COME FOLLOW TO YOU (Vol 4) - On the Sayings of Jesus

          Rise above law, go beyond it; reach to the heights of love.

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying: “This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.” It is the last supper with Jesus and only Jesus knows it is the last. They were silent and in silence they must have eaten and drunk. The bread became Jesus, the wine became his blood. Osho’s talks on the sayings of Jesus in the backdrop of selected versus from the gospels of John, Mathew and Luke (John Ch:13 Mathew Ch:26,27 and Luke Ch:22, 24 ) are transcribed in this last of four volumes.

On that last day of Jesus with his disciples, Jesus washed and touched his disciples’ feet with deep reverence. Jesus touched the feet of the disciples to show them that nothing is lowly. By touching the feet of his disciples, he is saying that the disciple is the master and the master is the disciple. Without saying anything, he is saying the very essence of all religions that “I and thou are not two.”

The governor asked Jesus: “Art thou the king of the Jews?” And Jesus said unto him: “Thou sayest.” “I am not saying,” he said. “I have not said it. It is you who are saying it.” Jesus was misunderstood whenever he talked about the kingdom of God; he never talked about the kingdom of this earth. Osho says that when you are near a man like Jesus, listen to his silence and not to his words.

On the cross Jesus cries, prays and almost shouts at God. “What are you doing to me? Have you forgotten me? Why this much suffering to me? And immediately he says, “But let thy will be done, not mine.”

Jesus’ message was very simple , straight: follow love and forget everything. Make love your only, and the only commandment. If you follow love, everything will be set right of its own accord.

Jesus goes on saying, “I and my father who is in heaven, are one.” This is the meaning of the Upanishadic saying: Aham brahmasmi - “I am the whole.” This is the meaning of el-Hillaj Mansoor who said: Ana’l haq - “I am the truth.” 

Osho’s responses to questions from seekers and disciples are compiled in alternate chapters. Following are some of his observations:

If you have eyes to see, you will find God everywhere, good everywhere: scriptures in silence and sermons in stones. 

We only see that which we want to see, we only see that which we are expecting to see.

Love always creates fear because love is death, a greater death than the ordinary death you know of. 

When you read a book, you never read the book that the author has written.

Osho tells a number of jokes and stories during the course of his talks. Here he reminds us of an old and very famous story from Bhagawat purana:

A crow was flying with a piece of meat in its beak. Twenty crows were pressing it, pursuing it, fighting with it, trying to grab the meat. Flying high to escape them, it became tired, wounded. Suddenly, it dropped the meat, and the twenty crows flew down shrieking, fighting for it. Then the crow, flying high, thought, “How good it is to carry nothing; the whole sky belongs to me.”

COME FOLLOW TO YOU (Vol 3) - On the Sayings of Jesus

            Do unto others what you would like to be done to you.

Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” and Jesus remained silent, because silence is truth and truth is silence. But the governor-general could not understand it and Jesus got into trouble by not answering. Jesus gave his life for us; he gave it for the message and he gave it for the mission for which he was sent“...for I am from him, and he hath sent me.” Osho’s talks on the sayings of Jesus in the backdrop of selected versus from the gospels of Mathew and John ( Mathew Ch:13,14,16,21, 22 and John Ch:7 ) are transcribed in this third volume. 

The disciples asked :  “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? ” Jesus said unto them,  "Love thy God with all thy heart, all thy mind, and all thy soul. This is the first and great commandment.” And the second is, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Jesus brings love to the world. He destroys law, the very basis of the society and that was his crime; that’s why he was crucified. In Osho’s words, “ he was destroying the whole basis of this criminal society; he was destroying the whole foundation rock of this criminal world, the world of wars, and violence, and aggression.”

The scriptures say, “When Jesus comes nobody will know from where he comes.” Those people of Jerusalem knew all, but “...when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.” Jews rejected Christ because they thought he didn’t follow all the predictions of the old prophets.

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” Osho says, “Jesus is water of eternity, a divine well. He can quench your thirst. But people are not aware even of their thirst. They have forgotten their thirst; they have suppressed it.”

