When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 9. DUKE HWAN AND THE WHEELRIGHT
But this is how it is: the older a thing the more authority it has. Even if somebody says that his guru
is one hundred and fifty, suddenly you feel that here is something very valuable. Just by becoming
old, you think something valuable happens. You can be one hundred and fifty years old and be just
a one hundred and fifty year old fool – because age cannot bring wisdom, it is not concerned with
it. On the contrary, children are more wise; they have to be. God cannot be wrong, he always kills
the old men and replaces them with children. That means he believes in children more than in old
men. Old men means – discard, throw them out, they are of no use now. God believes in the new
and man believes in the old, God always believes in the new leaf, that is why the old leaf is shed.
And he replaces it by the new, by the fresh, by the young.
God is eternally young and new and so is religion. But authorities.... So you cannot believe in God’s
authority. If you look at the divine creativity all around you will always feel that he looks a little crazy,
because by the time a man has become wise, he withdraws him. You have become ninety years
old, lived your life, past all seasons, known much, gathered experience, and by the time you have
become wise, he calls you: Come on, go out of life. And he replaces you with a small child; you are
replaced by a small child who does not know anything. It seems that he loves innocence more than
knowledge and he loves fresh leaves more than old, pale leaves. And it should be so, because life
has to be young, and if he is eternal life, he has to be eternally young.
That is why Hindus never depict Krishna or Ram as old. That is symbolic, they are always young.
Have you seen any picture of Ram looking very old or of Krishna with a staff in his hand, bent over
it? He lived eighty years, he was old, but Hindus have simply dropped the idea of depicting him as
old, because if you look at God he is always young. So it is just to show that God is always young
and religion is always fresh, just like an innocent babe, just like the morning dew, just like the first
star in the night. But then God cannot be an authority because authority means the weight of the
past; without the weight of the past, authority is not created.
PHIEN ASKED: ’ALIVE OR DEAD?’ THE DUKE SAID: ’DEAD A LONG TIME.’ ’THEN,’ SAID THE
WHEELWRIGHT, ’YOU ARE READING ONLY THE DIRT THEY LEFT BEHIND.’
Whenever you are too engaged with the past you are engaged with dirt, with graves, you are a
gravedigger. You live in a cemetery, you are no longer a part of the living phenomenon that life is.
THE DUKE REPLIED: ’WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT IT? YOU ARE ONLY A WHEELWRIGHT.
YOU HAD BETTER GIVE ME A GOOD EXPLANATION OR ELSE YOU MUST DIE.’
The duke could not believe his own ears that just an ordinary wheelwright would like to teach him
wise things. People who are ready to learn are ready to learn from everywhere. This man is ready
to learn from dead authorities but not from a living wheelwright. And I tell you, a living wheelwright
is better than a dead king because he is alive. Nobody is going to worship him but God still trusts
him; that is why he is alive.
The Duke was very angry, he said: ’YOU HAD BETTER GIVE ME A GOOD EXPLANATION OR
ELSE YOU MUST DIE.’
THE WHEELWRIGHT SAID: ’LET US LOOK AT THE AFFAIR FROM MY POINT OF VIEW. WHEN I
MAKE WHEELS, IF I GO EASY, THEY FALL APART, AND IF I AM TOO ROUGH THEY DO NOT FIT.
When the Shoe Fits 130 Osho