Listen. But don’t follow.

Listen, but don’t follow. Listen well, but follow your own insight, don’t follow others’ advice. Listen certainly, very meditatively, try to understand what they are wanting to convey to you. They may really be well-wishers, but if you start following blindly you will never attain to your own intelligence. You will remain dependent on crutches, you will always look up to others to tell you what to do, what not to do. You will always need leaders – which is a very unhealthy state, to need leaders.

Listen, because people have great experiences, and if they are sharing, willing to share, it will be foolish on your part not to listen. Sharing their experience may give you great insight – it will help you to become more aware – but don’t follow.

People follow literally and then they become just blind. When others are giving you all that you need, what is the need to have your own eyes? And when others are chewing for you, what is the need to chew on your own? Slowly, slowly you become more and more weak, more and more impoverished, more and more starved.

A man who had recently opened a shop had a large notice overhead which read – FRESH FISH SOLD HERE.

Along came a friend and said, “Why have you got ‘HERE’ on the board? Everyone who comes to your shop knows it’s HERE” So he cut out the word ‘HERE’.

Then another friend came along and said, “‘SOLD’? Of course it is sold. You are not giving it away, are you?” So out came the word ‘SOLD’.

A third came along and said, “‘FRESH FISH’? It has to be fresh. Who will buy stale fish from you? Cut out the word FRESH.”

The shopkeeper obliged. Now only the word ‘FISH’ remained on the board when a fourth man arrived and said, “‘FISH’? Fancy having that up! You can smell it a mile away.” The shopkeeper erased this last word on the board.

A fifth man arrived and said, “What’s the idea of hanging a blank board over the shop?” The shopkeeper removed the board.

A sixth man came on the scene and said, “You have opened such a big shop. Can’t you hang a board on it with a notice saying, ‘FRESH FISH SOLD HERE?’”

Now if you go on listening to people you will become more and more confused; that’s how you have become confused. Your confusion is this: that you have been listening to many kinds of people and they are all giving different advice. And I am not saying that they are not well-wishers; they are well-wishers, but not very conscious well-wishers, otherwise they would not give you advice. They would give you an INSIGHT, not advice. They would not tell you what to do and what not to do. They would help you to become more aware so that you can see yourself what has to be done and what has not to be done.

The real friend is one who does not advise you, but helps you to become more alert, more aware, more conscious of life – its problems, its challenges, its mysteries, and helps you to go on your own voyage, gives you courage to experiment, gives you courage to seek and search, gives you courage to commit many mistakes… because one who is not ready to commit mistakes will never learn anything at all.

Commit as many mistakes as you can, but don’t commit the same mistake twice because that makes you stupid. Commit new mistakes, invent new mistakes, and you will be learning all the time, and your intelligence will be growing all the time. Your intelligence needs sharpening.

The real friends help you to sharpen your intelligence. They don’t give you fixed advice, because
fixed advice is of no use. What is true today may not be true tomorrow, and what is right in one
situation may be wrong in another. And situations are changing all the time, so what you need is not a fixed pattern of living but a way of seeing, so wherever you are, in whatsoever situation you find yourself, you know how to behave spontaneously, how to depend on your own being.

OSHO, ARE ALL WORDS USELESS?

Not all. How can all words be useless? Words are useful as far as the world is concerned, the outer; words are useless as far as you are concerned, the inner. When you start moving inwards you have to drop words. They are not needed. They are an unnecessary load on you, a disturbance, a noise.

But when you go outwards and you meet people, you need language. When you are talking about things, you need language. Language is perfectly adequate for the world – otherwise there would be great difficulty. If you go to the market and you want to purchase something, you will be in difficulty without words. And it will be an unnecessary wastage of time. Words are tremendously useful instruments.

If you want to see it, one day go into the market and try to purchase things without words. Each small thing will take so much time and so much trouble, and each shopkeeper will try to avoid you – ’You please go somewhere else.’ You will be such a nuisance.

In the world, words are perfectly useful. In the inner journey they are not useful because in the inner journey they are not needed at all. You are alone, so what are the words needed for? When you are with somebody, words are needed.

If you are working in some objective reality, some scientific work, words are useful. Thinking is needed. You have to be very precise and very exact. You are thinking with your logic. But if you are meditating, going towards God, words are not needed. Silence is the medium there.

So listening to me and hearing again and again that words are not needed, that words are useless, don’t misunderstand me. Meditate over this small story….

A man went to his Local doctor and said, ’Doctor, I want to be castrated.’

’What???’ said the doctor. ’That’s a very drastic operation – are you sure?’

’Quite sure,’ said the man.

’Are you married, or do you have a regular girl friend?’ said the doctor.

’I’m married,’ said the man, ’but what has that got to do with it?’

’Well,’ said the doctor, ’it would be a good idea to discuss it with your wife – it will affect her too.’

’Yes, true, but only for a time.’ said the patient.

’Nevertheless,’ said the doctor, ’I think you should ask her about it tonight and if you still want to go ahead tomorrow, I’ll book you into the hospital. It’s very quick and you’ll be in and out in one day.’

The next day the man returned, affirmed the situation and was booked in that morning. The operation was completed and he was lying in bed that afternoon, coming out of the anaesthetic.

Looking round with a smile, feeling good. he winked at the man in the next bed and said cheerily,

’Hello, and what are you in for?’

’Oh,’ said the other, ’I’ve come in to be circumcised.’

The castrated patient clicked his fingers, whistled through his teeth and said, ’Shit, that’s the word I was trying to think of!!!’

Osho, The Guest – Talks on Kabir, Ch 5, Q 6 (excerpt)
Osho: Sufis: The People of the Path, Vol 2: CHAPTER 10. OUT OF THE MUD AND THE MIRE Q 11 (excerpts).

जो सुनना चाहो तो बोल उट्ठेंगे अँधेरे भी
न सुनना चाहो तो दिल की सदा सुनाई न दे

jo sunñā chāho to bol uTTheñge añdhere bhī
na sunñā chāho to dil kī sadā sunā.ī na de

If you want to hear, even the darkness will start speaking
but if you don’t want to listen, you won’t hear the sound of heart.

“jaate thye Japan, pahuch gaye Cheen, samajh gaye na?” I love this hilarious movie Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958) and this lively and entertaining song acted and sung by the great Kishore Kumar Music Director: Sachin Dev Burman Lyricist: Majrooh Sultanpuri. Enjoy.
(637) हम थे वह थी Hum The Woh Thi (COLOR) HD – Kishore Kumar | Ashok Kumar, Madhubala, Kishore Kumar. – YouTube