Nothing can be experienced without its opposite. If there were no words, how would you experience silence?
This book is the transcribed version of Osho’s commentary on Mabel Collins’ ‘Light on the Path’ . Osho considers this small booklet of Mabel Collins as one of the very few valuable books in the history of mankind .Mabel Collins says that she .has had a vision of this booklet and she has written it down exactly as she saw it in the vision . Osho says, ‘the lamp that Mabel Collins holds is a beacon’, which can lead you to endless steps to anywhere to infinity.
The words in the booklet are written not for everybody , but only for the disciples, i.e. only for those who are ready to learn. So the first thing a disciple should understand about himself is that he does not know anything.The second thing is that the life of every person is in a search for only one thing- how to get rid of suffering, how to attain happiness..So you have to drop your ambition first. It says:
“ Kill out ambition
Ambition is the first curse:
the great tempter of the man
who is rising above his fellows”
There are two kinds of ambitions normally, one is the ambition to be like someone else and the other is the ambition to get ahead of others. It is common that someone or other is always ahead of you in one way or another. So it has to be understood that there are a thousand ways to be ahead in life , and no one can ever be ahead of everyone in everything. It again says:
“ kill out desire of life.
Kill out desire of comfort.
Work as those work who are ambitious.
Respect life as those do who desire it.
Be happy as those who live for happiness.”
There is the music of life, the harmony of life as well, the book says. A man reciting Om in his old age, and he sitting beside his beloved in his adulthood and he chasing the butterfly in his childhood experiences happiness in the same way.These three fragments are not fragments, he has found a thread moving through them. That is the music, that is the harmony.With Mabel Collins’ lamp in hand Osho makes us hear the voice of silence, the music of life, the sound of one- hand clapping.Some of Osho’s observations in this book are worth noticing:
The deep things in life happen in utter silence. The seed is being cracked open underground and there is no sound, the plants are growing ...there is no sound. The stars are moving...there is no sound. The sun rises ...there is no uproar. In the very fine, subtle realms of existence, everything is silent. The silence has its own music, but to experience that our senses have to be refined.
There is a power which others can give you, and there is a power which can be found only through one’s own experience. The power that others give you will never give you peace, because fear is always a part of it. What is given to you by another can also be taken away from you by him.
When you are able to give , you are the master. Only the master can give - how can a slave give?
Don’t take your orders from the scriptures or the holy books, take them from your own witness. It will always lead you in the right direction - there is no possibility of it ever making a mistake.
Even wrong paths can reach to the right destination; what is needed is the right traveller. It all depends on the traveller. It is not the path that takes the traveller to the destination, it is the traveller who reaches.
Knowledge is a thorn, so is ignorance. And when both knowledge and ignorance are absent, then supreme wisdom is attained.
The ‘Voice of Silence’ has 17 chapters , each chapter carrying the verses of ‘the light on the path’ followed by its commentaries by Osho. Unlike in other Osho’s books ,stories, jokes and anecdotes are seldom found in this book. Osho’s mastery over everything he utters is rather awesome. A wonderful book of course. It can carry a transforming message to the reader.
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