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

CHAPTER 17. DON’T IMITATE, JUST BE YOURSELF
is always original, and whatever he creates is original. He never makes a carbon copy, he has no
use for carbon papers in the whole process of creation. He never repeats; you can’t accuse him of
repetition. And therefore, if you deny your individuality and try to follow and be like somebody else,
you are violating the fundamental law of life. Imitation is a crime against God. He made you an
individual and you are trying to be somebody’s copy. He gave you individuality, and you are trying
to impose somebody else’s personality on yourself, an alien personality. This is the basic fear and
fundamental problem of our life.
Up to now all religions of the world have taught imitation. Parents and teachers all over the world
exhort young men and women from their early childhood to be like others, they never ask them to
be like themselves, to be themselves. They insist to you, ”Be like Krishna, Christ or Buddha, but
never commit the mistake of being like yourself.” Why? How is it that all educational institutions in
the world teach you to be imitators and they never ask you to be yourself?
There are good reasons for it. The most important reason is that if everyone becomes himself,
he will be a free individual, a rebel – not a conformist, a camp follower. He will be a danger
to the institutions of parents, teachers, priests, managers of society, and to society itself. Every
society is afraid of non-conformists and rebels. It honors the conformists, the yes-sayers. That is
why everybody, from the president down to the parents pressures children, with one voice, to be
followers, imitators. Otherwise they can’t be certain who will turn into what.
There is no danger if you become like Rama, because everything about Rama is known, what he
does and what he does not do. He is predictable. And if you become another Rama you will be as
predictable, and society will know what you are going to do. And if you deviate from the outlined
path they will declare you an outlaw and punish you.
If everyone is allowed to be himself, then it will be difficult to say what is right and what is wrong,
what is virtue and what is sin. Therefore the society wants you to fit into its well-defined patterns and
clear-cut molds. It does not care if by this effort your individuality is destroyed, your life is ruined,
and your soul is impoverished. Its sole concern is to turn men into machines so that the status quo
is maintained at any cost.
It seems man lives for society, society does not exist for man. The individual has no importance; he
is just a cog in the social machine. It seems education is not meant for man; on the contrary, man
is meant for education, for being educated the way the society wants. It seems tenets and doctrines
are not made to serve man; on the contrary, man is born in the service of tenets and doctrines. It
seems religion is not for man; man is for religion. It is ironic that man is not an end unto himself, he
is just a means. And things that are meant to be means have become ends unto themselves. This
is the danger. This is the curse of imitation, that man has been reduced into a thing, a non-entity.
Imitation is destructive, it kills the individual. And this danger is inner, spiritual; it is not circumstantial.
It is a kind of slow poisoning. Whether you imitate Krishna or Buddha, it makes no difference; all
imitation is suicidal.
There is no mold, no pattern, no type into which man can be fitted. Every person is a unique and
different individual, and he is meant to be him self. This is his freedom, his birthright.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 332 Osho