The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. MAXIMS OF YOGA: A SENSE OF WONDER
The gambler went to the joint. And he was amazed! He started winning every game. One became
one thousand, one thousand were converted into ten thousand which became a hundred thousand
eventually. At the end he staked those hundred thousand and said, ”Now this is the last chance.”
And he lost everything! He returned home. His wife asked, ”What happened?”
He said, ”I lost that last one too!”
You can lose only that which you had brought with you. Why talk about thousands? He said: ”I have
lost one rupee. It does not matter. That stake was unfortunate.” But he did not tell her that he had
made one hundred thousand. He was right. You cannot lose that which does not belong to you. At
the time of death you will find that you have lost the soul that you had brought with you. You will be
deprived of ’one’. That’s all! All your calculations of credit and debit, your losses and gains are of no
value. The millions that you have won, will be dropped here at the time of your death. Only ’one’ will
be taken into account; and that one is – ”YOU.” If you establish in the ’one’, you are a winner. If you
return to the ’one’, settle in it... Shiva is talking about this very phenomenon: TO BE ESTABLISHED
IN ONESELF IS STRENGTH.
You are weak and wretched and miserable – not because you don’t have money or house or wealth.
You are wretched and miserable because you are not established in yourself. To be established in
oneself is the source of energy. The moment one is established in it, one is flooded with tremendous
energy.
Someone asked Jesus: ”What should I do? I am very poor, sickly and miserable. Jesus said,
”Don’t do anything else, first seek the kingdom of God, all else will follow. If you lose ’one’, you
lose everything. That ’one’ is none other than you, and that alone is your treasure because you had
brought it with you. And in the final calculation you will be asked, whether you could save that which
you brought with you or you have lost that, too!
TO BE ESTABLISHED IN ONESELF IS STRENGTH. To settle in oneself is to become immensely
powerful. You already have that immense power within you, but you are like a bucket with thousands
of holes. If you put the bucket in the well, it appears to be full. As long as the bucket is immersed in
the water, it looks full; the moment you start pulling the bucket and it starts rising above the waterlevel,
the water starts leaking through thousands of holes. When the bucket is drawn completely out
of the well, there is nothing left inside.
Your thousands of desires are your holes. Your energy dissipates through them. As long as you
are dreaming, the bucket is full. As long as you desire, the bucket is full. The moment the desire
becomes action, you start pulling the bucket up; the moment you try to make the dreams come true,
the energy starts leaking. By the time you take the bucket out, you are faced with nothing but holes,
with no water at all. You remain as thirsty as ever. Every time you draw the bucket, it makes lots of
noise in the well. You feel you are getting some water, as if a great storm is coming. But nothing
comes actually. You remain empty handed. However, desire is very strange.
A traveler enquired of a fisherman how many fish he could catch. The sun was about to set, he had
put his fishing rod in the water since morning. This passer by had passed through that road several
times and had noticed it. At lost he could not contain himself, so he asked: ”How many have you
caught?” The fisherman answered: ”If I catch this one I am trying to catch, and if I am able to catch
The Great Path 55 Osho