---
section: Library
booktitle: "Zarathustra: The Laughing Prophet"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "ZARA2"
dategiven: "18 April 1987 am"
place: " in Chuang Tzu Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #21"
chaptertitle: ": of the meeting with a higher man"
acode: "8704180"
shorttitle: "ZARA221"
audio: "Yes"
video: "Yes"
esttime: "111mins"
displaytitle: "Zarathustra: The Laughing Prophet: Chapter #21"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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<p class="sutra">BELOVED OSHO,
OF THE MEETING WITH A HIGHER MAN
MONTHS AND YEARS PASS, AND ZARATHUSTRA'S HAIR GROWS WHITE AS HE WAITS UNTIL THE SIGN THAT IT IS TIME FOR HIS DESCENT TO MEN AGAIN. ONE DAY, WHILE SITTING OUTSIDE HIS CAVE, ZARATHUSTRA IS VISITED BY THE OLD PROPHET, WHO WARNS ZARATHUSTRA THAT HE HAS COME TO SEDUCE HIM TO HIS ULTIMATE SIN -- THAT OF PITY, PITY FOR THE 'HIGHER MAN'. ZARATHUSTRA IS HORROR-STRUCK BY THIS, BUT FINALLY AGREES TO ANSWER THE CRY OF THE HIGHER MAN, TO SEEK HIM OUT AND HELP HIM.
HE LEAVES HIS CAVE, AND SETS OUT ON A PATH ON WHICH HE MEETS DIVERSE PEOPLE. FIRST, THE KINGS -- WHO TELL ZARATHUSTRA THAT THEY ARE IN SEARCH OF THE HIGHER MAN. ZARATHUSTRA INVITES THEM TO WAIT IN HIS CAVE FOR HIS RETURN. HE THEN ENCOUNTERS THE 'CONSCIENTIOUS MAN OF SPIRIT' WHO WISHES TO DISCARD ALL KNOWLEDGE. HE TELLS ZARATHUSTRA, 'I AM BLIND AND WANT TO BE BLIND. BUT WHERE I WANT TO KNOW, I ALSO WANT TO BE HONEST, THAT IS, SEVERE, STERN, STRICT, CRUEL, INEXORABLE.' HE CAME TO THIS CONCLUSION THROUGH ONCE HEARING ZARATHUSTRA SAYING THAT, 'SPIRIT IS THE LIFE THAT ITSELF CUTS INTO LIFE.'
ZARATHUSTRA TELLS THE MAN WHERE HIS CAVE IS, AND INVITES HIM TO AWAIT HIS RETURN.
NEXT, ZARATHUSTRA COMES ACROSS A SORCERER, WHO FINALLY ADMITS TO BEING FED-UP WITH HIS OWN TRICKERY; HE MEETS, TOO, THE LAST POPE ON EARTH, WHO REVEALS THAT, HAVING BEEN INTIMATE WITH GOD, HE KNOWS HOW AND WHY GOD DIED: HE SUFFOCATED THROUGH EXCESSIVE SELF-PITY.
BUT THE SORCERER AND THE OLD POPE ARE INVITED TO GO TO ZARATHUSTRA'S CAVE. NEXT ZARATHUSTRA FINDS HIMSELF FACE TO FACE WITH 'THE UGLIEST MAN' -- THE MAN WHO KILLED GOD. THIS MAN IS ON HIS WAY TO ZARATHUSTRA, FINDING IN HIM HIS LAST REFUGE. HE EXPLAINS WHY GOD HAD TO DIE -- HE SAW TOO MUCH ABOUT MAN, HIS PITY KNEW NO SHAME -- SO THAT FINALLY THE UGLIEST MAN REALIZED THAT EITHER HE HIMSELF WOULD DIE OF SHAME OR TAKE REVENGE ON GOD. 'MAN,' HE EXPLAINED TO ZARATHUSTRA, 'COULD NOT ENDURE SUCH A WITNESS SHOULD LIVE.'
AGAIN, ZARATHUSTRA INDICATES WHERE HIS CAVE IS, AND THE UGLIEST MAN MAKES HIS WAY THERE. THE VOLUNTARY BEGGAR MEETS AND CONVERSES WITH ZARATHUSTRA, AND JOINS THE OTHERS IN HIS CAVE.
ON THIS SAME DAY AT NOONTIDE, ZARATHUSTRA IS PASSING BY A TREE WHERE HE PAUSES TO SLEEP. HE IS FILLED WITH A SENSE OF THE PERFECTION OF THE WORLD, AND WHEN HE ARISES FROM THE BED SOME TIME LATER, HE FEELS AS IF HE IS INTOXICATED.
ZARATHUSTRA MAKES FOR THE DIRECTION OF HIS CAVE. AS HE APPROACHES IT, HE HEARS THE CRY OF DISTRESS -- THE SAME CRY THAT THE OLD PROPHET HAD SAID CAME FROM 'THE HIGHER MAN'. ZARATHUSTRA HURRIES FORWARD TO SEE ALL HIS VISITORS ASSEMBLED THERE -- THE KINGS, THE CONSCIENTIOUS MAN OF SPIRIT, THE SORCERER, THE OLD POPE, AND SO ON: FOR THEY ARE THE 'HIGHER MEN'.
... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA.</p>


