Why are many Spiritual Masters like MADMEN ?

A revealing Sufi Story told by Spirtual Master Osho, explaining why many spiritual masters behave like Madmen.

A disciple came to the master and said, "I am in trouble. The trouble is that the richest man of the town is going on a pilgrimage. He has a beautiful daughter, and I have a great reputation because of all the discipline that I have gone through and the character that I have cultivated. I have such a reputation in the town that he wants me to take care of his beautiful daughter while he is on his pilgrimage. And I am afraid -- I know my temptations. And the girl is really beautiful; in fact I have always been infatuated with her. I have been avoiding...! This is too much: for six months or nine months she will be living with me. I cannot trust myself. What should I do?"

The master said, "I know a man who knows the secret. You go to him."

And he told him to go to another village where a madman lived. He said, "But what can that madman do? I know about that madman, I have heard much about that madman. He is utterly mad! How can he help me?"

The master said, "You just go, but go very watchfully. Watch everything that is happening there."

He went to the madman. A very beautiful young girl was pouring wine and the madman was drinking.

This beautiful young girl pouring wine and the madman drinking -- this man felt great hatred, condemnation. But because the master had said, "Watch and go and ask him for advice..." he forgot all about his problem. First he asked, "Please tell me what is happening. What are you doing?"

The madman laughed and he said, "This boy is my son. And come close -- my glass contains only water. What he is pouring is not wine."

The man asked, "Then why are you pretending that you are drinking wine? Nobody sips water the way you are sipping. The flask from which he is pouring water is not used for keeping water -- then why?"

The madman laughed and said, "So that nobody entrusts his beautiful daughter to me when he goes on a pilgrimage. This is a device!"

He must have read the thought, he must have been telepathic. He must have seen this man through and through. "...So that nobody entrusts his beautiful daughter to me, so nobody bothers. So that I am left alone. But please don't tell my secret to anybody; otherwise I will have to move from this town to another town. My madness is a rumor created by me. My characterlessness is a rumor created by me. And if YOU really want to work on yourself," said the madman, "you should do likewise. Go back. Start behaving foolishly, stupidly, madly, immorally -- at least pretend! -- and nobody will bother you."

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How we do Business with God ?

A famous Sufi story told by Mystic Osho, describing how we do business with God.

A ship is coming back to its home country. Suddenly the ocean goes mad... great winds, and the ship is almost on the verge of sinking. Everybody starts praying. At such a moment who will not pray? – even the atheist will pray, the agnostic will pray, and pray, ”Forgive what I have been saying, it was all nonsense. Forgive me, but let me reach the shore.”

But the Sufi was simply sitting there, not praying. The people became angry; they said, ”You are a religious man, wearing the robe, the green robe of a Sufi. What kind of a Sufi are you? You should have been the first to pray. And we are not religious people, we are just business people, and to us this prayer is, too, nothing but business. We are offering God, that ’We will give you this, we will give you that, just save us.’ Why are you sitting silently? Why are you not praying?”

He said, ”You have already said it: because I am not a businessman. If he wants to finish us all, good. If he wants to save us, good. I am in total agreement with him. Why should I pray? For what? Prayer means some disagreement, something is happening which you don’t want to happen. You want God to intercede, to interfere, to stop it, to change it.”

The Sufi said, ”I have no business of my own. It is his business to bother whether to save or to drown us. If he wants this Sufi to be saved, it is his business, not my business. And if he wants me to die, that is his business. I had not asked for birth; suddenly I was here. I cannot ask about death.

If birth is not in my control, how can death be in my control?”

Those people thought, ”This man is mad.” They said, ”We will take care of you later on. Let us get to the shore somehow and then we will take care of you. You are not a Sufi, you are not religious; you are a very dangerous man. But this is not the time to bother and quarrel with you.”

On board was the most wealthy, most famous man of the country, and he was coming with millions of diamonds and precious stones. He had earned much. He had a beautiful palace in the town – the most beautiful marble palace. Even the king was jealous. Even the king had asked him many times, ”You give this palace to me – any price, and I will pay for it.”

