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

CHAPTER 2. KRISHNA IS COMPLETE AND WHOLE
A person who is whole in one dimension is going to be a total stranger in so far as other dimensions
are concerned. Where Krishna can even steal skillfully, Mahavira will be a complete failure as a thief.
If Mahavira tries his hand at it there is every chance of his landing in a prison. Krishna will succeed
even as a thief. Where Krishna will shine on the battlefield as an accomplished warrior, Buddha will
cut a sorry figure if he takes his stand there. We can not imagine Christ playing a flute, but we can
easily think of Krishna going to the gallows. Krishna will feel no difficulty on the cross. Intrinsically,
he is as capable of facing crucifixion as of playing a flute. But it will be a hard task for Christ if he is
handed a flute to play. We cannot think of Christ in the image of Krishna.
Christians say Jesus never laughed. Playing a flute will be a far cry for one who never laughed. If
Jesus is asked to stand like Krishna, with one leg on the other, a crown of peacock feathers on his
head and a flute on his lips, Jesus will immediately say, ”I prefer the cross to this flute.” He is at ease
with the cross; he never felt so happy as on the cross. From the cross alone could he say, ”Father,
forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” He meets his death most peacefully on the
cross, because it is his dimension. He finds no difficulty whatsoever in fulfilling his destiny. What
was destined to happen is now happening. His journey’s direction is now reaching its culminating
point.
Jesus is rebellious, a rebel, a revolutionary, so the cross is his most natural destination. A Jesus can
predict he is going to be crucified, If he is not crucified it will look like failure. In his case crucifixion
is inevitable.
Krishna’s case is very different and difficult. In his case no prediction is possible; he is simply un
predictable. Whether he will die on the gallows or amid adulation and worship, nobody can say.
Nobody could predict the way he really died. He was lying restfully under a tree; it was really not
an occasion for death. Someone, a hunter, saw him from a distance, thought a deer was lying there
and hit him with his arrow. His death was so accidental, so out of place; it is rare in its own way.
Everybody’s death has an element of predetermination about it; Krishna’s death seems to be totally
undetermined. He dies in a manner as if his death has no utility whatsoever. His life was wholly
non-utilitarian; so is his death.
The death of Jesus proved to be very purposeful. The truth is, Christianity wouldn’t have come into
existence had Jesus not been crucified. Christianity owes its existence to the cross, not to Jesus.
Jesus was an unknown entity before his crucifixion. Therefore, crucifixion became significant and
the cross be came the symbol of Christianity. The crucifixion turned into Christianity’s birth. Even
Jesus is known to the world because of it.
But Krishna’s death seems to be strange and insignificant. Is this a way to die? Does any one die
like this? Is this the way to choose one’s death, where someone hits you with an arrow, without
your knowing, without any reason? Krishna’s death does not make for an historical event; it is as
ordinary as a flower blooming, withering and dying. Nobody knows when an evening gust of wind
comes and hurls the flower to the ground. Krishna’s death is such a non-event. It is so because he
is multi-dimensional. Nothing can be said about his goings-on; none can know how his life is going
to shape itself.
Lastly, let us look at it in another way. If Mahavira has to live another fifty yeats it can certainly be
said how his life will shape up. Similarly, if Jesus is given an extra span of fifty years, we can easily
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 43 Osho