---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Secret"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "SECRET"
dategiven: "23 October 1978 am"
place: " in Buddha Hall"
chapternum: "Chapter #13"
chaptertitle: "The Mirror Goes On Reflecting"
acode: "7810230"
shorttitle: "SECRET13"
audio: "Yes"
video: "No"
esttime: "105mins"
displaytitle: "The Secret: Chapter #13"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
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<p class="sutra">THEY ASKED FIRMANI, "HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT SUCH AND SUCH A MAN WAS VICIOUS? YOU REFUSED TO CONVERSE DEEPLY WITH HIM WHILE HE WAS HERE, ALTHOUGH EVERYONE SAID THAT HE WAS A SAINT."
FIRMANI SAID, "IF A STRANGER COMES TO ORDINARY MEN AND SAYS, 'LIGHT IS MADE BY WEAVING. I WOVE ALL THE LIGHT THERE IS AND WAS,' WHAT DO THEY REALIZE?"
THEY ANSWERED, " THEY REALIZE THAT WHAT HE SAYS IS UNTRUE."
FIRMANI SAID, "SIMILARLY, WHEN A VICIOUS INDIVIDUAL ENTERS THE COMPANY OF A MAN OF KNOWLEDGE, IT IS NOT DIFFICULT TO JUDGE HIS CONDITION, REGARDLESS OF WHAT PEOPLE IMAGINE OR SAY."</p>


TRUTH NEEDS NO PROOF, IT SIMPLY IS. It cannot be proved or disproved. It is luminous, it is radiant. Its presence is immediately felt, but only by those who have the heart to feel. The sun rises every day in the morning, but not for the blind people. For them the night continues; their night is forever and forever. Not that the sun does not rise for them; it rises for all. One needs eyes to see it. Even though it is there, if eyes are missing, it is as if it is not there. Even the greatest music cannot be heard by the deaf.


So is truth: if you have the eyes to see you will be able to see it immediately. It is direct. No other medium is needed. If you have ears to hear you will hear it in your very heart. It is the still, small voice within. No other argument will ever be needed. Arguments are needed for the blind; proofs are demanded by the deaf.


So when you come to a man of wisdom, he simply knows where you are, who you are, what you are. Not that he thinks about you; there is no thinking involved. Not that he looks into you; nothing of the sort. He is a mirror: you are simply reflected. There is no thinking, but only reflection.


Being in the presence of a man of wisdom is to be utterly nude. You cannot hide yourself, there is no way. You cannot deceive. Even if you try, it is pointless, because the mirror will reflect the reality. The mirror can only reflect the reality. The unreal you cannot be reflected. You can pretend, but the mirror will not reflect your pretensions. It will reflect only that which is the case.


When you are in the presence of a man of wisdom, you are reflected not only as you are, but also as you have been, and also as you will be. Your present moment contains your whole past and your whole future. Standing before an enlightened man, you are known from the very beginning to the end. Nothing remains hidden.


That's the fear that people feel in coming. They avoid Buddhas. They cannot cheat and deceive Buddhas; they are able to cheat the whole world. They are not afraid of the world, because there they are confronting blind people, but coming to a Buddha or a Christ or a Krishna, great fear grips their hearts. There will be no way to pretend; all their hypocrisies will fall. They will be utterly nude.


Jesus knew Judas even before he had betrayed him. He must have known him from the very first day he had come to him; there is no other possibility. Buddha knew Devadatta before he betrayed him; he must have known from the very beginning. Still, the compassion of a Master allows a Judas, a Devadatta, to remain with him. The mirror goes on reflecting, but the compassion is far greater than the reflection of the mirror. And even if Judas is going to betray Jesus, it doesn't matter. Jesus is surrendered; whatsoever is going to happen will be good. If God wills it so, it has to be good: that is his trust. Judas also is part of the divine, so the drama has to be played. He cooperates, in every way he cooperates -- even with Judas.


Millions of people avoid Jesus, Buddha, Krishna. They have a subtle intuitive understanding that in the ordinary world they are able to manage a certain image of themselves. That image will be shattered. They don't want to come to the mirror to see their real faces.


And when you face a Master, he knows more about you than you have ever known about yourself, because whatsoever you know about yourself is very partial, just a fragment of your reality, the tip of the iceberg. Just a small part of your mind that has become conscious, that is one-tenth of it. Nine-tenths of your being is in deep darkness; you know nothing of it.


The Master will know your unconscious too. The Master will know not only your thoughts, but your dreams too. The Master will know not only your ideas about yourself, your illusions about yourself; he will also know your other side, the shadow of your being, which you have denied, which you have thrown into the basement of your being, which you don't recognize at all as your being. He will know you in your totality, he will know you in your total neurosis. And he has to work with that totality -- not with the you that you know you are, but the you as you are.


Hence many times the disciple finds it very difficult, because he thinks his problem is different, and the Master goes on prescribing a different kind of medicine. The disciple thinks, "This is not my problem," and the Master goes on insisting on a certain medicine which looks absolutely absurd, irrelevant to the problem that you think you have.


Great trust is needed; only then can the Master function on you. When you see that "The medicine doesn't seem to relate to my disease at all," even then the trust is needed -- because you don't know what your real diseases are. You know only the superficial things, and they may not be your real problems at all. They may be substitute problems, they may be tricks of the mind to protect the real problem.


Mind plays a trick: if there is a problem and the mind does not want to solve it -- because to solve it will be suicidal to the mind -- then the mind gives you a false problem. You become occupied with the false problem, and the real problem goes on growing like cancer within you and you remain occupied with the false problem. This is not a problem, just a trick of the mind.


