THE HIDDEN SPLENDOR - Discovering Your Inner Beauty

There is nothing more beautiful than to be just simple and ordinary.


The hidden splendor that Osho speaks of is the inner beauty that one feels when he sits in aloneness. It is the purity of consciousness – the total awareness that one experiences when he sits silently within himself. In Osho’s words “ Tremendous is the splendor of a person who has come to know everything that goes on within him, because by being aware, all that is false disappears and all that is real is nourished.”

This book is a collection of Osho’s reflections on diverse questions from disciples and seekers on worldly, non-worldly and spiritual matters. Osho says that there may be thousands of questions, but there is only one answer, and that answer is one’s awareness. Osho’s thinking is always unique and his observations are always worth noticing. A few of his observations are given below:

These trees don’t know any Ten Commandments; the birds don’t know any Holy Scriptures. It is only man who has created a problem for himself.

There is no need of knowledge, because nature has its own wisdom. If you don’t interfere with nature and its wisdom, everything goes as it should go.

The moment you believe in someone, you lose intelligence. Belief is almost like poison to your intelligence.

Life’s aim is life itself - more life, deeper life, higher life, but life always. There is nothing higher than life

Osho uses a good number of jokes, stories and anecdotes in this book. To him it is an indirect way of telling things. Here is one joke:

A small child had gone to the zoo with his father, and they were watching a very ferocious lion in his cage - he was walking up and down. The boy became very afraid; he was not more than nine. He asked his father, “Dad, if this lion gets out and something happens to you...Please just tell me what number bus I have to take to reach home.”

And a very beautiful story about Jesus:
Jesus was walking through Jerusalem when he saw an angry crowd shouting and screaming at a woman. He came closer and heard the mob accusing the woman of adultery. Jesus strode to the front of the mob, held up his arms and said, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” the crowed fell silent, but one little old lady pushed to the front, picked up a huge rock and hurled it at the sobbing woman. Jesus gently took the old lady by the arm and said, “Mother, why do you always embarrass me?”

The way Osho thinks is always different and his views always surprise the readers.”The Hidden Splendor” too is not an exception.