I have taken this story from a tiny book titled “The Alchemy of Enlightenment”, published by Diamond Pocketbooks. This book is made up of the discourses that Osho gave in Oct 1986 in Bombay (now Mumbai).
This excerpt is from the lecture given on Nov 2, 1986.
“…. Mind is not your friend.
Either the mind is pretending to be the master or it has to be put into its right place as a servant – but mind is not your friend.
And the struggle for freedom, for bliss, for truth is not with the world; it is a fight with this puppet mind. It is very simple.
Kahlil Gibran has a beautiful story.
The farmers in the villages, to protect their cultivated farms, create a false man: just a stick, another stick… it looks almost like a cross. And then they put a kurta to make poor animals afraid that somebody may be standing there. The white kurta and two hands, in the night … somebody is watching. For the animals it is enough, they keep away from the farm.
Gibran says, “Once I asked such a false man, ‘I can understand the farmer who made you, he needs you. I can understand the poor animals, they don’t have great intelligence to see that you are bogus. But in rain, in sun, in hot summer, in cold winter you remain standing here – for what?’
“And the false, bogus man said, ‘You don’t know my joy. Just to make those animals afraid is such a joy that it is worth suffering rain, suffering sun, suffering heat, winter – everything. I am making thousands of animals afraid! I know I am bogus, there is nothing inside me – but I don’t care about that. My joy is in making others afraid.'”
I want to ask you;
Would you like to be just like this bogus man – nothing inside, making somebody afraid, making somebody happy, making somebody humiliated, making somebody respectful?
Is you life for others? Will you ever look inside? Is there anybody in the house or not?
The people who are with me, their search is to find the master of the house.
I say to you the master is there – perhaps asleep, but he can be awakened. And once the master is awakened within you, your whole life takes new colors, new rainbows, new flowers, new music, new dances.
For the first time you become alive. Before, you were only vegetating……”
Look inside and awaken the master … will you live your life second hand? In the words of the unenlightened Ayn Rand. We crave for others’ praise, we get angry with others, we crave for others’ attention, we accept others’ standards as our standards. Our entire life is second hand.
Food for thought ! Osho style :).
Thank you Master.
Read the first blog in this series – Osho Story #1 – “Be Choiceless”