Th. Master will not prescribe any medicine for your false problems. He will prescribe medicine for your real problem. You may be aware of it, you may not be aware of it; more is the possibility that you will not be aware of it. People are not aware of what they have been doing with themselves, what they are doing with themselves. People are moving, working, doing things, almost unconsciously, like machines. Robot-like is your existence.


This robot-like existence has to be changed, utterly changed. You have to be made a conscious being. All the devices that have been used in the past and are being used now are nothing but a single device manifesting in different ways, and the single device is: how to destroy the idea that you are. You are not, God is. ONLY God is.


This is the fundamental of Sufism: you are not, God is. And this is our fundamental illusion: "I am, and where is God? I don't see any God anywhere."


If you are, you will never see God. The very existence of the ego prevents seeing. The ego functions like a blindfold on your eyes. Then the sun rises, but you remain in darkness. The music goes on and on, but you don't hear a thing. You live in the ocean of love, but your heart is non-functioning, nothing is felt. No prayer arises, no gratitude, no ecstasy. You remain uprooted. You remain like a dying tree with no roots in the earth. You remain impotent; no fruits come to you, no flowers bloom. And then of course life looks like a long, long drawn-out tragedy, and one starts wondering why one is alive at all; the whole thing seems to be so ridiculously meaningless.


That's what is being felt all over the world by all kinds of thinkers today: that life is meaningless, that man seems to be just an accident, that consciousness is just as accidental as any rock. There seems to be no meaning, no relevance. Not that there is no meaning, but man, as he is today, cannot see meaning. Meaning is another name for God.


The ego will not allow you to see the reality because it creates a separation between you and the reality. The ego says, "I am separate," and you are not. The moment the tree thinks it is separate from the earth, it starts dying. It becomes suicidal, its whole being is poisoned. The tree has to know that it exists only as an extension of the earth, it is not separate. Then the shape from the earth rises in the tree. Then it is nourished, fed by the earth. Then it is nourished by the sun and the moon and the stars, and then the tree is at home; it is not an outsider.


Man feels very much like an outsider, as if he does not belong anywhere. Nobody else is responsible except you, and the very idea that "I am". There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who think "I am", and those who think "I am not". Those who think "I am" are the irreligious people, and those who know "I am not" are the religious people.


There is a great statement of Buddha. He says, "Samadhi is enlightenment, but before it is enlightenment it is an extinguishing. " That is tremendously meaningful, significant -- before you can become light, before you can become enlightened, you will have to extinguish completely the flame of the ego. First you will have to fall into deep darkness, and then that very darkness becomes light. This is the miracle of the inward journey.


One falls into darkness. Because right now you have a small light of the ego to help you to see, to grope, to find your way -- just a small light of the ego -- and you are afraid to extinguish it because then you will fall into utter darkness. And that is true: you will fall for a time, while all light will disappear from your life. That's what Christian mystics call "the dark night of the soul". The ordinary light that ego gives you is not much, but still it gives you a little light. It is like a glowworm: it does not lead you anywhere, but at least, on a dark night, even a glowworm is quite a hope that light exists. And when you extinguish it, you fall into utter darkness.


That is the beginning of the journey. That is daring: to lose that which you have for that which may be, may not be. And for the unknown, no guarantee can be given. Only in deep trust with a Master can you move into this darkness, the womb of darkness; and out of this darkness arises a new light. In fact, the darkness itself proves to be a new light. Just because you are not acquainted with it, in the beginning it looks like darkness. As you become acquainted, attuned, as your eyes become accustomed to the new darkness, you are surprised -- the darkness is turning into light, infinite light.


Buddha is right: first you have to go through an extinguishing, and then that very extinguishing becomes enlightenment.


That's what Sufis say. Their words are fana and baka: fana means "extinguishing", baka means "enlightenment". Fana means "falling into nothingness, disappearing as an ego"; baka means "arising again not as an ego, but as divine, as God himself". Ana el haq, "I am the truth" -- there is no "I" in that experience; only truth is felt.


And whenever there is a man of truth -- who has dropped his ego, has dropped his mind, whose thoughts have disappeared -- he becomes a mirror. To be with a mirror, to be in front of a mirror, is to be a disciple.


It really needs courage to be with a Master, because you will be known in your nudity. One does not want to be known in one's nudity. One wants to hide, one wants to pretend, one wants to show oneself as one is not; that's why we wear masks. And everybody is carrying hundreds of masks because each moment you need different masks. Each moment you encounter a new situation; a new mask is needed.


Watch.... When you are talking to your servant you have a different face -- next time be aware -- when you are talking to your boss you again have a different face. If you are talking to a person with whom you have nothing to do, who is not going to fulfill any of your desires, watch your face. And the next day you may be talking to the same person, but now you are in need and he can be of help; watch your face. When you need somebody's help you smile, you are very polite, you are very seductive. When you don't need somebody's help you remain unconcerned, cold, no smile; you don't even show formality, you simply ignore the person. The same person becomes powerful one day, and see how you start wagging your tail. If the person is no more in power, again you don't take any note of him. Just go on watching yourself.


That is the meaning when I say to you, let your relationship be a mirror. Each relationship has to be a mirror. For the seeker, each relationship has to show something: how you are behaving, what you are -doing. Are you wearing masks continuously? Is there a moment in your life when you drop all masks and you are simply yourself? Is there? If there is not, then there is no moment of love in your life. Even with your beloved you go on playing games. Even with your children you go on playing games.


You say, "I love this woman, I am ready to die for her," but even with her you are not true, not authentically true, not as you are. Watch.


Love means a relationship when one need not wear any mask. And if you are wearing a mask even with your beloved, your lover, then you don't know what love is.


