the-hidden-splendor-14/

Osho,
In the last few weeks you have been talking a lot about the world running fast toward a dead end, without showing any more hope that things will ever change. On the other hand, up to one month ago, you talked on the possibility that the presence of two hundred enlightened people, or even one, could save the world. Why this shift of emphasis? Did you give up on the other possibility? Did something happen within the last few weeks that made your vision change?
It is true that I have been talking a lot about the world running fast toward a dead end. The reason is, factually it is running toward an end. But it was running toward its end before, too. Now I want it to be absolutely emphasized on your consciousness, so that you stop postponing your own transformation. Man’s mind is so stupid that if there is a little possibility to postpone, then he will postpone for tomorrow – unless he comes to a dead-end street where there is no way to go forward and he has to take an absolute about-turn.
But things in the world are not visible to you. You may go on sleeping and the world may die. It is urgent that you take it seriously that the world may not be there tomorrow. You don’t have time to waste for anything other than your own awakening.
I still know if there are two hundred enlightened people in the world, the world can be saved, but I have never told you that just one enlightened man can save the world. It is a heavy load. One single enlightened man cannot carry it; two hundred is the minimum. But where will those two hundred people come from? They have to be born amongst you – you have to become those two hundred people. But your growth is so slow there is every fear that before you become enlightened the world will be gone.
You are not putting your total energy into meditation, into awareness. It is one of the things that you are doing, amongst many, and it is not even the first priority of your life. I want it to become your first priority. The only way is that I should emphasize deeply into your consciousness that the world is going to end soon.
If you are not awakened before its end, you will be lost in a long journey, because evolution will start from the very beginning on some other planet. On this planet it took four billion years for man to arrive. Life began in the ocean as a fish. On another planet, if this planet is destroyed, life will continue, but it will have to begin from the very beginning – and only after four billion years you may be a human being again. It is a great risk to take.
Nothing has changed in the world; everything is going exactly in the direction of death – a little faster of course – and the moment of total annihilation is coming very close. It all depends on what your priorities are. If being awakened has become your priority, and you are ready to sacrifice everything for it, then there is hope.

I have told you the ancient story in the Old Testament – but that will not help today, the situation is so different. In the Old Testament there is a story about two big cities almost the same size as Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The names of those two cities were Sodom and Gomorrah. The people of those two cities had become so perverted, they were doing all kinds of unnatural, psychopathological actions. Their sexuality had totally gone astray. Those two places must have been the California of the Old Testament.
The story is that God tried hard to change those people. But to change anyone is a difficult task, even for a God – because the very idea that somebody is trying to change you creates a resistance, even if the change is for your good, even if there is no vested interest for the person who is trying to change you. But the very idea that somebody is trying to change you creates an unconscious resistance not to change.
Finally, God gave up on the idea and decided to destroy those two cities because their very existence was dangerous. They could spread all their diseases to the whole of humanity. Sodom was so perverted that people were making love to animals; hence the word sodomy. Gomorrah had gone completely homosexual; heterosexuality had completely stopped. According to the Old Testament, God destroyed those two cities completely, but there is another version from Hasid mystics.
Judaism has produced one of the most essential lines of mystics, the Hasids. The orthodox Jews don’t accept them – the orthodox can never accept the religious. But every organized religion has produced, on the margin, a rebellious group which is not organized, which has different interpretations and a different style of life. Hasidism is one of the most beautiful ways to find oneself and to find the reality of existence.
The Hasids have a different version because they cannot accept God destroying two cities; there must be some way to save them. Their story is that when God became determined to destroy them, a Hasid approached God and asked him, “You are going to destroy these two great cities, but have you ever wondered that there may be, in both cities, two hundred good people? They will also be destroyed, and this will not be a good precedent. Just for the sake of those two hundred, you have to change your decision.”
God thought for a moment and said, “I never looked at this side. Certainly there may be good people and they will be destroyed with the bad. No, if you can prove that there are two hundred good people, I will not destroy those two cities.”
The Hasid said, “But suppose there are not two hundred, but only twenty – ten in each city. Will you destroy those good people? Does quantity mean so much to you, and not quality? What does it matter whether there are two hundred good people or twenty good people?”
God had to concede to the argument of the Hasid. He said, “Of course. Prove that there are twenty good people.”
The Hasid said, “And if there is only one good man who lives six months in one city and six months in another city, what is your idea? Will you destroy those cities? Will it be a godly action? Ninety-nine percent of the people can be destroyed, if they are evil, for the one percent of good people; but one percent of good people cannot be destroyed to save the ninety-nine percent of evil people.”
God said, “You are very persuasive. Okay, show me, where is the good man?”
The Hasid said, “I am the good man, and I live six months in one city to help people transform their ways of life, and six months in another city for the same purpose. What is your decision? Are you going to destroy me too? Is one good man not more valuable, has he not more weight than thousands of evil people?” According to the Hasidic story, God had to concede not to destroy those two cities.

