When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 5. MONKEY MOUNTAIN
donkeys are, and he creates difficulties. When I pass through a market or a town, if I insist that we
should go this way, he insists on going the other, and then in the marketplace it becomes ridiculous,
I become a laughing stock. People say that not even your donkey follows you! So I have made it a
rule that wherever he goes, I go with him. Everyone thinks that the donkey is following me but that
is not true. But the donkey feels happy and my prestige is safe.
Every great leader goes on just following his followers. He goes on seeing where the wind is blowing
and he must always be ahead. That is the secret of being a great leader – you must be able to know
what the people want. You must give them a slogan before they become aware of what they want.
Then they follow you.
This monkey must have been a leader. It had to be shown that he was not afraid, even of a great
prince. Other monkeys had fled, poor ordinary monkeys, but he was no ordinary monkey, he was a
king himself. He must stay out, he must remain there; that is how he will get more prestige in the
eyes of the monkeys.
ONE MONKEY, HOWEVER, REMAINED, COMPLETELY UNCONCERNED, SWINGING FROM
BRANCH TO BRANCH – AN EXTRAORDINARY DISPLAY.
THE PRINCE SHOT AN ARROW AT THE MONKEY.
And your princes are also not very different. This was insulting to the Prince, this monkey was being
insulting. It was natural that all the monkeys had taken flight. But now, a great prince, and here was
just an ordinary monkey trying to display, showing that he is tough. No, this could not be allowed
because the Prince had his own followers. The Prince had to look to other men, what they would
think if even a monkey did not bother, was unconcerned with the Prince. The monkey had to be
killed. The logic remains the same whether you are a man or a monkey.
’THE PRINCE SHOT AN ARROW AT THE MONKEY, BUT THE MONKEY DEXTEROUSLY
CAUGHT THE ARROW IN MID-FLIGHT.
AT THIS THE PRINCE ORDERED HIS ATTENDANTS TO MAKE A CONCERTED ATTACK.
Because this monkey seemed to be much too arrogant, very egoistic. Look... the Prince can see
the ego of the monkey but he cannot see his own ego.
And this is happening all over the world. In every relationship, you can always see the ego of the
other, but you cannot see your own – and the other one goes on seeing your ego. This is a story
written by a man, just think if a monkey had written the story, it would have been absolutely different.
Just think, a Chuang Tzu amongst monkeys writing this story.... Then he would have written that the
Prince was very arrogant, stubborn and unnecessarily violent – because the monkey was not doing
anything wrong, he was just enjoying himself. Why should the Prince be offended? Why should he
have felt that this monkey had to be killed? That prince must have been a very, very egoistic person.
He tried to kill, and the monkey was simply defending himself, nothing else.
If you look at the story from the standpoint of a monkey it will be totally different, but the base is the
same and this always happens. A man of wisdom always looks at every problem from the other’s
When the Shoe Fits 68 Osho