Gurdjieff's Wife Enlightenment
Question: Beloved Osho, Gurdjieff was accused of
trying to keep his wife alive while she was dying. His
disciples seem shocked and didn’t understand. In what
way was he trying to help her that he was unable to do
before she Was dying?
Osho: The 1917 revolution
in Russia disturbed
Gurdjieff’s whole work. His
disciples got scattered. He himself had to escape out of
Russia because the communists, who were coming into
power, were materialists: they did not believe in any
spiritual growth. They conceived of man just as a
vegetable. But Gurdjieff managed to take with him a
small group of disciples who had developed and
crystallized very much. His wife happened to be one of
them.
They remained in Constantinople waiting for some
opportunity to settle somewhere. It was in
Constantinople that they were found by Bennett and
brought to Europe. First he wanted to settle in England,
but it seems no country – because of its politicians’
mediocre minds – wants any giant to settle there. They
cannot accept anybody who knows more, who is more; and
Gurdjieff was a very strong, powerful, charismatic man –
whoever came into contact with him was changed. England
refused. Country after country refused him.
It was just by chance that the prime minister of France
had read a few of his books and was immensely impressed.
He invited him, and gave him a beautiful place near
Paris, a few miles away, where he established his
commune. In that commune there were two sections. One
was the old-guard Russians who had come with him, who
were far more developed than the new followers from the
West – particularly from America. The
difficulty was double.
First, the Russian group knew only Russian, so
communication was impossible. Second, they were highly
developed, and these new people were highly educated but
spiritually not developed at all. Those Russians were
not very educated. So there was another barrier of
communication – intellectually they could not
communicate, language prevented it, education prevented
it, and on the plane of being also, communication was
difficult because the Russian group was far more
developed – Gurdjieff had been working for years with
them.
The oldest disciple was his own wife. And it became
troublesome to people, particularly the new group: ”Why
should Gurdjieff be so interested in his own wife?” It
was not a question of being his wife; that was
irrelevant. The question was that he had worked on the
woman the most, and she was dying. And it was only a
question of a few days – if he could manage to keep her
alive her crystallization will happen. Otherwise one
knows not into how many circles of birth and death she
would have to move.
And he was capable of keeping her alive, because in his
system, transfer of energy is one of the basic methods.
It can be used to the extreme – that the dying person
can live as much as the person who is transmitting his
energy to him; if he transmits his whole energy he will
die immediately, and the dying person can live long.
Gurdjieff was not trying to sacrifice anybody, but
everybody could contribute a little bit of energy to his
wife. And it was only a question of a few more days of
good health, so she can continue the work.
She had almost reached,
just a step more and she would not be coming back. But
the Western group could not understand why he was so
interested: a man who is enlightened should look equally
towards everybody – whether one is his wife or not. But
they were ignorant of the fact that he was not looking
after his wife, he was looking after a human being who
happened to be his wife, but who was in such a position
that just a few days’ health would release her forever
from every imprisonment. It was worth doing.
And he managed it – his
wife died enlightened. This is possible in a school. If
we see that somebody has developed so much that there is
no harm if everybody else contributes a little energy...
so that the person can continue more in the body and
come to fulfillment. Alone it is not possible: it is not
the way of the monk, it is the way of a mystery school.
And Gurdjieff himself had learned all his techniques,
all his experiences, in Sufi schools. He was never a
monk; that’s why no religious recognition has been given
to him.
And Sufi schools keep
their techniques very secret. Gurdjieff was the first to
bring them to light in the Western world. Sufis were not
happy, and the Western world was shocked because they
were used to thinking of religion in a totally different
way: ”What he is talking about does not seem to be
religion. He’s talking almost as if it is a science” –
and he was right, it is a science. Just because of
religious persecution, many mystery schools have kept
themselves underground and have worked without anybody’s
knowledge.
Even if the husband is
part of a mystery school, his wife does not know about
it – because the church, the orthodox religion, will
immediately start persecuting him. So it is better to
keep silent, and do what you want to do in a secret way. Gurdjieff’s intention was to make all those secrets
available to a wider number of people – in which he
failed, not because of himself but because of the
masses. They are deaf; they cannot listen to
anything that is so new and goes against their
well-trodden path.
Of this caring for the wife, trying to keep her alive,
the ordinary mediocre mind will think, ”This is
attachment. He’s too much attached to his wife. And a
man who is so much attached to his wife cannot be
enlightened.” These are the mediocre minds’ logical
standpoints; and other mediocre minds will agree
perfectly all over the world. The wife has to be
renounced! – but here it is something else. He’s trying
to keep her in the body, not letting her die.
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