Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 85

CHAPTER 8. PERFECT KNOWLEDGE
snake, but I can see it as a snake. The rope is merely a cause. I plant a snake in it. Then I run away sweating. In fact there is no snake, but it is there in me. It is not right to say the rope deceived me, but it is my projection on the rope which deceived me. I go near it examine it, the rope is distinctly seen and my fear vanishes immediately. It is therefore necessary to see life in its true perspective and forms.
When a child is born, it cries, and we all celebrate the birth by playing music and are happy. It is a mistake. When Zoraster was born he had laughed. No child till then had laughed at the time of his birth. Ever since then it was asked as to why Zoraster had laughed at the time of his birth. This question has not yet been answered, but I think Zoraster must have laughed at the people around him who were very happy and singing.
Every birth is sure to be followed by death. Zoraster must have laughed at those people who have held a snake tightly thinking it to be a piece of rope. He must have laughed at those people who look at life superficially and did not go deep into the meaning of life. We also take life only at its face value (superficially) because the atma of life is not seen by us. In spite of that life shows its face to us, but then we close our eyes. Life wants to be manifest but we refuse to see it.
An old person - a friend of mine - lost his son. He was crying and was very sad. When I went to his house he asked how could it happen that he had lost his young son? I replied, ask how did it happen, that you a man eighty years old, have not died till now. Death is nothing to wonder about. You can wonder about everything else but death is the only certain thing in the world. Everything is happening, everything can happen, everything changes, but only death stands steady like the polar star.
Life is insecure. The whole scheme of life is full of insecurity. There is insecurity throughout, but we go on giving feeling fully secure. We believe that everything is all right. It is doubtful if anything is all right. But man's mind continues to deceive itself. He goes on saying everything is all right, where there is nothing right, where the ground under the feet is more slippery everyday. Where nothing but death seems to be approaching, man says everything is okay.
Buddha used to advise his bikshus - Sannyasis - to go to the cremation ground to see what life is But when we go to a cremation ground we only waste our time talking about the death of someone who had passed away. We return talking about his death how unexpected it was etc. We never worry or think that each death is a pre-warning to our own death. If we can see life in its true colours, our grip on life, infatuation for life decreases automatically.
We have purposely kept these cremation grounds on the boundaries of the towns so that they may not be seen by us. We beautify them so that we may hide death among the Rowers. We construct this entire structure of life as a great deception. That is the reason when I tell you, he who desirer, to go within unconsciousness, who desires to touch those depths within, shall have to loosen his grip on the world outside.
So the first thing to remember is that things are not what they appear to be in this world. Have you an account of the times you desired for happiness and an account of achievements. We do not do that kind of arithmetic. Every evening man tallies his account to see how much he has earned and how much he has lost during the day. But we never tally the accounts of what we have gained and how much we have lost in our life on any day in the evening.
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
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Osho