The Dead Rat.

I NOTICE THAT DEEP DOWN I WANT TO BE LOVED, ACCEPTED, LIKE THE GREATEST MAN ON EARTH, THAT I WANT TO BE THE MOST FAMOUS PERSON. AND I FEEL HURT WHEN SOMEONE REJECTS ME. WHAT TO DO WITH THESE DREAMS?

If you understand that they are dreams then wash your face and have a cup of tea. What is there to be done about it? Dreams are dreams — why be bothered?

But you don’t understand that they are dreams. This is borrowed. You know that they are not dreams — that’s why you are worried. Otherwise why be worried? If in a dream you see that you have fallen ill, when you wake up in the morning do you go to the doctor? — ‘In my dream I was very ill and now some medication is needed’. You never go. You realize it was a dream — finished! What is the point of going to a doctor?

But you have not yet understood that these are dreams. These are realities for you — hence the problem.

I NOTICE THAT DEEP DOWN I WANT TO BE LOVED. If you want to be loved — LOVE! Because whatsoever you give comes back. If you want to be loved forget about wanting to be loved, and in a thousand ways love will come to you. Life reflects, life resounds, life echoes whatsoever you throw at life. So if you want to be loved forget about wanting and being loved — that is not the point at all then. Then simple is the rule — love.

And if you want to be accepted like the greatest man on earth, then start accepting everybody as the greatest man on earth. Otherwise how are they going to accept you as the greatest? They are also on the same trip. They are not going to accept you as the greatest because then what will happen to them? If you are the greatest, then who are they? Nobody wants to be anything else.

Once it happened, a friend of Mulla Nasruddin was talking to Mulla Nasruddin. They had met after many years. Both were bitter rivals; both were poets. Both started to boast about the progress they had made in their careers.

‘You have no idea, Nasruddin, how many people read my poetry now,’ bragged the friend. ‘My readers have doubled.’

‘My God, my God!’ cried Nasruddin. ‘I had no idea you got married!’

Everybody is on the same trip. If you want people to accept you as the greatest man on earth, let this be the rule: whatsoever you want others to do for you, do for them. But that is the trouble. The ego wants you to be the greatest man on earth — nobody else. Then you will feel hurt. Because all are on the same trip — can’t you understand the simple point? They are also waiting for you to accept them as the greatest man.

I heard Mulla Nasruddin once. He was delivering a political speech.

He said, ‘It is with some trepidation that I address an audience of people all of whom are smarter than I am… all of them put together, that is.’

Everybody is trying to be at the top of the world — then you are in competition with the whole world. Remember, you are going to be defeated. One man fighting against the whole world — that is the situation.

If you see the point, there are two ways. One, forget about this trip, be ordinary, simple, whatsoever you are. There is no need to be great, the only need is to be REAL. Great is the wrong goal. To be real…. I have come across a slogan: Be realistic — plan for a miracle. Yes. that’s how it is. If you are really realistic, you start living the miracle. And the miracle is: if you are real, you don’t want to be bothered with competition, comparison. Who bothers? You enjoy your food, you enjoy your breathing, you enjoy the sunlight, you enjoy the stars, you enjoy life, you enjoy being alive — you are perfectly in tune. in harmony with the Whole. What is the point of being a great man? The great men, the so-called great men, are almost always phony — they have to be. They cannot be real persons. They are plastic. Because they have chosen a wrong goal: to be great is an ego goal; to be real is existential.

If you want to be great you will be in continuous conflict. And of course you will be hurt by everybody. Not that everybody is trying to hurt you, they are doing their own trip.

You are unnecessarily coming in their way.

Get out of this rat race. Sit under the tree by the side of the road; it is tremendously beautiful and silent. Otherwise be ready to be hurt.

One politician used to come to me. Once he was the president of the Indian National Congress — a great man in India.

And he told me, ‘I am such a simple man. Why do people go on spreading nasty things about me? Why do people want to hurt me?’

I told him, ‘Nobody wants to hurt you. You are unnecessarily coming in their way. They also want to be president of great parties — you are standing in their way. They have to push you away. I told him, ‘You just remember what you did to the president before you. The same thing they are trying to do with you — leg-pulling.’

Once you are in a power post you are continuously being pulled and pushed. It has to be so.

Ramakrishna used to tell a beautiful story.

A bird was flying with a dead mouse and twenty or thirty birds were chasing him. The bird was very much worried.

‘I am not doing anything to them, I am just carrying my dead mouse. They are all after me.’

And they hit him hard and in the conflict, in the struggle, the bird opened his mouth and the mouse dropped. Immediately they all flew towards the mouse; they all forgot about him.

Then he sat upon a tree and brooded.

They were not against him, they were also on the same trip — they wanted the mouse.

If people are hurting you, open your mouth. You must be carrying a dead mouse! Drop it!

And then sit — if you can, sit on the tree or under the tree and brood. And suddenly you will see that they have forgotten about you. They are not concerned. They never were concerned. The ego is a dead mouse.

Jones’ oldest daughter had just given birth to a beautiful baby and Jones was being congratulated.

He looked downcast, however, and a friend said, ‘What’s the matter, Jones? Don’t you like the idea of being a grandfather?’

Jones heaved an enormous sigh. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I don’t, but that doesn’t bother me so much. It is just that it is so humiliating to have to go to bed with a grandmother.’

Just watch your mind — how it creates problems. The woman remains the same but now she has become a grandmother — and one feels humiliated.

It is your idea that is giving you humiliation. If you are really concerned with your own well-being then nobody is hurting you — just your own ideas. Drop them.

Or, two, if you feel good with them, don’t be worried about the hurts. Carry them. But you have a decision inside. If you want the ego trip, if you want to be the greatest man in the world, then everybody is going to prove that you are the worst man in the world.

Then have courage and heart to suffer all that. It is futile, but if you choose that way, it is your choice. If you really want your well-being and your inner calm and silence and bliss, then these hurts are indicative: you are carrying some wrong ideas within you.

Drop those ideas.

Osho: Ancient Music in the Pines Chapter #2 Chapter title: A thousand and one bifurcations Q 3

शोहरत की बुलंदी भी पल भर का तमाशा है
जिस डाल पे बैठे हो वो टूट भी सकती है …………………..बशीर बद्र

shohrat kī bulandī bhī pal bhar kā tamāshā hai
jis Daal pe baiThe ho vo TuuT bhī saktī hai …………………BASHIR BADR

The height of popularity is a temporary display
the branch may break on which you are sitting for now.

I love this song with a deep and relevant lyrics from the film “Anari” (1959) सब कुछ सीखा हमने ना सीखी होशियारी Sab Kuch Seekha Humne – HD वीडियो सोंग – मुकेश- नूतन & राज कपूर – YouTube