Osho on Jesus

 

 

In fact Jesus never died on the cross. It takes at least forty-eight hours for a person to die on the Jewish cross; and there have been known cases where people have existed almost six days on the cross without dying. Because Jesus was taken down from the cross after only six hours, there is no possibility of his dying on the cross. It was a conspiracy between a rich sympathizer of Jesus and Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus as late as possible on Friday – because on Saturday, Jews stop everything; their Sabbath does not allow any act. By the evening of Friday everything stops.

 

The arrangement was that Jesus would be crucified late in the afternoon, so before sunset he would be brought down. He might have been unconscious because so much blood had flowed out of the body, but he was not dead. Then he would be kept in a cave, and before the Sabbath ended and the Jews hung him again, his body would be stolen by his followers. The tomb was found empty, and Jesus was removed from Judea as quickly as possible. As he again became healthy and healed, he moved to India and he lived a long life – one hundred and twelve years – in Kashmir.

 

-Osho, "Beyond Psychology, #13"

 

 

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Jesus was a totally enlightened being. This phenomenon of resurrection as far as Christian dogma is concerned seems inconceivable, but not for yoga. Yoga believes – and there are ample proofs of it – that a person can totally die without dying. The heart stops, the pulse stops, the breathing stops – yoga even has methods that teach this. In India we know that Jesus must have practiced some deep yogic exercise when he was put on the cross because if the body really dies, there is no possibility of resurrection.

 

When those who had crucified Jesus felt that he was dead, his body was brought down from the cross and given to his followers. Then, after wrapping the body in thin muslin and an ointment, which even to this day is known as the “ointment of Jesus,” two of his followers, Joseph and Nicodemus, removed the body to a cave, the mouth of which they blocked with a huge boulder.

 

There is one sect, the Essenes, that has its own tradition about it. It is said that Essene followers helped Jesus to recover from his wounds. When he was seen again, because his followers could not believe that he was the same Jesus who had been crucified, the only way – and this is recorded in The Bible – was to show them his healed wounds. Those wounds were healed by the Essenes, and the healing took place during the three days when Jesus remained in the cave recovering from his ordeal. Then, when the wounds were healed, he disappeared. The huge boulder at the mouth of the cave had been rolled away and the cave was found vacant.

 

Jesus was not there! It is this disappearance of Jesus from the cave that has led to the common theory of his resurrection and ascent to heaven.

 

But after he had shown himself to his disciples he had to disappear from the country, because if he had remained there he would have been crucified again. He went to India into which, one tradition says, a tribe of the Jews had disappeared.

 

The famous French historian, Bernier, who visited India during the reign of Aurangzeb, wrote: “On entering the kingdom after crossing the Pir Panjal Pass, the inhabitants of the frontier villages struck me as resembling the Jews.”

 

Yes, Kashmiris really do look Jewish – in their faces, in their every expression. Wherever you move in Kashmir, you feel that you are moving in a Jewish land. It is thought that Jesus came to Kashmir because it was a Jewish land in India – a tribe of Jews was living there. There are many stories in Kashmir about Jesus, but one has to go there to discover them.

 

The crucifixion changed Jesus’ mind totally. From then on, he lived in India for seventy years continuously, in complete silence – unknown, hidden. He was not a prophet, he was not a minister, he was not a preacher. That is why not much is known about him.

 

Christianity lacks much. Even about Jesus it lacks much. His whole life is not known: what he practiced, how he meditated is not known. The Christian apostles who recorded what he said were ignorant people: they never knew much. One was a fisherman, another was a carpenter. All twelve apostles were ignorant.

 

The apostles didn’t understand what Jesus was doing when he went to the hills and was silent for forty days. They only recorded that it happened and that when he came back again, he began preaching. But what was he doing there? Nothing is known – nothing.

 

-Osho, "The Great Challenge, #9"

 

 

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There has been a long tradition of pathology in Christianity. The Christians say Jesus never laughed. Now this is utter nonsense! I say to you that Christ laughed his whole life; only he can laugh. Who else? But Christians say he never laughed. They want to depict him very sad, very burdened. They project their sadness onto Jesus, they project their misery onto Jesus. Jesus becomes a screen, and you go on projecting your mind onto him. Jesus laughed, enjoyed, loved. If you go into the Gospels without your prejudices, you will find it. How can you think otherwise about a man who was having parties, eating well, moving with women, drinking – yes, wine was not unknown to him, he loved it. He was a very very happy man. A man who drinks, eats well, loves eating, loves friends – it is impossible to conceive that he never laughed. But Christians have depicted Jesus according to their own projection. The projection is of their misery. And then Jesus becomes just an excuse to be sad, to be miserable. That’s why in the church there is no laughter, no joy, no celebration.

 

Churches have become graveyards. And it is not accidental that the cross has become the symbol. It should not be the symbol.

 

I can understand your difficulties, particularly Chintana’s difficulties. She says: “What am I to do with the Jesus I thought I knew and loved for so long?”

 

You have not known Jesus.

 

Through me there is a possibility to know Jesus. If you are courageous enough, you can know Jesus for the first time. Because you can know Jesus only through a man who has attained to Christ-consciousness. A Krishna can be known only through a man who has attained to Krishna-consciousness. And they are the same thing: Krishna-consciousness. Christ-consciousness, Buddha-consciousness – the transcendental.

