Osho - Jesus is not a Meditator -- How can he become Enlightened?

Question - Beloved Master, Once you said Jesus was fully Enlightened. Recently, I heard you say Jesus was not enlightened. You tell us that you always say the truth. How can truth change so fast?

Osho - Truth never changes, but statements about truth can change. When we start teaching a child, his book is full of big pictures and very little written matter. If he is learning the alphabet, then every letter stands for something. "M" stands for mango. The child can understand the mango, not the "M," and he can see the mango -- a colorful, beautiful picture. But slowly slowly the mango will be dropped. Now when you read, have you to repeat every time, "M stands for mango"? You have completely forgotten what stands for what. Now you can read the alphabet directly.

Yes, I had said to you, "Jesus is enlightened." It was "M stands for mango," because you were not in a state to understand that Jesus is not enlightened. To say to you something which you cannot comprehend is meaningless. For centuries you have become accustomed to believe that Jesus is the only begotten son of God: he is light, he is love, he is life, he is the savior -- twenty centuries of conditioning.

Now you can understand my problem. I have to start with conditioned people, programmed people. Their conditioning is thick; I have to go with them so that they can go with me!

So I had been going with all kinds of people: Hindus -- and I have spoken twelve volumes on Krishna; Jainas -- and I have spoken many volumes on Mahavira; Buddhists -- and I have spoken more on Buddha than anybody else; Christians.... And even bishops and cardinals have written letters to me, "It is surprising -- you are not a Christian, and in two thousand years nobody has shown such insight into the meanings of the statements of Jesus Christ."

And I had a belly laugh. Those statements are third-rate -- not only third rate, but wrong too; the meaning that I had given to them was mine. But that was the only way that a Christian could become available to me, a Buddhist could become available to me.

Osho on Jesus

Now I have found my people, I need not say, "M stands for mango." Now I can say to you exactly what is in my heart, and I know you will be able to understand. I have walked so long with you, can't you walk a few steps with me? I have suffered so much, managing your conditionings, giving them meaning. Now I want you to listen to the naked truth.
Jesus was not enlightened.

Truth never changes, but statements have to change because the statement depends on the audience. I am not talking to the walls; if I were there would be no need to change the statement. I am talking to people who are conditioned and programmed. It is a very skillful work to uncondition them, to deprogram them, to create a trust, a friendship, a love stronger than your conditioning -- so that if a moment comes that you have to choose between your conditioning and the love, you will choose love.

Now I have people who are ready to listen to the truth without any Jesus, any Krishna, any Buddha. I can now talk directly to you. These three and a half years of silence were simply a device to give a gap so that you could forget all that I have said before, and I could start afresh.

Jesus is not enlightened. In fact, in the Western world enlightenment has been very rare. People have not worked for enlightenment, people have remained part of organized religion. And enlightenment needs a rebellious spirit so that you come out of all organized religions; you drop everything that has been taught to you, and you start looking within yourself for the truth of your being.

Jesus is not a meditator -- how can he become enlightened? He has not even taken the first step. He prays -- and there is a tremendous difference between prayer and meditation.

Prayer is directed towards a mythological God, a fiction. Prayer is always directed outward. Meditation is an inward journey, not to some fiction but to your own reality. Enlightenment happens to those who come to realize their being.

Jesus is still praying to a God, thinking still that he is the only begotten son of God -- that proves him just to be a crackpot -- thinking that after crucifixion God will raise him again, more luminous, glorious. But on the cross nothing happens. He is thirsty and he asks for water, and God cannot even give him a bottle of Coke. Frustrated, he shouts towards the sky, "Father, have you forsaken me?" The very word "father" shows that he is still a helpless child, he is not a mature person. He still needs a father figure, and is afraid perhaps the father has forsaken him. But now it is too late -- he is crucified.

Jesus thinks that he is the savior. No enlightened person has ever said that he can save anybody; he can only share his experience. Then to save yourself or not is your business. See the subtlety of the point: if somebody can save you, then even your being saved is not your freedom, it is dependent. What kind of saving is it?

