Knowledge is That Which Liberates

 

 

Discourse date: Fri, 23 September 1968 00:00:00 GMT

 

 

Sa Vidya Ya Vimuktaye. Knowledge is that which liberates.

 

This morning I would like to say a few things to you on this subject. This is a marvellous saying. It is the most original definition of knowledge. This is the definition of knowledge as well as its criterion.

 

But perhaps you may not know the other side of the situation. We are not liberated. Whatsoever we have learned cannot have been right knowledge, it must be false knowledge. Our life has not known what liberation is, so the schools in which we have studied must not have been schools but anti-schools, because the very test and definition of knowledge is that it helps us in our life to attain the bliss of liberation.

 

What shall we call that knowledge which has not given that joy? In the whole world knowledge goes on increasing, schools, colleges and universities go on increasing, but man does not seem to have been liberated. Instead man goes on becoming more bound and conditioned and falling further downwards.

 

Then could it be that we have made some fundamental mistake? Could it be that this increasing knowledge is false knowledge? I would like to say to you that it is false knowledge. I have no doubt about it. I am certain that what we are propounding as knowledge in the world is false knowledge, because the soul of man does not seem to be becoming free through it, but instead it is enslaving and imprisoning man. The consciousness of man does not become elevated by it but seems to be falling down. The life force of man does not seem to be progressing towards divinity, but is falling downwards towards animality.

 

Can we call people educated this way really educated? With good intentions we are working ceaselessly to spread this education. Good people are making great efforts to increase the numbers of schools, colleges and hostels so that man becomes educated. But the experience of the last two thousand years tells a different story.

 

On the one hand, knowledge increases; on the other, man seems to be deteriorating. On one hand education increases; on the other the quality of life seems to be degenerating. On the one side man's intellect is developing; on the other side man's soul seems to be falling apart. There is something fundamentally wrong. Something from the very beginning has gone wrong with our movement and direction, so in whatever direction we move it does not bring any bliss.

 

In the world today there is more learning, more education and more universities than during any previous century, but there is also more misery, pain and lack of peace than in any previous century.

 

Man's life is more ruined by the current education. With high hopes and good intentions we are educating our children. We have our great dreams and desires for our children's growth but in educating them we find that they have fallen low. Before our very eyes we see this happening, yet we increasingly go on creating the same type of education, colleges and hostels. It is difficult to conceive that there can be anyone more blind and foolish than man. Man has not learned anything from his past experiences, he has not learned any lessons.

 

I am reminded of a small event. Buddha had arrived in a town - there was a poor cobbler named Sudas in that town. When Sudas got up in the morning, he saw in the lake behind his hut a lotus flower in full bloom, unseasonally; this was not the season for the lotus to blossom. Sudas thought, "If I take this flower to the market today, I am certain to find a customer who will buy it for one rupee.

 

It is an unseasonal flower - somebody will certainly buy it." He plucked the flower and started off for the market, thinking, "I shall really be blessed if I get one rupee."

 

While he was on the road he saw the chariot of the richest man of the town passing by. Seeing the lotus, the rich man stopped the chariot and asked Sudas at what price he would sell. Sudas could not quote the price he wanted - one rupee - but instead said it was unseasonal and that the rich man might pay what he thought right. The rich man said, "I am giving you five hundred gold coins - do not sell it to anyone else."

 

While the rich man was saying this, the commander-in-chief of the king pulled up on his horse and stopped and addressed Sudas: "I will purchase the flower for ten times the price the rich man is offering."

 

Sudas said, "Have you people gone mad?" The rich man was paying five hundred gold coins and the commander was ready to pay ten times that price! While he was saying this the chariot of the king came and the king said, "The flower is purchased by me, for ten times the price agreed to by the commander."

 

Sudas was surprised. What has happened to these people! He said, "I was not expecting even one rupee for this flower and you people are ready to pay such a high price? What is the reason?"

 

The king said, "You are not aware: Buddha arrived in the town and we are going to receive him.

 

I myself would like to offer this unseasonal flower to Buddha, because he would not imagine that today someone could offer such a lotus flower at his feet! Who would not want to have such an opportunity to offer a rare flower?"

 

Sudas said, "In that case, there is no question of selling this flower; I myself shall offer the flower to Buddha."

 

The king tried to persuade him not to, saying, "Have you gone mad, Sudas?" Up till now Sudas was thinking that the rich man, the commander and the king had gone mad. Now all the three said, "Sudas, don't be mad! The poverty of your past and future generations will be destroyed by selling the flower."

 

Sudas said, "The poverty of all my lives is destroyed now - I myself shall offer the flower."

