Osho Rajneesh Book "The Wild Geese and the Water"

The Wild Geese and the Water

The Dignity of the Poor?

20 February 1981 am in Buddha Hall
The first question:
Question 1

OSHO,

THE LATEST FROM THE POPE: ”DEFENDING THE HUMAN DIGNITY OF THE POOR AND

THEIR HOPE FOR A HUMAN FUTURE IS NOT A LUXURY FOR THE CHURCH, NOR IS IT A

STRATEGY OF OPPORTUNISM, NOR A MEANS FOR CURRYING FAVOR WITH THE MASSES. IT IS HER DUTY...”

ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT THIS MOST RECENT STATEMENT FROM THE BEJEWELED AND BEDECKED PONTIFF?

KRISHNA PREM,

ALL THE RELIGIONS HAVE BEEN SAYING that for centuries – ”service to the poor” – yet the

poverty goes on increasing. The poverty has not disappeared, the so-called golden future has not

arrived, and they have been talking it for at least ten thousand years. There must be something

fundamentally wrong – they don’t really want the poor to disappear from the earth.

They talk about the dignity of the poor, but what dignity can there be in poverty? Poverty is the most

humiliating experience in life. It is the root cause of all crimes. It reduces human beings to a state

of animalhood or even worse. It takes away their humanity and makes them commodities in the

marketplace, purchasable, saleable. But beautiful words: ”dignity of the poor”... Nobody is going to

argue against it except a crazy man like me.

But we have heard of this nonsense enough. In the name of ”dignity of the poor”, the poverty has to

be saved, the poverty has to be protected. And whenever you want to protect something ugly you

have to give it a beautiful name. And people live by words: People are so stupid that they become

too much concerned about words rather than the reality that is hidden behind.

There is a cow in the Himalayas, a wild cow. It is called ”the blue cow”. In nineteen fifty-two the

number of the blue cows became so much that they started destroying the crops. It became a

problem, and it has to be solved immediately. The Indian Parliament discussed over the matter.

They wanted, because that was the only way, to shoot the blue cows, to kill. But to kill a cow in

India will create bigger problems than it will solve. The cow to the Indians is the holy mother; you

cannot kill a cow. And they did a small trick: they didn’t call it a ”blue cow”, they called it a ”blue

HORSE”! And they killed thousands of blue cows – but they were not killing cows, they were killing

blue horses. Of course it was the blue cow who was killed, but on the papers it was blue horses.

And nobody bothered about the blue cows at all. There was no protest from the Hindus, who are

always ready, who are waiting for such opportunities.

You cannot kill a monkey because monkeys represent Hanuman, the monkey god. You cannot kill

an elephant because elephants represent another god, the Ganesha. You cannot kill a cow... but

blue horses? – who cares about blue horses? Nobody was concerned. The problem was solved

just by changing the word.

Such is the stupidity of humanity.

The poor has to saved, the misery has to be saved, the suffering has to be saved – for the simple

reason because without the poor, the miserable and the suffering humanity, there is no future for

the church. Not only the Catholic church – no future for any church, Hindu, Mohammedan, Jaina,

Buddhist. They have all been living, they have all been in great demand, for the simple reason

because people are suffering. And the suffering humanity needs consolations, comforts. The

present is so ugly that they need hopes for the future. The hopes of the future are nothing but

opium to the people. I agree with Karl Marx, I cannot agree with the Polack pope.

The future helps in a way to tolerate the present. It is almost intolerable, it is so inhuman that if

the hope of the future is taken away, there will be immediate revolution in the world, there will be

rebellion everywhere. The establishment will be thrown within days, the status quo will be no more

there. And the politicians and the priests are in a subtle conspiracy.

The politician will not exist if people are not in miSery; when they are in misery they need leaders.

When somebody is a blind person he needs to be led. When you have your own eyes you don’t

need leaders. When somebody is utterly blissful herenow, who cares about your silly paradise and

heaven? Who bothers? This very moment is paradise enough. This very body the Buddha, and this

very space the Lotus Paradise. But if the present is ugly, if the present is like an open wound, full of

pus, if the present hurts too much, then you need painkillers.

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