The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 5. THE KNOWLEDGE THAT IS SELF KNOWLEDGE
on the piece of paper and you are getting great pleasure of reading poetry Vedas Upanishads. You
are being mesmerized by them. An illiterate man is amazed to see this.
Mulla Nasruddin was the only one in his village who could read and write. When there is only one
literate person it is difficult to judge whether he is really literate. Who can tell? One day an old
woman came to him and asked him to write a letter for her.
”I am sorry. I shall not be able to write it,” said Nasruddin. ”My foot is aching.”
”But how can your foot prevent you from writing?” the old woman demanded.
”Don worry about the detail. I say, my foot hurts and I cannot write your letter.”
But the woman was obstinate. ”I will not leave unless I know the truth. I may be illiterate, but I have
never heard that the pain in the foot has anything to do with writing a letter.”
”If you insist I will tell you,” said Nasruddin. ”Who will go to the next village to read the letter? It’s me!
I can write, but I am the only one who can read my writing. now my foot is hurting. I am not going to
write it!”
An uneducated person is amazed to see someone lost in the book. But anyone can be taught to
read; there is a method to it. You see your thoughts moving inside you, and another person can also
learn to see them. There is a method, an art but this art has nothing to do with religion. Just as
reading a book has nothing to do with religion, reading another person’s thoughts has nothing to do
with religion. These are the tricks of a juggler, a magician, and those who can perform them are not
those who have attained.
But you are bound to be impressed. You go to a monk and he calls you by your name. He says, ”You
come from such-and-such village, and there is a neem tree on the right corner of your yard.” You go
crazy! But what does the true saint have to do with knowing your name, your village, your house,
and even a neem tree? He is a saint who has realized that no one has a name, no one belongs to
a village. This name, this family, this village, all belong to the mundane world.
You are a worldly person, so the monk impresses you because he himself is more deeply involved
in the world. He has learned a greater art. He speaks without your asking. He wants to impress
you. Remember, as long as you want to impress someone, you are possessed by the ego. The soul
never wants to impress anybody; what is the point? It is like drawing a line on water.
What difference does it make to me whether ten thousand people are impressed by me or twenty
billion? What will I gain out of it? The desire to impress crowd of ignorant people only shows your
own ignorance. It only betrays my own ignorance. When a politician tries to impress people one can
understand it, but why should a religious person do this?
Know one thing for sure: whenever you try to impress others it shows that you are not established
within your soul; it shows that you are very much centered in the ego. Ego is nourished by influencing
others; it works like food for the ego. The more I am known, the greater is my ego. If the whole world
recognizes me, my ego becomes invincible. If I pass through a village and no one recognize me, no
The Great Path 94 Osho