And to be with a Master certainly means that you will not wear any mask. In the first place it is meaningless because the Master can know you as you are behind the mask. His eyes are penetrating. He goes to the very core of your being; he catches you there. He is not concerned with your circumference, he is only concerned with your center.


Sometimes it happens that a person comes with a problem and I don't answer him, because that is not his problem. He believes that is his problem. I answer some other problem that he has not asked. Sometimes -- you must be watching -- when I am answering your questions, I turn and change the question in such a way that it becomes the real question, the one that you have not asked. I give you answers which you were not expecting. You feel a little bewildered too; you start thinking maybe I have not understood your question. I have understood it, but I am talking to your core, not to your circumference.


And sometimes I answer A, but my answer is for B, because many times it happens that when I am answering directly to B he will not listen. He protects, he is not available. When I am answering A, B is perfectly there, vulnerable. It is not his problem, I am answering somebody else; he need not defend, he need not have his armor ready, he need not have a shelter. He is sitting there silently; it is none of his concern, so he remains more vulnerable.


And this has been my observation: that listening to others' questions being answered, you understand more than when your own question is answered, because when your own question is answered you become too tense -- this is your question. I may hit you. When I am hitting somebody else, you can enjoy. You can laugh, but you are unaware that in your very laughter, when you open your mouth, I have entered in. In your very laughter, I have reached you, because the moment of laughing is the most vulnerable moment, the most undefended moment.


Before a mirror, each act or absence of act, each word or absence of word, everything is significant, everything relates something about you. How you come to see the Master, how you sit before him, how you talk, how you react and respond -- each and everything is significant, because these are all languages. You are not aware of these things, but the mirror reflects.


Different people approach me differently, totally differently. Somebody comes crying in joy, utterly open, ready to be taken on any journey, ready to go on any adventure, whatsoever the risk. Somebody comes in a very defending way, protected, hard, with an armor all around, watching, on guard: he will go with me only if his logical mind is convinced. But then he cannot go long, because the logical mind has limitations and existence has no limitations. The logical mind goes only so far, and then it stops; it has boundaries.


Unless you come to me through love, you will not be able to go to the ultimate end. Only love can take you to the ultimate end, because love knows no boundaries.


Somebody comes in love; then my mirror reflects the love, and I know that one has come home. Somebody comes with logical, intellectual paraphernalia, protected, on guard, afraid, frightened, scared, only ready to go as far as his mind allows. He is not going with me, he is going with his mind. He is not a disciple. Even if he takes sannyas, he will not be a disciple. Even his sannyas will be his conclusion.


Just the other day somebody has asked, "If I take sannyas, will it be the beginning of a new life?" Sannyas is the beginning of new life; sannyas is the new life. It is not that first you take sannyas and then sannyas prepares you to begin another life, no. Sannyas is the beginning of another life. You have lived with doubt, now you start living with trust. You have lived with logic, now you start living with love. You have lived with your own mind, with your own ego, now you live with surrender. Sannyas is the new life. Now if somebody takes sannyas in order to start a new life, he has missed the whole point; the new life will never start. If sannyas itself does not become the new life, then sannyas will never start a new life. You will remain the same.


Somebody else has asked, "You say, Osho, 'Don't think of the future.' Then what about sannyas? I am thinking about sannyas; is it not thinking about the future?" Thinking about sannyas is thinking about the future, but thinking about sannyas, you will never take sannyas. Thinking has nothing to do with sannyas.


Sannyas is a jump. It is not that you think, ponder over it, argue for and against, and then finally you come to a conclusion. If this is the way of your taking sannyas, you have missed it already! Before taking it, you have missed it.


Sannyas is a jump, a quantum leap. It is not that "tomorrow" you will take sannyas. A moment arrives when the decision takes grip of your heart. Not that you have pondered over it in a very syllogistic way, logically, rationally, thought about what will happen and what will not happen, and what are the benefits and what are the harms, and what are the problems that you will have to face. Sannyas is not a calculated step. If it is, then you are thinking of the future, and it has nothing to do with sannyas.
Sannyas is a meditative jump, not a calculated step.


It is a mad jump. It is like falling in love: it happens "at first sight".


The moment real sannyasins come here -- they are here; many of you are real sannyasins -- it has happened as a love affair. They have not thought about it, they have not prepared for the future. They have taken the jump, and then they will see whatsoever happens. They could not resist; there was no way to resist. They simply fell into it, they found themselves falling into it.


When you come to a Master be relaxed, be utterly open, be naked, don't hide -- because anyway nothing is going to remain hidden, so why bother? Why not show a gesture of trust? The Master is going to know. If he is worth anything, he is going to know. Then why hide? Then why create unnecessary problems and wastage of time? -- because, sometimes it happens that you say something :I have to listen to it just to be polite to you, just not to offend you unnecessarily, at least not in the beginning. Once you are trapped, it is another matter. But just when you are falling into the trap, I have to say yes to many foolish things, many false things. This is a wastage of time. Things can be settled more easily and your growth can happen very fast, but you delay it.


With the Master, don't be very verbal, because words, coming from an unenlightened mind, don't communicate. Rather, they camouflage. When you talk too much about something, that means you are trying to hide something. You go round and round, you create a great storm of words. You think you are trying to communicate. No, you are trying to hide behind the wall of the words; you are trying to hide something that you don't want to say, that you are afraid may be known if you remain silent, may surface if you are silent.


Watch yourself. When you are talking to people, what are you really doing? Are you communicating? Language is made to communicate, but is not used that way. Language is used to deceive, not to communicate. People are very much afraid of being silent, because if they are silent, then their faces, their very presence may say something which they don't want to say. They feel better to go on talking so that both persons remain engaged in words and the realities remain behind the words, hidden.
Be very telegraphic when you are with a Master.


