The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 10. THE ETERNAL SPRING
Therefore understand what mantra is. The definition of mantra is: that which destroys the head so
that the mind is no more. There is a method for cutting through the layers of the body and of the
mind. It is very necessary to go step by step; you have to exercise the utmost patience. It is a
method that demands immense patience. Impatient people will not only not benefit from mantra, but
they will quite possibly harm themselves. Understand this will. As it is you have troubles enough?
Mantra will just be an added problem for you if you are impatient.
Once, during my travels when the train stopped at a station, there was a man selling toys and
shouting himself hoarse: ”This toy is unbreakable. No child can possibly break it!” It looked at the
toy; it appeared to be quite strong and it was very costly. It immediately thought of Mulla Nasruddin’s
son. Mulla’s wife was always complaining that he broke his toys before he even got them home, so
I bought the toy and took it to Nasruddin’s house and left it for the child.
A week later I went to visit them again. No sooner had I entered the Mulla’s wife said, ”We are in a
terrible fix.”
”What happened,” I asked. ”Has your son broken the toy?”
”No,” she answered, ”In trying to break it he has broken all his other toys. Not only that, he has
smashed every mirror in the house with it, and now we have to do something to save ourselves from
this deadly weapon.”
As it is you are already in a state of madness. Mantra can destroy the craziness, but there is also
the danger of its getting worse. As it is you are already burdened in life, and mantra may just bring
an additional burden. This offers and explanation for something very curious; those people whom
we generally take to be religious often look more troubled than the worldly men. The worldly man
carries his worldly troubles. The religious man has the same worldly troubles, but to this he has
added another – his religion. His mind retains all its old activities and this becomes something
additional; he becomes even busier.
Mantra requires that you have the utmost patience; otherwise, do not dabble in it. It has to be used
like medicine. You don’t consider drinking the whole bottle in one swallow. That won’t cure anyone;
it might kill him. The action of mantra is very subtle, so it requires homeopathic doses. The first
requirement is patience, great patience. Do not expect quick results; the fruits of mantra ripen very
slowly. It is not an annual plant which you can expect to flower soon after planting; it takes numerous
birth for the flowers to come. Though it appears difficult to understand, the more patient you are the
sooner the flowers cone, and the more impatient you are, the greater the delay.
A man was walking along the read in great pain for his shoes were too small for his feet. He was
swearing at the shoes and greatly upset. Nasruddin happened to pass by. He said, ”Where did you
ever buy such narrow shoes?” The man was already in a bad mood, and Nasruddin’s question just
made his blood boil.
”Where did I buy them, you ask? I plucked them off a tree!”
”Well,” said Nasruddin, ”you should have waited a little and allowed the tree to mature; then they
would have fit your feet. You broke off an unripe branch.”
The Great Path 176 Osho