 

Sudas started walking towards the end of the town, where Buddha was expected to enter. The king, the commander and the rich man all reached there far ahead of Sudas. They informed Buddha of this most astonishing thing that had happened: "Today the poorest cobbler of the town refused to sell his lotus flower for any price. He wanted to offer it himself at your feet."

 

Sudas came and offered the flower at the feet of Buddha, and Buddha asked him, "Oh, mad Sudas, why didn't you sell the flower? It would have made life comfortable for your many future generations."

 

Sudas replied, "My lord, money cannot be higher than love. The soul cannot be sold for rupees. As long as it was just a flower, I wanted to sell it. But the moment I thought of your feet, there was no question of selling; I myself could offer it. Poor people too can love. Poor people too can respect.

 

Poor people too can trust. Poor people too have a soul. Please accept the flower!"

 

Buddha then addressed his disciples and said, "Though Sudas is not literate, he is really learned, educated. He does not know how to read and write, but still he is really learned."

 

One of the disciples asked Buddha, "What do you mean by 'really learned'?"

 

Buddha replied, "Whosoever is aware of the higher values in life and who can give up lower values for higher ones, is really learned. Sudas has rejected money for the sake of love."

 

Can we call people of today "really learned," who reject love for money? Can we call people of today educated whose whole education is destroying higher values and embracing lower values? Can we call those learned who are always ready to give up the supreme for the petty, who are ready to sell the soul for the body, who have no higher value than money, for whom there is no other journey in life than reaching a position of power, and those in whose life and mind the meaningful receives less attention than the meaningless?

 

Can such learning liberate? No, it cannot. We are making our children engineers, doctors, mathematicians and chemists. But that is not education, that is only a means and method to earn a livelihood; it is only an arrangement for earning in a better way. We are sending our children to Europe and America for further education, and one may think one has done something very great in doing so. But we are only teaching them to earn their bread more efficiently - nothing more than that. We are not educating them nor establishing any connection with education, because education means a birth of real and higher values in life.

 

What will the birth of real and higher values in life mean? If there is such a birth, man will become liberated, man will become full of bliss. The more life moves towards higher values, the more the bonds go on falling.

 

What are the bonds? What are the shackles? They are of lower values.

 

What is liberation? A journey to the heights, going higher and higher, transcending oneself day after day. A journey to loftier heights is real learning, knowledge. Do we teach transcendence of oneself?

 

No, we teach selfishness, exploitation, hoarding for one's own self. We teach how to somehow fulfill our desires and expectations more proficiently, and we think we are giving our children real learning.

 

Nothing can be more meaningless than this idea.

 

In one old seer's school, three students were declared successful in their final examination.

 

However, their teacher was telling them every now and then that the last examination was still to be taken. The last day of school arrived. They were given their degrees; the convocation ceremony was over and their final examination was still not taken. The students kept quiet; perhaps the teacher had forgotten. They packed their books, clothes and bedding, and went to their teacher in the evening to receive his last blessings before departure and then left him.

 

On their way they were thinking of the last examination. It was late in the evening and they had to reach the next village before nightfall. The road was rough and passed through a jungle; it was getting dark and there were wild animals in the area. They saw a narrow path through a thicket covered with lots of thorns.

 

One of the students jumped over the thorns. The second student went down the side road and bypassed the thorns. The third student put down his belongings and slowly started collecting the thorns and throwing them out of the way.

 

His friends told the third one, "Are you mad? - darkness is descending, we have to reach the village fast. There is no time to pick up the thorns. We have no time - come quickly!"

 

The third one replied, "If it was daytime there would be no danger; whoever passed would see the thorns. But after we pass by it will be so dark that the thorns will not be seen. If knowing this we pass by without thinking about those who may follow, our education will be meaningless. I will clear away the thorns - you can go on."

 

Meanwhile, the seer who was hiding in the bush jumped out. He himself had put the thorns on the path. It was their final examination. The seer said the other two students who had already crossed the thorns should go back to the school - they had failed in the last examination. Only the third student, who cleared away the thorns, cleared the final examination too.

 

One who has known how to remove the thorns in life is really educated, learned. One who would clear the thorns for others will one day spread flowers on the road for them. But the one who sees the thorns on the path and, ignoring them, passes by, is bound someday to spread thorns on others' paths.

 

The last examination is always of love. Love is always the ultimate value. The supreme heights in life are those of love. The Everest, the highest peak of life, is the peak of love.

 

Is our education teaching love? Our education is not even aware of love. Our education teaches ego instead. Ego and love are two opposite values. Where there is ego, there is no love. Where there is love, there is no ego. Current education teaches ego, and from the very childhood we make all arrangements to sharpen the ego.

 

A child enters his elementary class and we ask him to come first. One who comes first is rewarded.

