Osho on Indian First Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru Death

Osho - India has had six prime ministers since independence. The first prime minister was Jawaharlal Nehru, the best politician amongst all the political leaders of the world, for the simple reason that he was not a politician. He was drawn to the freedom struggle of India, and had no idea of being in power. He was not meant to be a politician. He had such a sensitive soul that he could have been a great poet, painter, musician -- anything, but not a politician.

I had several meetings with him. He was in absolute agreement with my ideas, but said to me with tears in his eyes, "Whatsoever you are saying can transform the whole future of India, but you don't have any idea of the collective mind of the masses. They cannot understand what you are saying; they will be against you. You cannot succeed in transforming their mind, you can only succeed in being crucified by them."

He was shocked by the Chinese invasion of India. He fell sick and could never recover from the shock. He died as the prime minister of India. He was a great preacher of peace, brotherhood, love, and he had created a third world bloc against the Soviet Union and America, so that these two camps are not the only camps in the world, there is another camp which is neutral. And he had succeeded in creating a third camp which is neutral. China was part of it, and China was the biggest part of it, the most important part of it, and China attacked India.

Now, on the Himalayan borders it is very difficult to fight the Chinese. Indians live not in the Himalayas but on the plains. This side of the Himalayas is Indian, the other side is Chinese. Now, millions of Chinese live on the other side, and they are accustomed to the Himalayan eternal snows. They can fight. You cannot survive with them. In the Himalayas, if a fight goes on, nobody can defeat them.

Just as it used to happen with Germany.... In the first world war it happened; when Napoleon attacked Russia it happened; in the first world war when Germany attacked Russia it happened. In the second world war Hitler made the same mistake: he attacked Russia. It happened because Russia is vast, one sixth of the land mass of the whole earth, and for six to nine months it is covered with snow, so only for three months can you fight. The moment snow starts falling, then nobody can fight with the Russians. They are accustomed to it; their physiology for millions of years has been accustomed to it. It is their home. But for anybody else, it is death.

Napoleon was finished there. The first world war was finished there, and Adolf Hitler was finished there. In fact it was a challenge, that's why he attacked Russia. Because Napoleon had been defeated there and in the first world war Germany was defeated there, Adolf Hitler wanted to prove that Russia is not something unconquerable. But it was a purely natural thing. When the snow starts falling, then nobody can be victorious in Russia; then you cannot fight with the Russians.

The same is true about the Chinese. China has one fifth of the population of the world -- the biggest of any country in the world. When China attacked India it took over thousands of miles in the Himalayas and India could not do anything. It was such a serious shock to Jawaharlal, who was always healthy before it, that he suddenly started shrinking, dying. As far as I understand, he died a psychological death. To be more accurate he committed a psychological suicide. He lost all hope for peace, for no war in the world, because China had been the closest friend to India. If you cannot trust your closest friend, whom are you going to trust? He simply lost all joy. Suddenly he became old.

Source - Osho Book "From Personality to Individuality"

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