Parable

 

 

Question 2

Why do you use parables?

 

 

A parable is a way of saying things which cannot be said. A parable is a finger pointing to the moon. Forget the finger and look at the moon. Don't catch hold of the finger, don't start biting the finger: the parable has to be understood and forgotten .

 

And that is the beauty of a parable, a story. When it is told, you listen attentively because a story always creates curiosity: 'What is going to happen?' You become attentive, you become all ears, you become feminine, you become very intrigued You start expecting: 'What is going to happen?' The parable creates suspense, it brings a climax, and then, suddenly, the conclusion. And when after the climax the conclusion happens, you are so hot that the conclusion sinks deep into your heart.

 

To say something about truth is not an easy matter. One has to devise parables, poetry, different methods and means so that the listener can be aroused into a kind of passion, can become vibrant, available, can wait for what is going to happen.

 

And it is not only I who am using parables; that has been always so. Buddha used them, Chuang Tzu used them, Jesus used them -- all the great teachers of the world have been using the parable as a method, and it has served its purpose down the ages. It is still tremendously meaningful, and it is going to remain meaningful.

 

A parable is not just a story. It is not to entertain you but to enlighten you. That is the difference between an ordinary story and a parable. A parable has a message in it, a coded message in it; you will have to decode it. Sometimes it will take you your whole life to decode the message, but in its very decoding you will be transformed.

 

A parable is not an ordinary story just to entertain you for the moment, its significance is eternal, its significance is not momentary. In fact, it is more significant than your so-called facts, because facts have a limited impact. A fact is an event: it happens and then it disappears. And after it has disappeared there is no way to be certain about it -- no way at all.

 

You cannot be certain whether Jesus existed or not; you cannot be absolutely certain whether Jesus is a historical person or not. At most you can feel the probability that he may have been. But the doubt persists -- he may not have been. Who knows? -- because except for his four disciples, nobody mentions him, nobody at all. [....]

 

A parable is something that happens in timelessness. It remains relevant. Whether Jesus existed or not is not the point, but the stories that he has told ARE. Whether he told them or they are some fictitious invention of some novel-writer doesn't matter, but those parables have eternal messages in them, something so eternal that time cannot make them irrelevant, no passage of time can make them irrelevant.

 

The truth of a parable is timeless. The truth of history is the truth about particular events in the present or the past. Once past, there is no way to prove beyond all doubt that they actually happened; all that can be established is only a probability. The only truth which we can trust is the truth which is in the present tense. Only the truth of a parable, because it is beyond all time, can speak to us forever in the present tense. A parable remains always in the present tense; it is never past. A parable is always present; if you are ready to understand it, it is ready to deliver all its treasure to yoU. And it does not depend on the arbitrary conditions of history.

 

Parable and history may coincide: a story which is historically true may also present us with the truth of parable. The Jesus or the Buddha story may be historically accurate, but even if it is, it is by the truth of the parable not by the truth of history that we are healed. It does not matter whether Jesus existed or not, whether Buddha was ever born on the earth or not; that doesn't matter.Just the parable, the possibility that a Buddha is possible is enough to stir our hearts in a new longing, is enough to make us feel thirsty for the divine. It is enough -- the very possibility of the parable is enough -- to make us look upwards towards heaven, to send us into an exploration, to make us discontented with the limitations that we have created around ourselves. It provokes us into adventure.

 

A man is drowning. A rope comes spinning down; he clutches it and he is saved. Who wove the rope? This parable... some say Buddha, some say Jesus, some say Mohammed, but to the drowning man the important question is: 'Will it bear my weight or not?' Who wove the rope is a question about history. You may get it all wrong and still be saved. That is the beauty of a parable. Buddha may not have ever existed, but if you understand the parable you will be saved.

 

What is a parable?

 

For example, Buddha is going to participate in a youth festival in his beautiful golden chariot. Suddenly he sees an old man for the first time in his life, because this is the parable: that when Buddha was born great astrologers came to his father to depict the future, to predict the potential of the child. All the astrologers said, 'Either he will become a world ruler, a CHAKRAVARTIN who will rule all the six continents, or he will become a sannyasin who will renounce the whole world. These are the two possibilities.'

