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

CHAPTER 17. DON’T IMITATE, JUST BE YOURSELF
I don’t say that you should imitate Majnu and become like him. No, it is neither possible nor desirable,
and an imitation Majnu can only be a caricature. You can have your cut in the pattern of Majnu’s,
you can dress like him and wander like a madman shouting, ”Laila, Laila.” But that has nothing to do
with Majnu. You can act, but you cannot know his essential love. Acting is stupid.
But it is possible that the love of Majnu and Farhad will kindle the lamp of your own love, which is as
good as extinguished. Maybe his love’s power will catch fire inside you and you will become alive
and aware of the source of your own love, which is as inexhaustible. It is in this sense I ask you to
know them.
Many people compose poems and Lyrics, but the Lyrics of Kalidas, Shakespeare, or Rabindranath
have something special, something unearthly about them. Listening to Kalidas or Rabindranath you
come upon something you have never known before. Perhaps for the first time you glimpse your
hidden possibilities.
From tomorrow morning I will speak about Krishna’s philosophy, but I hope you will not make it into
your belief and doctrine. I don’t want you to become doctrinaire. Krishna is utterly undoctrinaire. So
keep a distance from all theories, doctrines and dogmas. We are trying to understand Krishna for an
altogether different purpose. When a glorious and resplendent person like him – who has attained
to the fullest flowering of his being – looks at this universe of ours with the eyes of a seer and says
something about it, his words have an extraordinary significance for us. His verdict about our world
carries tremendous weight, and it is good to be acquainted with it.
It is useful to know what a man of such clarity and enlightenment has to say about man and his mind
and the ways of his fulfillment. This knowledge, this information he brings us can touch some inner
chord of our being and set us on a voyage of exploration. And there is only one worthwhile quest
in life, and that is to know who I am or who you are. Then you will not turn into a Krishna-ite, but a
traveler on the path to become yourself. And then you will also know that the man who asks Arjuna
to die in pursuit of his self-nature is not going to impose any doctrines on you.
So I invite you to bring your questions on Krishna’s philosophy from tomorrow onward, and I will go
into them all. It is so convenient for me to speak in response to your questions. Then I don’t need
to strain my mind, it comes out naturally and flowing like a stream. Otherwise I find it hard to say a
thing. My difficulty is that words and ideas are with me only as long as I am speaking to you. When I
am not speaking my mind is utterly empty and silent, and resumption of speech becomes so difficult
in such a state.
When you ask a question, it serves me as a peg to hang my ideas on. Ordinarily, speaking has
become really difficult for me; I have to strain hard to say something. It is becoming increasingly
difficult to speak on my own; it puts a great strain on me. Lately many friends have expressed a
desire that I should speak independently, without the assistance of your questions. That will be
really too much. It will not be long when I will cease to speak independently. Without your questions
I don’t know what I should say; words and ideas have left me. But when you bring a question there
is no way for me but to respond to It, and so I become articulate. In the absence of your questions I
have nothing to say on my own. On my own I am utterly silent. If I speak I speak for you. So bring
your questions tomorrow and we will discuss them.
Now we will sit for meditation.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 335 Osho