The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 6. THE MAD PROJECTIONIST
soon as you lose your hold on the mind, there is chaos and confusion. It is very difficult to obey this
chaos, for it takes you nowhere. It is not just one note, but a discord of so many different notes.
Mahavir has said that man has many minds. Man has not one mind but many. Modern psychology
supports Mahavira’s view. They say that man is ’polypsychic’. It is just as if there is one servant and
thousands of masters, and each master orders the poor servant about. Whom is he to obey? He is
bound to go mad. This is exactly the state of your mind.
Seek the one, so that the teacher comes back into the classroom. Seek the one so that the slaves
may go and work at their appropriate places. If the owner is one it will give a direction to your life,
and reality will assert itself. You will then be able to know yourself. Then this assertion of existence
will bring a natural freedom in its wake. As long as your mind is your master, you will remain a slave.
The moment you realize reality, natural freedom happens.
It is necessary to understand what is meant by ’natural freedom’. Why is it not just called ’freedom’?
Why ’natural’? The answer is very subtle. There are two types of freedom. One freedom is directed
against somebody. In that case it is self-willed and headstrong. This is not real freedom, for in it you
are obliged to take the opposite direction.
For example, the mind says, ’Be angry.’ Now if you want to do just the opposite of what the mind
tells you, you will say, ’No, I shall not be angry; rather, I shall be forgiving.’ The mind says, ’Kill!’ and
you will say, ’No! On the contrary, I will offer him my head to chop off.’
We do exactly the opposite of what the mind tells us – just as our sadhus generally do. The mind
says, ’Go and look for a woman.’ The sadhu runs away to the jungle. The mind says, ’Pursue wealth.’
The sadhu refuses to touch money. The mind says, ’Rest.’ The sadhu stands in the burning sun or
sleeps on a bed of nails. This is not true freedom, for you are still listening to the master, even if you
are going contrary to his directions. You do the opposite of what he says, which still leaves him the
master.
Understand this. It is a little complicated. The fight is still going on; it has not ended. Once you
are the true master, all fighting ends, for the slave is a slave and he is not worth fighting any more.
Imagine that a slave in your house becomes the master, and you sit or stand as he order you to. If
you decide not to obey him and to do just the opposite of what he says, he is still the master; for it
is he who motivates you. And if he is clever he might tell you to sit when he wants you to stand! You
cannot escape him.
Mulla Nasruddin had guests in his house and his little son was making a lot of noise. The Mulla told
him to keep quiet, but the more he told him, the more rowdy he became. Normally children tend to
become noisy in the presence of strangers in order to make their presence felt. It is a battle of the
egos – the parent versus the child.
At last the Mulla said, ”Look here! Do whatever you like. Now we shall see if you can disobey me!”
The child must have been puzzled.
If you go against the mind the natural freedom will not result. It is not freedom. The result is rebellion.
We are always tied to those we rebel against. We have relationship with the person we fight. We
The Great Path 116 Osho