 

All the astrologers except one raised two fingers to the king and said, 'One possibility: he will become the greatest ruler in the world, never known before, never heard of before, such will be his power. And the second possibility: that he may renounce the whole thing completely and move into a forest, become a sannyasin and meditate, and attain to Buddhahood.' Out of all the astrologers there was one astrologer, the youngest, who raised only one finger. The king said, 'All have raised two fingers, and you are raising one?'

 

He said, 'Because he is going to become a Buddha, there is no other possibility.'

 

But he was the youngest astrologer and the king was not puzzled by him and not worried. How much can he know? And the old people were all saying, 'Two are the possibilities,' so he asked the old people, 'What should I do so he never renounces the kingdom?'

 

And they suggested, 'Make beautiful palaces for him, separate palaces for separate seasons.' In India there are four seasons, so -- four palaces with beautiful gardens, acres and acres of flowers. 'Make it almost like a paradise. And make it a point that no old man ever enters into his gardens, that no ill person ever comes across him, that he never sees a sannyasin, the ochre-robed, that he never comes across the phenomenon of death. These four things are prohibited. Even if leaves are falling they should be removed before he sees the old dying leaf. Flowers should be removed from his garden before he becomes aware that flowers fade and die. And he should be surrounded by beautiful women, the most beautiful women of the kingdom. And he should be kept continuously entertained. Remember, then only can he be saved from the desire of enlightenment. Keep him continuously entertained, exhausted, tired. In the morning when he gets up he should see beautiful women dancing around him to the very last moment when he falls asleep. He should fall asleep to music and dance.'

 

And this is how it was managed.

 

Now whether it is history or not is not the point. This is how we are all managing in some way or other. This is a parable. This is how all parents are afraid -- maybe not so much as Buddha's father because that is the extreme point. To make the parable absolutely clear it has to be stretched to its logical end, that's all. But all fathers, all mothers are afraid: you should not become a drop-out, you should not renounce. [....]

 

The parable is beautiful -- the gods became worried. It has a significant message. This existence wants you to become enlightened, that is the meaning of it. Existence becomes worried, existence cares, existence wants you to become free of all bondage, free of all darkness. Existence wants to help you, and when it sees that you are going and going and going and wasting your life, it creates situations in which you can be provoked; that is the meaning of the parable. There are no gods in heaven and no gods will come and walk like old men, but the parable is a way of saying certain hidden truths. The hidden truth is that the existence cares for you, that you have been sent into this existence to learn something.

 

Don't get lost. [....]

 

Whether it happened or not I am not concerned about at all. How does it matter whether it coincides with history or not?

 

That's why many times people who are too obsessed with history become angry with me -- because I have no commitment to history at all. I take all poetic freedom. My commitment is to parables, not to history. If I see that the parable can become more beautiful, then I play with the parable. I don't bother whether it is written so or not. Who cares? My whole commitment is to the poetry and the parable and the hidden message in it. And whether it happened or not, it can save you still.

 

'Who made the rope -- Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed?' What is the point when you are drowning in a well? The whole point is whether this rope is going to bear your weight or not. Try it. And you may get it all wrong and still be saved. The rope may have been made by Buddha and you may think it has been made by Jesus -- it doesn't matter, you can still be saved. The Bible may have been written by a ghost writer -- it doesn't matter; it has the message. And whosoever the writer was must have been enlightened, otherwise he could not have written such a beautiful parable. He WAS Jesus. Whosoever has created the story of Buddha WAS Buddha. Whether the story existed or not doesn't matter.

 

Hence I use so many parables. The parable embodies the hope, the danger, and the possibility held out by Lao Tzu or Zarathustra. If all the Bibles were destroyed, if the name of Jesus were forgotten, it would not matter anymore, so long as the fire kindled the hope, the beauty, and the possibility still went on burning. If it is proved, absolutely proved, that Buddha never happened, Jesus was never born, Mohammed never walked on the earth, Mahavira was a myth and Lao Tzu an invention of some fictitious writers, if the hope continues and if man continues to hope to surpass himself, if the fire continues to burn, if the longing remains to seek and search for the truth, that's enough. You can forget all about the Bibles and the Korans. If the longing continues, the Koran is going to be born in you. If the longing is intense enough, one day you will see Buddha arising out of you, you will see Jesus being born in you.

 

-Osho, "The Secret of Secrets, Vol 1, #16, Q2"