Not a single enlightened man -- Bodhidharma, Chuang Tzu, Basho, Nagarjuna -- has ever said that he is a savior. All that he can say is, "I am saved, and I have an experience which you don't have. If you are ready to share it with me, I can open my whole heart to you." And then it is your decision to be saved or not saved.

I was sitting in Allahabad on the bank of the Ganges, alone. A man jumped into the river -- and the Ganges at Allahabad is very deep, vast. I thought that he was just taking a bath, but after jumping he started shouting, "Save me!" He was going down and up, and whenever he came up, he would shout, "Save me!"

Seeing no other way -- and there was nobody else -- I jumped into the water and pulled the man out. He was a heavier man, it was difficult to get him out. And he was very angry when he got out. He said to me, "Why did you save me?"

I said, "My God! You were calling, and I am alone here. I have unnecessarily destroyed my clothes; now with wet clothes I have to go three miles to the place where I am staying. And if you didn't want to be saved, why were you calling?"

He said, "I want to commit suicide."
I said, "That's perfectly okay. If you want to commit suicide, who am I to prevent you?

Then why were you calling 'Save me'?"
He said, "Just natural instinct -- when I started drowning, I forgot all about suicide."
I pushed the man back into the river.

He said, "What are you doing!"
I said, "I am simply undoing what I have done. Now I will not be deceived by what you say." And he was drowning and again shouting, "Save me!"
I said, "Nothing doing."

Nobody can save someone who does not want to be saved. And if somebody wants to be
saved, he has to find the way himself. The enlightened person is just like a bird: he flies into the sky but leaves no footprints. You cannot follow him; you can simply see the joy, the freedom -- that the whole sky is available to him.

Perhaps that may awaken in you a desire also. Perhaps for the first time you will find that you also have wings. And if that bird can fly, why can't you fly? The function of the enlightened person is just to create the milieu in which you become aware of your wings, you become aware of your potentialities.

Jesus is not doing that. He is the shepherd and you are the sheep. No man has insulted humanity in such a way as Jesus has done. Enlightened people don't humiliate; in fact, they respect you because they can see your potential -- if not today, then tomorrow you will be flying. If not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow.

Time does not matter, because we are part of eternity. On both ends it is eternity. Time does not matter. When you start flying has no significance; flying has significance. But to tell you, "I am the shepherd and you are the sheep," is to destroy your individuality, is to destroy your freedom, is to destroy your integrity; is to destroy everything that is valuable, is to reduce you from human beings to animals. An enlightened person raises you, helps you to rise to super-human beings. He does not make you sheep.

No, Jesus was not enlightened. In fact, in the Judaic and Christian tradition the orthodox have never been enlightened. Amongst Jews, there have been a few enlightened people, but they are not accepted by the orthodox Jews. Those are the Hassids -- rare and really genuine people. But the orthodox will not accept them... and they are the only beauty that Judaism has created. The very flowering of Judaism is Hassidism, but it is rejected.

The enlightened person is bound to be rejected by every tradition. In Greek tradition you will hear about Aristotle, Plato, Plotinus, and so many other philosophers; but you will rarely see Heraclitus mentioned as an enlightened man, or Pythagoras, or even Socrates. But these are the people.... But the very word "enlightenment" does not exist in the Greek traditions.

The same is true in Mohammedanism. Mohammed is not enlightened, and the orthodox tradition of Mohammedans rejects Sufi mystics who are enlightened: Jalaluddin Rumi, al-Hillaj Mansoor, Sarmad, Rabiya al-Adabiya. These people are not part of the traditional religion. They are rejected, condemned. The same has been true all over the world.
But now it is time -- I can tell you things directly. Rejoice that you are accepted as capable of hearing the truth.

Source - Osho book "From Bondage to Freedom"
Note - The above Osho talk was given during the period Sep-Oct 1985.

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