
I am a drunkard, there is too much vodka in me
excerpt
series:
I Say Unto You
Volume 1 / Chapter 4
Oct 24, 1977 Buddha Hall

204



The second question:
Bhagwan (Osho), Sometimes I have the feeling that you are not quoting the Bible correctly.
That’s possible. I am not a scholar, and if sometimes it is correct, it is a miracle. It must be a coincidence.
I am not a Christian either. I am not concerned with what exactly is written in the book, I am more concerned with what happened to Jesus in his innermost core. It has happened to me too, so I know what it is. When I am saying anything, I am not saying it according to the Bible, but according to christ consciousness. And if sometimes you find that I am saying something which is not in the Bible, then at least you can add it to your Bible. And it will be absolutely true.
It is possible… I am a drunkard; I speak out of my drunkenness. If you are listening from a scholarly standpoint, you may be worried, puzzled, and you will miss much. You will have to remember again and again that I may not be true to the letter but I am true to the spirit. But you have been taught what is in the Bible, you have been forced to learn it. It is crammed into your heads, and whenever you see something different, naturally you become puzzled.
Somebody else has also asked: “It seems that Christ is not the type for you. He seems to be too much of a moralist. And the sutras that you have covered,” he has said, “were very different to the meaning that you have given to them.” That too will be apparent to you many times, but it is only apparent, it is not true.
In fact you don’t know Jesus as he was. You know the Jesus that Christianity has depicted for you. You know a Jesus through the Christian interpretation, and you have believed that this is so. Those moralistic interpretations are Christian interpretations. Jesus needs better treatment. He needs to be brought to the world again in his originality.
He was one of the most amoral persons. That’s why the Jews were so much against him. The Jews of his day were very moralistic people, very law-abiding. Their anger against Jesus was basically that he was not law-abiding, and he was bringing dangerous intuitions to people. He was bringing a kind of lawlessness.
Jews have always been a law-abiding people. That’s why all the great revolutionaries of the world have come from the Jews. It is not accidental. When a society is very law-abiding, as a reaction it creates the revolutionary. Jesus is a great revolutionary. Karl Marx is also a Jew, and a great revolutionary. Sigmund Freud is also a Jew, and a great revolutionary. So is Albert Einstein.
These four people have influenced the history of humanity as nobody else has ever done. Why? Jews are so law-abiding, so righteous that sooner or later somebody is born who rebels against it. Only in a law-abiding society can the rebel be born. You will be surprised: here also, more than half the people are Jews, which is strange. It is out of all proportion. Again and again Vivek brings the news, “This sannyasin is also a Jew. That sannyasin is also a Jew.” And sometimes I start suspecting – maybe I am a Jew, or what? If everybody is a Jew, then I must be a Jew.
In India, Jews are nonexistent. This may be the only place where you can find Jews, and there are so many that this is almost a Jewish place, a Jerusalem. But why? The society is too law-abiding, too traditional, so anybody who has some intelligence starts rebelling. He starts escaping, he starts finding new ways of being. That’s why so many Jews are here.
The Jews were angry because he was amoral – not immoral, but amoral. By amoral I mean his morality was inner, it was not from the outside. His morality was spontaneous. He lived each moment, he had no plan, he had no blueprint for how to live. He was a conscious being, and again and again he would decide each moment. He would not carry any conclusion from the past. He would simply be there in the situation and let the situation decide. His response was always fresh, that’s why there are so many contradictions in the Bible – there are bound to be.
A man who lives moment to moment will have many contradictions. He cannot be very consistent; only dead people can be consistent. A man who is really alive each moment goes on changing, because life changes, so he changes. He is never out of tune with life, he is always in tune with life. And life is inconsistent, so he becomes inconsistent. A truly great man is so vast, he contains contradictions.
Jesus contains great contradictions. One of the logicians of the French Revolution, Voltaire, has shouted almost madly, “Down with this scoundrel!” – and by “this scoundrel” he means Jesus. Why? Why should Voltaire, a man of very rational grounding, logic, philosophy, call Jesus a scoundrel? “Down with this scoundrel!” – because Jesus is so contradictory. In fact you cannot follow Jesus without going crazy. You cannot follow me without going crazy. That’s why I say: “Don’t follow me. Just understand me.”
And so I say about Jesus: “Understand him; there is no need to follow.” If you follow, that will be against Jesus, because he never followed anybody. If you follow Jesus you will be carrying a blueprint in your head, and you will always be looking from that blueprint: what to do, what not to do? He never carried any conclusions; he lived an open life.
When I am responding on Jesus’ sayings, many times you will feel that I am not saying that which has been taught to you.
My situation is like this:
A new priest at his first mass was so scared, he couldn’t even speak. After mass he asked the Monsignor how he had got on, and the Monsignor said fine, only next week it might help if he put vodka or gin in his water glass to help relax him. The next Sunday the priest put vodka in his glass and really talked a storm. After mass he again asked the Monsignor how he had done. The Monsignor said: “Fine, but that there were a few things that should be straightened out. First, there are ten commandments, not twelve. Second, there are twelve disciples, not ten. Third, David slew Goliath with a sling, he didn’t knock his head off with the jawbone of an ass. We do not refer to Jesus Christ as ‘the late J. C.’ And next Sunday there is a taffy-pulling contest at St. Peter’s, not a Peter-pulling contest at St. Taffy’s. And sixth, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are not referred to as: ‘Big Daddy,’ ‘Junior,’ and ‘Spook.’”
I am a drunkard, there is too much vodka in me. So sometimes if I go a little astray, forgive me.
I Say Unto You
Volume 1 / Chapter 4