Zarathustra has no respect for the higher man, because the higher man is nothing but the old man with a bigger ego. He may be higher because he has power, he is a king; he may be higher because he has knowledge, which is all borrowed; he may be higher because he has virtue and a moral character, which are all rotten and old-fashioned, which are not in tune with the time at all.


Zarathustra's superman has not to be confused with the higher man. The superman is a discontinuity with man as he is. For the superman the higher man has to die -- with all his knowledge, all his virtue, all his ego -- and give place to a pure consciousness, like that of a child. The higher man is a continuity. It is the same old man decorated with money, with spirituality, with religiousness, with respectability, with power -- but basically it is the same old man. The superman is an absolute discontinuity; it is totally new. So remember that distinction in your mind.


The meetings with higher men are not meetings with the superman, although the higher man has always thought himself to be the superman. That is his egoistic attitude. The superman knows nothing of superiority -- that is his superiority. He knows only an innocent, childlike freedom. To him the whole existence is a mystery and his eyes are full of wonder, not full of knowledge. So keep both the concepts separate. The higher man is condemned, because he is pretending to be the superman. He is preventing the way for the superman to come in. He is fake, pseudo.


The superman has only one quality: he is as innocent as a newly-born child. And he is absolutely free from any burden, either of riches or of knowledge or of virtue or of saintliness. He has the whole sky available to him, because he is weightless and he can fly to the most distant star; the whole existence becomes his territory. Nothing belongs to him in one sense, and in another sense everything belongs only to him. But he is not possessive -- there is no need; all is his.


Possessiveness is always a sign of a power, and power signifies poverty, inferiority. Only the inferior man wants to be superior, because to live with inferiority is difficult. The inferior man wants to have riches, wants to have kingdoms, wants to have knowledge, wants to become a holy man, but in some way he wants to cover his inferiority so that he can forget all about it. He is not an open book; he cannot afford to be an open book. He is very secretive, because he knows what he is hiding inside himself.


The superman is just an open book. There is nothing to hide, and there is nothing to possess. In those wondering eyes of a childlike sage, all is possessed without possessing it. The superman is not poor -- not poor enough to possess, not poor enough to brag about his superiority or his holiness. He knows nothing of bragging. He is so full of joy -- a simple joy of the birds, of the flowers, of the rivers, a joy which costs nothing, because according to Zarathustra anything that has a price has no value; only things that don't have any price are valuable.


The superman has all the values, but his values are not marketable; they are not commodities. He has tremendous love, he has immense clarity, he has purity of the soul, he is unpolluted by cunningness, politics, diplomacy. He is simply what he is, and he is available to all.


This parable is about the higher men, the pretenders who think that they are supermen. Always remember: wherever there are real coins, there is always a possibility of false coins. And there is a strange law that if you have in your pocket a few false coins and a few authentic coins, your first intention will be to use the false coins, to get rid of them.The same is true in the inner life of man. The higher man is the false coin, which comes before, pretending to be the superman.