Dr. Abernathy, the famous Scottish surgeon, Was a man of few words, but once he met his match in a woman. She called at his office in Edinburgh one day and showed a hand, badly inflamed and swollen. The following dialogue, opened by the doctor, took place:
"Burn?"
"Bruise. "
"Poultice. "
The next day the woman called again, and the dialogue was as follows:
"Better?"
'Worse."
"More poultice."
Two days later the woman made another call, and this conversation ensued:
"Better?"
"Well. Fee?"
"Nothing," exclaimed the doctor. "Most sensible woman I ever met! "


Be telegraphic. Say only that which is really worth saying. Don't ask unnecessary questions -- time is precious -- ask only the very necessary. Ask only that which makes a difference in your life.


Watch each gesture, because all is reflected. The way you walk, the way you sit, the way you look at the Master, each small gesture is indicative. It is all language. Your body has its own language.


Sometimes I see a person walking towards me very arrogantly, and the words that he speaks are very polite. The way he walks is arrogant, and that is far more true. He is not aware of that. The words that he uses are very polite, false. They are not true, because they are not in tune with his body. The body is less deceptive than the mind. You say one thing through your mouth, and your eyes are saying a totally different thing, a different story; and your eyes are more true than your words.


You say something, but the tone of saying is more relevant, more expressive than the actual words used. You may say yes in such a tone that it means no. You can say no in such a loving way that it means yes. Remember it: words are not so significant.
I have heard...


Mark Twain used to infuriate his wife with his habitual foul language. One day she hit on an idea: she would cure him with a taste of his own medicine. Bursting into his study, she said, "Why the hell do you have to leave your goddamn cigar butts all over the place?"


There was a pause, then Twain looked up from his writing and said, "My dear, you may have learned the words, but you will never get the tune."

... And the tune is the real thing.


It happens almost every day -- somebody says yes, but his whole being is saying no. Whom to believe? His words, or his whole being? And sometimes the opposite case also happens: somebody says, "No Osho, no," but his whole being is saying yes. Even the way he says no is so full of love that it doesn't mean no, it doesn't mean a negative. And sometimes you say, "Yes, okay, yes," but your yes is dull, dead; it really means no. You did not want to say yes, you are saying it under pressure. It is meaningless.


And my mirror goes on reflecting your totality, and I have to decide from there.


The conductor of a freight train sitting in the cupola of his caboose one day observed a tramp crawling up over a box car.


"Say," he said to the brakeman down in the caboose, "there is a bum down there on the sixth car. Run down and pitch him off. "


The brakeman crawled out over the caboose and started running down over the tops of the cars. When he reached the car the tramp was on, he yelled, "Look here, bo, I have come down here to kick you off, and I don't want no argument."


The tramp pulled a big forty-four out of an arm holster, saying, "That's all right, buddy. I got a little friend here that does all my arguing for me."
This was not so good, so the brakie returned to his caboose.
"Well, did you throw him off?" asked the conductor.


"No. He turned out to be a cousin of mine," said the brakeman, "and a man can't kick his own relatives off the train."
"Then I will go down and throw him off," said the conductor viciously.


He ran down over the cars and in a few minutes he came back and took his place in the cupola.
"Well, did you throw him off?" asked the brakeman.
"No. He turned out to be a cousin of mine too."


The man who has passed through all the states that you are passing through and has reached to the ultimate cannot be deceived. Whatsoever you say will be understood in its reality, not in the sense that you are saying it. Now what will this brakeman understand when the conductor says, "No, he turned out to be a cousin of mine too"?


The enlightened person is one who has lived through all kinds of states that you are passing through. He is fully aware of all possible human states. He has passed through all the agonies that you are passing. He has been as deceptive as you are, he has been lying to the world as much as you do, he has been as much of a pretender, as much of a hypocrite as you are. He knows all. He has lived all possible human existences; after thousands of lives he has arrived. Nothing is unknown to him.


So whenever you face an enlightened person, he starts reading you like a book. Your whole biography is written all over you -- in your body, in your mind, in your consciousness, in your unconsciousness. Your whole biography is available, and in a single instant it is available! You are mirrored in toto.

The story:
<p class="sutra">THEY ASKED FIRMANI, "HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT SUCH AND SUCH A MAN WAS VICIOUS? YOU REFUSED TO CONVERSE DEEPLY WITH HIM WHILE HE WAS HERE, ALTHOUGH EVERYONE SAID HE WAS A SAINT. "</p>


Firmani is a famous Sufi mystic, a great Master; his disciples are asking him. Somebody must have come, a well-known saint, very much respected by people, worshiped. He had come to see Firmani, but Firmani did not pay much attention to him, did not bother even to commune with him deeply. The disciples are puzzled.
<p class="sutra">THEY ASKED FIRMANI, "HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT SUCH AND SUCH A MAN WAS VICIOUS?..."</p>


There is no method for knowing. The Master simply reflects, just like the mirror. What is the method of the mirror for knowing your face? There is no method; the mirror reflects. If there is no dust on the mirror, it reflects perfectly. If there is too much dust, a layer of dust, then it doesn't reflect at all.


A Master is a consciousness without any dust, a consciousness without any content, a consciousness without thought process.


Thoughts are the layer of dust on your mind. It is because of thoughts, too many thoughts, that your reflections are not true to reality. They interfere, they continuously distort, they manipulate. They never allow the thing to be reflected as it is. Once thoughts have been dropped, once you have come to a point when your mind is contentless, you just are, no thought moving in you, then nothing is distorted. Then the lake of your consciousness is absolutely still, no waves, not even ripples. Then the moon and the stars -- all are reflected in their great splendor. The lake becomes a mirror.


