From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 12. FAITH: THE SUICIDE OF INTELLIGENCE
but the Vedas were not published. It was with great difficulty that the Vedas were published. Then
they started saying that they should not be translated into another language, because then all their
holiness would be gone. So it took centuries of fighting to translate them, but the brahmins still
believe that the translations have lost the quality of holiness. How can the Vedas be written in
English or in German or in French? These languages, for the Hindus, are not divine.
But the same is the case with other fools – they are not different in their foolishness. For the Jews,
Hebrew is the language of God. When He spoke to Moses He spoke in Hebrew. One of the sins of
Jesus was that he was using Aramaic, not Hebrew. Aramaic was the language of the lowest class of
people and he was a carpenter’s son, not God’s only begotten son; otherwise he must have known
Hebrew. Even with God he was talking in Aramaic, and this was an unholy act – to use the language
of ordinary people.
So I told Doctor Bhattacharya, ”I understand your question; it is stupid, but it is scholarly.”
He said, ”Stupid and scholarly both?” I said, ”There is no contradiction. These people are the same
people. Some people call them stupid, some people call them scholars, because other than a stupid,
who is going to become a scholar? For what?
”When existence is available, when life is everywhere vibrant, you are pondering over a book!”
I am reminded... but of that a little later on. First let me finish with Professor Bhattacharya. I told
him, ”Yes, you can make a distinction between holy language and unholy language.” You should
not be deceived by the name of Professor Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya is a surname of high class
brahmins in Bengal, but his father was a beggar, so he became converted to Christianity. And it
was through Christianity that this man was brought up in convent schools, sent to the best colleges,
sent to the West. He was a Christian, so I told him, ”It is simply like this: ordinary people say,’You
son-of-a-bitch.’”
He said, ”You are calling me that?”
I said, ”No, I am not calling you that, I am simply giving you an example. People say,’You son-ofa-bitch.’
This can be translated into holy language:’You son-of-the-Holy Ghost’ – only this much
difference. But I think the first is at least human, true, possible. The second is inhuman, untrue,
impossible.”
Now, let me tell you what I was reminded of... One of India’s greatest poets was Rabindranath
Tagore. He is the only Indian poet who got the Nobel prize. The reason is not that there are not
other poets; in fact there are many who are far greater than Rabindranath Tagore, but they write in
their own languages.
India has thirty major languages of such tremendously beautiful qualities that they cannot manage
to translate them into English. Rabindranath got the Nobel prize for the simple reason that he wrote
in English. In the beginning he would write in Bengali, then he would translate it into English – just
for that simple reason.
Otherwise in India right now you can find one hundred poets who deserve the Nobel prize, but
nobody will ever hear their names, for the simple reason that the Nobel prize is not available for
these languages in which they are writing.
From Ignorance to Innocence 160 Osho