The parable is: MONTHS AND YEARS PASS, AND ZARATHUSTRA'S HAIR GROWS WHITE, AS HE WAITS UNTIL THE SIGN THAT IT IS TIME FOR HIS DESCENT TO MEN AGAIN. ONE DAY, WHILE SITTING OUTSIDE HIS CAVE, ZARATHUSTRA IS VISITED BY THE OLD PROPHET, WHO WARNS ZARATHUSTRA THAT HE HAS COME TO SEDUCE HIM TO HIS ULTIMATE SIN -- THAT OF PITY, PITY FOR THE 'HIGHER MAN'.


The first thing to be understood is that a man like Zarathustra can wait patiently for the right time and the right season. He is never in a hurry. Impatience and hurry and speed are the symbols of a tense mind. Zarathustra is utterly relaxed. He becomes old, years pass, his hair grows white, but he is still waiting for the sign. But from where is the sign going to come? It is not going to come from outside; it is going to come from his innermost being. In his silence he is going to hear the still, small voice.


From outside come only orders, not signs -- commandments from others, but not authentic signs. Authentic signs come only through a silent being. The being is in tune with the universe, relaxed. It is in communion. Existence is not going to speak to you from outside; existence always speaks from your inside, because that is the closest point to existence. From outside it is a very long journey.


While he is waiting, one day, the old prophet whom he had met while he was coming to the mountains, who used to live in the mountains in a cave... and he had wondered about the old prophet: "Is it possible that this old prophet has not heard the latest news yet, that God is dead? -- because he is still worshiping God; he is still praying to God."


Zarathustra is very clear about it: all your prayers and all your worshiping show immaturity. It shows a longing for a father-figure; it shows your fear of being alone. It also shows your fear that life is insecure. God is your security, God is your insurance. That's why all religious scriptures go on repeating, again and again, that God will save you, and that God has been sending messengers to save men.


But the reality is that man is not saved at all. Looking at man Zarathustra seems to be right: God must be dead, because man is living in such anguish, in such agony, that if there was really a "Father God," he would have done something. He is supposed to be omnipotent, all-powerful, and he cannot remove man's misery, he cannot remove man's tensions, he cannot help man to sing again, dance again under the stars?


Looking at man and his psychology, Zarathustra's conclusion seems to be absolutely correct -- God must be dead. And the people who have pretended to be His messengers, prophets, incarnations have not helped a bit. They talked about saving man, but man goes on falling from his dignity, from his humanity, from his self-respect.


Just a few days ago in Palestine, the people asked the government that they should be allowed to eat human flesh, because there is a shortage of food and there are so many people dying -- out of starvation, and people are dying from terrorists and their bombs. These corpses should not be anymore given back to the earth; they should be given to people who don't have enough to eat. It looks like a strange demand, but the government has conceded to it. Now in Palestine, to eat human flesh is legal.


And that's how things go. First they will eat the people who die naturally; they will eat the people who are killed by the terrorists, and then soon they will start killing people just to eat. Shopkeepers will start having professional killers to kill children, because the cannibals say that the meat of children is the most delicious thing in the world.


If there is a God who loves, who is compassionate, for what is He waiting? Looking at the reality, what is happening in Palestine is going to happen in almost three-fourths of the world, by the end of this century. Palestine is just a pioneer. And I am amazed that the Palestinian government has not been criticized by anybody, from any source. No government, no religious leaders, no philanthropists have condemned this as ugly.


Perhaps they know that it is going to become a necessity soon in other lands too. But man becoming a cannibal is the last fall. Even animals don't eat of their own species. No lion will eat another lion. He may die hungry, the dead body of the other lion may be available, but he will not eat it. Except man, no animal has even tried to eat of its own species. And man is God's greatest creation. THE BIBLE says He created man in His own image. If man is really God's image then God is not very godly. Man may be the image of the devil, but not of God.


Zarathustra's contributions are great. The idea that God is dead is not only a logical idea; it is very existential. Looking at the world, it cannot be accepted that it was created by a wise God. And the way it goes on falling down, it seems impossible that there is a God who protects, who saves, who takes care of His children.


