Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 96

CHAPTER 8. PERFECT KNOWLEDGE becomes stronger. So, it is natural to raise a question whether the individualization of an awakened person becomes strong or dies out. Is it transformed into ego or does it go away? This is merely the difference in language, nothing more. I call that as the birth of void - emptiness which Gurdjieff calls crystallization. Really speaking 'an individual is born for the first time by being 'void', because by becoming void, he achieved that virat - huge individual. By becoming void, by losing individuality, a person becomes 'an individual' for the first time, but this is difficult to understand. This is one of those contradictions of religion we fail to understand. When a drop of water falls into the ocean, someone can say the drop is lost, where is it now? And someone else can also say that the drop has become the ocean. Someone can say, the drop is lost, it is non-existent, it has become void. Someone can say the drop has become the ocean. It was nothing before, but it has become the ocean now for the first time. These are the negative and positive ways of speaking. Gurdjieff and Jung call this individuation, crystalization. The person has become an individual for the first time like the drop has become the ocean now. Mahavira calls it the Atma. It means the same. Shankara calls it Brahma - it is the same thing. All these are positive terms. Only Buddha used negative terms. He said, 'Anatma' which is non-Atma. It does not become Atma, has perished. There is now no Atma, no Brahma and what remains now has no words. He says the drop is not there, now let this subject go. When you say that drop has become the ocean you give it a boundary. Buddha says, when you use positive words, there will always be a boundary, man's mind runs after the positive very quickly. If man is asked to lose himself, he would ask, 'why should I lose myself; what would be the result'? And if you reply, you will be God, he will understand it quickly. If you say you will be Brahma, he will understand it quickly. That is why, Buddha's teaching did not take firm roots in this country. We are used to a positive language. In the history of mankind, Buddha used negative language to a large extent for the first time. And the fact is only negative statements can be made with regard to Supreme Truth, because all positive statements will form boundaries. That is why the Upanishads say, Not that, not that. It is a negative statement. It says, not this, not that. If you say that Brahma is like this, then it is not this, and if you say Brahma is like that, then it is not that also. Buddha also uses negative language. Buddha says, it is nothing - void. This is why the word he used is nirvana. That word is very significant and meaningful. The extinguishing of a lamp is nirvana. There is a lamp, if you blow it, it will be extinguished. If we ask, where has the light gone? We shall say it is gone - lost. Or if you want to say, you can say that the light has become all, it has been one with all, now it has no limits. Buddha or all those who want to be precise talk in negative terms. It is not that Mahavira did not know this or Shankara did not know this. But people are eager to know if the drop of water is willing to be lost, if it is willing to merge into the ocean; it will be willing only when it knows that there is no harm in being lost. The drop will go away but it will become the ocean. But the drop says if any drop falls into the ocean with an infatuation to become the ocean, it will not be able to become the ocean because this desire - infatuation will keep it as a drop of water. This avarice, this desire, will keep its individuality tied down from all sides. The Perennial Path: The Art of Living 96 Osho