The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 1. THE DARKNESS INSIDE
a Mohammedan, Jaina, or a Parsi, what would you do? You would grow up as a human being –
without any walls around you.
There are about three hundred religions in the world – three hundred prisons. Each man is made
to be locked up in one or the other prison as soon as he is born. And the priests try their best to
have their control lover the child as early as possible. They call it ”religious education,” but there is
nothing more irreligious than this. The child is caught young, before his is seven, because after that
it would be difficult each day to exercise control over the child. If the child were to gain even a little
bit of understanding, he will begin to raise questions. And the pundits have absolutely no answers
to the childs questions.
The pundit can satisfy only the idiots. The less intelligent a person is, the more quickly he is satisfied
by the pundit. He asks a question, and the answer is given to him. You ask a pundit, ”Who created
the world?” He answers, ”God created the world.” You come home happy and satisfied without asking
him, ”Who created God?” The pundit would have been annoyed had you asked this second question
because even he doesn’t know the answer to it. The answer is not given in the book. And it is a
bothersome question – who created God? You can go on and on asking questions on the same line
endlessly no matter what the answer may be.
If you look at it closely, you’ll find that your first question was not answered at all – the pundit
merely satisfied your curiosity. Seeing you are not so intelligent. Children are innocent. Their
faculties of reasoning and thinking are not developed as yet. They are not in a position to ask
questions. Whatever garbage you may dump into their brains, they will accept it. Children are open
to everything, because they feel whatever is given to them must be right. A child can’t raise many
questions. In order to raise a question one requires some degree of maturity. That’s why all religions
grab the children and virtually strangle their spirits.
This strangling looks very beautiful, very ornamental. One has the Bible hanging in his neck, another
his samayasar, while someone has the Koran in his neck, and someone else has the Geeta around
his neck. These ties are so endearing that it requires a tremendous courage for one to get rid of
them. And whenever you will try to drop them, one danger will come facing you: doing away with
these books would mean you know nothing, only the books contain all the knowledge. Hence you
become anxious to guard these scriptures with your life. This is the only way you can hide your
ignorance.
It would be a very simple matter if one could do away with his ignorance just by hiding it. The fact is,
ignorance grows more when you hide it. It is like hiding a wound. But hiding a wound won’t cure it;
instead, it will grow inside deeper and deeper. And the pus will spread throughout within the body.
Shiva says: KNOWLEDGE IS BONDAGE.
Any knowledge – whether learned from somebody or borrowed from somewhere – the knowledge
is the cause of bondage. Hence, drop all that which you have acquired from others. Go in search of
that which you have received from no one. Set out in search of the face that is authentically yours.
There is a spring of consciousness hidden within you, which no one has given to you. It is your very
own nature, your own treasure, your very soul.
The third sutra is: YONIVARGAHA KALASHARIRAM
The Great Path 19 Osho