25.03.2013 Views

The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

CHAPTER 3. MAXIMS OF YOGA: A SENSE OF WONDER<br />

surrounds us all, science is created. Science is born out of astonishment. Astonishment means, it<br />

has embarked on the outward journey.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re is one more difference between wonder and astonishment: if we are surprised by something,<br />

sooner or later we will be fed up with that surprise, because surprise creates tension; hence the<br />

effort of destroying that which surprises us. Science is born out of this surprise. <strong>The</strong>n it destroys<br />

the surprise. It tries to find interpretations, doctrines, formulas, keys and it does not rest assured<br />

till it destroys the mystery, till it is in possession of knowledge, till science can claim: ”Yes, I have<br />

understood!”<br />

Science is bent upon eradicating the element of astonishment from the world. If it succeeds in<br />

achieving that, there will not be a single thing on earth that man cannot boast of not knowing. It<br />

means, this world will be godless, because God means that which we cannot claim to know even if<br />

we have known him. We may know him but he remains unknowable. We may go on deepening our<br />

knowledge of him, he cannot be exhausted. We are in the state of eternal wonder about him.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are some objects which have be<strong>com</strong>e known to us. We can call them, the known. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />

some other objects which we do not know but we will know them. Let us call them, the unknown.<br />

And the existence also consists of such objects which we have never known and about which we<br />

will never be able to know. We will call them, the unknowable. God is unknowable. This is the third<br />

element. Science does not accept God because it says that nothing is unknowable in the world. We<br />

may have not known it up to now, maybe we did not try hard enough, but sooner or later we will<br />

know. Some day we will know the world <strong>com</strong>pletely; nothing will remain unknown in it.<br />

Science is born out of astonishment and then it begins to destroy the astonishment. <strong>The</strong>refore, I<br />

call science patricidal: it tries to kill that which created it. Religion is just the opposite. Religion is<br />

also born out of a certain astonishment; this sutra calls it, ”sense of wonder.” <strong>The</strong> only difference is:<br />

when a religious seeker is filled with wonder, he does not set out on the outer journey, he goes on<br />

an inner pilgrimage. Whenever some kind of mystery envelops him, he starts thinking about himself:<br />

I must know who I am.<br />

If the mystery be<strong>com</strong>es introspective, and the search and the journey is directed inwards, the arrow<br />

of the seeking points towards the self, the attention is totally absorbed by the thirst to know our own<br />

reality – then it is wonder.<br />

And the second point to be understood is that the sense of wonder is inexhaustible. <strong>The</strong> more we<br />

know, the more it increases. That’s why wonder is contradictory. As a rule, the sense of wonder<br />

should disappear the moment we <strong>com</strong>e to know something. But Buddha or Krishna or Shiva or<br />

Christ do not lose their sense of wonder. When they attain the ultimate consciousness, their sense<br />

of wonder be<strong>com</strong>es ultimate! At that time they do not say that they have known everything, they say<br />

that after knowing everything everything remains to be known.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Upanishads have said, ”Even if you extract the whole from the whole, the whole remains.” Even<br />

if you know the whole, the whole remains to be known. <strong>The</strong>refore spiritual knowledge does not<br />

nourish the ego, scientific knowledge nourishes the ego. Spiritual knowledge will never make you<br />

a knower; you will always remain humble. And the more you know, the more you will feel, ”I do not<br />

know anything.” At the highest peak of knowledge you will be able to say, ”I know nothing.” At the<br />

moment of ultimate knowledge the whole existence fills you with a sense of wonder.<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>Great</strong> <strong>Path</strong> 45 Osho

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!