From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 13. ECSTASY IS KNOWING THAT NOBODY IS HOLDING YOUR HAND
But no society calls God ”uncle”. It is strange, very strange, because uncle is an older word than
father. ”father” is not very old, it is a very late addition to language. The farther back you go, the more
you will find there were societies all over the world – just as it is in other animals, birds – where the
mother took care of everything. The father’s function was finished once the woman was pregnant.
In fact, in olden days it was difficult to know who was the father. So all the males of the age of the
probable father – somebody was the father – all the males of the probable age of the father were
called ”uncle”. So uncle is an older word, far more prestigious. Father only came later on when men
became very possessive of women.
It came with private property. The word ”father” is joined with private property. When people started
having private property – their land, their house – then they wanted to be certain about their son,
because he was going to inherit it. Then matrimony became the basic system: you had to marry
one woman, and the woman had to remain absolutely surrendered and committed to you so that
there was no possibility of her conceiving somebody else’s son, and his possessing your property.
This whole business of matrimony is a question of economics, not of psychology.
And man kept himself free. He created prostitutes and he created all kinds of ways to get out of
matrimony without disturbing the woman. But the woman had to remain absolutely dedicated to the
man – not only in life, but even in death.
In India the woman had to die with the husband; she had to jump, alive, into the funeral pyre where
her husband was being burned, because the husband was so jealous: ”What is the guarantee after
I am dead that my wife may not start having some relationship with somebody else?” And the basic
problem was that his property that he had accumulated – he had earned it, exploited for it, robbed
for it – should not go to somebody else; it should go to his own blood.
So if one day you find the father’s hand is missing, you start creating a fiction: God the father – who
is invisible of course – is holding your hand and He is leading you.
I told my grandfather, ”I don’t want to be left in the situation where I have to create a fiction to live in.
I want to live a real life, not a fictitious life. I am not a character in a novel. So you leave me alone,
let me fall. I will try to get up. You wait; you just watch, and that will be more compassionate towards
me than holding my hand.”
And he understood it; he said, ”You are right – one day I will not be there.”
It is good to fall a few times, get hurt, stand up again – to go astray a few times. There is no harm.
The moment you find you have gone astray, come back. Life has to be learned through trial and
error.
So the moment you start listening to the voices – and they are all recorded exactly as they were given
to you – you will be surprised when you try to hear who is speaking to you. You will simply laugh:
”Oh, this is my mother. I have not seen her for twenty years, and she is still trying to manipulate me.”
She may be dead, but from her grave she is still keeping her hand on your neck. Her intention is not
bad, but she is crippling you.
From Ignorance to Innocence 170 Osho