Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 30

CHAPTER 3. MATERIAL PROSPERITY AND NONPOSSESSIVENESS
But God does not repeat an idea or a picture which He has created once. Buddha was created once, the matter ended there. Mahavira was created once, the matter ended there. You will not be able to find out even one single piece of stone similar to any other in the whole world, then what to talk of man. If you tear off one leaf from a tree and try to find another like the first one, you will not be able to get it, the question of man is much bigger compared to this. Man is the evolution of a very complex consciousness. In this world, each individual is the highest, the top, and no man has a right to follow another. This doesn't mean that he should not try and understand Mahavira. In fact even the follower never understands. It is not even necessary for the follower to understand. In fact, one who wants to follow, does so to save the trouble of understanding. One who doesn't follow anybody will have to work to understand. But others who have experienced music, produced it in the lives of others also: others have touched the wire of life, others also have ignited lamps of knowledge, of wisdom; the sweet smell of the self has arisen in the lives of others also, and the dance of God has taken place in the lives of others also. He is trying to understand them, not to follow them, but with a view that seeing those evolved, developed, flowers the thirst of his own bud may also blossom and may be eager to become a flower. And he does this with a view that listening to the 'Veenas' of others, the wires of his own 'Veena' may also be stirred and his 'Veena' may be eager to sing songs.
Life does not mean to follow another, but it is the unfolding of one's self. It is not a process of becoming like another, but to be one's own self. He who accepts this challenge of becoming like himself, will not be the follower but will reach that height where Mahavira had reached, will reach that place of liberation, that nirvana where Buddha had gone after his samadhi. Everybody can enter the kingdom of God. I again repeat the final truth. One has to offer flowers of one's own self at the alter of God. There is no other way but that.
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
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Osho