Orthodox Jews don’t believe in the story because it is not written in the Old Testament. The story may be a fiction, but I say to you, it is truer than any truth. It may not be written in the Old Testament, but its logic is so clear that it cannot be false. It may not be historical, but it has a spiritual reality.
In the same way I have been telling you that two hundred enlightened people can save the world. Existence is very generous; it cannot destroy two hundred awakened people, who have reached to the highest peak of consciousness – which has taken four billion years of evolution. But you have to become those two hundred people! And to wake you up, I have been insisting that the end is very close. And this time it is not a parable.
Jesus used it as a device: that the end of the world is very close and the last judgment day is very close. When his disciples asked him at the time of his departure, before the enemies got hold of him and it was certain that he would be crucified the next day, their last question was, “When will we see you again?” He said, “In this very life, because the end of the world is very close – but do what I have told you.”
And even Christians don’t know what he has told them. The last night before he was caught they were in the mountains and he told his disciples, “This may be the last night we are together, and I am going to pray. While I am praying behind the bush you should remain awake. It is absolutely essential that you are awake to support my prayer. Don’t fall asleep.”
In the middle of his prayer he came back – and almost all were fast asleep. He woke them up and said, “Have you not heard me? I had told you, you have to remain awake. Can’t you remain awake just one night? Because I will not be here with you again. Even my death tomorrow cannot help you to remain awake?” They were very sorry. They said they would try, and he went again. This went on four, five times – he would come back and they would all be fast asleep.
According to me this was his last teaching: to remain awake. But Christianity has completely forgotten about it. I have not seen a single commentary by Christians on the implications of why Jesus was so insistent: “Be awake!” He was trying his hardest because once he was gone, there was every possibility they would all fall asleep, just as the whole of humanity is asleep, and they would start doing in their dreams things that are not to be done. But things that are not to be done can be prevented only when you are aware, alert.
His last teaching was awareness, but the disciples failed him – not only those twelve intimate disciples failed him, for two thousand years all his disciples have failed him. The very word awareness has disappeared from the Christian idea of transforming human beings. Jesus was continually saying, “The end is very close.” That was a device – because if you feel that there is enough time, why not sleep a little more? What is the hurry? But if there is no time left at all, perhaps the shock of it may wake you up.
What was only a device to Jesus to me is not a device: it is a reality. The world is going to end. I have been giving you hope because I have to do two things: on the one hand I have to make it clear to you that the world is coming to its final suicide, and on the other hand, I have to give you the hope that there is still a possibility at least for you to become awakened.
Your awakening is of tremendous importance; it has never been so important before – neither with Jesus nor with Gautam Buddha – because there was enough time. Time has run out. We are at the fag end of time. To make you aware of the reality – so that you can make some effort to remain awake, to make some effort to be more conscious and not to get lost in trivia – is absolutely necessary. That’s why my insistence will go on growing, because every day the end is approaching closer.
Man is so asleep he is almost in a coma, and all his actions are arising out of this state of coma. Otherwise, there is no necessity for the world to end. But we are carrying nuclear weapons within our souls. The end is going to come because of our own ignorance, our own deep sleep.
I have heard…

A Polack is crossing the Sahara desert on a camel. After two months alone with the camel, and dreaming of beautiful women, he starts to find the camel attractive and decides to make love to her. But as soon as he is ready, the camel stands up, walks a few feet away and stops. The Polack tries again, but again the camel stands up, walks a few feet away and stops. The Polack tries again and again with no luck.
One day he finds the remains of a plane which has crashed in the desert, and just nearby a young woman, unconscious, but still alive. For days he takes care of her and she recovers totally. One morning she comes to him, looking her prettiest, hugs him and tells him how thankful she is to him for saving her life. “You have been so sweet to me,” she says, “and I like you so much that I’ll do anything for you.”
Looking at her beautiful face, the man says, “Would you really?”
“Yes,” she says.
“Oh, I really appreciate that,” replies the Polack. “Would you mind holding that camel for me please?”