But the madman, the rich man, said, ”That is not possible. That palace is my pride.” When the ship was almost sinking, the man shouted to God, ”Listen, I give that palace to you – just save me!” And as it happened, the winds disappeared, the ocean became calm, the ship was saved. They reached the bank.

Now, the rich man was in a very difficult position because of what he had said. And he had been angry with the Sufi – now he was not angry. He said, ”Perhaps you were right just to keep quiet. If had followed you I would not have lost my palace. But I am a businessman, and I will find a way.”

And he found a way.

Next day he put the palace up for auction. He informed all the nearby kingdoms, whoever was interested. Many kings, queens and rich people came; everybody was interested. They were all puzzled to see that, just in front of the palace, there was a cat chained to a marble pillar of the palace. The rich man came out and he said, ”This palace and the cat, both are up for auction together. The price of the cat is one million dinars” – their dollars, one million dollars – ”the price of the cat one million dollars, and the price of the palace, one dollar: one million and one dollars.”

The people said, ”For this cat one million dollars, and for this palace just one dollar?”

The businessman said, ”You don’t bother about it. If you are interested, both are going to be sold together. Less, I will not accept. If anybody is interested, this is my minimum price.”

The king of the country said, ”Yes, I will give you the price, but please tell me, what is the secret of this cat and the palace?”

And he said, ”No secret – I just got into trouble because of a prayer. I have told God that ’I will give you the palace.’ And I am a businessman; if he is a businessman, I am also a businessman. The cat, one million dollars – that I will keep. And the palace: one dollar – that will go to God’s fund.”

Prayer is just your effort to persuade God to do things according to you. And it is absolutely your imagination. In the first place you don’t know God. You don’t know his likes and dislikes. You don’t know whether he exists or not, and you are praying. This is a poor state of affairs, and this is happening all over the world.

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Power of Music!

A very famous story about the power of Music told by Osho.

There is a very famous story about a Lucknow king. He was a great lover of music, and he invited a very great musician to the court. But the musician was an eccentric person. 

He said, ’I will play on my sitar but with only one condition – that nobody should be allowed to shake his head. People have to remain like statues. If somebody shakes his head, the head has to be cut.’

The king was surprised but he was also a madman; he said, ’Okay.’ He informed the whole town that only those should come who were perfectly in control, otherwise they would be playing with their life. 

Many thousands of people wanted to come but they were afraid – but a few people came; a few hundred people came. And the musician started playing. 

Half an hour passed and ten, twelve persons were just drunk with the music, shaking their heads; their energy moving. 

The king was surprised – ’Can music be so powerful? These people are risking their lives!’

After the programme those ten, twelve persons were caught, brought before the musician, and the king said, ’Now what do you say? Should we cut their heads?’ The musician said, ’No. These are the real people for whom I would like to give a special programme. 

I wanted to know the real people. A person who can risk his life – I would like to play before him. These are the real drunkards!’

People were sitting so stiff because even sometimes you might move for some other reason, and there might be some misunderstanding. People were sitting just like stone statues, but ten, twelve persons....

The king asked those twelve persons, ’Were you not aware? Why did you shake? Why did you move? Why were you influenced by the music when your life was in danger?’ They said, ’We don’t know. We tried to keep ourselves completely in control to a certain moment – beyond it, we were not there. So we cannot say that we moved our bodies. The bodies moved, that is certain, but we have not moved. We tried everything that we could do not to move, but then a moment came and we were helpless.... The music was so beautiful and so penetrating, that in that moment all idea of life and death disappeared. In fact the idea of self disappeared, so there was nobody to control. It happened on its own accord. We are ready – if we are to be killed, we are ready.’

Music has a tremendous power. It is alcoholic; through sound it intoxicates you. Through subtle vibrations of sound it makes you abandon yourself.

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The doors of Love !

A Sufi story told by Osho.

A lover knocks at the door of his beloved. 

From the inside of the house it is asked ”Who are you?” 