This prophet had met him when he was going to the mountains for solitude, for meditations, to reach to his own silences of the heart. Again he has met the prophet.
<p class="sutra">ONE DAY, WHILE SITTING OUTSIDE HIS CAVE, ZARATHUSTRA IS VISITED BY THE OLD PROPHET, WHO WARNS ZARATHUSTRA THAT HE HAS COME TO SEDUCE HIM TO HIS ULTIMATE SIN -- THAT OF PITY, PITY FOR THE 'HIGHER MAN'. ZARATHUSTRA IS HORROR-STRUCK BY THIS, BUT FINALLY AGREES TO ANSWER THE CRY OF THE HIGHER MAN, TO SEEK HIM OUT AND HELP HIM.</p>


Zarathustra is against the very idea of pity, because it reduces the other man to a humiliating position. Zarathustra is even against compassion, because that means you are higher and the other is lower, that you are the giver and the other is the receiver. Zarathustra believes in sharing out of love -- not for pity, not for compassion, but out of your abundance. You have so much; you are burdened with so much that you want to share it. This gives dignity to the other man. You don't reduce him into a beggar.


That is one of his qualities of the superman. He will only share out of his abundance. He has no pity and he has no compassion; he knows only love. Love is the only law. Love equalizes people -- you give because you love, you give because you respect. You give and allow the man to feel, to be honored -- that is true giving. If the other man feels a beggar, if the way of your giving is such that you strengthen your ego, brag about your giving, then you have committed a sin; it is not virtue.


That's why the old prophet says:
<p class="sutra">HE HAS COME TO SEDUCE HIM TO HIS ULTIMATE SIN -- THAT OF PITY, PITY FOR THE 'HIGHER MAN'. ZARATHUSTRA IS HORROR-STRUCK BY THIS, BUT FINALLY AGREES TO ANSWER THE CRY OF THE HIGHER MAN, TO SEEK HIM OUT AND HELP HIM.
HE LEAVES HIS CAVE, AND SETS OUT ON A PATH ON WHICH HE MEETS DIVERSE PEOPLE. FIRST, THE KINGS....</p>


Obviously they think they are the highest human beings, because they possess so much -- their territories, their kingdoms, their money, their power. Obviously they believe they are higher. And the kings have been forcing poets to sing songs in their praise, forcing historians to write in their praise, forcing priests to declare them almost gods.


For example, in Japan, even today, Hirohito, the king of Japan, is believed to be the direct descendant of the sun -- because the sun in Japan is thought to be a great god. In the second world war, when Japan started failing, they could not believe it. How can it be? Their king is the direct descendant of the sun itself, the greatest of gods. How can they be defeated? They could not believe their defeat. But the kings have, all over the world, managed very easily whatever they wanted to be, because they could purchase writers, historians, poets.


There is a beautiful story, a Sufi story: The king of Iran sent Mulla Nasruddin, his emissary, to India with great gifts for the emperor of India. Of course in his court there was great resentment against Nasruddin, and they were trying to conspire somehow so that when he comes he gets into trouble. They sent spies to inform them what Nasruddin says to the emperor of India.


Nasruddin said to the emperor of India, "You are a great king. You are just like the full moon in the night." And the spies immediately got the clue. They rushed back to inform the conspirators that he has said to the emperor of India, "You are the full moon." Now, what about the emperor of Iran? So when he comes, raise this question, that there is nothing more than the full moon. He will be caught. He knows nothing and he thinks that the emperor will not know anything.


When the emperor of Iran heard, he was angry, very angry, that his own ambassador should tell to another king, "You are the full moon." He said, "Wait, let Nasruddin come." Nasruddin came back, and he could not understand why there was so much tension in the court, and why the king was looking so angry. And the first question the king asked was, "You tell me, who am I? If the Indian king is the moon, full moon, then in what category do you put me?"


Nasruddin laughed. He said, "You? You are the newest moon, the second-day moon, because the first day it is impossible to see. It is just a small line. Only on the second day you can see it for a few minutes. You are the second-day moon."
But the king said, "That means he is a bigger king than me?"


