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It has always been so; it will always be so. When Jesus said, “I and my father are one,” do you think people thought he was a very humble man? When Jesus said, “I am the truth, the way, the door,” do you think the rabbis came rushing and fell at his feet and said, “Such a humble man has never been seen before!” They said, “This man is arrogant. This man is egoistic.” Logically, they look right, this does look like arrogance!

When Krishna said to Arjuna, “Sarva dharma parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja" – "leave all the religions aside and come and fall unto my feet,” do you think people thought this was a humble statement? “Leave all religions aside and fall unto my feet!” This is pure arrogance.

You will be surprised to know that according to legend when Buddha was born he exclaimed, “Above the heavens and below the heavens, I alone am the honored one, I alone am the honored one.” When he was born, just a child, the first assertion, not that he became Buddha and then declared this. The legend is beautiful. The day-old child, the first moment’s assertion, expression: he declared to the world, “Above the heavens and below the heavens, I alone am the honored one.”

What do you think about it? That it is sheer arrogance? Truth is truth. It is neither arrogant nor humble; it has to be declared as it is. It can appear humble to you if you understand; it will appear arrogant to you if you don’t understand. And if you don’t understand, then there is no need to go to these statements which look apparently arrogant. People who don’t understand or don’t want to understand can find arrogance anywhere.

Once it happened…

I read these words of Lao Tzu to a professor: “When the superior man hears of the Tao, he practices it, when the ordinary man hears of the Tao, he ignores it, when the inferior man hears of the Tao, he laughs at it. If it were not laughed at it would not be the true Tao.”

And do you know what the professor said? He said, “How arrogant of Lao Tzu – who does he think he is to know? He thinks himself the superior man, the sage?That he knows? How arrogant of him to claim that he knows Tao.” He said, “So Lao Tzu thinks he is one of the superior ones who really understands the Tao, while lesser people ignore or laugh at it? How arrogant!”

Now it is not very apparent. You could not have thought this way, but it can be interpreted this way. Just to see the resistance of the professor, I quoted Jesus to him. Jesus said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And what did he say? He said, “These words are also arrogant. Who does this guy, Jesus, think he is, taking such a superior, condescending, arrogant, forgiving attitude?”

Now, it is not apparent, but it can be found. If you search, you can say this man is arrogant – who does he think he is? “Father, forgive them…” Who are you to forgive? That’s exactly what Friedrich Nietzsche used to say against Jesus, “He was the most arrogant man. He is saying to God, ‘Forgive these foolish people because they know not what they do – they are all foolish, forgive them.’ He is insulting them. He does not even allow them the dignity of knowing what they are doing; he does not think of them as human beings. He is treating them as if they are worms – ‘Forgive them!’ This holier-than-thou attitude!”

Friedrich Nietzsche used to say that Jesus has said that when somebody hits you on one cheek, give him the other. And Nietzsche said this is very inhuman, because that makes you look very superior. From Nietzsche’s viewpoint, when somebody hits you in the face and you give him the other cheek, it is inhuman. The human way is hit him back! At least give him that much respect: “You are also a human being, as much as I am; we are equals.” Giving him the other cheek means you have reduced the man to a worm. This is really insulting. It can be interpreted this way.

My statements are neither arrogant nor humble, because they can’t be arrogant and they can’t be humble. Ordinarily you think humbleness is the opposite of arrogance. It is not. Humbleness and arrogance are both the same. They are like hot and cold – degrees of the same energy.

The humble person has as much ego as the arrogant person. The arrogant person claims the ego; the humble person denies the ego, but the ego is there. The arrogant person says, “I am special,” and the humble person says, “I am nobody, sir – just the dust underneath your feet.” One is claiming, the other is also claiming in a different way.

When you really see your nature, ego disappears, and with ego, arrogance and humbleness both disappear. Jesus is neither humble nor arrogant; Buddha is neither humble nor arrogant. They simply state the fact. Now it depends on you to interpret it.

You say: [Why do your statements seem to me to be arrogant?]

There must be something in you that is creating the trouble, something in you that is resisting, fighting. Look deep inside yourself. Once you have seen what is creating this idea in you, you will be free of it; then things will be very simple.

There is another, similar question:

[Why did you attack Shivananda? (*) How do you know his method does not work? What right have you to judge him?]

