Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 88

CHAPTER 8. PERFECT KNOWLEDGE
Philosophy was defeated by reasoning - intellect, so no new book on philosophy is being written nowadays. Now the students, experts in philosophy in all the universities of the world do not establish new principles. They are now trying only to prove that old philosophies were wrong. So a vacuum is created. Philosophy has no solutions - answers. Religions - shastras have given answers, but they are memorized not understood. Intellect tries to be satisfied with them but it has never been satisfied. As long as true knowledge is not obtained, there will be no contentment in life.
Faith cannot give contentment. Our intellect is full of faiths. Someone is a Christian, someone is a Hindu, someone is a Musalman, someone is a Jain, someone is a Buddhist. These are all characteristics of people who live in intellect. Truth is not found in intellect and it cannot be found there, because Truth existed when there was no intellect and it will be there even when there is no intellect.
Truth cannot be compared to the intellect. Man's brain is like a small computer. Now computers better then the brain are being manufactured but no computer can claim that it can give the truth. A computer can only give that information for which it has been programmed. The intellect is also not more than a computer. It is a natural computer. The intellect is repeating what it has accumulated. When I ask you, 'ls God there?', the reply which you give is not your reply, it is the reply given simply by your intellect, and the intellect re-echoing back what it has accumulated.
If you are born in a Jain family you would say. 'What God?' There is no God. The Atma is everything. If you are born in a Hindu family you would reply, 'Yes, God is there. And if you are born in a communist family, you would say, 'There is no God, it is all chatter. All these are computerized answers, all these are accumulated by the intellect and are repeated. The intellect only reproduces, it docs not know anything. It has not known anything - neither religion, nor philosophy, nor science.
While thinking about science, it seems that science has acquired much knowledge. This is a great illusion because what Newton knew is disproved by Einstein. And what Einstein knew is being disproved by the next generation. No scientist in this world can die with the satisfaction that what he knew was the Truth. He can say that his untruth is more appealing than the previous one. The future generation may disprove that. This is how big statements are made. He says this is the approximate truth.
Are there approximate truths anywhere in the world? The thing should be either true or untrue. When a thing is approximately true it means it is untrue. What would it mean if I say I love you approximately. It means nothing. On the contrary it would be better if I tell you that I hate you, because it would be a truth. The word approximate love has no meaning. Either there is love or it is not there. Things do not happen in approximation in this world.
Science declares approximate truths, but every such truth becomes questionable everyday. A hundred years ago science declared quite confidently that there is matter. It was found out and is known during the last hundred years that there is no matter. Before hundred years science said matter is a fact - Truth. God is not truth.
Today the scientist says we do not know. God may be there, we have not been able to disprove him. It is now established that there is no matter. Now they say there is only energy. It is difficult to say how long they will continue to do so. All the principles of man are found wanting. Truth is very great. Truth is always found great -unattainable.
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
88
Osho