From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 27. BAPTISM: WADING FOR GODOT
I have heard that when Stalin died.... Stalin remained in power perhaps more than anybody else in
the whole world. Alexander the Great died very young; he was thirty-three, the same age as Jesus
was when he died. Napoleon Bonaparte died on a small island, Saint Helena, as a prisoner. Adolf
Hitler committed suicide.
Stalin seems to be the only man in the whole of history who ruled over the biggest of empires –
because Russia is one sixth of the whole earth – for almost half a century. He had all the powers
that you can imagine. He killed millions of people. Nobody could even raise a finger, because the
moment you raised a finger against Stalin, the next day you disappeared.
When he died Khrushchev came to power, his second man, his very right hand. And at the first
communist party meeting he spoke against Stalin. He said, ”I have been watching all these years
what this man has been doing. He has brought the classes back; only the name has changed.
There are powerful people and there are powerless people, and the distance between them is the
same as it was before. In fact the distance has increased, it has become bigger, tremendously big”
– because in a capitalist country a poor man has every chance to move into a higher society.
Henry Ford was not born rich, and he became the richest man in the world, just through his own
talent, his genius. When he was a child he used to polish boots for people. And when his children
were born, he was already moving higher and higher, becoming richer and richer. When they came
from college he said, ”First, you start polishing people’s shoes in front of the factory” – where he
created the Ford cars – ”in front of the doors you start polishing shoes.”
They were shocked. They said, ”What are you saying? We are your sons and we should polish the
shoes of your servants, your workers?”
Henry Ford said, ”That’s the way I made it, and I would not like you to just inherit capital; that is
below your dignity. You are a Ford. You have to earn it, you have to show your mettle.” And you will
be surprised – his sons had to polish people’s shoes in front of Ford’s own factory. That man was
absolutely right: those people, starting from the very scratch, became rich in their own right. And
Ford said, ”Now everything of mine belongs to you. You deserve it.” But just being a son of Henry
Ford was not enough.
In a capitalist society it is difficult for a poor man to rise, but it is not impossible. In fact rich people’s
children, because they are born in riches, don’t know how to create wealth, and slowly, slowly their
wealth disappears. By the third or fourth generation you will find them on the streets amongst the
hippies. The poor man’s son knows what poverty is; it hurts. He puts his total energy, all his talents
to work. His only focus becomes how to get out of this imprisonment of poverty.
Yes, it is difficult, but not impossible. In fact, the richest people of the world come from poor families.
But in a communist world it is almost impossible to enter into the elite few. It is almost impossible.
First, to become a member of the communist party in Russia is very difficult.
Russia is not like other countries where you pay a little money and you become a member of the
republican party or the democratic party, the liberal party or the socialist party. In Russia, to become
a member of the communist party you have to prove that you are a communist every inch, that
there is not even a lurking shadow of the bourgeoisie. And that you have to start proving from your
From Ignorance to Innocence 399 Osho