The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 3. MAXIMS OF YOGA: A SENSE OF WONDER
If you take a close look at Ganesha’s structure, you will find that everything is shapeless in every
way. Even his head does not belong to him, it is borrowed. A logician has a borrowed head. It is
quite big, it’s an elephant’s head, but it is not his own. A borrowed head is useless, even if it belongs
to the elephant. It will only make you look ugly. His body is bulky; rides a rat. This body of his is just
a show-piece; his vehicle is a rat. However great a scholar may be, his vehicle is a rat – a pair of
scissors: logic! Farid said it rightly, ”If you want to present something, bring a needle and a thread
because I believe in sewing.”
Transcendental logic is an art of synthesizing. The Sanskrit word ”VITARKA” means a special logic.
Common logic analyses, special logic synthesizes. Buddha, Mahavir, Shiva, Lao Tzu – they all use
logic, but it is a specialized logic.
There is one more kind of logic, which is a logical fallacy. There arr three possibilities. Logic
fragments, analyses; but its intentions are not bad. The wonder has to be resolved. It is not
interested in analyzing. Analysis is the process. It aims at achieving a doctrine which will dissolve
the surprise, things will become crystal clear. The aim of logic is constructive.
When logic has no goal, only scissoring becomes the aim, it enjoys being destructive, then it is
called ”KUTARKA” logical fallacy. It is an insane state of logic. It becomes mad, it is bent upon
destroying. Then there is no other motive, destruction gives pleasure.
Vitatka, special logic is an inward journey of logic. You have come home from your house; your eyes,
your vision, your direction was focussed on me, towards me. You turned your back to your home.
When you will go back home, the road will be the same – in what way the road could be different? –
only the direction will change. You will turn you back towards me and you will face your home.
Logic and special logic tread the same road; that’s why it is called special logic. The road is the
same, only the direction has changed. First logic was moving towards the other, towards the object;
now the logic is moving towards the self, towards home. Just a change in the direction changes the
total quality. When it had to move outwards, destruction was the way. If you want to enter the other,
it could only be done by analyzing, there is no other way.
If you go to the medical college, you will find the students dissecting. They are dissecting the frog
because they have to know what is inside. There is no other way, one can know the insides of a
frog by dissecting. it. But if you have to enter within yourself, there is no need to dissect. You are
present inside! If you want to know the other, you will have to dissect him, destroy him because
there is no other way of knowing him. If you want to know yourself, there is no question of dissecting
or destroying because you are already there! If you want to know yourself, just closing your eyes
is enough. Closing one’s eyes is meditation. When the attention is withdrawn from outside and
focussed inside, logic becomes transcendental.
The other name for vitark is vivek, or consciousness. It really means awareness. This awareness is
a process of synthesis. As you go within you, you start becoming integrated. For example: imagine
a circle with a wide circumference. Now take two points, far apart on the circumference. Join each
to the point at the center of the circle. You will find that as the lines approach the center, they come
closer and closer to each other, until they are one at the center. Now if these two lines are extended
further outside the circumference, they will be further and further apart, until the distance between
them becomes infinite.
The Great Path 57 Osho