Such is the situation of humanity. At least you have to come out of it – and you need a constant hitting on your head to remind you that the times are no longer ordinary. There have never been, in the whole history of man, such dangerous moments as those through which we are passing. It is no time for quarreling, arguing about theological matters; it is not intelligent to console yourself that some miracle will happen and the world war will be postponed. It is not only the world war – the attack is multidimensional.
The ecology of the earth is breaking down. There are thousands of submarines moving around the earth in the ocean – and each submarine is carrying nuclear weapons so powerful that even the whole energy that was used in the Second World War is nothing compared to the energy of one submarine carrying nuclear missiles. The Soviet Union has its own submarines; America has its own submarines. Just by accident two submarines can collide, and the whole life on the planet will evaporate into smoke. And the politicians of the world are continually piling up more and more nuclear weapons.
The population of the world is growing so fast that just the growth of population will be enough to kill half of humanity out of hunger and thirst. Sexual perversions have become so rampant that Sodom and Gomorrah look very outdated.
Ten million people around the earth already have AIDS – which has no cure. And this number of ten million people is not accurate, because many countries have not yet declared how many people have AIDS; they don’t have any way to find it out. For example, India is not aware how many people are suffering from AIDS. Mohammedan countries are bound to have a very large number of people suffering from AIDS, because homosexuality has been there for thousands of years.
Even according to very moderate estimates, by the end of this century there will be one hundred million people suffering from AIDS. And when one hundred million people suffer from AIDS, that means at least one billion people must have been involved in homosexuality. These are the multidimensional ways that death is approaching the earth.
Because we have cut down so many forests, a thick layer of carbon dioxide has gathered on top of our atmosphere, two hundred miles away from the earth, where the air ends. The layer is so thick that it has already raised the temperature four degrees hotter than it has ever been on the earth and that four degrees of temperature is melting the ice of the north and south poles. If that ice goes on melting – and there is no way to prevent it – all the oceans of the world will rise four feet higher. And all your big cities are ports; they will be flooded with water, will become unlivable.
If this carbon dioxide becomes a little thicker, then the snows of the Himalayas and the Alps, which have eternal snow which has never melted, will start melting. The Himalayas alone have so much ice that if it melts completely it will raise all the oceans of the world forty feet. All your cities will be drowned, and it is not a flood that is going to recede.
This is one of the most dangerous things that is happening because carbon dioxide is going to accumulate more and more. The trees go on inhaling carbon dioxide. If you cut down the trees you are cutting two things: the supply of oxygen for your life, and the place for carbon dioxide to be absorbed. It is a double-edged sword – and absolutely unnecessary.
Man has been trying to reach to the moon and to Mars. Before that, we were never aware where the air ends, two hundred miles above earth. All around the earth there is a thick layer of a certain gas, ozone, O3, which is a very protective layer. Because of that ozone, life has been possible on earth. That ozone has only one function: it does not allow any sun rays which are destructive to life; it returns them. It allows only those rays which are life-giving.
But because of our rockets moving toward the moon and toward Mars, we have made holes, for the first time, in the layer of ozone. Now those holes are allowing in all the rays of the sun toward the earth – and death rays are also included. So when I say the end is not very far away, it is not like when Jesus says it – just a device. By the end of this century, you will see all these dimensions bringing death to you. It has to be emphasized: unless you become absolutely clear about death, you are not going to concentrate your whole energy on transforming your being.
People change with difficulty. They find it easier to remain as they are – just like stones, like rocks. Change means a determined effort, a commitment to transform your energies, to take your being in an absolutely serious manner – it has not to be wasted in stupid things.

A famous playboy dies, and his best friends decide to celebrate with a mourning party. Late in the night someone suggests calling Hell in order to find out where he is. “But how can you call Hell?” someone asks.
“Well,” the man answers, “I guess it is just a long distance call.”
So they check the telephone book and find out all about outer space calls and then dial Hell. A few seconds later a very hoarse voice answers, “This is Hell. What do you want?”
Terrified by the devilish voice, they say, “We are looking for a friend.”
“What is his name?”
“Peter Thompson.”
“He is not here.” And the devil hangs up.
Totally amazed and having dropped all reference to logic, they decide to call Purgatory. They dial Purgatory, and to their relief, the voice on the phone does not sound so terrible – more businesslike. They explain that they are looking for a dead friend who is not in Hell and who just died.
“Well,” the voice answers, “he is not here, either. Try Heaven.”
“But he was a playboy!” his friends reply.
“He has to be somewhere. Try Heaven.”
So they dial Heaven, and a heavenly voice answers very softly and slowly, “Hello. This is Heaven. This is Virgin Mary. Can I help you?”
Very shy, they explain the whole story.
“No,” says the beautiful voice, full of echo: “He is not here. Thank you for calling. Call again.”
So every day they call Heaven, and every day they get the same answer. So they call again and again; and one week later, on Sunday morning, a very sexy, foxy, quick voice answers, “Hey, this is Mary. What do you want, guys?”
Looking at each other and laughing, the friends agree: “He has arrived!”

