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

CHAPTER 2. KRISHNA IS COMPLETE AND WHOLE
But Krishna says that the world is a unity of opposites. Violence and non-violence always go
together, hand-in-hand. There was never a time when violence did not happen, nor was there a
time when non-violence did not exist. So those who choose only one of the opposites choose a
fragment, and they can never be fulfilled. There was never a time when there was only light or when
there was only darkness, nor will it ever be so. Those who choose a part and deny another are
bound to be in tension, because in spite of denying it, the other part will always continue to be. And
the irony is, the part we choose is dependent for its existence on the part we deny.
Non-violence is dependent on violence; they are really dependent on each other. Light owes its
existence to darkness. Good grows in the soil of what we call bad, and draws its sustenance from
it. At the other pole of his existence the saint is ultimately connected with the sinner. All polarities
are irrevocably bound up with each other: up with down, heaven with hell, good with bad. They are
polarities of one and the same truth.
Krishna says, ”Accept both the polarities, because both are there together. Go with them, because
they are. Don’t choose!” It can be said that Krishna is the first person to talk of choicelessness. He
says, ”Don’t choose at all. Choose and you err, choose and you are off track, choose and you are
fragmented. Choice also means denial of the other half of truth, which also is. And it is not in our
hands to wipe it away. There is nothing in our hands. What is, is. It was, when we did not exist. It
will be when we will be no more.”
But the moralistic mind, the mind that has so far been taken for the religious mind, has its difficulty.
It lives in conflict; it divides everything into good and bad. A moralist takes great pleasure in
condemning evil; then he feels great and good. His interest in goodness is negative; it comes
from his condemnation of evil. The saint derives all his pleasure from his condemnation of sinners;
otherwise he has no way to please himself.
The whole joy of going to heaven depends on the suffering and misery of those who are sent to hell.
If those in heaven come to know there is nothing like hell, all their joy will suddenly disappear; they
will be as miserable as anything. All their labor will go down the drain if they know no hell exists. If
there is no hell, every criminal, every sinner will be in heaven. Where then will the saint go? The
happiness of the virtuous is really dependent on the misery of the sinners. The happiness of the
rich really stems from the misery of the poor; it does not lie in richness itself. The happiness of a
good man is really derived from those condemned as sinners, it is not derived from goodness itself.
The saint will lose all his glamor and cheer the moment everyone becomes good; he will instantly
become insignificant. Maybe, he will try to persuade a few ex-sinners to return to their old jobs.
The whole significance of the cosmos comes from its opposites, which are really complementaries.
And one who observes it wholly will find that what we call bad is the extreme point of good and,
similarly, good is the omega point of bad.
Krishna is choiceless, he is total, he is integrated, and therefore he is whole and complete. We have
not accepted any other incarnation except Krishna’s as whole and complete, and it is not without
reason. How can Rama be complete? He is bound to be incomplete, because he chooses only half
the truth. He alone can be whole who does not choose – but simply because of not choosing he will
come up against difficulties. His life will be an interplay of light and shade. Now it will be illumined;
now, shaded. It can never be a monotone; it cannot be flat and simple.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 28 Osho