Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 2. KRISHNA IS COMPLETE AND WHOLE
these are the two sides of the same coin. Such a person is God-like in the sense that we don’t
understand him, just as we don’t understand God. This person is as unknowable and as mysterious
as God himself. Despite our best efforts he, like God, ever remains to be known. And all such
people become objects of worship.
It is precisely for this reason that I chose Krishna for discussion. He is, in my view, the most relevant,
the most significant person in the context of the future. And in this regard, I would like to go into a
few things.
With the exception of Krishna, all the remarkable people of the world, the salt of the earth like
Mahavira, Buddha, and Christ, stood for some other world, for a life in some other world. They set
distant things like the attainment of heaven and liberation as goals for man’s life on this earth. In
their day, life on this earth was so miserable and painful it was nearly impossible to live. Man’s whole
past was so full of want and hardship, of struggle and suffering, that it was hard to accept life happily.
Therefore all the religions in the past denied and denounced life on this earth.
In the whole galaxy of religious luminaries Krishna is the sole exception who fully accepts the whole
of life on this earth. He does not believe in living here for the sake of another world and another life.
He believes in living this very life, here on this very earth. Where moksha, the freedom of Buddha
and Mahavira, lies somewhere beyond this world and this time – there and then – Krishna’s freedom
is here and now. Life as we know it never received such deep and unconditional acceptance at the
hands of any other enlightened soul.
In times to come there is going to be a considerable reduction in the hardship and misery of life in
this world and a corresponding increase in its comfort and happiness. And so, for the first time, the
world will refuse to follow those who renounced life. It is always an unhappy society that applauds
the creed of renunciation; a happy society will refuse to do so. Renunciation and escape from life
can have meaning in a society steeped in poverty and misery, but they hold no appeal for an affluent
and happy society. A man can very well tell an unhappy society that since there is nothing here
except suffering and pain, he is going to leave it – but he cannot tell the same thing to an affluent
society; there, it will make no sense.
Religions believing in renunciation will have no relevance in the future. Science will eliminate all
those hardships that make for life’s sufferings. Buddha says that life from birth to death is a suffering.
Now pain can be banished. In the future, birth will cease to be painful both for the mother and for the
child. Life will cease to be painful; disease can be removed. Even a cure for old age can be found,
and the span of life considerably lengthened. The life span will be so long that dying will cease to
be a problem; instead people will ask, ”Why live this long?”
All these things are going to happen in the near future. Then Buddha’s maxim about life being
an unending chain of suffering will be hard to understand. And then Krishna’s flute will become
significant and his song and dance will become alive. Then life will become a celebration of
happiness and joy. Then life will be a blossoming and a beauty.
In the midst of this blossoming the image of a naked Mahavira will lose its relevance. In the midst of
this celebration the philosophy of renunciation will lose its luster. In the midst of this festivity that life
will be, dancers and musicians will be on center-stage. In the future world there will be less and less
misery and more and more happiness. That is how I see Krishna’s importance ever on the ascent.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 21 Osho