Change is very difficult. A playboy will be a playboy, whether he is in hell or in heaven; he will go on doing his repetitive style of life.
Being alert means you have to stop being robots. Change your routines, move more consciously; let every act become an object of awareness. Then even these few years that are left are enough – more than enough. If you put your total energy into transformation, the destruction of the earth will not be your destruction. If you can die consciously, you have found the key to a higher life, to an eternal life, to a divine life.

Osho,
What is this undercurrent of giggling in my heart every time I feel that you are using the whole world as a device for our growth, and that you are using us as a device for the whole world? Would you please comment?
Sarjano, you will have to stop the giggling in your heart. This is not a device. There is no time left for any device at all. Your giggling is simply a rationalization: you don’t want to believe that the world is going to end because you don’t want to change. You want me to say to you that this is only a device, so that you can relax – relax in your fixed pattern of life. But I cannot lie to you.
When I use something as a device, I tell you it is a device. But this is not a device, either to transform the world through you or to change you through the world. I am simply stating a very sad fact. Your giggling is nothing but an effort to erase the impact which I am trying to create.
Giggle about everything else, but not about your transformation. That giggling is your unconscious trying to deceive you, telling you something or other will happen, so you need not worry. The unconscious does not want to disappear. Your unconscious is nine times bigger than your conscious; it is nine times more powerful too. You have to be very alert not to be caught in the powerful unconscious; otherwise, it will close all the doors, all the possibilities, all the potentialities of transformation.
I am in absolute support of your giggling about everything in the world except the transformation that is needed within you. And the problem is that you are very serious about everything in the world, and only nonserious about your interiority.

During his world tour, the Polack Pope arrives in America. When he comes out of the plane, there is a big crowd standing on the runway waving flags, shouting, “Elvis, Elvis!”
The pope looks at them, full of holiness, kisses the ground, and says mildly, “My children, look: I am not Elvis, I am the pope.”
He enters the airport hall and notices a mass of people standing there, dancing, waving flags, and shouting at him: “Elvis, Elvis!”
A little bit indignant, he blesses the people, and very softly he says, “Oh no, my dear sheep, I am not Elvis, I am the pope.”
Later on, when he finally reaches his hotel, he can’t believe his eyes: in the lobby, hundreds of people are crowding, waving flags, yelling, “Elvis, Elvis!”
A little bit puzzled now, he puts his hands together, makes a cross, smiles as divinely as possible and announces, “No, my beloved little lambs. No, I am not Elvis, I am the pope.”
Centered again, he goes upstairs to his suite, opens the door and suddenly sees two beautiful naked women are lying in his bed, waving little flags, shouting ecstatically at him, “Elvis, Elvis!”
Immediately, jumping out of his clothes, he starts singing, “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog…”

Your unconscious is always there, so powerful that if it gets any chance – pope or no pope – the unconscious will be the winner. You have to make your consciousness so strong that the unconscious slowly, slowly becomes weaker and finally dies. That’s the meaning of the enlightened man: one whose unconsciousness has disappeared, whose whole being is full of consciousness. Whatever I am saying, it is my absolutely clear vision that the world is very close to its end. Don’t giggle it away. Don’t find rationalizations – they won’t help.
This is not the time to waste in any unconscious consolations. An immediate transformation is absolutely needed; it is an urgency which man has never faced before. In a way, you are unfortunate that soon there will be no future. In another way, you are very fortunate because this crisis is so big – perhaps it may help you to wake up.

