From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 23. CONSCIENCE: A COFFIN FOR CONSCIOUSNESS
When the brother came to know, he came to apologize. He said, ”Instead of giving you a little
consolation, I have wounded you. I will never do such a thing again.”
His whole life van Gogh was just giving his paintings to friends: to the hotel where he used to eat
four days a week he would present a painting, or to a prostitute who had said once to him that he
was not a beautiful man. To be absolutely factual, he was ugly. No woman ever fell in love with him,
it was impossible.
This prostitute out of compassion – and sometimes prostitutes have more compassion than your socalled
ladies, they understand men more – just out of compassion she said, ”I like you very much.”
He had never heard this. Love was a far away thing. Even liking....
He said, ”Really, you like me? What do you like in me?” Now, the woman was at a loss.
She said, ”I like your ears. Your ears are beautiful.” And you will be surprised that van Gogh went
home, cut off his ears with a razor, packed them beautifully, went to the prostitute and gave his ears
to her. And blood was flowing....
She said, ”What have you done?”
He said, ”Nobody ever liked anything in me. And I am a poor man, how can I thank you? You liked
my ears; I have presented them to you. If you had liked my eyes, I would have presented my eyes
to you If you had liked me, I would have died for you.”
The prostitute could not believe it. But for the first time, van Gogh was happy, smiling; somebody
had liked at least a part of him. And that woman had just said jokingly – otherwise who bothers
about your ears? If people like something, they like your eyes, they like your nose, your lips – you
won’t hear lovers talking about each other’s ears, that they like them.
Only in ancient Hindu scriptures on sexology: the Kamasutras of Vatsayana.... That is the only book
I have been able to find that can be connected to this incident five thousand years afterwards with
Vincent van Gogh, because only Vatsayana says, ”Very few people are aware that ear lobes are
tremendously sexual and sensitive points in the body. And lovers should play with each other’s ear
lobes” – and this is a fact, although unknown.
If you start playing with the ear lobes of your lover, she or he may think that you are a little crazy
– what are you doing? Because people have become fixed on certain ideas: kissing is okay....
But there are tribes where nobody has ever heard about kissing; they rub noses with each other,
and that is thought to be the most loving gesture. Certainly it is more hygienic, far more medically
supportable than the French kiss.
Those people who rub noses think of people giving French kisses to each other as just dirty, simply
dirty.
But this prostitute perhaps was aware... because prostitutes become aware of many things which
ordinary women and men don’t become aware of, because they come in contact with so many
people. Perhaps she was aware that ears have a sexual significance. They certainly have.
From Ignorance to Innocence 326 Osho