Osho was once asked whether he was against “Great People- Maha Purush“ ??…he said No, but yes he was against one thing for sure and that was — ’till we keep making great people in the world, the small people will keep germinating. That cannot be stopped. When we call someone great, we unknowingly call the rest inferior…we just don’t see that, we just don’t realise that while we praise one, the rest are insulted indirectly. When we worship one, when we establish one in a temple, what would the rest be?….this greatness is standing on the shoulders of inferiority…’
If we wish to wipe out inferiority from this world, don’t forget, we will have to say goodbye to the greatness as well. Otherwise these two paradoxes will co-exist. Osho said, “I am not in favour of great man but am surely in favour of the greatness within each and every human being. And there is greatness in every human being. Obvious and visible in some and hidden in others. But there is no reason to demean anyone in whom the greatness is hidden.”
Bhagwan Buddha has narrated a story of his pervious birth. He said, in one of his previous births, he came to know that one great enlightened man called Dipankar Buddha was coming to his town. So Buddha went to see him. He touched the feet of Dipankar Buddha…he was surprised and could not even understood what happened but even before he could get up, Dipankar Buddha bent down and touched Buddha’s feet.
Buddha felt nervous and said, “me touching your feet is understandable, but why are you touching my feet??” Dipankar said “you could see that I am a great and enlightened man just because you are unaware…but from the day I became aware and was enlightened, I am not finding anyone inferior…I see HIS light in everyone. I see the same light within you as it is within me… I am saluting that light.….I am not seeing you, but seeing that light. A day will come in your life when you will see only that light and not yourself. There is no fundamental difference between the two.”
There is a big tree and next to it there is a seed…is there a difference? Is the tree great and the seed inferior? Who says that? And if the seed is inferior then the tree can never be great . Could it take birth from the inferior seed and be great? No. if the seed is inferior then the tree can never be great. And if the tree is great then the seed also has all its greatness within. Difference is only in abhivyakti (expression / gesture/ manifestation).
Osho explains, there are no great and inferior people in the world….there are seeds and trees. Hence I am against such categorization and classifications that someone is great and others are inferior. The obvious difference is only that some are trees and some are seeds. The seed is imbibed with its full potential to become a tree. Sooner or later the potential will be revealed and the tree will be born. There is a Gujarati couplet which says:
પાણીના એક ટીપામાં ય વમળ હોય છે ઝાઝા,
પણ બીડેલા રાખે છે એ પોતાના દરવાજા.
Paani na ek teepa ma y vamal hoi chhe jhajha
pan bidela rakhe chhe e potana darawaja.
There are whirlpools embedded inside a droplet
but it keeps the doors of its potential closed.
In my recent conversation with Pullela Gopichand, Chief National Badminton Coach I asked a question about how he would differentiate and identify his students as to who is more talented? I was stumped by his response. Gopi said, “ For a long time, I was segregating players in these categories and was looking for a diamond. Over the years I realised that it’s so sinful to do that. You look at people and say ‘is he talented?’ — somewhere it is important to probably realise that there is a diamond in everybody. It’s my duty to find out and bring that out, is probably the right way to look at it as a coach, rather than say is he a diamond or not?”
Gopi further said,” I wish we have the resources, we have the quality of teachers, we have the time for the teachers, to make each one to be the best what he or she can be, and give that respect to the individual which is so very important. Because if I had ten kids, will I pick one and say I want him to be a champion or her to be a champion and leave the rest nine to say you are not talented enough and throw them to the side? I think the truth is to believe that each one is a diamond, and it is on us to look at them with much more compassion, love and deeper introspection of myself rather than look at it in other direction.”
Gopi emphasised “the word talent identification should be changed to talent mapping. To believe that each one is talented, where he /she is talented in, is the duty of the teacher, of the coach, of the parent and to innately believe that each one of us is talented, I think it is very very important. Fundamentally if our mind set will move from talent identification to talent mapping, then the focus goes away from the student to the teacher. The focus goes away from the employee to the employer, to the leader.”
(please review the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHeDRHnPnl4&t=1680s )
Osho said, “I do not wish to have great people and inferior people, we have not only divided wealth, we have divided God as well. We have not only created rich and poor, we have also created great and inferior people. Unfortunately no one is superior because no one is inferior. Until we recognise this truth, reach it to every corner of the world, we will keep worshiping a few great people but will never be able to create great humanity. Till the time we recognise just a few great people and not respect the embedded greatness in every human being, we will not be able to create that great humanity. I do not wish that people worship a few humans as I can see that they also possess the same within themselves that they are worshiping in others.
This is not to disrespect any great person, but is an acceptance of the great that is within all. There is no intention to insult or demean anyone. Mahavir or Buddha will not be sad that you too became Mahavir or Buddha like them. They will on the contrary be happy, for all must receive what they have received if they have put in the effort (jo unke bheetar jaga hai, wo aap ke bheetar jage). And what are we doing? We are worshipping them and telling them that you are everything and we are nothing, we are only fit to bow at your feet. We have lived long enough in the world which has worshiped a few, now I want a world that can develop and recognise the greatness in each and every person. “
युँ तो हम अपने आप में गुम थे,
सच तो ये है की वहाँ भी तुम थे..!!
Yun to hum apane aap me goom thye,
sach to ye hai ki wahan bhi tum thye.
I was lost in myself
until I realised that only you were within.