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

CHAPTER 17. DON’T IMITATE, JUST BE YOURSELF
I want to remind you again that what happened to Krishna can happen to each one of you, and this
awareness is enough. This whole discussion is just meant for this remembrance that you all are
heirs to godliness.
You want to know about Krishna’s philosophy of life. This desire for a life philosophy stems from
the same source; you want something ready-made, an ideology, a doctrine, a tenet which you can
impose conveniently on yourself and be finished with it. I will take up his philosophy tomorrow, but
for a different purpose. I want you just to understand your own life with its help. I don’t want you to
accept and follow Krishna’s views and ideas. People like Krishna look at life with extraordinary eyes;
their perception is rare. It penetrates the innermost depth of life, and it will be a great gift if for a
while we can look at life through the eyes of Krishna. That will go a long way to change and deepen
our own perception, our own perspective of life.
You are here in Manali, in the Himalayas, surrounded by beautiful hills and majestic mountains.
But you can see only that much beauty in these mountains as your eyes, your perception, your
perspective are capable of. Nicholas Roerich, the renowned painter, happened to live here for a
long time. If you go and see his paintings, they will give you quite a different perspective of the same
mountains; you will see them with the eyes of Roerich. He came to these mountains from distant
Russia at a time when there were no roads as there are today to connect the Himalayas with the
rest of the world. And once he saw the Himalayas he made them his lifelong home; he never left
again. These very mountains before you now had possessed Roerich, enchanted him.
You have been in the Himalayas for some time, and I don’t think you look at these mountains any
more. You might have seen them for a little while the first day you arrived and you were finished with
them. They are now nothing more than mountains.
But Nicholas Roerich spent his lifetime watching and painting the same Himalayas. The eternal
and inexhaustible beauty of these mountains continued to enchant him till his last day; he never felt
sated. He dedicated his life to painting them, yet his thirst and passion and love for them remained
undiminished. He looked at them from hundreds of angles – during the day and night; morning,
noon and evening; summer and winter; spring, rains and autumn; sun and moon and stars – and
in all their myriad colors and moods. He was busy painting them even at the time of his death. So
these mountains will look very different if you see them through the eyes of Roerich. They will tell
you a different story if you get acquainted with the works of this man.
I don’t say that you should see these mountains the way Roerich saw them. No, I don’t say that.
And it is impossible for you to see them as this great painter has. But for sure, after knowing him
and his works your perspective will change and deepen, you will know these mountains better.
Many people have loved, but the love of Farhad and Majnu was extraordinary; it was as great as the
Himalayas. And it is better to read their story, to be acquainted with their lives; it will be so rewarding.
Our love is utterly poor and fleeting; it begins and ends almost simultaneously. And once it is gone it
becomes difficult to recall if it ever happened. No sooner the river of our ordinary love appears than
it disappears and leaves us high and dry. But there are a few people who continue to love and love
passionately till the last breath of their lives. Their love is immense and immeasurable. And it will do
you good if you come to know these great lovers; it will help you to understand you own love and the
problems of love. Maybe knowing them you become aware of the hidden sources of your own love.
It is there in every being, but we smother it and kill it.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 334 Osho