Nasruddin said, "No. The second-day moon has immense possibilities to grow. And that old idiot, the Indian king... after the full moon there is only death. For the second-day moon there is more life. You are going to expand your empire; he is finished, he is spent. Who said to you that the second-day moon is lower than the full moon?" His interpretation was perfect. The king was very angry with the court people and he said, "You have been conspiring against a man of great wisdom."


Outside the court one of his friends asked him, "You are certainly very clever. You managed it. We were all so worried about what you will do."He said, "There are always ways. As far as arguments are concerned, there are always ways. They cannot catch hold of me in arguments."


Kings have been very happy to be declared great, high, holy. Their blood is royal blood, although there is no difference -- neither in their blood nor in their bones. But the kings are the first because of their brutal power. The people have accepted that they are higher.


And they have spread strange ideas in the world. In the middle ages it was thought, in England, that the Queen of England has not two feet, two legs separate, but they are joined, because nobody had seen the queen's legs. The dresses were such that they touched the floor; you could not even see the feet of the queen. And it was never contradicted by the royal families: "This is nonsense. If her legs are joined, how can the queen walk?" But the queen walked very slowly, very gracefully, and the people thought that it was because the legs are joined; somehow she manages very slowly to move.


It was only just two hundred years ago that they discovered that this is all nonsense. But it had been believed for almost one thousand years. And the kings allowed it to be believed -- anything that makes them special and higher.


... HE MEETS DIVERSE PEOPLE. FIRST, THE KINGS -- WHO TELL ZARATHUSTRA THAT THEY ARE IN SEARCH OF THE HIGHER MAN. They have heard that Zarathustra is declaring the coming of the superman, and they think the superman and the higher man are synonymous. It is better to go to Zarathustra, and if he declares to them that they are the supermen, then it will become known to the whole country. Zarathustra has been in silence and solitude for so many years that everybody was waiting for him to come with a great wisdom, and the kings want him to authorize it: Yes, they are his supermen.
<p class="sutra">ZARATHUSTRA INVITES THEM TO WAIT IN HIS CAVE FOR HIS RETURN. HE THEN ENCOUNTERS THE 'CONSCIENTIOUS MAN OF SPIRIT' WHO WISHES TO DISCARD ALL KNOWLEDGE. HE TELLS ZARATHUSTRA, 'I AM BLIND AND WANT TO BE BLIND, BUT WHERE I WANT TO KNOW, I ALSO WANT TO BE HONEST, THAT IS, SEVERE, STERN, STRICT, CRUEL, INEXORABLE.' HE CAME TO THIS CONCLUSION THROUGH ONCE HEARING ZARATHUSTRA SAYING THAT, 'SPIRIT IS THE LIFE THAT ITSELF CUTS INTO LIFE.'
ZARATHUSTRA TELLS THE MAN WHERE HIS CAVE IS, AND INVITES HIM TO AWAIT HIS RETURN.</p>


The second person on the way is the man who thinks that he is conscientious and he has discarded all knowledge. He has left himself totally in the hands of God. "If He wills me to be blind then I will remain blind. I am going to be honest... SEVERE, STERN, STRICT, CRUEL, INEXORABLE." This is the priest. All the priests have remained blind, and all the priests have helped humanity to remain blind.


They are men of great conscientiousness and their whole effort is that you should not try to change anything. God has made it this way. If He has made you blind there must be wisdom in it; you should remain blind. All that is expected from you is honesty -- severe honesty, stern honesty, strict honesty, cruel honesty. Even if honesty has to be cruel you are not responsible for it. God has given you whatever is needed by you and whatever is needed by the world -- inexorable honesty.
<p class="sutra">HE CAME TO THIS CONCLUSION THROUGH ONCE HEARING ZARATHUSTRA SAYING THAT, 'SPIRIT IS THE LIFE THAT ITSELF CUTS INTO LIFE.'
ZARATHUSTRA TELLS THE MAN WHERE HIS CAVE IS, AND INVITES HIM TO AWAIT HIS RETURN.
NEXT, ZARATHUSTRA COMES ACROSS A SORCERER, WHO FINALLY ADMITS TO BEING FED-UP WITH HIS OWN TRICKERY; HE MEETS, TOO, THE LAST POPE ON THE EARTH, WHO REVEALS THAT, HAVING BEEN INTIMATE WITH GOD, HE KNOWS HOW AND WHY GOD DIED: HE SUFFOCATED THROUGH EXCESSIVE SELF-PITY.</p>


All these people are searching Zarathustra so that they can be declared by him to be his superman. The sorcerer says, "Finally I got fed-up with all my trickery. I have dropped it." And by dropping he thinks he has become a higher man. He also hopes that perhaps he will be accepted as the superman.