Osho,
Often, when I come to see you I want some kind of recognition: a sign that you see me, that you know I exist – a look, a hand gesture, perhaps to answer a question. You never respond to this. Feeling the tension and pain this longing causes in me, I cry and then relax. An opening is there and you look my way. Osho, must I always go through this way of pain and tears to reach my inner being? I am Jewish by conditioning – could that be part of it?
That explains everything – that you are Jewish by conditioning. But your question may be the question of many others. You say, “Often when I come to see you I want some kind of recognition.” This is one of the sicknesses of our souls. The whole of existence recognizes you – the birds by their songs, the trees by their flowers, the sun by its rays, the moon by its beauty – they are all recognizing you. You have just forgotten. You want recognition in a human way; perhaps in language. Existence is silent, its recognition is silent. All that you have to know is to be silent to understand the recognition.
As far as I am concerned, I have given you recognition just by initiating you on the path of mysticism. I have not asked whether you are worthy or not, whether you deserve or not. I have recognized your potential spirituality without any examination, without any test.
You say “…a sign that you see me, that you know I exist – a look, a hand gesture, perhaps to answer a question.” I know that you exist – and my whole effort is that you should not exist; that’s why I go on avoiding seeing you! Because seeing you may give you energy and nourishment to exist, and that is not your true existence; that is your ego, you are suffering from an inferiority complex. I want you to drop this ego which is hungry for recognition. The moment you drop it, immediately you will find there is recognition.
You say, “You never respond to this. Feeling the tension and pain this longing causes in me, I cry and then relax.” If you have carefully understood your own question, it has the answer: you cry and then relax. “An opening is there and you look my way.”
If you are relaxed, the whole of existence is tremendously happy. Not only am I looking at you – everything is looking at you. But the reason is your relaxation, the reason is your crying. Your tears cleanse you; your relaxation does not allow the ego to form. You have come to know the secret – that I look your way…
“Osho, must I always go through this way of pain and tears to reach my inner being?” It all depends on you. If you love it, if you want it this way – only then do you have to go through pain and tears. Otherwise you can go through laughter and singing and dancing. The whole question is that in pain and tears, or in singing and dancing, the ego disappears – it is your choice.
I have heard…

A man noticed a sign on a restaurant saying, “You are welcome here, and you will feel absolutely at home. Come in; at least give us one chance to serve you.”
The man entered. The waitress came and he ordered four burnt chappatis. The waitress could not believe what he was saying – “Vegetable without any salt,” and things like that. The waitress asked, “Are you joking?”
He said, “No.” So she went, burned the chappatis, and brought the plates, feeling very weird about the whole thing – what kind of man is he? Then she asked, “Anything more?”
He said, “Yes, sit across from me and nag.”
She said, “You seem to be a very strange fellow.”
He said, “I am not a strange fellow – just in front of your door, you say ‘You will feel at home,’ and I want to feel at home. That’s what happens in my home: burnt chappatis, vegetables without salt, everything wrong – and finally my wife sitting in front of me, nagging me. Because of her nagging, I cannot even say that the chappatis are burned, that there is no salt…”

It is up to you: both are possibilities. You can relax through pain and tears, but that is not a good choice. You can relax through singing, dancing, rejoicing – and relaxation will come. Try the other way.
You say, “I am Jewish by conditioning. Could that be part of it?” It certainly is. But once you have become a sannyasin, you are no longer Jewish. A sannyasin is simply a human being. Your conditioning is there, but rather than continuing the tears and pain, start singing and dancing. Even if it feels a little difficult in the beginning, the conditioning can be changed; you can be unconditioned.

At the conclusion of the physical exam, the doctor summoned his patient into his office with a very grave look on his face. “I hate to be the one to break it to you, Fred,” he said, “but I’m afraid you have only got six months to live.”
“Oh my God!” gasped Fred, turning white. When the news had sunk in his heart he said, “Listen, Doc, you have known me a long time. Do you have any suggestions as to how I could make the most of my remaining months?”
“Have you ever been married?” asked the doctor.
Fred explained that he had been a bachelor all his life. “You might think about taking a wife,” the doctor proposed. “After all, you will need someone to look after you in the final illness.”
“That’s a good point, Doc,” said Fred. “With only six months to live, I’d better make the most of my time.”
“May I make one more suggestion?” asked the doctor.
When Fred nodded, he said, “Marry a Jewish girl.”
“A Jewish girl – how come?” wondered Fred.
The doctor replied, “Then six months will seem like six lives.”

It is your choice, but my suggestion is: you have been married to Jewish conditioning; now get divorced. Just be a human being, rejoicing, dancing, singing. If tears come they have to be of joy, of blissfulness, of peace, of silence. And the moment you feel relaxed, ecstasy will enter your being from all sides. The whole of existence will recognize you, not only me. Ecstasy can be explained in other words: a recognition by the whole of existence that you are needed, that you are beautiful, that without you existence will be poorer.