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

CHAPTER 20. BASE YOUR RULE ON THE RULE
QUESTIONER: WHY CAN’T MAHAVIRA TOLERATE IT?
Mahavira will not tolerate it in the sense that he will not accept it, he will not respond to it, he will
remain unmoving like a rock. He will refuse a woman’s hug with his whole being. He will not say in
words, ”Don’t touch me,” but the woman will know it; she will feel as if she is hugging a piece of rock.
A woman will not feel humiliation if you ask her not to touch you, but she will really feel hurt if you
don’t respond to her hug. Not that Mahavira has any disrespect for women, but the way he is he
cannot do otherwise, he cannot take hugs and embraces from women. Therefore women have to
keep a respectful distance from him; they can never be on intimate terms with him. There is a limit,
a boundary line beyond which they cannot come near him.
It is entirely different with Krishna; even if a woman wants to keep a distance from him she cannot.
He is so open, so receptive, so accepting, and so charismatic that no woman can resist him. Once
a woman goes to him she will be pulled by him, she will soon be as close to him as is physically
possible. Krishna is like an open invitation of love; he is like a clarion call of friendship, intimacy
and love. He is, in this respect, the antithesis of Mahavira who, as I said, will be as still as a rock if
someone goes to embrace him.
Emerson has said about Henry Thoreau that if someone shook hands with him he had the feeling
that he had a dried up stem of a tree in his hands. In response to someone’s hand he just extended
his hand without a word or warmth or feeling, as if it was a dead hand. He was so stoical, indifferent
to emotions of joy and grief. Henry Thoreau can well be paired off with Mahavira.
Krishna is the opposite of Thoreau; even if you are at a distance from Krishna, you will feel he
is touching you, calling you, he is on the verge of embracing you. His whole being is so sweet,
so inviting, so magnetic, so musical, that it is no wonder thousands of women become his gopis,
girlfriends. It is utterly natural in his context. And it is all spontaneous.
You further ask if it is possible for Krishna to enter into sex, if he can make love. Nothing is impossible
for Krishna. For us sex is a problem, not for Krishna. It is strange that we ask if Krishna has a sex life;
we never ask if flowers have sex. We never ask if birds and animals indulge in sexual intercourse.
The whole world is immersed in sex; it is all a play of sex abounding. The whole of existence is
engrossed in love-making. And we never ask why.
But when it comes to man we raise our eyebrows immediately, and we ask how can Krishna have
sex? For man as he is, tense and anxious, full of condemnation for life, drowned in self-pity, even an
act like sex – which is utterly inbuilt and natural and simple – has become a most tangled problem.
He has made such a simple, innocent gift of existence into a hornets’ nest. He has made sex a
prisoner of principles and doctrines.
What is the meaning of the sex act or sexual intercourse? It simply means coming together of two
bodies in as intimate contact with each other as nature has ordained. Sex is two bodies coming
together in biological intimacy with each other in the way nature wants it to be. It is nothing more
or less. Sex is the ultimate intimacy between two beings, male and female, at the level of nature.
Beyond it nature has no reach. Beyond it the jurisdiction of God begins.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 396 Osho