And then, the last he meets... THE LAST POPE ON EARTH, WHO REVEALS THAT, HAVING BEEN INTIMATE WITH GOD, HE KNOWS HOW AND WHY GOD DIED. They are all trying to persuade Zarathustra to declare them his superman. The pope is saying he was very intimate with God; obviously he is a higher man, a holier man than any other man. And because he knows Zarathustra says God is dead, just to persuade Zarathustra, he even says he knows how and why God died -- because he has been so intimate with him: HE SUFFOCATED THROUGH EXCESSIVE SELF-PITY.


He became tired of self-pity, for eternity. It is not an easy thing, to remain alive for eternity. One would like to die. And because he created this existence and it turned out to be a mess, out of self-pity He suffocated himself.


There is a beautiful story about Alexander the Great: When he was coming to India he passed Saudi Arabia's desert, and a man informed him, "I have heard you are interested in becoming immortal? "He said, "Yes. Do you know any way to become immortal?" The man said, "There is no problem in it. Just nearby there is a cave in which there is special water. You drink it and you become immortal."


Alexander stopped his armies. He did not take even his bodyguards with him, because they may also drink the water. He went alone in search of the cave and he found it; it was very close. And he was immensely happy.


As he stepped down towards the water, and just as he was going to take the water into his cupped hands, a crow sitting on the rock said, "Wait! Just a minute, wait!"


He looked at the crow. He could not believe his eyes -- that a crow can speak. But the crow said, "Don't be surprised. I am no ordinary crow, I have also drunk water from this source and I have become immortal. I don't know how many million years have passed. Just I wanted to say to you that before you drink the water, think twice, because I was a fool to drink the water.


"Now I want to die. I am tired -- tired of existence, tired of its meaninglessness, but I cannot even commit suicide. There is no way to die. I have tried everything. I have drunk every kind of poison; I have allowed poisonous cobras to bite me, but nothing affects me. I have hit my head with stones, but got not even a scratch. Just think of me: I have completely forgotten how many million years... And it is so tiresome. And now I know that I cannot die, all joy of living has disappeared. Life has become a burden to me. So I wanted to tell you my story. Now if you think still to become immortal, you can drink the water."


He had taken the water in his hands; he dropped the water. He thought, "What the crow is saying makes sense. One wants to rest, and there comes a time when one wants to die too."


God has been living from eternity and He created this mess of a world, where everything is wrong. And there seems to be no possibility of any improvement. The pope said... HE SUFFOCATED THROUGH EXCESSIVE SELF-PITY.


BOTH THE SORCERER AND THE OLD POPE ARE INVITED TO GO TO ZARATHUSTRA'S CAVE. NEXT ZARATHUSTRA FINDS HIMSELF FACE TO FACE WITH 'THE UGLIEST MAN' -- THE MAN WHO KILLED GOD. THIS MAN IS ON HIS WAY TO ZARATHUSTRA, FINDING IN HIM HIS LAST REFUGE. HE EXPLAINS WHY GOD HAD TO DIE -- HE SAW TOO MUCH ABOUT MAN. He knew too much about man. For Him, man was almost transparent. You could not hide anything from Him.


