Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 41

CHAPTER 4. NONSTEALING
I have heard, somebody approached an American millionaire for alms. The man asked for a small gift, but that millionaire said, 'I have formulated a rule for giving alms and gifts. One of my eyes is artificial - it is made of stone and the other is real. And I only reward that person who can point out the artificial e)e, but nobody has been successful in this test uptil now. You can try' That man looked into the eyes and said, 'Your left eye is artificial! The millionaire said, 'You have surprised me, how did you know it?' The man replied, 'Your left eye shows some mercy, so I thought this must be stone. Faces may change but they cannot be expressionless. Only the faces of dead people can be without any expression, those of living cannot be so.
If you observe children's faces, you will see that they change as quickly as the blasts of wind. And if you examine the faces of older people, you will see that they have become stony. The meaning of old faces is that everything is fixed there. There is no liquidity there. When I say do not change faces, I do not mean to say that you should make your face expressionless. I am simply asking not to put on false faces. It should be your own face; it will change every moment. It should respond to every mood and express itself as the situation demands it. It must be so. Life is responsive, so the face should have liquidity, but the face must be yours. Liquidity should be yours. There will be a change every moment, as everything in life is changing every moment. There is nothing fixed here, everything is undergoing change. So life is like the swinging leaves of a tree. All are shaking all the time. Nothing is steady except change in life. Change is the only thing in life which does not change.
Heraclaites has said, you cannot step twice in the same river. Even in one moment you cannot step twice. Life is like a river in which everything will go on changing. But the thing which is going to change should be yours, that face should be yours, it should be authentic. You may go on changing if you are you. Change is life and if you can remember during these changes that there is someone within who sees these changes you will attain 'SAMADHI' - the highest form of meditation. The face should be yours, and you should also be the witness standing behind this flow of changes and observing them. When the moon is rising, eyes are smiling, when there is a dark night, eyes weep, when flowers smell, the mind is dancing, when they fall down you are sorry, when dear ones meet there is joy, and when they separate there is pain - there should be 'someone' behind you observing all these changes. But the face should be yours which he is observing.
What is there for him to see in a false, plastic face? He does not change. When you assume a false, artificial face, you have to change your face, that is, you remove one and put on another. But when your own face changes, it becomes a new one in the new circumstances and a new flow of life. The face is the same, but the new responses of life, the new reactions of life make it new. But then if someone' within, being awakened observes, the changing face becomes meaningful, and the unchanging witness looks like Brahma, the Highest. And then you go beyond yourself and, when anyone goes beyond one's self, one enters God.
You have said it is a subtle stealing to put on an individuality and a face from outside and they lead to hypocrisy and irreligion: but now-a-days it is seen that many new Sannyasis are gathering round you and without any special preparation and maturity you go on admitting them in the new sannyasa way of life. Are you not harming religion to a great extent by acting in this manner? Please explain this.
The first thing is this. If anyone tries to be like me, I shall stop him. I shall tell him it is suicide to try to be like me. But if a person begins a journey to try to be like himself, I will wish him all the
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
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Osho