And he says ”I am your lover; can’t you recognize me? – my voice, my footsteps, my knock?”

And the voice from the inside says ”The house of love is very small; it cannot contain two. First be ripe, be mature, and then come again.”

The lover went to the desert. Months passed, years passed, and ultimately he attained what was expected of him. He came back, knocked on the same door. 

The same voice asked the same question ”Who art thou?”

Now he laughed and said ”I am no more – only you are,” 

And the doors were opened for him.

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Who is the King and Who's the Beggar ?

A lovely Sufi story told by the Mystic Osho.

A great Sufi mystic, Farid, was very much respected by the emperor, Akbar. Akbar used to come to pay his respects to Farid, to his small village, just near Delhi. The villagers once told Farid, ”If you say to Akbar – just a hint from your side is enough – that we need a school, our children can get easily educated. If you can just give a hint it will be done immediately. There is no question about it.”

Farid said, ”Then I will have to go to the court, because when he comes here it is not right to ask anything. If I have to ask something I have to go to his palace myself.” So he went.

He arrived early in the morning. The king was in his prayer, but Farid was not prevented; everybody knew that the king respects him like a Master. So Farid went in, he stood behind the king. Akbar was praying with raised hands towards the sky. He was just finishing his prayer, and he said to God... not knowing that Farid is present, not knowing that anybody is hearing, he said to God, ”Give me more money, give me more power.”

Farid turned away.

Akbar finished his prayer. He stood up and saw Farid going out of the room. He rushed, fell to his feet and asked, ”This is the first time you have come – why are you going back without saying a single word?”

Farid said, ”I was wrong. I used to think that you are a king – you are not. I am far better a king than you are. You are still asking, still demanding. What kind of prayer is this? It is begging, pure begging. I had come to ask for some favor, but now I cannot ask it of you; you are so poor that to ask for a school for the village will be too much for you. No, I am not going to ask. And moreover, if I have to ask, why should I not ask God himself? Rather than using you as a mediator – you ask God and I ask you – if I have to ask, I will ask God himself.

”But remember that one of my great illusions has disappeared. It has been good that I came: I have seen the beggar in you.”

Akbar has written in his memoirs that, ”I also became aware that although I am a great king,” – he

dominated the whole of India, in his time the Mogul empire was the greatest empire in the whole of the world – ”I understood. Farid is right: I am a beggar and Farid is the true king.”

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Searching for a Good Place to Live?

Read this Sufi story told by Osho and then start searching!

A man was sitting at the gate of a town, an old man. A rider stopped, a horse rider and asked him, ”what are the people of this town like?”

The old man asked, ”Why do you ask this?”

The rider said, ”The people of the town I have come from are very indecent. I was upset and disturbed by them. I had to leave that town. Now I want to become a resident of some new town. So I am asking you how the people of this town are.”

The old man said, ”Brother, you had better move on. The people of this town are even more vile, more wicked, more indecent. Here you will get into trouble, go look somewhere else.”

The rider moved on. 

Just behind him a bullock cart came to a halt and a man looked around and said, ”Grandfather, how are the people of this village? I am searching for a new residence.”

The old man asked again, ”How were the people of the village you have left?”

Tears came to the eyes of that man. He said, ”I didn’t want to leave, helplessly I had to leave. The people of that village were very loving. Now wherever I live the memory of those people will torment me. I was helpless, I was in economic difficulty. I had to leave it so that I can earn something, I need to try my luck somewhere else. But I have just one ambition that whenever my luck improves, I will return there. I will reside in that village, in the end I want to die in that village. If I cannot live there then at least I want to die there.”

That old man said, ”You are welcome. You will find the people of this village even more loving than the people of that village.”

A man was sitting there listening to all this. First he heard what the horse rider said and the old man’s answer. Then he heard what this man on the bullock cart said and the old man’s answer.

The man said, ”You have really surprised me. You said to one man that this village is very vile and wicked, just move on. And to the other you said this village has very loving people, you have no need to go further, you are welcome! 

The old man explained, ”People are just the way you are. Everywhere men are the same. The real thing is your question.”