(*) This refers to what Osho says in Pearl 555

To call a spade a spade is not to attack it. I have not attacked Shivananda; I have simply stated the case. But you must have some attachment with Shivananda; your attachment is feeling hurt. It has nothing to do with Shivananda! Something inside you is feeling hurt, look into your own wound.

You ask: [How do you know his method does not work?]

No method ever works; it is not a question of his method. No method ever works, even my methods. And because he believed that methods work, I say he was a stupid person. We use methods because there are people just like you who need methods, who cannot go easily, simply into reality, who can only go the hard way. If you tell them to sit silently, they can’t understand it. They say, “Then, just by sitting silently? Is something going to happen just by sitting silently?” They cannot sit silently, and all happens only when you sit silently.

Sitting silently, doing nothing,
The spring comes
And the grass grows by itself.

This is the ultimate truth. But you cannot let it grow. You say, “I cannot just sit and let the grass grow, I have to pull the grass upward!” So I say, “Okay, then follow Shivananda, then do something. Then jump, do Kundalini. Or if that does not feel enough, then do Dynamic, Chaotic. Or if you have some other karmas to suffer, then go to Encounter.”

These methods are used here just because of your stupidities. Their whole function is to make you so tired of doing that one day you come to me and say, “Osho, can’t I sit silently?” That’s all. I send you into groups and meditations and tortures and wait for the day when you will come crying and weeping and crawling and will say, “Enough is enough! Can’t I sit silently?” And I will say, “I have been waiting for this moment.”

Sitting silently, doing nothing,
The spring comes
And the grass grows by itself.

No method ever helps. How can a method help? A method can help to create something unnatural. Nature does not need to be created, it is already there. It has to be lived, enjoyed, danced, sung. It is already there, you need not do anything. The grass is already growing, the spring has come. But you cannot sit silently; you have so much restlessness, and that restlessness needs methods. I give you methods, not because through methods you will become enlightened, but through methods you will come to know how stupid you are – and that is great enlightenment!

I have heard about a politician. He went to a master, a Sufi master, and asked, “You had told me to meditate, to pray, this and that, and I do, but no revelation ever happens.” The master looked at him and said, “Go outside and stand in the street for ten minutes.” It was raining hard. The politician said, “Stand in the street when it is raining so much?” The master said, “Just go, and a revelation is going to come.”

And the politician thought, “When the revelation is going to come then it is worth trying. Ten minutes just standing in the falling rain is not such a big problem.”He stood there. He looked stupid, because people were passing and they thought, “What is our Prime Minister doing?” But he kept his eyes closed, and he looked again and again at his watch – ten minutes was a long time because a crowd gathered and people started laughing. They were puzzled, “What has happened to the Prime Minister?”

And then he rushed into the house and told the master, “Nothing happened! You deceived me.” The master said, “But just tell me how you felt?” He said, “I felt like a very stupid person standing there, absolutely stupid!” He said, “This is a great revelation! What do you think? In just ten minutes’ time to come to know that you are a very stupid person. Don’t you think it a great revelation?”

This is what happens in meditations, in yoga, in therapy groups. Slowly, slowly understanding penetrates your heart: “What am I doing, shouting, screaming, fighting? What am I doing?” Just that very revelation and you can see the point, then you can sit silently. All that you need is already available. That’s why I said that his methods don’t work – not that somebody else’s methods work. No method ever works.

You ask: [And what right have you to judge him?]

I have not judged him. I have simply said what he is. What judgment are you talking about? I have not condemned him. To call a spade a spade is not to condemn it. I am simply factual.

But the question is from Mark who must be a new person here. He can’t understand me; he has no participation with me yet. He must have felt offended. He may be following things like Shivananda’s, something like that. His ego is hurt, but rather than saying, “My ego is hurt,” he has changed the question. That is a camouflage; it is utterly meaningless. If something is going to happen between me and Shivananda, that is my business, don’t you be worried. If we meet some time, then it is for us to decide whether I should have judged him or not, or why I called him stupid. He can ask me, but why should you be worried?

You must have something else inside; this is just a rationalization. You may be doing those kinds of methods. But ego is so subtle, it protects itself. You have made a question in such a way that you can hide, but you cannot hide from me. Mark, mark it! You cannot hide from me.

And remember, I never miss the mark. You are going to be caught. Now you cannot escape, because if you have been doing these things, then how long will it take for you to realize, how long will it take for you to allow the revelation to happen? And I have made all kinds of methods available here, all kinds of nonsense that you can get anywhere in the world. People are even coming from Californialand – here!