From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 8. GOD IS NOT A SOLUTION BUT A PROBLEM
move towards someone: it was for her to choose anybody she wanted. Or, if she was worried that
on what criterion... it was a difficult job: a hundred princes were there, and they were all beautiful
and from royal families, and young and strong. It was not easy to choose just like that, and it was
not something that tomorrow you could reject.
In India it is not only a life-long affair, it is going to be for many lives. It is really a great burden on the
mind of the girl... how to choose? So she can take the help of God in a certain way. Some device
can be managed: that whosoever solves this puzzle will be the person she will choose. Now she is
leaving it to God – it is easier, in wiser hands.
In Sita’s Swayamvar, the device was a bow of the Lord Shiva, which was given to Sita’s father
because he was a devotee of Shiva. The bow was so heavy – of course, it was a god’s bow – that
even to take it up needed a superman. An ordinary man would not be able even to move it; and to
use it – that was something almost impossible.
There was a fish, an artificial fish hanging from the ceiling, and on the ground there was a small
pond which reflected the fish. You had to look in the pond at the reflection, and with Shiva’s bow and
arrow you had to shoot the fish above you – a great warrior was needed. First, the problem was how
to lift up the bow. Even if you managed to lift it, then the problem was how to use it; it was not an
ordinary bow. And then the puzzle was that you had to look at the reflection in the water and shoot
the fish, which, like the reflection, was moving – it was on a wheel.
The whole country was agog. All the great warriors and kings – they all gathered there. Ravana
was one of the greatest warriors of those days. He was the king of Sri Lanka and there was every
chance that he would win the contest because he was also a devotee of Shiva, perhaps a greater
devotee than Sita’s father. His devotion to Shiva was such, so the story says, that when Shiva was
not listening to him, Ravana said, ”If you don’t listen to me, then I will cut off my head and put it at
your feet. What more sacrifice do you want?” – and he did cut off his own head and put it at Shiva’s
feet. Of course more sacrifice is impossible.
Even this is a strange story – how can you cut off your own head, and then put it at Shiva’s feet?
How will you manage to find where Shiva’s feet are? – your head is cut off, your eyes are gone!
But that’s the story – he managed it. Shiva was very happy with him and said, ”Because you have
done something which nobody has ever done, I give you something which has never been given to
anybody: you will have ten heads. Because you have sacrificed one, I will give you ten heads. And
any enemy cutting off one of your heads will not be able to kill you – immediately another head will
grow. Your ten heads will remain ten.”
This man with his ten heads was coming to the swayamvar. There was every fear that... and he
must have been the ugliest man; even one head is enough – but ten heads! Everybody was afraid
that he was coming and there was every chance that he would take up this bow; there seemed to be
nothing to prevent him. Rama was also participating as a prince of Ayodhya. He was a young man,
very young, and it was not known that he was a great warrior or anything. There was no possibility
for him to win the contest.
So the sages who wanted Rama to win the contest and get married to Sita arranged a conspiracy so
that when Ravana goes to pick up the bow, a man comes running and tells him that, ”Your capital”
From Ignorance to Innocence 104 Osho