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

CHAPTER 2. KRISHNA IS COMPLETE AND WHOLE
The life of one who chooses will be all gray, flat and simple, because he has cleaned and polished
a corner of his life. But what will he do with the rest of it, which he has rejected and left uncared
for? His living room is bright and elegant, well-furnished and decorated, spick-and-span – but what
about the rest of the house with all the rubbish and refuse pushed under the carpet? The rubbish
will gather and stink under the carpet.
But what about one who accepts the whole house with its neatness and its rubbish, with its lighted
parts and its dark corners? Such a person cannot be categorized. We will see him in our own light,
in the light of our choices and preference, of our likes and dislikes. If one wants to see good in him
one will find it there. And if a man wants to see only evil in him, he too, will not be disappointed,
because in his life, both good and evil are present together. In fact only linguistically, are they two.
Existentially they are different aspects of the same thing. They are really one.
Therefore I maintain that Buddha and Mahavira have their choices, are not choiceless. They are
good, absolutely good, and for this very reason they are not whole. To be whole, good and bad
have to go together. If all the three – Buddha, Mahavira and Krishna – stand in a row, Buddha and
Mahavira will obviously shine brighter and attract us more than Krishna. Buddha and Mahavira look
spotlessly clean; there is no stain whatsoever on their mantles.
If we have to choose between Mahavira and Krishna we will choose Mahavira. Krishna will leave us
in some doubt. Krishna has always done so, because he carries with him all the seeming opposites.
He is as good as Mahavira is, but in another respect Mahavira cannot be his equal, because Krishna
has the courage to be as bad as Genghis and Hitler are. If we can persuade Mahavira to stand on a
battlefield with a sword in his hand – which we cannot – then he will look like a picture of Krishna. Or
if we make Genghis shed his violence and give up everything and stand naked like Mahavira, pure
and peaceful like Mahavira – which is not possible – then he too will resemble Krishna.
It is next to impossible to judge and evaluate Krishna; he defeats all evaluation, all judgment. With
respect to Krishna we have to be non-judgmental. Only those who don’t judge can go with him. A
judging mind will soon be in difficulty with him and will run away from him. He will touch his feet
when he sees his good side, but what will he do when he comes across the other side of the shield?
Because of this paradox, each of Krishna’s lovers divided him into parts and chose for himself only
that part which accorded with him. No one had the courage to accept the whole of Krishna. If Surdas
sings hymns of praise to Krishna, he keeps himself confined to the time of his childhood. He leaves
the rest of his life; he does not have the courage to take him wholly. Surdas seems to be a cowardly
person: he put his own eyes out with needles – he blinded himself – for fear of a beautiful woman.
Think of the man who chooses to go without eyes lest those eyes arouse his lust for a woman, lest
he falls in love with her. Can such a man accept Krishna totally? It is true Surdas loves Krishna as
few people do. He cannot do without him, so he clings to his childhood and ignores his youth. The
youthful Krishna is beyond him.
Surdas could have accepted him if, in his youth, Krishna had gone blind like him. Krishna’s eyes
must have had rare beauty and power they attracted and enchanted so many women, as few pairs
of eyes have done. In history it is rare that a single person’s eyes were the center of attraction
for thousands of women. They must have been extraordinarily captivating, enchanting. They were
really magnetic eyes. Surely Surdas did not have eyes like his his eyes were very ordinary. It is true
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 29 Osho