HIS PITY KNEW NO SHAME -- SO THAT FINALLY THE UGLIEST MAN REALIZED THAT EITHER HE HIMSELF WOULD DIE OF SHAME OR TAKE REVENGE ON GOD. 'MAN,' HE EXPLAINED TO ZARATHUSTRA, 'COULD NOT ENDURE SUCH A WITNESS SHOULD LIVE. God knows too much about man and such a witness should not be allowed to live. That's why I killed him. He is also coming to Zarathustra to be declared the superman. A man who killed God is no ordinary man; although Zarathustra sees him as 'the ugliest man.'
<p class="sutra">AGAIN, ZARATHUSTRA INDICATES WHERE HIS CAVE IS, AND THE UGLIEST MAN MAKES HIS WAY THERE. THE VOLUNTARY BEGGAR MEETS AND CONVERSES WITH ZARATHUSTRA, AND JOINS THE OTHERS IN HIS CAVE.
ON THIS SAME DAY AT NOONTIDE, ZARATHUSTRA IS PASSING BY A TREE WHERE HE PAUSES TO SLEEP. HE IS FILLED WITH A SENSE OF THE PERFECTION OF THE WORLD, AND WHEN HE ARISES FROM THE BED SOME TIME LATER, HE FEELS AS IF HE IS INTOXICATED.
ZARATHUSTRA MAKES FOR THE DIRECTION OF HIS CAVE. AS HE APPROACHES IT, HE HEARS THE CRY OF DISTRESS -- THE SAME CRY THAT THE OLD PROPHET HAD SAID CAME FROM 'THE HIGHER MAN'. ZARATHUSTRA HURRIES FORWARD TO SEE ALL HIS VISITORS ASSEMBLED THERE -- THE KINGS, THE CONSCIENTIOUS MAN OF SPIRIT, THE SORCERER, THE OLD POPE, AND SO ON: FOR THEY ARE THE 'HIGHER MEN.'</p>


But the higher man is not the superman. The higher man, up to now, has been the ugliest man. What are your kings except great robbers, murderers? What are your so-called miracle men except sorcerers, magicians, tricking innocent humanity?


I know one man -- he is now in Bangladesh. He used to live in Calcutta, and he was very famous as "Bengali Baba." As we met many times he became very familiar with me and very friendly. One night we were sleeping in the same room. I asked him, "People talk about your miracles; they worship you almost like a god. Would you be, at least once in your life, truthful to me. What are those miracles? -- because I don't believe in any miracle. Either the whole existence is a miracle or there are no miracles."


He said, "With you I cannot speak anything untrue. I love you and I respect you. I have never done any miracle, but I have managed things."


And he told me the story of how he became famous: his first miracle. On the station of Howrah, that is the second station of Calcutta, he is sitting in a first-class compartment and his ticket collector comes and he asks him about his ticket. He is wearing a black robe -- there is a sect of Sufis who use black robes. He said to the ticket checker, "It seems you are new here. One should not ask such stupid things from a holy man."
The ticket collector could not believe it.


He said, "Whether you are holy or not, I have no concern about it; my duty is to find the ticket. If you have the ticket, show me the ticket; otherwise get out of the train."


He said, "I never travel with any ticket, and you are the first idiot who is getting into trouble. And I will not get out of the train unless you push me out." So the ticket checker pushed him out of the train, and he stood there, with his stick touching the train. And the driver tried everything and the conductor was waving the way, and the whistles were going on, but the train did not move.


The engineer cannot find any fault in the engine; the driver cannot find any fault. And all the passengers in the train and on the platform, waiting for other trains, gather around Baba. And he is standing with closed eyes. Soon the crowd becomes aware that Baba has been insulted. And he has his agents in the crowd, who say that to insult Baba is to take a risk. The train cannot move unless the ticket checker touches his feet, brings a coconut, five rupees, some sweets as a present, and asks for forgiveness; otherwise there is no possibility.


The whole crowd of passengers becomes angry at the ticket checker. The stationmaster comes running to Baba and asks, "Please, let the train go." But Baba says, "Where is that idiot who pushed me out? He will have to touch my feet. It is not a question of me; he has insulted the holy spirit. He has to bring the fruits and a coconut and sweets and five rupees, and touch my feet, and take me inside the train, just as he has pushed me out."


The engineer, the driver, everybody forces the ticket checker, "People have to reach to catch other trains; they have their connections. Already we are getting late. Somebody has to go to the court, and why did you do it? It is well known that this Sufi travels without a ticket." The man says, "I have done only my duty. And this is strange: everybody is forcing me to do something absolutely illegal."