 

You cannot understand Jesus through a priest. He himself has not known. He has read, he has thought, he has contemplated, he has speculated, philosophized. Yes, he has a very cultivated mind, he knows the scripture; but to know the scripture is not to know Jesus. To know Jesus you will have to know your innermost nothingness. Without knowing it you cannot make anybody else acquainted with Jesus.

 

-Osho, "I Say Unto You, Vol. 1, #2"

 

 

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A Jesus had to be crucified because he was an alive man. He must have called in his childhood, "Jesus, don't be befooled by others." And he was not befooled, so others had to crucify him, because he was not part of the game. Socrates had to be poisoned and killed, Mansoor had to be murdered. These are people who have escaped from the prison, and whatsoever you say you cannot persuade them to come back. They will not come into the prison. They have known the freedom of the open sky.

 

- Osho, "A Bird on the Wing, #11"

 

 

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The people who crucified Jesus were not able to see his godliness at all; they could only see the mischief in him. So whether Jesus was a God or not is not the question -- whether you can see or not is the question. And you can see only that which you are; you cannot see beyond yourself.

 

- Osho, "A Sudden Clash of Thunder, #6"

 

 

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Jesus was not famous in his day. If there were no Bible, there would have been no record of him. The record belongs to his four disciples; nobody else has ever mentioned him, whether he existed or not. He was not famous. He was not successful. Can you think of a greater failure than Jesus? But, by and by, he became more and more significant; by and by, people recognized him. It takes time.

 

- Osho, "A Sudden Clash of Thunder, #4"

 

 

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The rabbis, the Jewish religious people, the priests of the temple of Jerusalem, they were learned fools. They could not tolerate Jesus. The learned fools are always disturbed by the blessed fools. They had to murder him because his very presence was uncomfortable; his very presence was such a pinnacle of peace, love, compassion and light, that all the learned fools became aware that their whole being was at stake. If this man lived then they were fools, and the only way to get rid of this man was to destroy him so they could. again become the learned people of the race. 

 

Socrates was killed by knowledgeable people; Mansoor was killed by other knowledgeable people. There has always been a great conflict whenever the third type of fool arises in the world. All the pundits gather together; their whole business is at stake. All that they know, this man says is foolish. And they also know deep in their hearts that it is foolish because it has done nothing for them. No bliss. no benediction has come out of it. They are as they always have been -- their knowledge has not touched their hearts, has not become a transformation at all. They know it deep in their hearts, that's why they become even more uncomfortable. They want to destroy such men because with the very possibility of such a man they are nobodies. Without Jesus they were the great priests of the temple; with Jesus suddenly they were nobodies. In the presence of Jesus there was God himself and all the priests felt their glory had been taken away.

 

- Osho, "The Art of Dying, #4"

 

 

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All Jesus' pictures are falsifications; they cannot be about the real Jesus. This real man must have been totally different, because we know he enjoyed drinking -- it is impossible to think of a person who enjoys drinking and not laughing. He enjoyed women -- it is difficult to think of a man who enjoys women and not laughing. He was friendly, almost in love, with a prostitute, Mary Magdalene. It is difficult to move with a prostitute -- he was not moving with a Catholic monk, not with a priest, not with the Pope... with a prostitute! These were the condemnations against him.

 

And he was moving with simple people, simple folk -- carpenters, farmers -- very uneducated people. You cannot expect them to be serious. He was not moving with scholars, with professors, with vice-chancellors -- no. He was moving with very simple people, ordinary people, down-to-earth people. It is impossible to think that he was not laughing. Late in the nights they would enjoy food and drink. He must have been gossiping, he must have been telling jokes. But Jesus has been depicted as a serious man. And Christians say he never laughed. Then what is the function of an Enlightened man? If Jesus cannot laugh, then who is going to laugh in this world?

 

- Osho, "A Sudden Clash of Thunder, #6"

 

 

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Jesus was a lover of life, a very affirmative person, but Christianity is life-negative.

 

- Osho, "Ah, This!, #8"

 

 

 

Jesus moved in a very poor world. People were seeking their own solutions. Many were helped -- not that Jesus was helping -- they were helped. And Jesus says again and again: "It is your faith that has healed you." When you have faith, compassion can pour into you. When you have faith, you are open to compassion.

 

- Osho, "A Sudden Clash of Thunder, #8"

 

 

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Jesus must have been a really great artist in creating enemies because he was only thirty-three when he was crucified, and there were only three years of work because he appeared at the age of thirty. Up to that time he was with the mystery schools, going around the world to Egypt, to India, and the possibility is even to Tibet and to Japan. Hence the Bible has no record of his years of preparation; the record is very abrupt. Something about his childhood is said, very fragmentary. And only once is he mentioned: when he was twelve years of age and he started arguing with the priests in the temple -- that's all. Then there is a gap of eighteen years... nothing is mentioned.

Now a man like Jesus cannot just live an ordinary life for eighteen years and then suddenly explode into Christhood; that is not possible. These eighteen years he was moving with different Masters, with different systems, getting initiated into different mystery schools, learning whatsoever was available, getting in tune with as many Masters as possible. He appears at the age of thirty and by the age of thirty-three he is crucified. In three years he really did a good job! He was quick! You cannot think that he was diplomatic; he was the most undiplomatic man ever. In fact, that's the way the awakened people behave.

 

- Osho, "Ah, This!, #3"