Osho Rajneesh Book "The Sword and the Lotus"

The Sword and the Lotus

Don’t sow wrong seeds
15 January 1986 pm in

Question 1

BELOVED MASTER,

SIR THOMAS MOORE’S PERFECT SOCIETY, ”UTOPIA,” ORIGINATES FROM

THE UNEXPLAINED PRESENCE AND INSIGHT OF A MAN NAMED UTOPIAS. WHY DO SUCH VISIONS FOR A HARMONIOUS SOCIETY AMONG MEN DERIVE FROM SUCH MYSTERIOUS INDIVIDUALS? AND WHY HAS THE IDEA OF A PERFECT SOCIETY ALWAYS FIRED MAN’S IMAGINATION YET AVERTED HIS GRASP?

Man finds himself utterly empty, meaningless, accidental. The awareness of all these things hurts

him. He wants to improve things simply to feel some meaning in life, some joy in life. Ordinarily he

is just a wound, and from birth onwards the wound goes on growing bigger and bigger, and the pain

goes on increasing.

If he looks ahead there is nothing but death and darkness. If he looks behind – before birth – nothing

is known.

He lives between two unknown realities – birth and death. And the small span of his life is just a

continuous pain. To avoid this pain, to change this situation, to heal the wound, he has done many

things.

He invented a God so that he can say he is not accidental, he is a creation of a perfect God. And

when a perfect God creates, he creates perfect beings. It is simple logic: to make himself feel

perfect, significant, needed by the universe, he swallows the greatest lie – the concept of God. It is a

desperate effort, but you cannot befool yourself. You may postpone your misery a little bit but again

it is there.

To satisfy God and make him a reality, man has created all kinds of rituals, priesthoods. Of course he

cannot create God but he can create temples, synagogues, mosques, churches. He cannot create

God but he can create prophets, messiahs, saviors – representatives of God. He can create holy

books written by God. Man writes them, but even the most intelligent people do not want to disturb

the illusion; it is such a consolation that there is a God who cares about you. And God is perfect in

every way so his creation cannot be imperfect.

All that you have to do is to go on praying to God so he remains happy with you and allows you

all the possible treasures of existence. For centuries man has lived in that dream, but nothing has

happened and everything has been done...

You will be surprised. We have sacrificed human beings to an empty concept of God! We have

sacrificed the most beautiful women – because God would be very happy to have a beautiful woman.

We have made every effort, but the sky remains silent, no answer ever comes, no response. Slowly,

slowly the intelligentsia started looking somewhere else – ”Perhaps that is not the right direction...”

That’s where people like Thomas Moore come in.

It is a sheer waste of time to look towards an abstract God no one has seen. It is better to improve

the society, make the society perfect so that the people who are members of the society have the

chance to flower to their perfection. That is another illusion, far closer to reality, but it doesn’t matter

whether the illusion is farther away or closer, an illusion is an illusion.

You cannot create a perfect society for the simple reason... just take a few examples: there are poor

people, there are rich people. Naturally, in a perfect society nobody should be poor, nobody should

be rich, there should not be any division of classes. It will be a classless society. But it is impossible

because it is against the very psychology of man. No two men are equal, and you are thinking of

making the whole human society equal; it cannot happen. And it is not only a question of being rich

and poor, the question is multidimensional.

One of the characters in an existentialist novel says, ”I cannot be satisfied with one woman. I want

all the women of the earth.”

Now how are you going to satisfy these people? And he is saying something which is hidden in

every man and in every woman. How can you manage?

There are people who will not be satisfied unless they have great power over millions of people in

their hands. These politicians cannot be satisfied without power. They are addicted to power, but if

they have power then millions are reduced to slavery.

One Adolf Hitler – and millions of people are in danger. But you cannot prevent Adolf Hitlers from

being born, and as long as they exist, wars will continue. As long as they exist there will be religions.

The question is not at all concerned with America, it is a question of forgiveness – and I am going

to be persecuted from one land to another land. If you cannot forgive the people who will be

persecuting me, then your whole emptiness will become just wounds and wounds and wounds.

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