But the crowd becomes rowdy and there is a danger that they may even start beating the ticket collector, so he brings all those things, reluctantly puts them at Baba's feet, touches his feet, takes him inside the train, and as he sits in the train the train moves. And that was his first miracle. He became known all over Bengal as Bengali Baba.
I said, "How did you manage it?"


He said, "It was very simple. I had to bribe two persons: the ticket checker and the driver. Just twenty-five rupees to each. That explains the whole thing. And I had two or three of my disciples in the crowd, making the problem hotter and hotter."


He said, "All miracles are managed. And I know many miracle men in this country. They are nothing but sorcerers, magicians." They should have been on the streets, because I have seen on the streets better magicians, doing better miracles. But these people have become great babas, spiritual leaders.


The kings, through their brutal violence, are in power by killing, murdering, burning living people, by invading territories which do not belong to them. They make our history. Our history is nothing but the history of murderers. But once you call them great emperors -- Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Nadir Shah, Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon Bonaparte -- you forget completely that these are the greatest criminals of the world, and you are teaching your children about these great criminals. Your whole history is bunk.


And then there are your so-called holier-than-thou people. Their holiness has nothing to do with spiritual experiences; their holiness has something to do with managed miracles. They are good entertainers and they should be paid for it, but not worshiped. They are not the superman of Zarathustra. They are not even higher men.


And the pope who says that he was very intimate with God is a liar. Nobody has been intimate with God, because God does not exist. Zarathustra says God is dead not because God existed and now he is dead; he is only speaking in symbolic language. He is saying that the concept of God is dead; now it is meaningless. But in fact there has never been any God; there has never been any creator.


Creation is enough unto itself. It is a self-propelling energy. Its source is not outside it; its source of life is inside it. Hence I agree with Zarathustra when he says that the superman will have a quality of godliness; he will not be a god.


And this has been my approach: the whole existence has the quality of godliness. God is not a person sitting on a throne; just the very idea is so absurd and ridiculous. Somebody sitting on a throne from eternity to eternity is bound to commit suicide! What will he do there?


And nobody bothers about from where he came in the first place. Who was his father and who was his mother? He is really the only orphan in the world. There are many orphans -- their mother may have died, their father may have died, or they may have abandoned the child -- but they have come from a mother's womb. God is the only perfect orphan.Mother Teresa should look after him, because that poor fellow has no mother, no father, and since eternity he has hung above the clouds on a golden throne. The very idea is childish -- good for children who love fairy tales, but not for mature and intelligent human beings.


Zarathustra says, "These people are claiming that they are the higher men." They are lower than the ordinary men. But certainly they had power; they were cunning, crude, and they managed to rule portions of humanity -- the emperor of China is a direct descendant of God. And all these people have nothing which can be called higher; it can only be called lower. They are more animalistic, more lustful for power, for money, for women. And still we continue to think of them as higher men.


Zarathustra wants to remind you that your higher men have nothing to do with his concept of the superman. The superman will not be a continuity with you. The superman can come into existence only if you disappear. Man has to be only a seed; he contains the superman as a potential in him, but the seed has to die in the soil. Only then, green sprouts will start growing; and soon there will be a beautiful tree with foliage, fresh and young, with flowers and fragrance. But the seed has to disappear. Man is the seed of the superman.
What will be the qualities of a superman?


His basic quality will be superconsciousness. His actions will be out of consciousness, not out of any moral code. He will respond to every situation spontaneously -- not according to any scripture, but according to his own consciousness. He will be absolutely free from all fictions of God, heaven and hell. Freedom will be his very heartbeat, and consciousness will give him a life of grace, beauty, blissfulness, benediction.


He will be overflowing with love. He will be immensely powerful, but not over others.
His power will be his love.
His power will be his treasure that he can share.
His power will be his constant sharing.


He cannot reduce anybody into a beggar; he cannot take away the dignity of anybody. He will bestow love, consciousness as a friend, as a fellow traveler, but he will never, even in his dreams, think himself higher or holier.
He will be utterly innocent.


In his innocence he will be holy, and in his love he will be rich, and in his superconsciousness he will have the quality of godliness.
<p class="sutra">... THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA</p>


Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.
			

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