‘Beloved Osho, you have always been an inspiration to me. You give me the courage to continue to do my thing and not compromise in my work, even though I feel like an outcast almost everywhere I go. I need you to say it is okay for me to keep on being a misfit.’
It must be Veeresh. Veeresh, you are not only okay, you are just perfect!
The people who have gathered around me are all misfits in the rotten society.
Any intelligent person is bound to be a misfit in a society which is dead, out of date, superstitious, based on belief systems. Only retarded people can be the fit ones. It is fortunate that you are not retarded.
Anybody who fits with me is bound to be a misfit everywhere else.
I have been a misfit my whole life—in my family, in my religion, in my country—and I have enjoyed it all the way, because to be a misfit is to be an individual.
To fit with the existing established order is to lose your individuality. And that’s your whole world.
The moment you compromise and lose your individuality, you have lost everything. You have committed suicide. The people who are fit in the world are people who have destroyed themselves.
Certainly it needs courage, a tremendously strong sense for freedom; otherwise, you cannot stand alone against the whole world. But to stand against the whole world is the beginning of such a great joy, rejoicing and blessing that those who have never been misfits cannot understand it.
All the great names in the history of man were just misfits in their society. All the people who have contributed to the happiness of man and the beauty of the earth have been misfits.
To be a misfit is a tremendously valuable quality.
Never compromise on any point. The very compromise is the beginning of your destruction. I do not mean that you have to be stubborn; if you see something is right, go along with it. But the moment you realize that something is not right, then even if the whole world feels it is right, it is not right for you. And then stick to your position—that will give you stamina, strength, a certain integrity.
My sannyasins are all misfits in the world. That’s why a great problem has arisen for those sannyasins—very few—who have left the commune for their own reasons.
I have nothing to say against their leaving the commune; I don’t want anybody to be here against his will. Here there is no society, only a communion of individuals with all their freedom intact. The freedom to leave the commune is one of the basic rights of every sannyasin.
But now those few sannyasins, just a dozen, are in a dilemma. They cannot fit with the society. They could not fit in the society, that’s why they had come here. Now it is even more difficult for them to fit with the society, so they are in a limbo. They cannot fit with the society, and the milieu where they were acceptable as they were—nobody was trying to change them—they have left.
In Santa Fe those twelve are known as ‘the dirty dozen.’ Now they are hankering to come back. They are writing letters to sannyasins that they are dreaming of the commune, they are missing the commune. But they don’t have guts enough to say, ‘We would like to come back.’ Writing these letters they are trying—perhaps we will invite them back.
We never prevented them from going, that would have been an infringement on their freedom. We will not invite them, for the same reason. Just as out of freedom they have gone, out of freedom they can come. And everybody is welcome.
We don’t bother about the past, we have not inquired about the past of anyone. Our concern is to drop the past and to be in the present, and be available and open for the unknown future. Now it is their past—that they have once been sannyasins, then they left it. They can come back as clean, pure… they can drop their past. Nobody is even going to ask them, ‘Why had you left, and why are you coming back?’
When they left, they left in the darkness of the night, ashamed, because they had no real reasons to leave. The only reason for their leaving was their ego. Certainly in this commune nobody can nourish his ego.
And to be a misfit does not mean to be an egoist. If you are an egoist, sooner or later you will compromise. When you find any group of people, any society, any country, which helps you to be more egoistic, you will immediately fit with that society. The real misfit is a humble man. That’s why nobody can absorb him. He is free because he is free of the ego.
Now these ‘dirty dozen’… And Santa Fe seems to be something special. Nobody had heard about it before. Why have these camels reached Santa Fe? Just because they are camels. Santa Fe at its entrance has a rock formation of a camel. They print postcards of that camel—somebody sent me one. Then I came to know why these camels are going to Santa Fe—Santa Fe is meant for camels. But they don’t know… now that they have been with me for four years, five years, seven years, they cannot fit even with camels! So much has happened in those five years without their knowing. They have lost their humps! Now the other camels are not going to accept them; they are unfit camels there.
And their letters show that they are waiting to receive the message to come. I have never called anybody, but I have never prevented anybody. It is your freedom to be here or not to be here. If you are feeling in difficulty… you are enriched in your understanding that this is the only place where you can be accepted with respect, without anybody cutting you, tailoring you, making you into a certain shape, giving you a mold.
We accept all kinds of camels—even those who have lost their humps. But they will have to come. And if they can travel to Santa Fe, what is the problem? They know the way, they just have to turn their face. And we will be really rejoiced. And this time their coming will be of immense value to them too, because now the desire to leave the commune will be finished. Now they have understood: wherever they are, they will be outcasts. And here? This is the caste of outcasts! Anybody rejected anywhere is welcome here… because my understanding is that only people of intelligence, individuality, are rejected.
The people who are obedient, who have no individuality, no freedom of expression, never say no to anything, are always ready to say yes, even against their wills—these are the people who gain much respectability in the world. They become presidents, they become prime ministers, they are honored in every possible way, for the simple reason that they committed suicide. They are no longer living, they are simply fossilized.
Here, people are alive. How can you fit living people into a certain pattern? Every individual is unique. And why should he fit into another’s mold?
The whole misery of the world can be explained very simply: everybody has been cut, molded, arranged by others without their even bothering to find out what he was supposed to be by nature. They don’t give a chance to existence.
From the very moment the child is born, they start spoiling him—with all good intentions, of course. No parent does it consciously, but he was conditioned in the same way. He repeats the same with his children; he knows nothing else.
The disobedient child is continuously condemned. The obedient child is, on the other hand, continuously praised. But have you heard of any obedient child having become world-famous in any dimension of creativity? Have you heard of any obedient child who has attained the Nobel prize for anything—literature, peace, science? The obedient child becomes just the common crowd. All that is added to existence is added by the disobedient.
Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the most significant persons of this century, refused to accept the Nobel prize. And when he was asked why, he said, ‘To accept the Nobel prize is in some way to compromise, is in some way to receive respectability from a society with which I am not in agreement. Perhaps the Nobel prize will weaken me. They are so respectful to me—how can I go on fighting against everything they believe in: against their God, against their morality, against their politics?’ He said, ‘Accepting the Nobel prize will be selling myself—that I cannot do.’ And he was perfectly right.
So, Veeresh, remember never to compromise, whatsoever the cost. Even at the cost of losing your life, don’t compromise.
A compromised man is a castrated man.
A man who dies for his individuality and freedom dies with joy, and all the blessings of existence are his.
I have lived continuously as a misfit everywhere, and I have enjoyed it, every inch of it, every drop of it. It is such a beautiful journey, to be just yourself. You go on discovering your being, your potential, and one day this discovery leads you to the ultimate flowering of your being. That ultimate flowering I have called enlightenment. You become luminous.
Why have very few people become enlightened in the world? The question has been asked of me again and again. The reason is very simple: they did not dare to remain misfits, condemned, dishonored, rejected their whole life. That’s why very few people have been individuals, and very few people have reached to the ultimate explosion of their being. There are people who start, but sooner or later they compromise, seeing the dangers of being just yourself.
When I was a small child I had made it clear to my parents and to my family, ‘If you want me to do something, please don’t say it. I am aware enough, I will see what is the need, and if I feel to, I will do it. But once you have told me to do it, then even if you kill me, I am not going to do it.
‘I can see that my mother is sitting there and she has no vegetables. I can go to the market which is just a few yards away, I can fetch vegetables for her, but it will be my decision. Nobody can tell me, ‘You go and fetch vegetables.’ Then it is impossible for me to go—because this is my religion and my life and my way of thinking, that I am to remain myself at every cost.’
And soon they understood it, because they found that this is absolutely a difficult task: whatever they say, I do just the opposite of it. It is better to be silent; at least I will not do the opposite. Slowly slowly, when they were not telling me to do anything, I became almost absent for them, because my presence was of no use to them.
And I was surprised to see that sometimes my father would ask, ‘Have you seen anybody in the house?’—I was sitting there—‘because I want to send him to do some work.’ I would say, ‘I have not seen anybody; and now, because you have said it, even if I do see anybody, I will close my eyes.’
My mother would say, ‘You have been here—have you seen somebody else in the house?—because I want something from the market.’ And I would say, ‘I have not seen anybody, the house is empty; only you are here.’
It became slowly accepted that I could not be relied on for anything. On the contrary, if they tried to command me, to order me, then it was absolutely impossible.
It helped me immensely. It was troublesome—everybody was against me, everybody was condemning me—but it gave me a tremendous courage to be alone. And I never compromised on anything. Whatever I had to suffer, I went through that suffering without any complaint; I had chosen it myself. But all that fire purified my being more and more.
So don’t compromise at any point, because the point of compromise makes you weak: you lose your individuality.
But don’t be egoistic. Be humble. If you want to be an egoist, then sooner or later you will have to compromise.
When I was being sent to the university, they were all persuading me either to go to the medical college and become a doctor, or to the engineering college and become an engineer. But I should become somebody who earns money, who has respectability in the society.
And I said to them, ‘You know me perfectly well: I may want to become a beggar just because I don’t want to be respectable. What is the meaning of getting respect from all these retarded people? Even if all these idiots make me emperor, it is worthless, because they are idiots! I would like a communion with an intelligent person, but not respectability from the mob. I am going to study philosophy.’
Now in India, philosophy departments in the universities are almost empty. For years no student turns up—because what can philosophy give you? The only profession available is to become a professor. But how many people can become professors of philosophy while there are no students? Many universities don’t have a philosophy department, they have closed it. There is no point in keeping professors and staff and space for the students when nobody ever turns up.
So they said, ‘You are taking an unnecessary risk.’
I said, ‘I have to take it. I have to pass through this fire too. And don’t be worried about the future. Even as a beggar I will have the satisfaction that I have not compromised on any point.’
And my father, before he died, told me, ‘Please forgive all of us—we were trying to make you part of the society. If you had not resisted so strongly we would have succeeded. But you were so strong in your struggle that we failed. But now I can say with great joy that our failure was good. Our failure gave you your individuality.’ He died as a sannyasin, enlightened.
In the whole history, it has rarely happened that a father has become a disciple of his own son. And the moment he became a sannyasin he behaved like a sannyasin—not like a father.
My mother is a sannyasin—she is here—but she has dropped completely the idea of being a mother. She is here just like anybody else.
And they are all happy: my uncles are also sannyasins—they too are happy that I did not compromise. But it took a little time for them to realize that it was a question of life or death to me. They thought that I was simply mischievous, but soon they realized that it was not mischief. I was simply trying to keep myself completely free, unfettered, unburdened. And it has given me all that a man can dream of.
So, Veeresh, no compromise, whatever the consequence. Even if death comes as a result, you will be able to receive death dancingly.
Only individuals can receive death dancingly, because only individuals know that there is no death, that it is only a transformation from one form into another form. The old house has become dilapidated and you enter into a new house. Of course, the old house may think you have died, because you have disappeared. Here you die; and there, immediately, you find a new house, a new form.
Individuals slowly slowly become aware that there is no death. And if they blossom totally, become enlightened, they know it absolutely, with a tremendous relaxation: that they are eternal beings, they are immortal. The whole universe is theirs. They have been here always; they are here now, and they will be here forever. They are an intrinsic part of existence, there is no question of death.
And this is exactly where life should lead you: To the experience of deathlessness.
