27 Dec These misers also have their mathematics… (OSHO)
Whenever somebody takes something from you, something new has come into being in you. Your being is renewed through it. You are being made young again and again, the more you give. The giver remains always young.
The non-giver is always old, dead, rotten.
The master says, ”The giver should be thankful. You should be thankful to me that I accept – and that I accept a thing like money. You should be thankful, because money means nothing to me.”
It may be necessary in the world, because a master has also to live in the world; it may be the means of exchange in this mad world, because a master has to live in this mad world – but it is nothing. It is just an invented means, agreed upon by all, so that we can exchange things.
The society can live without money; for thousands of years society lived without money. And sooner or later a day will come when society will again live without money, because living through money is so burdensome and so useless and so unnecessary. But because the world was poor up to now, that’s why money has had to be used; but the more affluence grows….
But masters have always known it, always, that this is just a market device; but a master has to live with you.
If you go to a madhouse, it is better to pretend that you are also mad, otherwise you will be in difficulty. If you try to prove that you are a sane man, the madmen will kill you. They did this with Jesus, they did this with Socrates, they did this with Mansoor.
These were very innocent people. They tried to live in a madhouse as they were – not mad. They were innocent, but they did not know that the rule of the madhouse is: even if you are not mad, pretend that you are mad, because madness is the coin prevalent there, it is the currency there. Don’t be an outsider in a madhouse, otherwise madmen will collect together and kill you. If you say that you are not mad, that means you are trying to say to them that, ”You are mad!” – that cannot be tolerated.
An enlightened person also has to live in this world with you. He has to use your techniques, your tricks.
It happened once: it was found in Japan that one enlightened man was always caught – sometimes stealing, sometimes something else, a criminal act, small things. He would steal just a small amount of money, and then he was to be sent to the jail.
And he was an enlightened man! Twenty-six times in his whole life he was jailed, but those who were his disciples, they knew him. The last time he came out of jail he was seventy-eight.
And the disciples said, ”Now don’t do such a thing… and why do you go on doing such things?” He said, ”Then who will go inside the jail and try to make those jailors meditative, those jailbirds? Who will go there? I have to steal, that is the only way to reach those people. And it is nothing to me. I have been helping and there is real disease. I am needed there. But that is the only way I can get in, otherwise they won’t allow me. That is the only currency that is required.”
An enlightened man has to live with you jailbirds!
But if you are ready to understand the neurosis of money and the ecstasy of love, then you will be able to understand this: the giver should be thankful. Give and be thankful – because the other could have refused.
It happened: One man came – he also came with five hundred pieces of gold.
These misers also have their mathematics.
Five hundred seems to be the highest, the limit; they cannot go beyond it.
He came to Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna was even more dangerous. He not only said, ”All right, I will take it,” he behaved even more rudely. He said, ”So okay, go to the Ganges and throw it all in.”
The man could not do anything, because Ramakrishna has said so – he became afraid. It was impossible for him to go to the Ganges and throw in five hundred pieces of gold. But when Ramakrishna says…. Still he hesitated. Ramakrishna said, ”Why are you hesitating? Haven’t you given the money to me? Then it is my money. Just go and throw it into the Ganges, because right now I don’t need it, and the Ganges needs it.”
So the man went, very slowly of course, and he didn’t come back.
One hour passed, two hours passed, and Ramakrishna sent some disciples to see what had happened to that man. Had he drowned himself and saved the money? Misers are doing that. So the disciples went to see what he was doing. There was a big crowd, he had made it into a great show. He would bring one gold coin, throw it on a stone – khannnng! The sound! And many people were there. Then he would count: ”One hundred and one, one hundred and two, one hundred and three…”
And then throw it into the Ganges. So the disciples reported: ”That man is a perfect exhibitionist. He has gathered a big crowd and he is throwing each single coin, counting, and doing the whole thing very slowly.”
So Ramakrishna went, slapped that man and told him, ”When one accumulates, counting is needed, but when one renounces…. What are you doing? When one has to throw the coins, one can throw the whole bag!”
But people renounce and still count.
They have not renounced. Givers should be thankful; give and be thankful.
No water, No moon
OSHO
