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

CHAPTER 4. RELIGION HAS NO HISTORY, IT IS ETERNAL
such meaningless questions. It would be better if someday we again gathered courage to be able
to tell the Christians it was very unfortunate that when a man like Christ happened among them,
they busied themselves with collecting and recording the times of his birth and death. It was a
sheer waste of time. It was not necessary to preserve such insignificant information about such a
significant person.
Therefore I tell you not to be concerned about such small matters. This concern only shows the
way your mind works: it shows that you give value to the physical body, to its birth and death, to its
external incidents. But the body is just the periphery of life, the external. What is really significant
is that which lies at its center – alone, untouched, free of all associations and attachments. The
witnessing soul at the center is what is really, really significant.
When, at the moment of your death, you look back on your life you will see it is no different from
dreams. If, even today, you look back on the life you have lived, you will wonder whether it was real
or the stuff of dreams. How will you know if you have really lived it or just dreamed about it?
Chuang Tzu has made a profound joke about life as we know it. One fine morning he left his bed
and called his disciples to him, saying he was faced with an intricate problem and wanted them to
help solve it. All his monastery gathered round him and they were puzzled that their Master, who
always helped solve problems for them, was now asking them to do the same for him. They had
never thought Chuang Tzu could have a problem of his own. So they said, ”How come you have a
problem? We always thought you had gone beyond all life’s problems and difficulties.”
Chuang Tzu said, ”The problem is such that it can well be called a problem of the beyond. Last night
I dreamed I am a butterfly sipping at flowers in the garden.”
The disciples said, ”What is the problem in this dreamj Everybody dreams about something or the
other.
Chuang Tzu said, ”The problem does not end with the dream. When I woke up this morning I
found that I am again Chuang Tzu. Now the question is, is the butterfly now dreaming it has become
Chuang Tzu? If a man can dream he is a butterfly, there should be no difficulty in a butterfly dreaming
it is a man. Now I want to know the reality, whether I dreamed last night or the butterfly is dreaming
right now!”
Chuang Tzu’s disciples said, ”It is beyond our capacity to answer you. You have put us in a difficult
situation. Up to now we have been certain that what we see in sleep is a dream and what we see
while awake is reality. But now you have confused us totally.”
Then Chuang Tzu said, ”Don’t you see that when you are dreaming in the night you forget all about
what you have seen in the day, as you forget the dreams of the night when you go through the chores
of the day And it is interesting to note that while you can remember something of your dreams during
your waking hours, you cannot, while dreaming, remember anything of what you see or do in the
daytime. If memory is the decisive factor, then the dreams of the night should be more real than
the dreams of the day. If a man sleeps, and sleeps everlastingly, how can he ever know what he is
dreaming is not real? Every dream appears to be so real while you are dreaming – not one dream
appears to be unreal in a dream.”
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 71 Osho