Osho Rajneesh Book "The Wisdom of the Sands, Vol 1"

The Wisdom of the Sands, Vol 1

Trust in Allah...

22 February 1978 am in Buddha Hall
The first question:
Question 1

WHY ARE YOU AGAINST ASCETIC PRACTICES? ARE THEY NOT RELIGIOUS? IS NOT

ASCETICISM A PATH TO GOD?

It is just the opposite: it is a path to the madhouse. It is pathological. It is an expression of an ill

mind, it is an expression of a violent mind. Ordinarily the violence is directed towards others, but

the violence can be dirccted to oneself too. And when the violence is directed to oneself it is more

dangerous, because there is nobody to defend you.

When you are violent with somebody else the other is there to defend, to protect himself, to fight

with you. When the violence turns upon yourself, it is absolute; there is nobody left to defend you.

So to me, Adolf Hitler is less dangerous than Mahatma Gandhi, Adolf Hitler is less violent than

Mahatma Gandhi. It may be very difficult for you to understand it, but this has been happening down

the ages: the people who are masochistic have declared themselves religious. Religion is an excuse

to be a masochist. Take the excuse away and the masochist is exposed.

If you go on thinking that the person who is torturing himself is a spiritual person, you are also

nourishing his masochism. He’s simply enjoying torturing himself. There is a joy that comes out of

torturing oneself: it consists of the feeling of power. When you torture somebody else, then too it

gives you the feeling of power. That’s why violence exists. People simply go on doing violence to

each other; that is their only way to feel powerful. They can destroy the other; that is their power.

But there is a variety of violence where you can start destroying yourself, and you will feel powerful.

For example, the story is told of a Hindu saint – I don’t believe it is true, but it could be true – that

a Hindu mystic, Surdas, was passing through a street and he saw a beautiful woman, and for a

moment he forgot that he had renounced the world. He forgot that he was a saint, he forgot all

about religion, discipline, yoga. In that moment his heart simply moved with great passion and love

towards the woman. Just a moment later he caught hold of himself. He went back to his hut and

destroyed his eyes, became blind, because the scriptures say if the eyes lead you astray, destroy

them. He must have felt immensely powerful while destroying his eyes: ”I can do even this!” The

ego must have felt very subtle nourishment. The ego must have become more strong than ever.

And it was not the eyes, it was his capacity to become unconscious; the eyes had not led him astray.

How can the eyes lead you astray? The eyes are just windows into the world. Standing in your

room looking out of the window, you see a beautiful woman – you don’t destroy the window. And

by destroying the window you will not gain anything: you will not become more spiritual, you will not

become less sexual, your passion not disappear. You will only be closed in your house and your

passion will get on boiling within you. Eyes are windows.

Just a few days ago. I think just seven days ago a woman in America cut off one of her hands,

because the Bible says, ”If thy hand offend thee, it is better to cut it off and throw it away than to fall

into hell and suffer for eternity.”

These people – Surdas or this woman, and there are millions of that type – you call them religious?

You call them spiritual? They are pathological.

A religious person is a healthy, whole person. He accepts life as it is, and he accepts the joys that

life brings. He dances with the dance, he sings a thousand and one songs. His approach is not

antagonistic, it is not anti-life.

The ascetic approach is anti-life. It is suicidal. You may be committing suicide very slowly and

partially; that doesn’t make much difference. Somebody jumps from a cliff and destroys himself;

and somebody slowly slowly, in installments, goes on destroying himself, takes years to destroy

himself: this is slow poisoning, but there is no difference. In fact the man who jumps from the cliff is

more courageous than the man who goes on committing suicide slowly.

But down the ages we have praised these insane people, we have worshipped them. Because of

this worship humanity has remained immature and humanity has remained abnormal. The normal

people are not normal. they are only called normal. They exist in great numbers but they are not the

norm – and they are not healthy either. They somehow manage to live their lives. The man who is

destructive to his being is insane, and the people who worship him as a saint are also insane.

I am utterly against ascetic practices because those practices are against life. I am all for life. I am all

for God. God is a celebration. Look around... the whole existence is continuously in a celebration, in

a kind of ’alleluia’. It continues singing and dancing, and loving, and enjoying. If you watch existence

you will understand what it is to be religious: to be part of this celebration is to be religious.

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