From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 16. LET’S NOT FACE IT – YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY ALONE
again and again to see whether the sun has set or not? That old man is getting you also lost, utterly
lost.”
I was very sad because I only came across the book ZORBA THE GREEK, when my grandfather
was dying. The only thing that I felt at his funeral pyre was that he would have loved it if I had
translated it for him and read it for him. I had read many books to him. He was uneducated. He
could only write his signature, that was all. He could neither read nor write – but he was very proud
of it.
He used to say, ”It is good that my father did not force me to go to school, otherwise he would have
spoiled me. These books spoil people so much.” He would say to me, ”Remember, your father is
spoiled, your uncles are spoiled; they are continually reading religious books, scriptures, and it is all
rubbish. While they are reading, I am living; and it is good to know through living.”
He used to tell me, ”They will send you to the university – they won’t listen to me. And I cannot be
much help, because if your father and your mother insist, they will send you to the university. But
beware: don’t get lost in books.”
He enjoyed small things. I asked him, ”Everybody believes in God, why don’t you believe, baba?” I
called him baba; that is the word for grandfather in India.
He said, ”Because I am not afraid.”
A very simple answer: ”Why should I be afraid? There is no need to be afraid; I have not done any
wrong, I have not harmed anybody. I have just lived my life joyously. If there is any God, and I meet
Him sometime, He cannot be angry at me. I will be angry at Him:’Why have You created this world?
– this kind of world?’ I am not afraid.”
When he was dying I asked him again, because the doctors were saying that it was a question of
only a few minutes. His pulse was getting lost, his heart was sinking, but he was fully conscious. I
asked him, ”Baba, one question....”
He opened his eyes and said, ”I know your question: why don’t you believe in God? I knew that you
were going to ask this question when I was dying. Do you think death will make me afraid? I have
lived so joyously and so completely, there is no regret that I am dying.
”What else am I going to do tomorrow? I have done it all, there is nothing left. And if my pulse is
slowing down and my heartbeat is slowing down, I think everything is going to be perfectly okay,
because I am feeling very peaceful, very calm, very silent. Whether I die completely or live, I cannot
say right now. But one thing you should remember: I am not afraid.”
You tell me, The moment I think of dropping the idea of God, fear comes up. It is a simple indication
that with the rock of the idea of God, you are repressing fear; so the moment you remove the rock,
the fear springs up.
I had a teacher in my high school days who was a very learned brahmin of the place. Almost the
whole city respected him. He used to live behind my house, and a small path by the side of my
From Ignorance to Innocence 220 Osho