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

CHAPTER 2. KRISHNA IS COMPLETE AND WHOLE
If we understand rightly we will see that the individual, the ego, the I begins with giving up, with
renunciation. As soon as we renounce something I-ness into being. There is no way for me, for the
ego to be if we don’t give up anything.
It is difficult to find a more egoless person than Krishna. He is utterly egoless. And because he
has no ego whatsoever, he can, with utmost ease, say things that sound egoistic. He tells Arjuna,
”Give up everything and surrender to me, come to my feet.” This seems to be a statement of great
egoism. What greater egoistic statement can there be than to say, ”Give up everything and come to
my feet”? It is ironic that this statement, which seems so obviously egoistic even to ordinary minds
like ours, does not seem so to Krishna himself. He has at least as much intelligence as we have;
he should know it is an egoistic declaration. But he makes it with amazing ease and innocence and
spontaneity. Really, only a person who is not in the least aware of his me and mine can make such
a declaration.
What does Krishna really tell Arjuna? When he says, ”Leave everything and come to my feet,” he
means to say that Arjuna should set aside everything and go to the feet of life itself, should accept
life as it is.
It is amusing that Krishna exhorts Arjuna to fight. If we look at the dialogue between the two, Arjuna
appears to be more religious, and what Krishna says is not that religious. Krishna provokes him to
fight, and Arjuna refuses to do so. He says, ”It is painful to kill my own people. I won’t kill them even
for the sake of a kingdom and a king’s throne. I would rather go begging in the streets, rather commit
suicide rather than kill my relatives, friends and teachers who are on the other side.”
What religious person can say that Arjuna is wrong? Every religious person will say that Arjuna is
absolutely right, that he is filled with a sense of righteousness, that he is on the path of religion. He
will say he is a sage, a man of wisdom. But Krishna tells him, ”You are deluded and you have gone
off track. Your sense of religion has utterly left you.”
And then he tells Arjuna, ”You are mad if you think you can kill someone. No one ever dies. And you
are mistaken to think you can save those standing before you. Who has ever saved anyone? And
you cannot escape war, nor can you be non violent, because as long as the I exists – and it is this I
that is anxious to save itself and its family and relatives – non violence is next to impossible. No, be
rid of this nonsense and face reality. Set aside your sense of I and fight. Accept what is facing you.
And what is facing you is not a temple where prayers are made, it is war. It is war you are facing.
And you have to plunge into it. And so drop your I. Who are you?”
In the course of his exhortation Krishna makes a very interesting and significant remark. He tells
Arjuna, ”All those you think you have to kill are already dead. They are just awaiting death at the
most you can serve as a medium for hastening it. But if you think you will kill them, then you will
cease to be a medium, you will become a doer. And don’t think you will be their savior if you run
away from the battlefield. That would be another illusion. You can neither kill them nor save them.
You have only to play a role; it is nothing more than play-acting. Therefore go into it totally, and do
your part unwaveringly. And you can be totally in anything only if you put aside your mind, drop your
ego and cease looking at things from the angle of I or me and mine.”
What does it all mean? Do you understand what Krishna means to say? It is of tremendous
significance to understand it.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 25 Osho