From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 12. FAITH: THE SUICIDE OF INTELLIGENCE
But Rabindranath, being a very rich man’s son, was brought up in England, educated in England –
so it was easy for him. Although he himself never felt that what he has written in Bengali has really
been expressed in English, he still got the Nobel prize for one of his books, GITANJALI: an offering
of songs. While he was writing GITANJALI it was his usual practice to go on a small houseboat and
live on the river, moving alone, and wherever he liked he would stop the boat. Those were the days
when he would compose his poetry.
One full moon night he was writing about the full moon, the beauty of the full moon... sitting inside
the small room in the houseboat, not at all aware that outside the full moon was there. He was in
one of the best beauty spots of the river – for miles there was nothing but silence. Once in a while
a water fowl would disturb the silence, but after this disturbance, the silence would become even
deeper.
He was completely unaware; just by candlelight he was writing about the full moon, its beauties. In
the middle of the night, feeling tired, he blew out the candle, and as he blew out the candle – he
writes in his diary – ”a miracle happened. I was shocked, because as the candle was no longer
there, from every nook and corner....” The hut that was on the houseboat was made of bamboos as
they are in Bengal. So from every gap in the bamboo the moon started showering in.
For a moment he was struck dumb. He had never seen so much silence. He came out, he saw the
moon and he wept. He went back and tore up the poetry he had written about the moon and the light
of the moon and the beauty of it, and wrote in his diary: ”I was very unfair to the moon, to the silence
of the night. My poetry was just rubbish; it could not represent even a thousandth part. The moon
was outside just knocking on my door, but I was so much involved in writing my own book, I didn’t
hear the knock. I was talking about silence in my poetry and the silence was so profound outside
– I have never before come across such silence, nor since. I would have missed it if I had gone to
sleep without blowing the candle out. That small candlelight was enough to prevent the moon from
coming in.”
These people are full of books and words which are not their experiences. And unless something is
your experience, don’t go on deceiving yourself. Knowledgeability can be very deceptive; and these
religions are responsible for making people knowledgeable.
The religions should help people to become innocent, they should help them to become ignorant;
they should help them to enquire, search, seek.
But rather than that, they have given you everything, presented to you on a plate all the answers that
you have to find. And what you have lost in receiving their present, you are not even aware of.
You have lost everything.
You live a borrowed life because they have told you how to live. They have told you how to discipline
your life. They have told you how to control your behavior, your nature, and you have been blindly
following them, not understanding a simple principle: Gautam Buddha is born only once. For twentyfive
centuries millions of people have tried to become Gautam Buddha – not a single one has
succeeded.
From Ignorance to Innocence 161 Osho