The World of ONE.

If you look ‘without’, the world of the ‘many’ exists; if you look ‘within’, then the world of ONE. If you go outside, you may achieve much, but you will miss the one. And that one is the very center; if you miss it, you have missed all. You may attain much but that much will not count much in the end, because unless one attains to oneself nothing is attained.

I have heard, once it happened: A friend of Mulla Nasruddin became very, very rich. And when somebody becomes rich he wants to go back to his old friends, old neighbors, old village, to show what he has attained. So he came from the capital to his small village. Just at the station he met Mulla Nasruddin and he said, ”Nasruddin, do you know, I have made it! I have become very, very rich, you cannot even conceive! I have a palace with five hundred rooms, it is a castle!”

Mulla Nasruddin said, ”I know a few people who have houses with five hundred rooms.”

The friend said, ”I have two eighteen-hole golf courses, three swimming pools and acres and acres of greenery!”

Nasruddin replied, ”I know one man in the other town who has two golf courses and three swimming pools.”

The rich man said, ”In the house?”

Nasruddin said, ”Listen– you may have made much money, but I have also not done too bad: I’ve got donkeys, horses, pigs, buffaloes, cows, chickens.”

The other man started laughing and he said, ”Nasruddin, lots of people have donkeys, horses, cows, chickens….”

Nasruddin stopped him in the middle and said, ”In the house?

But whatsoever you get – whether it is eighteen-hole golf courses, three swimming pools and five hundred rooms, or donkeys, horses and cows– whatsoever you can get outside will not make you rich, because really the house remains empty, you remain empty. Nothing enters into the house; these things remain outside because they belong to the outside – there is no way to put them in. And poverty is within. Had it been outside, then there would have been no problem.

If you had felt the emptiness outside, on the periphery, then it could have been filled by houses, cars, horses or anything. But the emptiness is felt within, you feel meaninglessness within. It is not that you don’t have a big house that is creating the trouble, it is that inside you feel totally meaningless: why do you exist? Why this whole trouble of being in existence? Why be alive? Where is it leading?

Every day in the morning you wake up again to go – and nowhere to go! Every day in the morning you get dressed, but you know by the evening nothing is attained, no goal is achieved. Again, you fall asleep, again in the morning the journey starts – the whole meaningless business of it! Inside you go on feeling empty, there is nothing. So, with outside things you can at the most deceive others, not yourself. How can you deceive yourself?

The more things accumulate, the more life is wasted because they have to be purchased at the cost of life. You are less alive, death has come near, things are growing more and more, the pile goes on becoming bigger and bigger, and inside you are shrinking. Then comes the fear: ”What am I achieving, where am I reaching? What have I done with my whole life?

Nothing is wrong with a rich man. The emphasis is that one who has wasted his life in accumulating things of the world – that is what is meant by a rich man – cannot enter into the kingdom of God, because there only one who has attained the inner enters. He cannot deceive at the gate of heaven. He cannot enter because he will be too wasted, rotten, a ruin. He cannot dance at the door, he cannot sing. He cannot enter with a certain significance that he has attained in his life. He is uprooted: he possessed much, but he never possessed himself – and that is the poverty. If you possess yourself, you are rich, really rich. If you don’t possess yourself, you may be an emperor but you are poor.

We exist in the eyes of others: our identity consists of the opinion of others; others’ eyes are the mirrors, we look at our faces in others’ eyes. There is the rub, the problem – because others cannot see your inner being. Your inner being cannot be reflected in any mirror whatsoever. Only your outer can be reflected: reflections are only of the outer, of the physical. Even if you stand before a mirror, the best mirror, only the physical part of you will be reflected. No eye can reflect your inner part.

So, others’ eyes reflect your riches, your achievements in the world, your clothes; they cannot reflect you. And when you see that others think you are poor – that means you don’t have good clothes, a good house, a good car – you start moving towards these things. You accumulate things just to see that you are rich in the eyes of others. Then others’ eyes start reflecting that you are becoming richer and richer, you are gaining power and prestige. Your identity consists of your reflection; but others can only reflect things, they cannot reflect you. Hence, meditation is very, very necessary.

Meditation means closing your eyes; not looking at the reflection, but looking at your own being. Otherwise, the whole day you are engaged with others. In the night also, when you sleep, either you are unconscious when there is deep sleep, or you are again engaged with others in your dreams. Continuously living with the other is the problem: you are born into a society, you live in a society, you die in a society – your whole existence consists of the social. And society means eyes all around.

Whatsoever those eyes reflect, they impress you. If everybody says you are a good man, you start feeling good. If everybody thinks you are a bad man, you start feeling bad. If everybody says that you are ill, you will start feeling ill. Your identity depends on others, it is a hypnosis through others.

Move into loneliness – live with the others, but don’t exhaust yourself with the others.

At least for one hour a day just close your eyes – closing your eyes means you are closed to the society, no society exists, only you – so you can face yourself directly. Move once a year for a few days to the hills, to the desert, where there is nobody, only you, and see yourself as you are.

Otherwise, continuously living with others will create a hypnosis in you. That hypnosis is the reason why you go on influencing others, impressing others. The real thing is not how to live a rich life, the real thing is how to impress others that you are rich – but these are totally different things.

The others are impressed by whatsoever you possess, they are never impressed by you. If you meet Alexander in a beggar’s garb you will not recognize him, but if you meet the beggar who has always been begging on your street sitting on a throne like Alexander, you will fall at his feet, you will recognize him!

