THE cause is very simple, perhaps too simple. It is very close, very obvious, and this is the reason
why most of the people go on missing seeing it. When something is very obvious you start taking it
for granted. When something is too close to your eyes you cannot see it. For seeing, some distance
is needed.
So the first thing I would like you to remember is that it is not only today that humanity is miserable.
It has always been miserable.
Misery has almost become our second nature. We have lived in it for thousands of years. That
closeness does not allow us to see it; otherwise it is so obvious. But to see the obvious you need a child’s vision.
And we are all carrying thousands of years in our eyes. Our eyes are old; they cannot see afresh.
They have already accepted things, and forgotten that those things are the very cause of misery.
The religious prophets, the political leaders, the moral lawgivers – you have respected them, not
even suspecting that they are the cause of your misery. How can you suspect them? Those people
have served humanity, sacrificed themselves for humanity. You worship them; you cannot relate
them to your misery.
The causes of misery are camouflaged behind beautiful words, holy scriptures, spiritual sermons.
It happened when I was a student, the first prime minister of India came to visit the city. In Jabalpur,
just in the middle of the city flows all the dirt of the city. The city is very big – ten times bigger than
Portland – and just in the middle of the city, the whole dirt flows like a river. There is a bridge over it,
and to pass that bridge is to know something about hell. I have never seen any place so stinking.
The day Jawaharlal, the prime minister, came to visit the city the bridge was one of the greatest
problems. He had to cross it, that was the only way to get to the other part of the city. So they
covered the bridge with mogra flowers. It was summertime, and the mogra is so fragrant a flower....
The whole bridge on both sides had garlands of mogra hanging. You could pass across the bridge
and you would not be at all aware that just behind those mogras, the wall of flowers, was the most
dirty place possible.
I was just going to the university. Seeing people decorating the Naudra bridge – that was the name
of the bridge; it was called Naudra because it had nine pillars, nine doors through which the dirt
used to flow – seeing the people putting those flowers up, I stopped there. I started working with
those people who were decorating, and nobody made any objection because many people were
working, and it had to be done quickly – soon Jawaharlal was going to pass. So I got mixed in with
the workers, the volunteers.
When Jawaharlal’s procession came and he was standing in an open jeep, I stood in front of the jeep
and stopped it. It would not have been possible in any other place because everywhere there were
military police, guards, security. On Naudra bridge these volunteers were on both sides, and there
was no crowd because nobody wanted to stand there. And the crowd was not aware of what had
happened – that those mogra flowers had completely covered the smell. The place was smelling of
paradise! The people were not aware of it because nobody was near there.
I told Jawaharlal, ”Please get down. You have to look behind these flowers – that is the reality of this
city. You are being befooled; these flowers are not decorations for your welcome, they are put here
to deceive you.”
He said, ”What do you mean?”
I said, ”Get down, and just come close to the flowers and look beyond them.” He was a very sensitive
and intelligent man. Others tried to prevent him – the local leaders.
I said, ”Don’t listen to these fools. These are the people who have arranged these flowers here.
Have you seen in the city, anywhere, thousands of flowers arranged for your decoration? And here
you don’t see any crowd. The arithmetic is simple. Just come down.”
He got down and went with me to look beyond the flowers: he could not believe it. He told the people, the local leaders, the mayor, the members of the corporation and the president of the congress, ”If this young man was not so stubborn, I would have missed seeing the reality of your city. Is this what you have been doing here?”
OSHO, From Ignorance to Innocence
http://thefuturehumanity.blogspot.in/
