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

CHAPTER 5. FOLLOW NO ONE BUT YOURSELF
infinite regression. Therefore we created the trimurti – three faces in one body, representing the one
elan vital which gives birth to life, develops and sustains it and finally destroys it over and over again.
This is just a formal division, a division of labor. It is all one life-force which divides itself into three
parts to bring the world into being.
Question 5
QUESTIONER: DO YOU THINK KRISHNA’S PLAYS, HIS LEELAS ARE WORTH EMULATING,
IMITATING? OR HAVE THESE PLAYS OF HIS ONLY TO BE CONSIDERED? WILL ONE NOT
DEGRADE ONESELF IF HE FOLLOWS KRISHNA?
Timid people, people who are afraid, would do well to keep away from Krishna. But your question is
relevant.
Not only Krishna, no one should be followed, It is not that you will degrade yourself if you follow
Krishna, you will degrade yourself if you follow anybody. Every kind of following, imitation, is
degrading and destructive. But we raise this question of degradation especially in regard to Krishna.
We don’t raise such a question with regard to Mahavira, Buddha and Rama. No one will say that
you will debase yourself if you follow Rama. So why do they raise this question only in regard to
Krishna? We encourage our children to follow Rama, but when it comes to following Krishna we tell
them to beware. Why?
We are afraid. We are a frightened people. We are utterly lacking in courage. And hence this
question.
I say to you, all following is degrading; all imitation is debasing. The moment you imitate someone,
whosoever he is, you destroy yourself. Neither Krishna nor anyone else is worth imitating. Certainly
people like Krishna, Buddha and Christ should be considered, studied and rightly understood. All
the awakened people have to be considered.
When we come to consider Buddha it is not that difficult. Nor do we find any difficulty in considering
Christ. The real difficulty arises when we come to consider Krishna. Why? It is so because the life of
Buddha or Mahavira or Christ is such that it fits in with our philosophical matrices; Buddha. Mahavira
and Christ can be accommodated in our systems of thought. Discipline is their way of life, there are
certain norms, principles they don’t transgress. On the other hand, Krishna’s life does not fit in with
our systems of thought, because it transcends every norm, every limitation, every discipline, every
constraint. Krishna’s life is simply illimitable.
No matter how lofty it is, our every thought is limited, finite, so when we come to consider Krishna we
soon reach the end of our tether, and Krishna remains unending and incomprehensible. We cannot
transgress our limitations; we find it dangerous to do so – whereas Krishna knows no limits, he is
infinite. So Krishna is always ahead of us, beyond and beyond.
But I say, we should consider Krishna all the more just because he is illimitable, because he is
vast and immense. In my view he alone should be considered and thought over who can take you
to a space where consideration comes to an end, where all thought ceases. One who can take
you beyond thought and concept, beyond word and image, who can show you something which is
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 91 Osho