From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 4. DANGER: TRUTH AT WORK
But you become satisfied, and whenever somebody disturbs your satisfied state, you are angry. And
of course you have the majority of people with you. That helps you tremendously – so many people
cannot be wrong.
And truth never happens to crowds, it happens only to individuals.
Whenever truth comes, it comes in the vibe of an individual, so that individual is always standing
against the whole crowd.
Otherwise, the whole crowd is with you, because they have also been fed with the same kind of
stuff. The Catholics: how many are they? – perhaps six hundred million. Now, any Catholic has a
great consolation, that six hundred million people are with him. Six hundred million people cannot
be wrong. And against one person... naturally they feel that this person is a disturbance. It is better
to finish this person and go to sleep, back to their dreams.
It is not new to me. From my very childhood I have been in the same position. My father would take
me with him if he was going to some ceremony, some marriage, some birthday party, anywhere.
He would take me on the condition that I should remain absolutely silent, ”Otherwise, you please
remain at home.”
I would say, ”But why? Everybody is allowed to talk, except me!”
He said, ”You know, I know, and everybody knows why you are not allowed to talk – because you
are a disturbance.”
”But,” I said, ”in things which concern me, you promise me that you will not interfere with me, and
promise you that I will remain silent.”
And many times it happened that he had to interfere. For example, if some elderly man was there
– a faraway relative, but in India it doesn’t matter – my father would touch his feet, and would say,
”Touch his feet.”
I said, ”You are interfering with me, and our contract is finished. Why should I touch this old man’s
feet? If you want to touch them, you can touch them twice, thrice; I will not interfere, but why should
I touch his feet? Why not his head?”
And that was enough disturbance. Everybody would explain to me that he was old. I said, ”I have
seen many old people. Just in front of my house there is an old elephant; I never touch his feet. That
elephant belongs to a priest; it is a very old elephant. I never touch his feet, and he is very wise – I
think more wise than this old man. Just old age does not give him any quality. A fool remains a fool
– perhaps becomes more foolish as he becomes older. An idiot becomes more idiotic as he grows
old, because you cannot remain the same, you are going to grow. And the idiot, when he becomes
senile... then his idiocy is multiplied. And that is the time when he becomes very respectable. I am
not going to touch the feet of this old man unless it is proved to me why I should.”
Once I went to a funeral; one of my teachers had died. He was my Sanskrit teacher – a very fat
man, funny – looking, and funnily dressed in the way of old brahmins, ancient brahmins, with a very
From Ignorance to Innocence 48 Osho