OSHO Talks: silence shared in words
OSHO International Foundation presents
Does Society Have a Responsibility to Its Disadvantaged People?
Does society have a responsibility to its disadvantaged people?
No.
None?
None.
Society has
destroyed people in the first place
and then starts
talking about responsibility.
Each child is being
destroyed by the society,
distracted from his nature,
distracted from what he was going to be,
what existence has
meant him to be.
First the society distracts him,
disturbs him,
and when he is disturbed
then these great public servants
start coming and saying
that the society has a responsibility.
This is a very cunning game.
First,
make a man sick
and then run
to fulfill your
responsibility, service, duty,
humanity, compassion...
and bring medicine.
But why hit the person in the first place?
All children are born so innocent
that if you can
just leave them
alone to be themselves...
if you love them,
and love is not a responsibility.
I am reminded
of a
small anecdote.
One Hindu monk
was
traveling towards
the highest
Hindu sacred place,
Badri Khedar,
in the Himalayas.
It is a long journey, tedious.
And just in front of him,
a small girl,
not more than
twelve or thirteen years old,
was carrying
a boy,
fat and heavy.
The sannyasin was
very tired
and just as he was passing the girl,
he said to the girl,
"My daughter,
you must be tired,
you are carrying so much weight."
The girl was very angry.
She said, "Weight?
You are carrying weight.
This is my brother."
Love is not a responsibility.
Love is not a duty.
Love is your joy.
So out of your love
do whatever you can do,
but not out of your Christianity,
not out of your ideology,
not out of a sense of responsibility.
Otherwise you will never
be able to forgive your son,
and neither will your son be able
to forgive you ever.
Duty is a four-letter, dirty word.
Never do anything
for the sake of duty,
because you are doing it reluctantly.
And whomsoever you are doing it for,
you are humiliating.
Children are there
just like flowers.
What responsibility do you have
towards the roses?
Yes,
to give water,
some manure,
but that is not responsibility,
that is your joy...because
your roses will be bigger
and more fragrant.
What you are doing is nothing
in comparison to what
you are going to get.
You are not
doing
any compassion towards the rosebush.
In fact, the rosebush is
being compassionate towards you.
What you have done? --
just put a little water,
manure, taken care.
And the rosebush comes with all its
thankfulness,
with all its flowers,
and your whole house becomes fragrant.
Suddenly
you are no more in an ordinary house;
you are in a palace,
you are in paradise.
And the same happens with children.
They are also flowers.
Nourish them,
but that is not
your responsibility,
that is your love.
If there is no love,
please
don't do anything.
Otherwise you are going to
destroy the child.
Love is the only safety.
The child is too fragile.
Handle it with care.
Responsibility
is too big a word
and too heavy.
Duty
is just ugly.
Why not rejoice
in nourishing the child?
Why not have joy
in making him
an individual?
But you are trying
to make him a Christian.
You are dragging him to the church.
You are forcing
him to believe in a God.
You are creating fear in him:
"If you don't believe,
you will go to hell."
You are creating greed in him:
"If you follow
the church line,
you will be
rewarded thousandfold
in heaven, after death."
You will destroy his whole life,
and you will feel
great
that you have done your responsibility.
This is not responsibility;
this is simply
irresponsibility.
A response
should come only out of
your loving heart.
If you love the child,
then you would like the child
to find his own truth.
You would not like him to
live on a borrowed truth.
Your child and living on a
borrowed truth...
what are you doing? --
making him a beggar?
You will not like your child
to be obedient
against his
reason,
against his will.
You will teach the child:
"Obedience is not a virtue.
Neither is disobedience a virtue.
You have to choose.
We can offer you whatever
our understanding is,
which is not perfect,
which is not infallible.
We can place everything
that we have experienced in life,
and it is up to you
to choose or not to choose.
You have to be yourself,
not just my son."
He has come through you,
but he does not belong to you.
You have been a passage...
but if roads start claiming
people who walk on the roads,
just think
how much more difficult
life will become.
If once you travel on a road,
the road said, "Stop!
Now where are you going?"
And what are parents except roads?
Source: The Last Testament, Vol.2 #3
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