The difference between an enlightened person and an unenlightened person is only of this: the unenlightened person has a mirror in himself, but the mirror is behind layers and layers of dust, thoughts, desires, imaginations, memories, words, so nothing reaches to the mirror. And even if something at all reaches, it is not the same; all those layers distort it.


Just watch yourself, just a simple thing: if somebody says, "This man is the president of India," and immediately -- he may be, he may not be, that is irrelevant -- but somebody says, "This man is the president of India," and watch yourself, how you change immediately. Just the words "president of India"... and the man is the same!


Once it happened: A very beautiful man, Mahatma Bhagwandeen, came to the town where I used to live. He was making a small place for orphans, an orphanage. He wanted to collect some money, so he went to collect. The whole day the old man went from one shop to another shop, from one house to another house. He was a very simple man. All that he collected was not more than twelve rupees; he collected the whole day.


When he came back, very tired, I asked, "Where have you been the whole day?" He said, "I have been collecting, but it seems impossible -- in one day only twelve rupees. How long will it take for me?" I said, "You wait. This is not the way to collect. " He said, "Then how should it be done?" I said, "You simply wait."


The next day I gave his picture to be published in the newspapers, saying that a great saint had come. Phone calls started coming: "We want to come for darshan." I said, "It is very difficult. The saint rarely gives darshan, but I will see." And many people came, but I didn't allow them to see him. In two, three days, it was the talk of the town: "A great saint has come, and he is not seeing anybody. "


Then I asked a few of my friends, "You go with him," so twenty or twenty-five persons followed him, there was a procession in the town. And wherever he went, the same places, and just three or four days before, the person had given him only four annas; now he gave him five hundred rupees. The same man -- but now he was a great saint, followed by twenty-five followers, with pictures in the newspaper, and a very rare man because he never gave audience to people. That day he collected near about eight thousand rupees. There is a lot of difference between twelve rupees and eight thousand rupees.


People's minds live through words. You live through words. Somebody says, "Watch! This man is a thief," and immediately you are totally different towards the man, you are no longer the same. Just a minute before you were so loving, kind, helpful; now you are withdrawn. Just a small word has distorted the whole thing. He may not be a thief. He may not be a saint.


But you live through words, you don't see reality as it is. If a painting is hanging somewhere, you may not see it. You may pass through the room every day and you may not see, and one day somebody says, "This is a Picasso," and then just you see how your eyes are shining and you are standing there in front of the painting, mystified! "Picasso? A million dollar painting?" And it may be nothing. It may be just some madman who has painted it, but the idea that it is Picasso's painting is enough -- and it starts looking beautiful, it starts looking like something miraculous. That's how you are living.


You don't reflect reality. Your mind continuously distorts it. Whatsoever you have been told and taught and conditoned for, your mind functions in the service of it.
<p class="sutra">THEY ASKED FIRMANI, "HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT SUCH AND SUCH A MAN WAS VICIOUS?..."</p>


There is no question of how. The Master simply reflects. He has no "method" to know; methods are needed by blind people. All that the Master is is enough; he need not do anything else. You come before him, and he knows. Knowing and your coming before him are simultaneous, not even a single instant is lost.


The disreputable-looking panhandler picked out an elderly gentleman of most benevolent aspect and made a plea for a small financial contribution. When he had finished his narrative of misery and woe, the elderly gentleman replied benignantly:
"My good friend, I have no money, but I can give you some good advice."
The tramp spat contemptuously, and uttered an oath of disgust.


"Well, if you ain't got no money," he said, turning away, "I reckon your advice ain't worth hearing."


Just a moment before, the man was immensely valuable, but now because he has no more money, no money at all, not even his advice is worth hearing; not even that much politeness can the beggar show.


You behave only according to a certain pattern and gestalt of your mind. You behave through your desires. If somebody fulfills your desire or you think can fulfill your desire, he is great.


In India they have a proverb: When in need, one can even call a donkey "father", bapu. When you are in need, then if even the donkey can fulfill your need, you have to call him bapu.


Since Morarji Desai has become the prime minister, people have started calling him bapu! He feels very, very thrilled; he enjoys when somebody calls him bapu. He should remember this proverb. This country has its wisdom in its proverbs. The same people will not take any note of Morarji Desai once he is out of power -- the same people that are calling him bapu, father.


The mind lives through desires. The mind lives through greed, fear, jealousy, ambition. The mind distorts. Because of the motivations, the mind distorts.


The Master is without any motivation. He has nothing to get from you. If the Master is desiring something from you, then he will not be a mirror, remember. If he desires anything, even respect from you, then too he will not be a mirror. If there is even a slight desire of any kind, then there are ripples and there is dust and he will not reflect your true reality. Only the Master who has no desire from you, who is utterly fulfilled -- nothing is left that you can help him fulfill, that is needed, that you can give to him -- can reflect.
And the reflection is simply a happening; there is no method.
<p class="sutra">THEY ASKED FIRMANI, "HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT SUCH AND SUCH A MAN WAS VICIOUS?..."</p>


It is simply known. Virtue is known, vice is known. The humble person reflects in the Master, and the arrogant. It is simply known. There is no need to know, or any effort, any endeavor to know. It just happens.
<p class="sutra">"... YOU REFUSED TO CONVERSE DEEPLY WITH HIM WHILE HE WAS HERE, ALTHOUGH EVERYONE SAID THAT HE WAS A SAINT. "</p>


It doesn't matter what ordinary people say; they are ignorant. In fact, whatsoever they say is bound to be wrong. They are blind people. What do they know about light? Whatsoever they say about light is bound to be wrong. Although the majority consists of the ignorant people and the world is almost ruled by them, but still, whatsoever they say is wrong.


