11th November 2022 at 11:00PM
When Osho's book changed my way of life
It was not less than a miracle when Osho's book changed my way of life. Book was too much popular in those days. Book was on the questions face India. Even today the questions remain -- Who will answer? Book was able to shake the brain and mind of readers. I still remember the magic of that book too.
It was the era of seventies. My age at that time must have been probably 15-16 years. A book by Osho was in hand. Perhaps the name was India's burning questions or burning questions. The paper was back edition. I have forgotten whether Sadhana was a publication of packet books or of Diamond ones. When father returned from Mumbai, he had brought some books of Osho for me. The book had a magnetic attraction. I wanted to finish reading it quickly. That's why go home and go out, this book would remain in my hand. Meanwhile, an old woman from the neighborhood came to meet the family. Seeing Osho's book in my hand, she said, "Do you read such books?" Since then till now Osho and I have been in constant contact. Meetings keep happening through the words of Osho. Osho's influence will increase further in the coming times. Today I remembered all this while looking at the internet. Same book. Title is something new. Mansa Mohini ji has published this material very beautifully from her blog. That book of Osho had changed the way of seeing, thinking and understanding. After reading these books, I came to know how to listen to each and every word of the person in front of me and after postmortem each and every word, I have come to answer everything. It felt like an achievement. There would have been a feeling of fearlessness. In this way Osho's books went on becoming a part of life. See an excerpt from the same book: India is full of problems and questions. And the biggest surprise is that we have no dearth of answers and solutions. Perhaps we have more answers than questions and more solutions than problems. But we don't have any solution to a single problem. Solutions are many, but all solutions are dead and problems are alive. There is no coordination between them. There are dead answers and there are living questions. There are live questions and there are dead answers.
There are dead answers and there are living questions. And just as there can be no dialogue between a dead man and a living man, there can be no dialogue between our solutions and our problems. On one side there is a pile of solutions and on the other side there is a pile of problems. And there is no bridge between the two, because there cannot be a bridge. A community that has too many dead answers finds it difficult to find new answers. Now there is a confusion with questions that questions are always new. Questions don't concern us. Problems do not come by asking us, they come. And they become new every day and we are stuck with our old solutions by inertia. Then we feel like we have the solutions and why don't the problems get solved? Guru is with us and the questions are not solved. We have the scriptures and life gets tangled up. One basic mistake, and that is that all our answers are out of date. We have stopped looking for a new answer. And new questions demand new answers. New problems demand new solutions. New circumstances challenge new consciousness, but we are stubborn to be old. We have become so old and we have become so accustomed to being old that we do not even realize that we are out of date. The first living question before our country is, therefore, when shall we bid farewell to the dead answers? When will we get rid of them? When will we be free from them? What is the reason that we have not found new answers to new questions? This is the reason – if we think that we have readymade answers, then why should we search for new answers? The mind has an instinctive desire for the least resistance; At least you have to suffer. If the answer is ready, then work with it. Once our country has to be free and empty of its old answers, only then we will fall into that restlessness to find new answers to new problems.
We have to be free from our past only then we can build for our future. We have to break free from our shastras then only we can enter the world of contemplation, otherwise we get ready made answers to everything in the book. When trouble comes, we open the Gita. When trouble comes, we open the Quran. Trouble comes, we go to dead gurus to ask what is the answer? We always ask the past, ask the days gone by. But a big revolution has taken place in the world, it should be understood. And if we do not understand that, then our questions will increase everyday and we will not be able to solve even a single question. You can read some more material on this topic by clicking here in Osho Satsang. --Rector Kathuria
