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

CHAPTER 2. KRISHNA IS COMPLETE AND WHOLE
length with me. It is not that Arjuna has some special ability to see the immense, everyone has
that ability. Everyone can raise the questions he raises. So if you are prepared to journey into the
mysterious, into that which transcends the rational, the known, you will be equally entitled to confront
the immense, the eternal. That immensity is awaiting you.
All my efforts here, during these discussions, will be directed towards bringing that immensity to you.
A personalized name for that immensity is Krishna. We don’t have really much to do with Krishna,
he is just the symbolic name for the immense, the total. So don’t be disturbed if at times we digress
from him. My efforts will always be directed towards the one goal, towards the immense, the infinite,
the eternal. And it can happen to you too, if only you are prepared for it. It is not that it can happen
at Kurukshetra only, it can happen right here at Manali.
Question 3
QUESTIONER: BEFORE YOU GO AHEAD WITH THE DISCUSSION, I WOULD REQUEST THAT
YOU EXPLAIN SOMETHING WE SEEM TO HAVE MISSED SO FAR. IF BUDDHA’S CONCEPT
OF UNHAPPINESS IS A FACT OF LIFE, THEN HOW IS IT WRONG TO BRING IT INTO FOCUS?
ISN’T LIFE, AS IT IS, FULL OF PAIN AND MISERY?
Misery is a fact of life, but it is not the only fact – happiness is equally a fact of life. And happiness
is as big a fact of life as misery is. And when we take misery to be the only fact of life, we turn it
into a non-fact, into a fiction. Then what will you do with happiness, which is very much there? If
life were only suffering, Buddha had no reason to take pains to explain the significance of suffering;
there was no point to it. And Buddha explains at great length the meaning of suffering, yet nobody
runs away from life because it is a suffering. We are all miserable, but we don’t stop living for that
reason.
There must be something other than suffering, different from suffering, which makes us hold on to
life, cling to it in spite of its many hurts and pains. For instance, someone is miserable because
he is in love. Love has its own problems and complexities. But if there were no happiness in love,
who would consent to go through so much suffering for its sake? And if, for the sake of an ounce of
happiness, one goes through tons of suffering, it means that the intensity, the flavor of an ounce of
happiness outweighs all the sufferings of life. Happiness is equally true.
Because all the advocates of renunciation lay all their emphasis on suffering, they turn suffering into
a fiction. In the same way the hedonists turn happiness into a fiction by laying all their stress on
it. The materialists give too much importance to happiness, and they deny suffering altogether. But
that is not true. Remember, a half truth is a lie: truth can only be whole; it cannot be fragmentary. If
someone says that life is, he tells a lie, because death is inseparably linked with life. Similarly it is a
lie to say that only death is, because life is irrevocably joined to death.
It is not a fact that life is unmitigated suffering. What is a fact then? That life is both happiness and
sorrow is a fact. If you observe it carefully and closely and deeply, you will find that every happiness
is blended with pain and every pain is mixed with happiness. And if you go still deeper into it, it will
be difficult to know when pain turns into pleasure and when pleasure turns into pain. They are really
convertible: one changes into the other. And it happens in our everyday life. Really, the difference
between them is one of emphasis. What felt like happiness yesterday feels like suffering today, and
what seems to be suffering today will turn into happiness tomorrow.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 33 Osho