In the world of truth, democracy is not the deciding factor. Truth is not decided by votes; otherwise truth would never win, if it were to be decided by votes.


Truth happens to single individuals, rare individuals. They are always alone. Jesus was alone. Buddha was alone. Only very few people followed them. The mob, the crowd remained against them because whatsoever they were saying was not possible for the mobs to understand. Even to have a glimpse of it was impossible.


Somebody was arguing with George Bernard Shaw -- a Christian -- and he was saying, "Christianity must be right because, look, one fourth of humanity believes in Christianity. How can it be wrong -- so many people believe in it?" And do you know what Bernard Shaw said? He said, "How can it be right if so many people believe in it?" And he has a point there: how can it be right if so many people believe in it?


Jesus was not believed by so many people. He had only twelve followers, real followers, and a hundred or so lay followers, and maybe a thousand or two thousand sympathizers, that's all. When he was crucified, the followers were in such a minority; they simply escaped. They could not protect him. They could not even raise a protest. They were in such a minority that they could not even go and see what was happening to their Master; they were afraid they would be killed themselves. Jesus remained alone.


Truth happens rarely, because very few people gather that much courage for it to happen. And what the masses say is almost always wrong; beware of it. If the masses believe that a certain man is a saint, beware. Every possibility is that he is a pretender. Because the masses believe in him is enough of a proof that he must be wrong. What is the logic behind it? The logic is that he is fulfilling the desires of the masses, and no man of truth can ever fulfill the desires of the masses.


The man of truth has another devotion: his devotion is towards truth. He has to fulfill truth, not the ideas of the masses -- and the ideas of the masses are ideas of blind people about light, ideas about music of those who are deaf, ideas about love of those who have never loved, ideas about God of those who have no notion of what God is. If these people are following somebody, one thing is certain: that man must be fulfilling their idea of saintlihood.


If the masses think that a saint should eat only once in a day, and you eat once in a day, they will worship you as a great man, a saint. All that you need is to fulfill their demand. And this is not very difficult, you can manage it. It needs only a little practice; you can eat only once.


And you will be surprised: the saints who eat only once have very big bellies. It is bound to be so because they eat too much. They eat once, so they have to at least fulfill the desire for eating three times in one time. They eat thrice as much. If the belly goes on becoming bigger and bigger, it is natural.


If you want to see a real picture of a belly you should look at Muktananda's guru, Nityananda. He has the belly, just the belly. The man seems to be unimportant; the head and et cetera are just added to the belly. Nityananda is just belly, and people worship him like a paramahansa, a great saint.


If you eat once you will eat too much because then for twenty-four hours you have to wait, or you will have to eat in the dark, when it is dark and night, and nobody looks at you -- but that is hypocrisy. I have been watching that happening too.


Once a Jaina nun came to see me. I was puzzled because she was not stinking. Jaina nuns stink because they cannot take a bath. That is the idea -- that the saint should not take a bath, because a bath means you are too much attached to the body: "Why this cleanliness?" Hippies should be happy that there has existed a great tradition of saints who never take a bath; but then naturally they stink.


The Jaina monks and nuns are not allowed to brush their teeth -- because that too is a kind of beautifying your face, and they are against the body in every way -- so when they talk... it is really difficult to face them.


This Jaina nun came to see me, and she was sitting close. I was afraid, but I was bewildered also. No smell was coming, and she even talked and there was no smell. I asked, "What is the matter? Be truthful with me! You must be cleaning your teeth. " She said, "Yes, but I have to do it hiding. " She showed me in her bag that Jaina monks and nuns carry -- just all their belongings are in their small bag -- toothpaste and a soap. She showed me; she said, "But these are not to be told to anybody, but to you I can say it. I cannot tolerate that stink. Even if I have to go to hell, I will go. But please don't say it to anybody. "


Now what are the masses doing to their saints? They have a certain demand, and the saint has to fulfill it. Either he becomes a hypocrite, he has to do something else against the demands and hide it.... And what a poor woman: she had not done any great crime, just having toothpaste. But it is a great crime according to the Jainas. And she takes a sponge bath, hiding; with just a wet towel she takes a sponge bath. She cannot go under the shower because her hair will become wet and then people will come to know, and it will be difficult to maintain her image as a nun.


And I asked her, "Then why don't you leave all this nonsense?" She said, "But what else can I do? I became a nun when I was twelve years old. I have never been to any school, college, university; I am absolutely uneducated. If I leave, then who is going to feed me? Now I am worshiped. And then these same people will not be ready to give me even an ordinary cleaning job in their houses. They will be against me, they will persecute me, and I don't have any qualifications to earn my living. And for almost thirty years I have lived as a nun. Every care is being taken of me. Now at the age of forty-three suddenly dropping it and becoming a laborer will be difficult. I have lived in a kind of luxury, I have never worked, so it is better to continue. At least in this life I have to continue in this hypocrisy."


The masses worship people as saints only because they fulfill their demands. And their demands are neurotic, and only stupid people can fulfill their demands. A man of intelligence will never fulfill their demands. He will live in his own way; he will have the guts to live in his own way. Whether you think about him as a saint or not, who cares?


The man of truth is satisfied with his truth. He does not need anything else.


People think in their own way. The masses are ignorant, are stupid, their expectations are ignorant and stupid, but that is natural. The real thing is the people who concede to their demands, who compromise with the masses -- THEM I cannot understand. They are selling their souls.


