When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 7. AUTUMN FLOODS
THE AUTUMN FLOODS HAD COME. THOUSANDS OF WILD TORRENTS POURED FURIOUSLY
INTO THE YELLOW RIVER. IT SURGED AND FLOODED ITS BANKS UNTIL, LOOKING ACROSS,
YOU COULD NOT TELL AN OX FROM A HORSE ON THE OTHER SIDE.
THEN THE RIVER GOD LAUGHED, DELIGHTED TO THINK THAT ALL THE BEAUTY IN THE
WORLD HAD FALLEN INTO HIS KEEPING. SO DOWNSTREAM HE SWUNG, UNTIL HE CAME
TO THE OCEAN. THERE HE LOOKED OUT OVER THE WAVES TOWARD THE EMPTY HORIZON
IN THE EAST, AND HIS FACE FELL.
GAZING OUT AT THE FAR HORIZON HE CAME TO HIS SENSES AND MURMURED TO THE
OCEAN GOD: WELL THE PROVERB IS RIGHT. HE WHO HAS GOT HIMSELF A HUNDRED
IDEAS THINKS HE KNOWS MORE THAN ANYBODY ELSE. SUCH A ONE AM I. ONLY NOW
DO I SEE WHAT THEY MEAN BY EXPANSE!
The Yellow River is one of the greatest rivers in the world, and one of the most dangerous. And of
course, when the river is in flood, autumn flood, and thousands and thousands of torrents, streams,
small rivers and rivulets, are falling into it, and it is flooded, it becomes a small ocean in itself. And
the River God thought: Now there is nobody comparable to me, and the whole beauty of the world
has fallen into my keeping. Now I am vast, incomparably vast, there is nobody else who is so vast.
This is what is happening to every ego. Every ego is the Yellow River.
When you are a child it is a small current – just at the very source, not very big or vast. Then
streams fall into it, you gather many experiences, much knowledge, certificates, money, wealth,
prestige, respect. You go on gathering. Thousands of torrents fall in and the river goes on becoming
vaster and vaster, bigger and bigger. This is the autumn flood that comes when you are young –
then you think no one is comparable to you, you are incomparable. Then you are filled with the ego,
puffed. Everybody in his young age becomes puffed – the autumn flood. And then he thinks: Now,
the beauty of the whole world has fallen into my keeping. You ask any person. Whatsoever he says,
don’t listen. Just look at the way he says it. He may say that he is a humble man, but look in his
eyes – he is saying: I am the most humble man, there is no comparison to me. He may be saying
that he is not so beautiful as others; but look, he is waiting for you to contradict, to say: No, you are
wrong. And if you nod and say, ’Yes, you are right,’ you are creating one more enemy. He was being
diplomatic. What he wanted to say was something else but he wanted to hear it from you.
In youth, everyone is in a flood, and then the whole outlook is tinged and coloured by the ego. Then
you walk, then you talk, behave, relate, but everything is tinged, coloured, by the ego. Much misery
of course happens because you are thinking yourself to be that which you are not, and you are
believing in the shadow. Soon the flood will recede, the autumn is not going to be forever. You will
become old, torrents will not fall into you, streams will become dry, banks will appear, summer will
come, and this vast looking Yellow River will become just a tiny stream. You may become just a dry
bed of sand and nothing else.
It happens in old age. Then one feels very irritated, cheated – as if existence has been cheating
you. Nobody has cheated you, you simply magnified yourself foolishly. Your own ego created the
whole problem – now you feel cheated. You cannot find a man who is old and yet happy. If you can
find one, live with him – he is a wise man. You can find happy young men, that is nothing. If you
can find a happy old man, that is something. When the summer has come and the autumn flood is
When the Shoe Fits 98 Osho