It happened once: A great Urdu poet, Ghalib, was invited to a dinner to his court by the emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, it was the anniversary of his taking office. Many other people were invited, almost five hundred. Ghalib was a poor man, it is very difficult for a poet to be rich – rich in the eyes of others.

Ghalib’s friends said, “Don’t go like this, in these clothes. Who there will recognize you for what you are? Who there has the eyes to recognize your poetry? Who there has the scale to measure your heart? Who will look within you – who has time for it? Go properly dressed because your beggar-like clothes will not be appreciated there and it is possible that you may be turned back at the door.”

A poor poet, he had only old and tattered clothes, worn shoes, an old cap. But Ghalib said, “I don’t have any other clothes.”

His friends said, “We will borrow some clothes for you.”

Ghalib said, “That would not be right. I don’t have the slightest interest in borrowing anything. Whatever is not mine is not mine, whatever is mine is mine. No, I would be very uneasy and uncomfortable. I would feel restricted in these clothes, I would not be able to feel free. Why should I go on wearing someone else’s clothes? I will go there in my clothes and whatever happens will happen.”

Ghalib went and when he arrived at the door the doorkeeper was bowing and welcoming everybody, but he pushed Ghalib aside and said to him, “Wait!” When all the other people were gone then the doorkeeper immediately jumped on Ghalib and said, “One should be aware of one’s status. This is a palace. Why are you trying to intrude here?”

Ghalib said, “I am not trying to intrude, I have received an invitation.” He showed the invitation card from his pocket.

The doorkeeper read the invitation card and said, “You must have stolen it from somebody. Go away, don’t come here. Are you crazy? Beggars pretending to be kings!…Huh!!”

Ghalib returned home very sad. His friends said, “We told you! We knew that this would happen, so we have brought these clothes.”

This time Ghalib did not refuse: he put on the borrowed shoes, a borrowed cap, a borrowed robe, everything borrowed. When he arrived at the door the doorkeeper bowed to him. No one recognizes souls, only the clothes are recognized. Ghalib was very surprised. The same doorkeeper who had just yelled at him and asked him to go away, who was ready to beat him up earlier, now didn’t even ask for an invitation card. But Ghalib was already a little afraid. The first experience had made him suffer, so again he took out his invitation card and showed it to the doorkeeper. The doorkeeper looked at it carefully and said, “Now it’s okay. Earlier a beggar had come with the same invitation card with the same name on it. I got rid of him with much difficulty.”

Ghalib went inside and Bahadur Shah had him sit near him. Bahadur Shah was also a poet; he had some taste for poetry. But he was a bit surprised when the meal started: Ghalib was sitting next to him and he was making foolish gestures. Ghalib took some sweets, touched his hat with them and said, “Take them, O hat, eat!” He took some sweets, touched his coat with them and said, “Take them, O coat, eat!”

“Poets are a little crazy,” Bahadur Shah thought, “it is strange, but I should not pay attention to it.” The way of a cultured man is that he should ignore such madnesses, it might touch the person’s wounds. Bahadur Shah started looking everywhere else, not at Ghalib. This went on for a while; Ghalib did not eat at all – he was giving food to all his clothes and even to his shoes. Eventually Bahadur Shah could not resist… there is a limit to etiquette.

He said, “Forgive me. It is not right that I should interfere, it is not right that I should interfere in your personal habits. There may be some custom, some ritual I don’t know about, it may be some religious practice of yours. But out of curiosity I want to ask you what you are doing? These clothes you are wearing, your robe, coat, shoes and hat, why are you giving them food?”

Ghalib said, “Ghalib came here once before, but he was turned away; he has not come again. Now this time the coat and clothes have come – these are all borrowed. Only these clothes have been allowed entry, so I am feeding them. I was not allowed to enter, so it would not be proper for me to eat.”

Then Ghalib told Bahadur Shah the whole story.

But this is happening to everybody: not you but your coat is recognized by others; so you go on embroidering your coat, dressing yourself.

Meditation is needed to give you a break from the others, the eyes of others, the mirror of others.

Forget them! For a few minutes just look inside – then you will feel the inner pain and suffering, that you are empty there. Then a transformation starts: then you start looking for the inner riches, the treasury that exists within you – not for the treasures that are spread all around.

Many are the riches outside, only one is the treasure within. Many are the dimensions and directions outside; one, one-pointed is the goal within.

Osho: The Mustard Seed: My Most Loved Gospel on Jesus: CHAPTER 7. THE TREASURE WHICH ENDURES (excerpts)
Osho, Showering Without Clouds – Reflections on the poetry of an enlightened woman, Sahajo, Ch 3 (excerpt)

घरों पे नाम थे नामों के साथ ओहदे थे
बहुत तलाश किया कोई आदमी न मिला…………….बशीर बद्र

gharoñ pe naam the nāmoñ ke saath ohde the
bahut talāsh kiyā koī aadmī na milā……………….Bashir Badr

Houses carried names, names carried titles,
I searched a lot, but could not find a human being.

I am reminded of a song from the Bangali / Hindi film “Sagina” (1970). The song’s satirical tone on outward appearances versus true worth aligns beautifully with the Ghalib story in the blog. It reinforces the idea that society often salutes the suit, not the soul. Sung by the legendary Kishore Kumar and Pankaj Mitra, written by Majrooh Sultanpuri and composed by S.D.Burman.

Saala Main Toh Sahab Ban Gaya | Kishore Kumar, Pankaj Mitra | Sagina | Dilip Kumar, Saira Banu