An old Jewish grandfather was making a tour of Europe with his grandson, and like all tourists, they visited the churches. In this one particular Catholic church, they came upon a painting called "The Christchild in the Manger".


The old man stopped in front of it and after studying it for ten minutes, turned to his grandson and said, "So who is the woman in the picture?"


"My grandfather, that is Mary, the mother of the Christchild," said the grandson.


The old man just nodded and continued to study the picture and finally turned and said, "So who is the man in the picture?"
"My grandfather, that is Joseph, her husband."


Again the old man nodded and studied the picture and finally said, " So how come a child has to be born in a barn?"


"Well, grandfather, you know the story. Mary and Joseph came to the inn so poor that they had no money and they could only afford the barn. "


The old man nodded and turned to his grandson and said, "Tell me, is not that just like our people? Money for a hotel room they don't have, but money for a family picture they manage."


People think in their own way. They can't think beyond their own minds. Their minds are conditioned for generations. The disciples of Firmani said, "You refused to converse deeply with him while he was here, although everyone said he was a saint." That doesn't matter. Even if the whole world says he is a saint, the man who knows will not agree. He will agree only if his mirror reflects and his mirror says that he is a saint; there is no other way.


People come to me -- good people, sincere people, honest people -- and they say, "Why are you against Mahatma Gandhi, because the whole world thinks that he is a saint?" I say, "The whole world may think he is a saint, but my mirror doesn't reflect that way -- and I have to be true to my mirror." Even if I have to say things which go against the whole world-mind, I have to say them. My commitment is to my own consciousness, my commitment is not to anybody else. What others say is irrelevant.


And the people who follow Mahatma Gandhi go on comparing him with Jesus, which is nonsense. And what is the reason they compare? The reason is because Jesus was crucified and Gandhi was also shot -- but there have been many people who have been shot. Kennedy was shot; he does not become a Jesus just because he was shot. And the difference is so vast. Jesus was crucified by the society; only a few people were for him, and the major part of his people were against him. Gandhi was shot by a single madman, and the whole society was for him. This is such a difference, so clear. Jesus was crucified by the society; only a few people, rare people, were with him. Just the opposite is the case with Mahatma Gandhi -- the whole society was for him, only one madman shot him.


Whenever there is a man of truth, the society is never with him, has never been with him. It cannot be. The society is with you only if you are very politically cunning, clever, if you somehow go on adjusting yourself with the society. That's what Mahatma Gandhi was doing his whole life -- trying to adjust himself with the society. Whatsoever were the demands of the society, he would adjust.


The man of truth is always in rebellion. He is always maladjusted. The society is against him.


And it doesn't matter whether one fool is with you or one thousand fools are with you or one million fools are with you. Number does not matter. Number makes no qualitative change.


Two Hebrews went into business together in a small town; one went to New York to buy the goods, and the other stayed at home. The one who stayed at home got the bills a few days after his partner was in New York. The bills were as follows:
24 doz. Neck Wear, and 8 doz. Ditto;
24 Suits and 4 Ditto;
18 Pants and 12 Ditto.


This Ditto bothered the one at home, so he telegraphed his partner to come immediately. When his partner arrived he showed him the bills and said, "Vat for do you mean you shall buy ditto for a clothing business?"
"I buy ditto?" asked the other.
"Yes, here's de bills."
"Vell, dey stuck me in New York."


So he returned to New York and learned that ditto meant "the same". He came back home, and his partner, meeting him at the depot, said, "Vell, Abie, did you find out vat ditto is?"


"Yes," said Abie, "I find out vat a ditto is: I am a damn fool, and you are ditto."

One fool or one thousand fools, it makes no difference.


The Master is not concerned with the numbers. He is not concerned at all with the quantity, but only with the quality. Firmani had refused to talk with this so-called saint.
<p class="sutra">FIRMANI SAID, "IF A STRANGER COMES TO ORDINARY MEN AND SAYS, 'LIGHT IS MADE BY WEAVING. I WOVE ALL THE LIGHT THAT IS AND WAS,' WHAT DO THEY REALIZE?"
THEY ANSWERED, "THEY REALIZE THAT WHAT HE SAYS IS UNTRUE.
FIRMANI SAID, "SIMILARLY, WHEN A VICIOUS INDIVIDUAL ENTERS THE COMPANY OF A MAN OF KNOWLEDGE, IT IS NOT DIFFICULT TO JUDGE HIS CONDITION, REGARDLESS OF WHAT PEOPLE IMAGINE OR SAY."</p>


If somebody says to you that light is made by weaving and I wove all the light there is and was, what will you realize? You know that this is all nonsense. Just the statement in itself is so false that you need not bother about it, you need not think about it. It is so utterly false that the moment it is made it is known that it is false.


That's exactly what happens when you face a Master: whatsoever you go on shouting about yourself or others go on shouting about you makes no difference. He simply sees to the very core of your being. You are reflected in your totality, and that is decisive.


So it has happened many times that the traditionally accepted saints are not accepted by the enlightened people, and that creates a problem. There were great rabbis in Jesus' time. They were accepted by the people, respected by the people, but Jesus did not accept them. That created the trouble. Those rabbis were the conspirators, the real conspirators, in killing Jesus.


When Buddha was here there were many saints -- this country is full of saints, it has always been full of saints -- but Buddha did not recognize those saints as saints. That created trouble. And the moment Buddha was gone, all those saints gathered together and uprooted his whole tradition from India, threw all Buddhism out. Thousands of Buddhists were killed, their temples burned, their scriptures destroyed, and who was behind all this? -- the so-called saints. When Buddha was alive they could not face him, but when he was gone, then they jumped upon it. They all became united. Different kinds of saints who have always been fighting and quarreling were all together at least on one point: to uproot Buddhism from India.


