From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 6. RENUNCIATION: MORTGAGE TODAY FOR A TOMORROW THAT NEVER COMES
Because money really is meaningless if you don’t use it; its whole meaning is in its use. You may
have the same amount of money as I have but you can use it in such a way that you are richer than
me. The value of the money is in its use. Certainly those who know how to use money use it a
thousandfold more than those who don’t know. They have the same amount of money, but they are
poor.
Now this man was a poor man. Money was in the safe, money was in the banks, money was in
shares – but he was a poor man.
I asked him, ”There seems to be no reason for you now to go on earning; you have enough. If you
live even two hundred years, it will do. The miserly way you are living, it will do for two thousand
years... two hundred I am saying, if you live like me; otherwise two thousand, and still you may not
be able to spend it all. You may go on living just on the interest from it forever. Why are you so
worried?you cannot sleep well, you don’t have any time for anything – and have you ever thought
about how this disease happened to you, where you got this cancer?”
He said, ”I have never thought about it, but you are right. I have enough money, and I can live....
Certainly I am not going to live for two thousand years – even seventy or eighty will be enough.
My father died at seventy, his father died at seventy, so I cannot live more than seventy or perhaps
eighty years. Yes,” he said, ”this makes sense. But can you tell me why I am doing this?”
I said, ”For a simple reason: you have avoided women in your life.”
He said, ”But what have women and money to do with each other?”
I told him, ”That we will discuss later on, first you tell me why you avoid women.”
The reason was very simple. He had seen his grandfather being harassed, nagged continually,
tortured by his grandmother. He had seen his father in the same position, he had seen his uncles
in the same position. They were all miserable, and their misery he thought was caused by women.
He became a woman-hater from his very childhood. And then he came under the influence of the
Jaina monks, because his father was a very religious man.
People who are tortured by their wives become religious. Except for religion, there is no shelter for
them. Only religion can give them some consolation: ”Don’t be worried, it is only a question of a few
years. Next life, don’t commit the same mistake; and start withdrawing yourself even in this life. The
woman is powerful over you because you are sexually interested in women. It is your weakness that
she is exploiting.” And that’s what he heard from the Jaina monks. In Jainism, sex is the first thing to
be renounced, because with it many other things are renounced automatically; you need not work
at them separately: sex seems to be the main problem.
Seeing the situation of his grandfather, uncle, father, neighbors and then listening to the Jaina
monks, it became a decided thing in his mind that he was not going to get involved in this constant
headache. I told him, ”That’s from where your interest in money arises. The energy needs some
object, some infatuation.” And I told him, ”You may feel hurt, but I have to say it: I have seen you
counting notes, and the way you touch the notes looks as if you are touching your beloved.”
From Ignorance to Innocence 71 Osho