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

CHAPTER 19. RITUALS, FIRE AND KNOWLEDGE
To give japa the place of a yajna or sacrificial ritual has a deep secret, it is meaningful. When Krishna
calls it a yajna, a sacrificial ritual, he means to say that japa is also like fire, which first burns its fuel
and then burns itself. And it is meaningful only when it burns itself.
So we can use a word, a mantra, a seed word, as a means to cast away other words from our minds.
But ultimately we have to throw away the mantra itself. If we get attached to the mantra, if we cling
to it, then it will cease to be japa; it will turn instead into a kind of hypnotic trap, you will be a prisoner
of its hypnosis. If you become obsessed with japa, you will go berserk. There are people who get
so fixated with japa that they begin to derive an infantile kind of gratification from it, and then they
can never be able to part with it. Then it becomes pathological.
Japa has to be used with awareness. If you are a witness while chanting a name or a mantra, if
you know that while chanting goes on at the mental level, you remain a witness to it, then you are
making a right use of japa. And it is only then that some day you will be able to go beyond it. And
then japa becomes a yajna, a fire which first burns its fuel and then burns itself. And when you are
empty, utterly empty, silent, you attain to meditation, you attain to samadhi or superconsciousness.
For this reason Krishna gives both knowledge and japa the status of yajna, because yajna happens
around fire. And fire is immensely significant. If you understand the significance of fire, you will
understand what jnan yajna or japa-yajna is. The truth is: one who is ready to burn his ego, his
”I”, who is ready to totally efface himself, is ready for yajna. He alone is deserving of yajna who is
capable of making an offering of himself into the fire of knowledge. And then all other yajnas fade
into insignificance before this great yajna, which I call the yajna of life.
Question 2
QUESTIONER: KRISHNA SAYS A MAN OF WISDOM, WHO GIVES UP ATTACHMENT TO
THE FRUIT OF ACTION, IS RELEASED FROM THE BONDAGE OF BIRTH AND DEATH AND
BECOMES ONE WITH THE ULTIMATE. HOW IS IT THAT KRISHNA BELIEVES THAT LIFE IS A
BONDAGE? YOU DON’T BELIEVE SO, YOU SAY THIS VERY LIFE IS FREEDOM, THIS VERY
WORLD THE NIRVANA. PLEASE EXPLAIN.
Krishna says a wise man gives up attachment to the fruits of action and attains to freedom from the
bondage of birth and death. The whole thing needs to be understood in depth.
Firstly, Krishna does not talk about one’s release from action itself, he emphasizes release from
attachment to the fruits of action. He does not ask you to give up action and become inactive; he
only urges you not to do something with a motive, with an eye on the results of the action. There
is a meaningful difference between action and the fruit of action. It is in the interest of action itself,
to make action real and total, that all wise men urge you to give up your desire for its result. Action
without attachment to its fruit is what forms the heart of Krishna’s teaching.
I would like to go deeply into this important matter of action without attachment to its fruits, be cause
it is really arduous. Ordinarily, if you give up your desire for the fruit of action, you will give up action
itself. If someone tells you to do something, but not to expect any result from it, you will say, ”It is
sheer madness to suggest such a thing. Why should anyone do something if he does not want to
achieve a result? Everyone works with a motive to achieve something, be it bread, or money, or
fame. If there is no motive to work, why should one work at all?”
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 363 Osho