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

CHAPTER 19. RITUALS, FIRE AND KNOWLEDGE
He had wasted all his todays in the hope of a tomorrow that never came. And on the last day of his
life he faces a cul-de-sac beyond which there is no tomorrow, and no hope of any fruits of action.
That is the despair of a future-oriented life.
There is another kind of action which is not future-oriented, which is not done with a motive to
achieve some future result, which is not based on any ideas and patterns. Such an action is natural
and spontaneous; it arises from the depths of our being. It springs from what I am, not from what
I want to become. You are passing down a street when you come across an umbrella dropped
unaware by a person walking ahead of you. You pick up the umbrella and hand it to the owner
without any fuss. You don’t look around for a press reporter or a photographer to report to the
public your great act of selfless service to a fellow traveler. You don’t even expect a ”thank you”
from the person concerned, nor hope for any results in the future. This is what I call a natural and
spontaneous act.
But if the owner of the umbrella goes his way without thanking you, and if you feel even slightly hurt
thinking how ungrateful the man is, then your action is no more natural and spontaneous, it is not
without motive. Maybe you were not aware of your expectation of a thank you when you picked up
the umbrella and handed it to him, but it was very much there in your unconscious. An expectation
even of a thank you destroys the spontaneity and purity of action; it is no more free of attachment to
its fruits. Then it is a contaminated act, contaminated with the desire for result.
If action is total in itself, if it is self-fulfilling, a love’s labor – if it has no other expectation outside of
it, then it is what Krishna and I call action without attachment to its fruits. This action is complete in
itself like a circle it has no expectations for the future. It is an end unto itself. In that case you will
feel thankful to the other person – say the man with the umbrella – for giving you an opportunity to
act totally, to do something without desire for results.
A future-oriented mind is full of desires for achieving results in the future, and its action is always
fragmentary and partial. But when there is no such desire for results, when the action is without any
motive, such an action fills you with tremendous joy and bliss. In my vision action without attachment
to its fruits is so complete, so total, that there is nothing beyond it. It is its own fruit, it is its own end
result. It is fulfilling in the moment. Such an action is its own reward, there is nothing outside of it.
Jesus is passing through a village and he comes across a field full of lilies. He stops near it and
says to his disciples, ”Do you see these lilies?” The disciples look at the flowers, but they really do
not look because looking through eyes alone is not enough, one has to look with his whole being.
So Jesus says again, ”Do you see these flowers?”
The disciples say to him, ”What is there to see? They are lilies as other lilies are. They are nothing
different.” Jesus then tells them, ”It seems you are not looking, look again. How beautiful they are!
King Solomon in all his grandeur and glory is not that beautiful.”
The disciples are surprised to hear their Master compare the lilies with King Solomon, who happened
to be the wealthiest king of their times. There was, they thought, no point in comparing an ordinary
flower with the wealthiest king of the world. So noticing their confusion and bewilderment, Jesus
again says, ”Look at them again and look with attention. They are ordinary flowers, but they are so
beautiful that they outshine even King Solomon with all his grandeur and glory.”
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 365 Osho