From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 24. IMITATION IS YOUR CREMATION
And then I have put an ordinary man’s picture – anybody’s picture will do. That annoys them even
more.
But this world is strange. Sometimes things can happen which you had never expected or even
dreamed of Just the other day Sheela brought a letter from Punjab – because in Punjab there is
now great trouble. Hindus and Sikhas are continually fighting and killing each other. Thousands of
people have been killed within these two months.
In one small village there were two Sikhas, both our sannyasins, but the whole village was Hindu.
These two Sikhas were teachers in the school. The principal suggested to them, ”Don’t come out of
your home; and be careful, very careful because the whole village is mad. The whole of Punjab is
in madness, and you are only two – the crowd can kill you.”
And that day, the whole day the crowd was moving around the city to find some Sikh to kill. They
knew those two Sikhas were there, but where had they disappeared to? By the night as the sun set
and darkness came over, those two Sikhas thought the crowds must have disappeared. The whole
day they had been hiding in the house, so they thought to just come out for a little bit and breathe
fresh air.
When they came out, immediately – as if the crowd had been waiting, hiding just nearby, knowing
that they were hiding in the house – from both sides the crowd rushed towards them. One of them
escaped into a nearby forest; in the darkness it was difficult to find him. But the other one was
caught. He has written the letter to thank me, because when the crowd took hold of him, somebody
in the crowd said, ”This is not a Sikh, this is a Rajneeshee!” So they said, ”It is useless to kill this
man – he is no longer a Sikh.”
So he writes to me, ”Osho, you saved me; otherwise they would have cut me into pieces.” I have
never thought that somebody would be saved by me, but strange things in this world always happen!
This is simply a strange thing. You can be killed in my name, but you cannot be saved. It was a
strange situation: they were going to kill a Sikh, but seeing orange clothes and the mala and my
photo, they said, ”This man is already no longer a Sikh. To kill him is pointless.” And they left.
But basically I had put that picture there so that it hangs around your neck and irritates everybody,
and you cannot go anywhere without being noticed.
One of my sannyasins in Bombay... he took sannyas, and after two, three days he came back and
said, ”I am in a real trouble. Will you give sannyas to my wife too? I have brought her.”
I said, ”Why?”
He said, ”The problem is, wherever I go with her people say, ’What kind of sannyasin is this?
Sannyasins are not supposed to move around with women.’ And I cannot say that she is my wife,
because if I say that, they will kill me. A sannyasin having a wife? So it is very awkward; what to do?
It is better you give sannyas to her.”
I said, ”I will give sannyas to her but this won’t solve the problem. Try it.” I gave sannyas to his wife.
After two days he was back. He said, ”You were right. Yesterday in the train... It was a local train; he
From Ignorance to Innocence 348 Osho