From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 10. GOD – THE NOBODY EVERYBODY KNOWS
In Buddhist scriptures there are so many incidents described. A mad elephant was released towards
Buddha to kill him. The mad elephant had killed many people; whoever came in his way, he finished
them. He was kept in chains by the king, just for the simple purpose of killing criminals.
The whole royal family, their advisors and their ministers, would sit on the balconies of the palace
and enjoy the game. Down on the ground the criminal would be standing; the elephant would be
brought in and his chains taken away. He would rush immediately towards the man who would
run and scream; and all those people would enjoy it, just as you enjoy a bullfight or Mohammed
Ali’s boxing. All these are of the same type, there is not much difference: what you are enjoying is
violence. But the elephant was bound to kill him – where could he escape?
This elephant was sent to kill Buddha, but even the mad elephant recognized, when he saw Buddha,
that this man was finished with all his karmas; you could not hurt him – rather this was an opportunity
to touch his feet and to earn some good karma for your future life. So he touched Buddha’s feet and
sat down there. The king could not believe his eyes. They had all followed what had happened, so
they asked Buddha, ”Only you can say what happened.”
He said, ”Nothing special. The elephant is wiser than you. He can see that all my karmas are
finished and I have no more to suffer, my accounts are closed, the balance sheet is complete –
whatever I have done, I have suffered for it, and I am completely clean. Seeing this, the elephant
thought,’Why miss this opportunity? Where will I find such a man?’ So he is touching my feet to
be blessed. In fact he is already blessed; he has already gained enough virtue – he will be born in
his future life as a great buddha. He will become enlightened himself, because if he can recognize
a Buddha even in madness, then he is not identified with his madness. He is still aware that he is
different.”
Now, do you think Buddhists will accept Jesus, the image of God, being crucified? Even an elephant
can see when a Buddha is there; yet those thousands of Jews were there and nobody could see,
not a single person, that this man was the image of God and you should not destroy him. It is just
your conditioning... otherwise no other religion is going to accept Jesus in any way.
He is mixing with people – Mahavira will not allow his monks to mix, what to say of Mahavira himself
Jesus is mixing with gamblers, prostitutes, thieves – the lowest strata of society. Mahavira will not
allow it, Buddha will not allow it. And why is he mixing with those people? – because nobody
else is ready to mix with him. The high classes, the richer classes, the educated and cultured and
sophisticated people were not ready even to mix with this carpenter’s son-uneducated, a village idiot
– who was declaring himself son of God.
Only one time had a professor come to him, and that too, in the middle of the night. He was a rabbi
and a known professor, Nicodemus. He had come in the night when there was nobody around and
all the apostles had fallen asleep. Jesus was doing his last prayer before he went to sleep. In the
dark came this very respected, rich rabbi, a professor in the university, and he introduced himself
Jesus said, ”Why don’t you come in the day? It is the middle of the night; I was just going to sleep. I
have just finished my last prayer.”
Nicodemus said, ”In the day I cannot come because people will see that I associate with a man like
you. I have heard about you so much that curiosity has brought me here, but in the day I cannot
From Ignorance to Innocence 129 Osho