From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 29. POSITIVE THINKING: PHILOSOPHY FOR PHONIES
And Gomorrah – just the sound of the name is enough to give you an idea what else must have been
happening there – homosexuality, sodomy, other kinds of perversions. I have always wondered why
people have missed on this name Gomorrah; it is so phonetically connected with some sexual
perversion. God had to destroy both cities completely.
God could not take it positively
God has never taken anything positively, otherwise why is there hell?
If God takes things positively then criminals He will just hug and kiss and say, ”Come on, boys! I was
just waiting for you. This paradise is yours because I take things positively. I have read the books
of Norman Vincent Peale.” But he goes on throwing people in hell. Mother Teresa seems to be very
anti-God. But all these religions are in a contradiction.
Here they go on saying one thing, and there they go on saying, ”You will be punished. Each sin will
be counted, calculated. And you cannot hide anything from God; He will read you just like an open
book – there is no way to hide – and accordingly you will be judged.” So Christians have judgment
day... if God believes in the philosophy of positive thinking, then what is the need of a judgment day?
All are to be forgiven, and whatsoever they have done has to be looked at positively. Then what
is the need of a day of judgment? Saints and sinners will be the same, they will receive the same
welcome – but that creates trouble.
That is why nobody has raised this question: What about God and His philosophy? If you say that
God is going to forgive everybody, then sainthood loses all charm. Then who is going to suffer all
the austerities and fasts and prayers, and renounce all the pleasures of life – knowing perfectly well
that those who are having all the pleasures here on earth will again have the same pleasures that
you will have in heaven? So you are a loser!
And perhaps because your whole life you denied yourself pleasures, you may not be able to enjoy
them, because you will be so inhibited that when beautiful girls in the Hindu paradise appear dancing
before you.... The saints are certainly bound to close their eyes, just out of habit of millions of lives
– for Hindus it is a question of millions of lives.
Gandhi used to have three monkeys just by his side on the table. They were presented to him by a
Japanese saint; in fact, four were presented, but the fourth has been missing from all the pictures.
When I went to Gandhi’s ashram I asked his son Ramdas, ”Where is the fourth monkey?”
He said, ”How did you come to know about the fourth monkey? – because when they came, all
four were joined together, they were not separate, and immediately the fourth was separated and
destroyed. How did you come to know? – because this thing happened long ago.”
I said, ”I am really an explorer of strange things. Tell me about the fourth.”
”But,” he said, ”it has been completely destroyed. How did you...? Who told you?” – because except
Gandhi, Ramdas, his son, and Ba, his mother, nobody knew about it. ”We opened the parcel, and
we destroyed the fourth.”
I said, ”That’s okay. I was also present.”
From Ignorance to Innocence 434 Osho