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Thirst for God !

A short story told by Osho.

There is a short story by Kafka. He writes that there is a circus with different types of performers and any variety of games and acrobatics and entertainments. The owner of the circus has engaged among the troupe of performers a person who is adept in fasting. This man presents his shows on fasting, and he has a hut to himself. People visit the circus to watch many things – like feats of trained animals, strange and wild animals – and they also come to watch this fasting man, who is an object of great attraction. He can live without food for months. 

Once he went without food for a full three months at a stretch. So people come to watch him too. But there is a limit to it.

It happens that in a certain town the circus tarries on for six or seven months. Spectators come to watch the man on his fast for a fortnight or a month, but then their interest wears away. That is why it is said that showmen and saints should regularly change their places. If they stay in one place for long, they will be in difficulty. How long will people stand them? So it is fitting that they go from one town to another after every two or three days. When they visit a new town, people flock to them again. In another town they are again very entertaining.

The circus of Kafka’s story stays too long in that town, and as a result visitors stop coming to the fasting performer. They forget his hut completely. And the man is so emaciated through long fasting that he cannot go to the manager and inform him about his situation. He is so weak that he cannot

even rise from his bed, so he keeps on lying and lying there. And as the circus is very big, he is actually forgotten.

After a lapse of four or five months someone suddenly remembers him one fine morning and makes inquiries about him. Now the manager becomes anxious, lest the fasting man might be dead. He rushes to his hut, but is pained to find no one there except the bundle of hay on which he lay. There is no trace of the man himself. When the manager calls out his name, there is no answer from him.

He is so worn out that he cannot speak. Then the manager removes the grass bed and he is aghast

to see the fasting man reduced to a bare skeleton. But his eyes are safe and alive.

The manager says to him, ”My friend, I sincerely apologize for forgetting you, but are not you equally

crazy? If people had ceased to visit you, you should have resumed eating.” The man replies, ”But now my habit of eating is dead; it is finished. I don’t feel hungry at all. And I am no longer a performer; I am trapped in the performance itself; I am a helpless prisoner in its hands. I am no longer play-acting, but really don’t have any hunger. In fact, now I don’t know what hunger is, because what they call hunger no longer happens to me.”

So Make sure that you don't Fast on the Divine, instead feast on it.

Because every person is born with thirst for God. And if it is given opportunity and facilities to awaken, all other thirsts – like the thirst for riches and the thirst for fame – will just disappear. 

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Understand Your Desires!

A sufi story told by Osho.

When Alexander died and he reached heaven, he was carrying all his weight – his whole kingdom, gold, diamonds – of course not in reality, but in an idea. Ideas have as much weight; in fact an idea is the real weight. He was burdened too much by being Alexander.

The gatekeeper started laughing and he said ’Why are you carrying so much of a burden?’

Alexander said ’What burden?’ because really he was carrying nothing. Everything was in the head, but the head was very heavy.

The gatekeeper gave him a scale and put an eye on one side of the scale. He told Alexander to put all his weight, all his greatness, treasures, kingdom, on the other side of the scale. 

Alexander put all his kingdom, all his wealth, his victories, and everything there. That one eye still remained heavier than all his kingdom, so finding no other way, he himself jumped onto the scales, but still the one eye remained heavier.

He said to the gatekeeper, ’I cannot understand how such a small eye can be so weighty. What is it? Are you playing some trick, some magic with me?’

The gatekeeper said, ’This is a human eye. It represents human desire... the outgoing desire.’

’It cannot be fulfilled, howsoever great the kingdom and howsoever great your efforts. Even a single human eye full of desires cannot be fulfilled.’

Then Alexander said ’Then what is the way to fulfill it?’

The gatekeeper threw a little dust into the eye. The eye immediately blinked and lost all its weight.

It was immediately weightless.

The story is beautiful. A little dust of understanding has to be thrown into the eye of desire. The desire disappears and only needs remain, and they are not weighty. Needs are very few... needs are beautiful. Desires are ugly and they make monsters of men. They create mad people.

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