Today is the Vaishaka Purnima and on this day Siddhartha Gautama was born who later became Gautama Buddha. When Osho was asked by the famous poet Sumitranandan Pant to choose just 12 significant mystics from across the ages he gave the following names – Krishna, Patanjali, Buddha, Mahavira, Nagarjuna, Shankara, Gorakh, Kabir, Nanak, Meera, Ramakrishna and Krishnamurti. Then Sumitranandan Ji asked Osho to keep reducing the names till they reached 4 names, and after those four names, Osho refused to reduce it to three. The four most significant mystics according to Osho are – Krishna, Patanjali, Buddha and Gorakhnath. Osho absolutely loved Buddha, he always said that when he speaks on Buddha, he becomes one with him. I have listened to the Dhammapada discourses of Osho’s and its like listening to Buddha himself….
There are several stories from Buddha’s life that Osho has shared during his discourses. My most favourite one is as follows –
Buddha along with his disciples would travel from place to place to share his truth. One day he was passing through a village and several people came and started abusing him. Buddha stood there, listened silently, very attentively, and then said, ‘Thank you for coming, but I am in a hurry. I have to reach the next village, people will be waiting for me there. I cannot devote more time to you today, but tomorrow am coming back and I will have more time. You can gather again, and tomorrow if something is left that you wanted to say and have not been able to, you can say it. But today, please excuse me.’
Buddha’s disciples were very angry. They asked him as to why he never reacted to all the abuse. They even wanted to go back and teach a lesson to the villagers. Buddha asked his disciples “how do we get our daily food?”, they said “we ask for alms and eat whatever we get”. Buddha then said “what if you don’t accept the food given by someone?”, the disciples said “the person takes it back”. Buddha then said to them “When the villagers were abusing me, I merely listened but didn’t accept their abuses. Only if I accepted their abuses will it bother me. Now what will they do with their abuses? They will have to take them back as I have not accepted what they gave me.”
What a beautiful story and so relevant in this day and age. We get so disturbed with everybody’s comments and opinions whether they are true or not. If only we could return the comments and opinions with thanks and stay true to our intrinsic nature, stress and depression would no longer be relevant !!
Krishnan and I went out for a quick stroll and clicked some pictures of the beautiful full moon today. Happy Buddha Purnima and may all of us learn to meditate. Meditation is the greatest gift that Buddha gave to mankind.
