The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 9. RIGHT SEARCH, WRONG DIRECTION
The body belongs to you, but the body is not you. You are in the body, but you are not only the body.
It is the first layer, but you have identified with it over innumerable births. It has, so to say, become
your twin brother, and you find it difficult to tell one from the other. You cannot distinguish between
the two faces. Moreover, the world outside knows you by your physical appearance, for they only
see the body. They consider the form of your body to be your form. Now, since you are only one
against the collective opinion of all the others, you are naturally influenced by them. If your body is
ugly they call you ugly. If your body is beautiful they call you beautiful. If the body is old they tell you
that you are old. Now, this collective opinion gives strength to your belief that you are the body, for
no one can see the soul that is you.
There is a very old story from the Upanishads:
King Janak once called a meeting of all the wisemen of his kingdom. Invitations were sent to all
those who were considered well-versed in spiritual knowledge. The idea was that these luminaries
would engage in discussing spiritual matters with a view to discovering the supreme truth. As you
would expect, only the most eminent scholars were invited: those who had written scriptures, those
who had taken part in religious conferences and who were expert in the art of debating. There was
one such person who was deliberately left out. He was Ashtavakra. He was so named because his
body was bent in eight places. His appearances was ugly and repulsive. How could so distorted a
form belong to a man of spiritual knowledge? However, his father was invited.
For some reason, Ashtavakra had to go to Janak’s court to see his father. When he entered he
found a conference of the wise in congress. As soon as he appeared, these people forgot their
wisdom and burst out laughing at the sight of him. Indeed, he was a funny sight. His walk, his
speech, everything about him evoked laughter. He should have been a clown in a circus. He was a
caricature of a man. When Ashtavakra saw how these noble scholars were laughing he too began
to laugh. He laughed so loud that all the rest fell silent.
They could not understand why he should laugh so. At last Janak asked him”I can understand why
these people laughed, Ashtavakra, but I cannot understand why you laughed.”
”You have taken this conference to be a conference of the wise, but I see only dealers in skins and
hides gathered here,” said Ashtavakra. ”They can see only as far as the skin and no further. Their
knowledge is limited to the body. Here I am, the most upright and straight in this room, but they see
only my mutilated body. These are the mutilated people, Oh King! If you want to get knowledge out
of them you are trying to get oil out of sand. If you want knowledge come to me.”
Ashtavakra was absolutely right, for the physical eyes see only the external form.
You are also plagued by the external eyes, for all around there are eyes and eyes... that look at
you. They decide for you whether you are ugly or beautiful. Their sin is so great, so loud are they,
that you are helpless. You stand alone; the whole world is on the other side. If you give in it is no
surprise. It is only natural that you should believe ’I am the body’. It would be a wonder of wonders
if you could tear yourself away from the eyes around you and recognize the fact that you are not the
body.
To be liberated from society means only this. It does not mean running to the Himalayas, it means
to be liberated from the eyes of the crowd that surrounds you. It is very difficult, for when an untruth
The Great Path 163 Osho