don’t follow, don’t imitate and don’t believe whatever I say. You must have the freedom of your thoughts and live life the way you want. And hence, you are free to critique, review, comment, share, or like what the master says. With his blessings, I attempt a book review of ‘Krishna – The Man And His Philosophy’, a compilation of his question-answer session at Manali in early 1970.
MASTER NEVER PROMISES OR REACHES.
Like many other disciples and followers, one is trapped in his easy iterative speaking and classic storytelling; beautiful anecdotes to make the point or explain the situation in layman’s terms. One is mesmerised; at that moment, what you read seems the ultimate truth. Maybe a result of our own shortcomings. The writing and speeches, at times, have gaps, and they are at times incomplete, and not everything is what makes sense at a later date. But then the master never promised to make sense or not contradict his own statements.
OSHO says, “I don’t want that you should collect my words and take them home. That will not be worthwhile. What is worthwhile then? If in the course of listening to my words, some understanding, some wisdom has downed on you- and if that understanding that wisdom is really worthwhile, then it should go with you naturally, effortlessly:.
And he adds, ‘It is not necessary that you should cling rigidly to my statements. It is enough that you understand them and move ahead with them. You should leave the statements and live with the understanding… It will do no harm, if you cling to them ( my statements), but it will certainly harm you immensely because when one cling to some person or idea or thing, he immediately loses himself. And when one is free of all clinging and attachments, when one is utterly empty, he is immediately filled with himself, with the eternal or God, or call what you will”.
OSHO AND KRISHNA
To discuss Krishna, his philosophy and the Gita along with the greatest of all wars; the Mahabharata. OSHO, as always, brings other personalities into the discussion for comparison and context. Most of the time, he restricts it to Buddha, Mahavir, Christ and Mohammed. Additionally, he does comment on other known achievers like Ramakrishna, Vivekanand, Tagore, Krishnamurthy, Aurobindo and other international thinkers.
Time and again, OSHO warns people of following and imitating. He wants everyone to be individual – because they are unique and individual. By trying to be someone else, they lose their freedom and individuality.
OSHO says, “Consider everyone, but follow no one – not even Krishna, Budha or Christ. You have to follow only one person, and that is you. Understand everybody and follow yourself, follow your intrinsic nature. If you want to imitate, imitate yourself, no one else:.
KRISHNA, THE COMPLETE MAN
The book presents Krishna as the complete person. A person who lived in the present. Who accepted every duality of life and did not negate anything. Hence, Krishna was capable of doing anything spontaneously without reservations. He could dance with Gopies and fight with Pandavas. And in the process, OSHO speaks of possibilities and potential and how it is everyone’s dharma to achieve their potential. Krishna accepts the world as it is, accepts everything and denies nothing; he is all for celebration and takes life as a great play, a powerful drama.
NET NET – OSHO on KRISHNA
‘Krishna – The Man and His Philosophy’ by OSHO is a book I will urge you to read. It will make you at least think about life and may help create your own interpretation of Krishna and his life. This book joins my set of books I do not plan to Uncage. The book is some 700 pages, and if you do really read it, it will take time. I tried the way to read 50 pages a day and think about what I read, and it worked for me.
BLOG/002/Book 001/ 2023
To connect, send an email, join on Twitter S_kotnala or subscribe to the weekly update.
HERE ARE A FEW NUGGETS FROM THE BOOK.
SECT.
OSHO was against the birth of a sect- a religious sect. In the book, he says. “It should be our great endeavour to see that no sect is born because nothing has harmed religion as much as these sects have. Sects have done more harm to religion than irreligion itself… nothing else can harm it so much.
NOT UNDERSTANDING WAR.