And this is the case again. You will be surprised: against me, the Hindu saint, the Mohammedan saint, the Christian saint, the Jaina saint, the Buddhist saint -- all are agreed. They don't agree on anything else -- their metaphysics are different, their principles are different, they don't agree on anything -- but on one thing they all agree: that I am wrong. Why do they all agree on one point? Because if I am right, then all their saintlihood is just hocus-pocus; then their so-called saintliness is nothing but a traditional way of living which is accepted by the ignorant. If I am right, then I am taking the very earth from beneath their feet. Their anger is understandable.


It has always been so, and it seems it is always going to be so. Ugly people don't like mirrors; they destroy mirrors, because they think mirrors make them look ugly. They don't change their faces, because that is difficult and arduous. The easiest thing is to destroy the mirror and forget all about the mirror. Kill a Jesus, poison a Socrates, and you are free of the mirror. And then you can enjoy your illusory beauty, which is absolutely non-existential.


FIRMANI SAID, "SIMILARLY, WHEN A VICIOUS INDIVIDUAL ENTERS THE COMPANY OF A MAN OF KNOWLEDGE, IT IS NOT DIFFICULT TO JUDGE HIS CONDITION.... " -- it is very apparent, it is obvious -- "regardless OF WHAT PEOPLE IMAGINE OR SAY."


A certain famous preacher when preaching one Sunday in the summertime observed that many among the congregation Were drowsing. Suddenly then, he paused, and afterward continued in a loud voice, relating an incident that had no connection whatever with the sermon. This was to the following effect:


"I was once riding along a country road. I came to the house of a farmer, and halted to observe one of the most remarkable sights I have ever seen. There was a sow with a litter of ten little pigs. The sow and each of her offspring had a long curved horn growing out of the forehead between the ears."


The clergyman again paused and ran his eyes over the congregation. Everybody was now wide awake. He thereupon remarked:


"Behold how strange! A few minutes since, when I was telling you the truth, you went to sleep. But now when you heard a whopping lie, you are all wide awake."


The people live in lies, and when they hear a whopping lie they are all wide awake. The people live in lies, and whenever they find a saint who agrees with their lies, who agrees with their minds, who confirms them, they are all respectful. Great worship arises in their hearts, and great gratitude; they all bow down. It is a mutual understanding. The so-called saint is bowing down to the people because he is following their tradition and their rotten mind. And because he is following their tradition -- they think it is golden, they think this is the greatest religion -- and because he is following their religion, he is proving that they are right. Their egos are fulfilled: they bow down to the saint. This is a mutual arrangement to fulfill each other's egos.


If Jesus had said, "I am just a Jew, a rabbi," if he had only commented on the old scriptures and had lived according to the rules and regulations that the Jews had always believed, he would have been thought of as a great saint. But he started behaving eccentrically.


All Masters have done that. They look eccentric because they don't follow the settled path. They create their own footpath.


He started behaving in his own way; he started breaking the laws and regulations and the rules. He cured people on the day when the Jewish law says nothing should be done -- he cured people. Now he had not committed any sin, but the mind who lives in rituals, the legal mind, is offended: "He has to be punished."


Whatsoever he was doing was true religion, but the true religion will always go contrary to the traditional religion. Why does it happen? -- because the traditional religion is not created by enlightened people. It is created by priests, as ignorant as everybody else.


Jesus was killed by the priests, and then again priests gathered around Jesus' words; they created another tradition: Christianity.


Just the other day I received a letter from a Christian missionary, well-known an over the world. He writes, "Whatsoever you say is beautiful, logical, appealing, but still, you are an evil force because you are not a Christian, and Christ has said that many false messiahs will come, and you are one of those. And they will be very convincing and their words will look like truth, but it will not be true." The missionary asked, "Can you prove that you are the second Christ? If not, then you are a false messiah. "


Buddha is a false messiah then, because he is not a second Christ; and Krishna too, and Kabir, and Bahaudin -- all are false messiahs. That's what Jewish rabbis were saying to Jesus!  -- that he is a false messiah. "Can you prove," they were asking, "that you are the messiah we have been waiting for?" They were asking for proofs. Jesus was not proof enough; they wanted some proofs, solid proofs, maybe a written letter from God saying, "Yes, I appoint him; he is not a self-appointed messiah, he is appointed by me."


Jesus was present. They could not look at him, they could not feel him, they could not see him, they could not hear him, and they were asking for proofs.
Now the same thing again?


I am not a Christian. Certainly, I am not a Christian. Why should I be a Christian? My whole approach is either be a Christ, or don't be a Christ, but what is the meaning of being a Christian? Christ-consciousness is one thing; being a Christian is just a plastic flower. I am not a Christian.


And I am not the second coming of Christ! Why should I be anybody else's coming? I come on my own. I am not anybody's carbon copy.
Now the Christian is going to be against me, naturally.


It always happens: the tradition is created by the same priests who kill, who destroy the truth when it is there walking on the earth. The same kind of priests gather together to make the temple, the church, the tradition, the scripture -- and again they will be against whenever truth will walk on the earth.


Remember it -- that truth has no tradition. Truth is a revolution. Truth is never conformist, it is always rebellion.


And when you come to a Master you have come to a rebellion. You have come to fire! Be ready to be burned, because only when you are burned will you be born. Like a phoenix, you will be reborn, you will have a resurrection, a rebirth. "Die," Mohammed says, "before you die, so that you can be reborn."
			

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> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
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