Nothing is insignificant, nothing is smaller than anything else.
The Upanishads are not knowledgeable; they simply tell the experience of the seers. Osho says that the Mandukya Upanishad is not an ordinary philosophy concerned with the mundane, it describes the innermost core and the ultimate reach of human consciousness; it reveals the secrets of the ultimate.
The Mandukya says: “The pure self has four quarters..” The first is the waking state, jagrati; the second, swapna, the dreaming state; the third, sushupti, deep sleep, the dreamless state and beyond the third is the enlightened state, turiya, which only means the fourth. The Mandukya Upanishad talks about the fourth, turiya.
The Mandukya says: “The pure self and om are as one; and the different quarters of the self correspond to om and its sounds, a-u-m.”
All the Upanishads begin with om which is the primordial sound, the unstruck sound that the whole universe consists of. It is a code word which consists of three sounds and the fourth, the soundless sound which is only the harmony of those sounds. The fourth is represented by a dot and that dot is called anusvara. Out of that dot arise three sounds a-u-m. These four represent the whole of existence; these four are the four dimensions of existence.
The first sound, a, represents the waking state; the second sound, u, is the dreaming state and “the state of dreamless sleep corresponds to m, the third sound.” The first can be called, according to modern psychology, consciousness; the second, subconsciousness; and the third, unconsciousness.
The first is in the future, the second is in the past, the third is in the present but unconscious, the fourth is in the present and consciously in the present. The fourth is the state of a Buddha, of a Christ, of a Krishna. This is the ultimate philosophy, the method, the technique, the device, to reach the fourth.
The book consists of 16 chapters of which the Upanishadic sutras are explained in chapters 1, 5, 9 and 13 and Osho’s replies to questions on diverse topics from disciples and seekers appear in the remaining chapters. Given below are some of Osho’s observations:
Life can have only one meaning and that is creativity.
Everything grows in darkness, underground, hidden; nobody can see it, nobody even knows what is growing underneath the ground.
We talk about democracy, but our whole way, our very pattern of life is dictatorial, it is non-democratic, it is really antidemocratic.
The whole idea of religion is rooted in the concept of the family.
Jokes, parables and anecdotes are an integral part of Osho’s talks. Shared here are a few of his jokes:
A man went to visit a madhouse and started talking with a madman. “You seem sane enough to me, why are you here?” he asked.
“Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I like children.”
“What’s wrong with that? I like children too.”
“Really? Fried or boiled?”
*
They drove toward the city in zigzag pattern. “Shamus, ish we near Dublin yet?”
“Yesh, we’re knocking down more people so we mush be!”
“Drive slower then!”
“Whaddaya mean, drive slower? You are driving!”
*
A man had murdered his wife. The judge asked him, “Are you aware of what you have done?”
The man said, “I am a very peace-loving person.”
The judge said, “What do you mean by ‘peace-loving’? You killed your wife and you think you are a peace-loving person?”
He said, “Since I have killed her there has been so much peace in the house!”
*
One woman was asking another, “Do you believe in the liberation of women?”
The other woman said, “Yes, I do.”
The first looked puzzled and said, “Then why are you getting married?”
The woman said, “But before I can be liberated I have to be trapped! Otherwise how can I be liberated?”
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