Osho’s responses to questions from seekers and disciples are compiled in alternate chapters. Following are some of his observations:

No other religion has created as many wars as Christianity, and all its preaching is about love. Nobody else has created as many wars as Islam, and the very word Islam means peace.

Perfectionism is a neurosis; it is an illness. And the more you try to become perfect, the more frustrated you will become.

Whatsoever you do, you can always imagine that it could have been better. 

Only the false needs certificates; the real is self-evident.

Osho says that there always exists a third possibility in solving a problem and here he reminds us of an old story:

A merchant, very old man, was in heavy debt, and the moneylender was a very dangerous man. The money lender came to the merchant’s house. The merchant was sitting outside in his small garden. Where he was sitting the garden was paved with white and black pebbles.

His young and beautiful daughter was also sitting by his side. The money lender had come to threaten that if the man was not going to pay the money within a certain limit of time, he would be thrown into prison for at least twenty years. But he softened a little on looking at the beautiful girl. He proposed. He said, “I know that you cannot pay your debts, and I know that legally you can be thrown into prison for at least twenty years. You are almost seventy: that will be the end of your life. But I am kind and I have always been kind to you. I will give you an opportunity, and this is my proposal: I will take two pebbles, one black and one white, and put them in my bag, and then your daughter has to take one pebble from my bag. If she takes the white pebble out, you are freed of your debt, and nothing happens to your daughter. If she takes the black pebble out, then you are freed of your debt, but your daughter will have to marry me.”

Very reluctantly the father and daughter agreed, because there was no other possibility. The moneylender took two pebbles. When he was taking the two pebbles, the old merchant could not see, he was almost filled with tears, but the sharp eyes of the young girl could see that he had taken two black pebbles.

What did the girl do? She didn’t expose him; she didn’t argue about the fact that he had taken two black pebbles. She withdrew one pebble out of the bag, fumbled, dropped the pebble on the path - it was lost. There were many pebbles and it could not be recognized. Profusely, she wanted to be excused, forgiven. And then she suggested a solution: “Look at the other pebble that is left inside. If it is black, then the one that I withdrew must have been white. If it is white, then the other was black.” and the old moneylender could not do anything. The failure was absolute.

COME FOLLOW TO YOU (Vol 2) - On the Sayings of Jesus

 

When Jesus is there, people kill him and when he is gone, they worship him. 

Jesus disappeared that day in the River Jordan when John the Baptist initiated him into a totally different life. Jesus says and preaches whatsoever he lives. He speaks in the language of the farmers, the fishers and the carpenters. He says to his disciples, “Moses gave you the law, I give you love. Moses brought you the law, and I bring you a higher law of grace.” Jesus’ whole effort is to tell people to accept themselves and not feel guilty and condemned. Osho’s talks on Jesus in the backdrop of selected verses from the gospels of Mathew and Luke (Mathew Ch: 9, 12, 13 and Luke Ch: 10, 14 and 18) are transcribed in this volume.

Jesus says, “Ask, and it shall be given. Knock, and the doors shall be opened unto you.” “ But because of your ego”, Osho says, “you have not even knocked; because of your ego, you have not even asked. ” 

One of the most popular sayings of Jesus is that “ it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Jesus is talking about that man who is possessive and miserly, who is closed and unwilling to share.

Osho says, “When Jesus talks to you, he is not giving you flowers, he is giving you seeds.” Jesus’ whole life is nothing but a showering of good seeds all around. The gospel says: “He that soweth the good seed is the son of man...” Jesus uses “son of man” for himself more than he ever uses “son of God.” 

The charge against Jesus was that he was trying to change the society by corrupting people and creating chaos. According to Osho Jesus was actually trying to change the individual and not the society as was charged by the priests.

When Jesus was crucified, only three women came near him. Osho sees it as symbolic - that only the heart can come near in such moments. Three poor women, Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and Martha, one of them a prostitute, came to take possession of the body and they brought the body of Jesus down from the cross.

 Jesus on the cross, according to Osho, is a symbol that the ego has to be crucified. On the cross when Jesus died, he was resurrected on the third day. After resurrection he became the son of God; before that he was the son of man. 

