The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. MAXIMS OF YOGA: A SENSE OF WONDER
One night Junnaid prayed to God: ”I want to know who is the greatest sinner in this village because
by studying him, by understanding him I will try to abstain from the sin. I will have a criterion that
here is the greatest sinner, I have to avoid this kind of life.” A voice said, ”Your neighbor.” Junnaid
was surprised. He had never imagined that his neighbor could be the greatest sinner. He was an
ordinary man, running his own small shop, how can he be the greatest sinner? He had thought that
the greatest sinner will be someone like Ravana [a mythological character who represents devil], the
greatest sinner will be someone devilish, a satan. This man is running a shop, rearing his children....
Junnaid was perplexed. He was an ordinary man, nobody would call him a sinner.
Next day while praying he said, ”O.K., I accept your decision. Now I want one more criterion: I want
to know about the greatest saint, a virtuous man in the village.” God said, ”The same man, your
neighbor.”
Junnaid said, ”You are confusing me. There is already great confusion in me. Yesterday I was
watching the man all day, I did not feel that he was a sinner. Now this adds to the confusion: he is a
virtuous man, too!”
The voice said, ”In my existence the opposites are interlinked. It is the intellect that splits them into
two. Here the greatest saint has a shadow. And here the greatest sinner has a glow on his face.
This very phenomenon makes it possible for a saint to become a sinner and a sinner to become a
saint. This transformation is possible so easily because both are hidden in one person.
Darkness and light are not separate. Day and night are interrelated. Logic creates fragments and
makes clear-cut paths. Logic is like a well-made, clean, cultivated garden. Life is like a forest;
nothing is clear in it. Everything is entangled there.
One who wants to understand life should have the capacity to avoid readymade answers. If you
cling to them, you feel secure because you feel reassured: Yes, I know! You feel confident and
courageous enough to tread the path of life. That’s why you are afraid of dropping knowledge. It is
very painful. If someone robs you of your wealth, it does not matter so much. You can earn it again.
And wealth was dirt. You knew that already. If you lose your position, you can take it in your stride.
You yourself can renounce it some day. But knowledge...!
I have observed a very interesting phenomenon. Somebody renounces his society, his village, his
house, his family but if he was Jaina he remains a Jaina in the Himalayas; if he was a Hindu he
remains a Hindu; if he was a Mohammedan he remains a Mohammedan. It is the same society that
he has renounced, that had given him this Mohammedan conditioning: that Koran is a true scripture,
all other scriptures are false. He gives up everything but saves his knowledge even in the Himalayas.
Nothing has changed in this man’s life because he still believes in knowledge.
If you drop knowledge, the Himalayas will appear wherever you are. The Himalayas will appear
wherever you are. The Himalayas signify that which is mysterious; where there are high mountain
peaks, you cannot scale them; and where there are unfathomable valleys, you will not be able to
explore them; which transcends all our measures.
The sense of wonder means: where your intellect fails, where your ego is crippled, where you
become helpless. You may laugh or cry there but you cannot utter a word.
The Great Path 51 Osho