“Our cowardice is hiding behind our talk of non-violence; our fear of death is disguised by our opposition to war. But war is not going to end because we refuse to go to war. Our refusal simply becomes an invitation to others to wage war on us. War will not disappear just because we refuse to fight: our refusal will only result in our slavery. And this us what actually happened… “if a man wants to maintain peace, he needs to have the strength and the ability to fight a war and win it. And he asserts that in order to fight a war well, it is necessary, simultaneously, to make due preparation for peace”.
IMITATION.
“When you follow another, imitate another, there is always someone ready to supply you with a road map., a chart which has to be phoney and false. And the moment you take this journey, you embark on a journey to suicide. Then you begin to destroy yourself and impose an alien personality on yourself. If someone follows me, he will have first to destroy himself. He will have to constantly keep me in his mind. He will do so as I do. He will walk as I walk and try to become like me.
But despite the best attempts to imitate me, he can never become me; I will serve only as a face, a mask for him. Deep down, he will remain what he is; he will remain the one who imitates me. He can never be the one he imitates. Whatever he does, the masquerade cannot be masqueraded”… “God made you altogether genuine and new. So don’t turn it into a counterfeit; it would be a betrayal of his trust”.
TRUST
“Trust is the ultimate product of doubt, and insanity is the ultimate result of indecision. An indecisive person will end up insane; he will degenerate and perish”.
LIFE PURPOSE.
“To think in terms of utilitarianism is basically wrong. The whole movement of life is non-utilitarian; it is purposeless. Life is for its own sake, for the sake of being life. The flower blooms out of its own joy. The river flows for the joy of flowing. The clouds, the stars, the galaxies all move out of their own bliss. And what do you think you are and why?”… “Life is like a play, a leela. Try to understand the difference between life with purpose and life as play.”
RELIGION AND GOD.
“But we are not purposeless. All of us are tethered to some purpose in life and therefore are unable to understand Krishna. We live with a goal in life, with a purpose and a motive. Even if we lose someone, we do so with a purpose, we give our love with a condition, a string attached to it. We always want something in return. Even our love is not purposeless, unconditional, or uncontaminated. We never do a thing without motive, just for the love of it. And remember, unless you begin to do something without a cause without reason, without a motive, you cannot be religious. The day something in your life happens causelessly, when your action has no motive or condition attached to it when you do something just for the love and joy of doing it, you will know what religion is what God is.
CONTROVERSIAL PROSTITUTION STATEMENT.
“The prostitute protects the chastity of wives, like Savitri of Indian myth. If you have to save the chastity of wives, the prostitute s the answer. Even a wife would prefer her husband go to a prostitute rather than fall in love with his neighbour’s wife- because love is involvement, and so it is dangerous. A wife will be in danger if her husband falls in love with another woman, but there is no danger if he visits a brothel once in a while; her position remains safe. Prostitution does not demand involvement; you can buy it with money. Love demands deep involvement and therefore, wives consented to the institution of prostitution- but they cannot consent to love, to their husbands falling in love with another woman.”
INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE
“The day we accord love its priority in our lives; the day a man and a woman live together not by way of a contract and compromise, but out of love and love alone, marriage, as we know, will cease to exist. And with marriage will go today’s system of divorce. Then the couple will live together for the sake of their love and happiness and for other considerations, and they will part company and separate when the love between them dries and disappears. Society will not come in their way in any manner… I repeat: marriage as an institution is immoral, and marriage that comes in the wake of love is quite natural. There is nothing immoral about it.”
AND FINALLY, MASTER’S WORDS ON MASTER.
“No, I don’t believe in borrowing knowledge. I am not in contact with any of the masters. I stand wholly on my own. What I am saying, right or wrong, is my thing, and I am only responsible for it. I have nothing to do with bodiless masters. And if I accept someone as my master, then there is every danger of me becoming somebodies’ master in turn. I don’t indulge in such games. I AM no one’s disciple, nor do I want to be anyone’s’ master. Therefore I say only which I know, and I am not interested in the master’s. If I speak about them, it is only in the passing and by way of reference. I have nothing to do with their authenticity or otherwise.”
