Cages

 

 

People are carrying scriptures which describe freedom, which even talk about freedom from scriptures. People are worshipping statues of persons like Gautam Buddha whose last words were, "Remember these are my last words, my last wish: my statues should not be made." Ten thousand sannyasins were listening, and as it happened, there are now more statues of Gautam Buddha in the world than of anyone else. A single temple in China even has ten thousand Buddhas. The whole mountain, miles long, has been carved into Buddha statues.

 

It is strange blindness. It is strange misunderstanding....

 

And a man of freedom is bound to be condemned by slaves because the slaves cannot accept the idea that they are slaves. So anybody who is enlightened and becomes a man of freedom, becomes a danger to millions of egos. His freedom to fly across the sky with open wings is bound to be condemned by all those who are crippled, who are caught in cages. The cages may be of gold -- very precious, cozy, a good shelter -- but the joy of being on your own wings in the sky, unlimited, with no barriers, no boundaries, is much more valuable than any golden cage.

 

Engo says, THE ENLIGHTENED MAN ENJOYS PERFECT FREEDOM IN ACTIVE LIFE. He is not bound by any morality, not bound by any rules, not bound by any ethos, not bound by any society, any civilization, any culture, any education. He remains true and honest to his own being. He does not care whether his action is going against the society, whether his action is going against the scriptures. All that he is committed to is his own spontaneous response. He has no other commitments. He cannot be a Christian or a Mohammedan or a Jew or a Jaina. He can only be a human being without any fetters.

 

But naturally he has to suffer. He has to suffer because the whole crowd is of slaves, blind people. They feel hurt -- deeply hurt -- by his presence, by his freedom. They continuously compare, and feel deep down guilty that they have never stood up for their own freedom. They have remained sheep, just part of a crowd; they never declared their individuality. And now there is a man of absolute freedom.

 

Those who have any intelligence will fall in love with this man of freedom; but very few people have intelligence. Most people live without any intelligence in their life -- a robot life, almost mechanical. They all are going to be against such persons -- in the name of religion, in the name of morality, in the name of society. Their excuse is that these people are dangerous: if everybody starts functioning according to his own truth, then there will be no society, no state, no nation, no army, no war.

 

The whole society is committed to such stupid things that a man of enlightened freedom cannot be committed to any of them. He cannot be Indian or French or Chinese; the whole earth is one for him. His every action is according to his own consciousness, not according to any teaching of some dead, so-called wise person. He has his own eyes to see; why should he listen to others? He has his own ears to hear; why should he listen to others? He has his own consciousness to decide; why should he follow the ten commandments of Moses, or the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus, or the SHRIMAD BHAGAVADGITA of Krishna? They may be beautiful, but they are not going to guide your life.

 

The moment you have guidelines from others, you are spiritually a slave.

 

In other words, Engo is saying the enlightened man lives according to his own life source, without any consideration or compromise with the crowd. He is absolutely an individualist and he wants everybody else also to be individualists.

 

There is nothing more valuable than freedom because only in freedom can you blossom to your ultimate potential. As a slave you are crippled, you are cut, you are in a mold; you are in chains, you are in cages -- different sizes of cages, different forms of cages....

 

But remember one thing: that which has not arisen within you is always some kind of slavery.

 

The first definition of the enlightened man is PERFECT FREEDOM IN ACTIVE LIFE. He is bound to be condemned, because the crowd gets disturbed. The crowd gets disturbed because such a man is going to destroy their slavery, which they think is a very cozy and safe lifestyle.

 

I am reminded of a story.

 

In a mountainous region, a man of freedom rested for a day in a caravanserai. That caravanserai had a beautiful parrot, and the owner had taught the parrot... The parrot was continuously asking for freedom -- "Freedom!" It was strange....

 

The stranger, an enlightened man, could not believe this whole thing. Because first you put him in the cage, and then you teach him to repeat "Freedom!" If the owner is honest, he should give him freedom!

 

In the night, he could not resist. He woke up, opened the door of the parrot's cage, and told the parrot, "Now the doors are open and the whole sky is yours. Get out!"

 

And the parrot was clinging to the cage, and still shouting loudly, "Freedom, freedom!"

 

Finally the man said, "This is strange -- the door is open! Why are you clinging to the cage?"

 

He forced his hand inside, took the parrot out -- it was very unwilling, gave a good fight, scratched his hand -- but the man took the parrot out, and threw it into the sky. Then, feeling a deep relief, he went to sleep. In the morning, the first thing he heard was, "Freedom!"

 

He looked out and the parrot was inside the cage; the door was still open....

 

Outside the cage it is such a vast life, one becomes afraid. There are enemies; there will be days that are too cold, there will be nights that are too hot, there will be times you will have to go hungry. There will be nobody continuously protecting you.

 

Once you have become accustomed to living in a cage, freedom becomes a very dangerous idea.

 

-Osho, “The Buddha: The Emptiness of the Heart, #8”