Osho says: “ you can crucify the body of a Jesus, but you can never crucify his spirit.”

Osho’s responses to questions from seekers and disciples are compiled in alternate chapters. Following are some of his observations:

There is much difference between a Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler, but deep down no difference at all, because both have ideas of changing the world according to them.

If you want to love human beings you have to stop loving the country, you have to stop loving the religion, you have to stop loving your colour. If you really want to love human beings you have to stop all political nonsense.

Life is God, love is God. Remember this much, and don’t be worried about knowledge.

Only fools are certain; wise people are always hesitant.

                                                                   

COME FOLLOW TO YOU - (V0l 1) Talks on the Sayings of Jesus

                  The world is a flowering of God, just like a tree. 

Osho’s talks on Jesus in the backdrop of the gospels of John, Mathew and Luke are transcribed in this book. The verses selected for in this first of four volumes are from chapter 1 of John, chapters 3,4 and 9 of Mathew and chapter 9 of Luke.

Jesus was an ordinary man who remained in his father’s workshop, worked and helped his father till he was baptized at the age of thirty by John the Baptist who had been baptizing people near the River Jordan. The baptism, the initiation was done by water and Jesus saw heavens opening and “the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.” 

Jesus came out of the river, went to the bank and started to preach before a crowd that was gathering there and to say: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Nobody had known about Jesus before that. Suddenly a new quality of man, a new man altogether fresh, was born. According to Osho Baptism is a birth. “Jesus,” John the Baptist says, “will baptize you with fire. He will take you to God, he will help you to go upward.” John the Baptist prepared people so that God could descend into them, then Jesus prepared people so that they could ascend into God. 

The old testament says, “The lord says this” whereas Jesus says, “I say unto you.” People were simple in Jesus’ time. They must have just looked, and when Jesus said:”Follow me” they simply followed. All the apostles, all twelve of the apostles, were very ordinary, uneducated, common people, and upon them he built the whole structure. Osho says, “Jesus touches very ordinary people - a fisherman, Simon called Peter- he touches, and by his very touch this man is transformed into a great apostle, a great human being.”

The key message of Jesus is that man is not responsible unless he is alert and aware. In the gospel we see Jesus goes on saying: “Awake! Be alert! Be conscious! Remember!” Jesus says that one should not be attached and one should not look backward. Jesus became Christ on the cross when he said, “Thy will be done, not mine.” 

Two thousand years have passed since Jesus spoke, and his words are still alive and fresh as ever. 

Osho’s responses to questions from seekers and disciples are compiled in alternate chapters. Following are some of his observations:

God is a verb. Whatever the grammarians say, I am not concerned. God is a verb, life is a verb.

If you are happy you are right, if you are unhappy you are wrong. 

It is not a question of what you have done, it is a question of how you have been.

Learn to laugh at yourself - about your seriousness and things like that.

Osho’s jokes and stories appear in this book are worth noticing. Given below are two of his jokes figuring Mulla Nasruddin in one and a court fool in another:

Mulla Nasruddin’s wife was very angry. Her small boy was making too much of a nuisance, creating too much nuisance. Finally she was exhausted and she ran after him. She wanted to give him a good thrashing, but he escaped, escaped upstairs, and hid himself under a bed. She tried hard, but she couldn’t get underneath, so she said, Wait, let your father come.”

When Mulla Nasruddin came, she told the whole story. He said, “Don’t be worried, leave it to me. I will go and put him right.”

So he went upstairs, walked very quietly, looked under the bed and was surprised - surprised by the way the boy greeted him. The boy said, “Hello, Dad. Is she after you also?!”

                                                                       *

An emperor had a fool. One day the emperor was looking in the mirror. The fool came, jumped, and hit him with his feet in the back. The emperor fell against the mirror. He was, of course, very angry and he said, “Unless you can give some reason for your foolish act which is more foolish than the act itself, you will be sentenced to death.”

The fool said, “My Lord, I never thought that you were here. I thought the queen was standing here.

He had to be pardoned because he had given a reason that was even more foolish. But to find such a reason, the fool must have been very wise.