Religion – Truth – Being?
— OSHO Online Library
osho.com/osho-online-library/osho-talks/religion-truth-being-aaf97df6-941
There were people who were not involved in religions but they were
not seekers at all. They were just interested in the trivia of life:
earning more money, being a great leader – a politician, a prime
minister, a president. Their interests were very mundane. They were
no use to me, and they were also not interested in what I had to offer
to them because it was not their interest at all.
The man who wants to become the prime minister of the country is
not interested in finding the truth. If truth and the prime ministership
are both presented to him, he will choose the prime ministership. He
will say about truth, “There is no hurry. We can do that – the whole of
eternity is available – but the opportunity of the prime ministership
may or may not come again. It rarely comes, and only to very, very
rare people, once in a while. Truth is everybody’s nature, so we can
find it any day. First let us do that which is momentary, temporal,
fleeting. This beautiful dream may not happen again. Reality is not
going anywhere, but this dream is fleeting.”
Their interest was in dreaming, imagination. They were not my
people, and communication with them was also impossible because
our interests were diametrically opposite. I tried hard but those
people were not interested in religion, not interested in truth, not
interested in anything significant.
The people who were interested were Christians, or Hindus,
Mohammedans, Jainas, Buddhists: they were already following
some ideology, some religion. Then it was obvious to me that I would
have to play the game of being religious; there was no other way.
Only then could I find people who were authentic seekers.
I hate the word religion, I have always hated it, but I had to talk about
religion. But what I was talking about under the cover of religion was
not the same as people understood by religion. Now, this was simply
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a strategy. I was using their words – God, religion, liberation, moksha
– and I was giving them my meaning. In this way I could start finding
people; and people started coming to me.
It took a few years for me to change my image in people’s eyes. But
people only listen to words, they don’t understand meanings: people
only understand what you say, they don’t understand what is
conveyed unsaid. So I used their own weapons against them. I
commented on religious books, and gave a meaning that was totally
mine.
I would have said the same thing without commenting – it would
have been far easier because then I would have been speaking
directly to you. There was no need to drag in Krishna, Mahavira, and
Jesus, and then make them say what they had never said. But such
is the stupidity of humanity; I was saying the same thing that I had
been saying before and they were not ready even to hear it, and now
thousands started gathering around me because I was speaking on
Krishna.
Now, what have I to do with Krishna? What has he done for me?
What relationship have I got with Jesus? If I had met him while he
was alive I would have said to him, “You are a fanatic and you are
not in your senses. I cannot say that the people who want to crucify
you are absolutely wrong, because they have no other way to deal
with you.”
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