 

Those who come last are not rewarded and are ignored. If there are thirty students in a class, only one of them can come first. The happiness of one boy is being based on the misery and frustration of the remaining twenty-nine. This is the education we are providing.

 

One who has come first is happy and joyful, not because he came first but because he has left the rest behind. We are teaching violence. Violence has only one meaning: it means nothing other than experiencing happiness in others' misery. One is not free of violence just by drinking germless water or just by not eating food at night. The meaning of violence is just this: being happy in others' misery.

 

And what else do we teach our children than to feel happy in others' misery? If there is only one student in a class, he will come first, but he will not be happy. But if there are thirty students in the class and if he comes first, he will be happy for having left the twenty-nine behind. If there are three thousand students and he comes first, his happiness is greater. If there are three lakh students, his happiness and joy will know no bounds. In becoming a president of a country, leaving behind the rest of the population of that country, one becomes very elated. That is why politics is violence - because it is a race to come first.

 

Religion is just a different direction. Knowledge is just a different direction.

 

Jesus Christ says: Blessed are those who are able to come last.... It is strange. Either Jesus Christ is mad or all of us are mad - us who run schools, impart knowledge and are teachers.... We are teaching: Blessed are those who are capable of coming first.

 

The race for coming first cannot liberate anyone. There are some basic reasons for this. The first thing is, one who joins that race remains in conflict and in tension; he has begun to fight. He is creating enmities with others. One who creates enmity cannot remain free from it; he is bound to it. Only he who is a friend to all can become liberated. And only he who is not in competition with anybody can become a friend to all.

 

What else is the meaning of friendship except, "I am not in competition." What else is the meaning of enmity except, "I am in competition. Either you win or I win. These are the only alternatives: either I or you, but both cannot win."

 

We are teaching competition. From their very childhood, we add the poison of competition, violence and ambition to the minds of children. And then we assume that these are schools. No, these are anti-schools, centers of anti-learning. These institutions pervert the mind of man and make him insane. Here inferiority is taught, and man then runs through his whole life like a madman. It makes no difference then whether the race is for money, position or power; but we teach a race, the fever of race. Fevers never make one healthy.

 

I have heard: Once, a dog living in Varanasi thought of going to Delhi. When so many people are running to Delhi, it is not surprising that a dog also should get the idea of going to Delhi. Times have changed. There was a time when people were going from Delhi to Varanasi ; now people from Varanasi want to go to Delhi. The dogs of Varanasi decided to send their representative, their leader to Delhi. They sent a message to the dogs of Delhi to receive him, to make his reservation in the Circuit House there and to tell them that it would take a month for him to reach there by foot. The dog must have been of the Indian mind, traveling like the sages of olden days, always on foot.

 

The dogs in Delhi were waiting to receive the leader. They were accustomed to receiving leaders anyway; it was their daily routine. And now a leader from their own species was coming, so they had planned a big reception. But it so happened that that dog reached Delhi in seven days. The dogs in Delhi were very surprised. They had seen leaders coming, but never so fast that one reached Delhi in seven days. Reaching Delhi takes a long time; by the time life is about to end people reach there.

 

That is why Delhi becomes their graveyard. But this dog reached there in seven days... smarter than human beings!

 

He was asked, "How come you reached here in seven days?"

 

The dog replied, "Don't ask. Our own friends, our own kinfolk have done this! Where the Varanasi dogs saw me off, soon the dogs of the other village ran after me, chasing me. Where they left me alone, at the borders of another village, the dogs of this third village began chasing me. I did not get any time to rest and recoup anywhere, could not stop anywhere. I have come running non-stop to Delhi!" While telling them this, he fell down and died. Whosoever runs non-stop enters death, not life. But the dog completed his journey - he had the passion to run to Delhi and there were dogs all around to make him run!

 

We are doing the same thing to our children: "Go to Delhi!" All the people around you go on chasing you; your parents chase you in childhood, and your wife when you are an adult. When you are old, your children are after you, "Go on! Go to Delhi! It is necessary to reach Delhi - there is no meaning in life without that."

 

This is the type of fever we create in the minds of children. This fever of ambition is so high that the child runs like mad. This is what we call the speed of life. Can this speed liberate you? No, it can lead you to death but not to liberation. Most of us only die in this process, we don't become liberated. The path of liberation is different.

 

Only that education will liberate which is free of ambition and which does not create any ambition.

 

But we think that if there is no ambition, how can a man make any progress?

 

The first important thing to remember is that just getting ahead has no value in itself. Another thing to remember is that there are other ways of making progress: one way is getting ahead of others, the other way is getting ahead of one's own self. I should go further ahead than I was yesterday.

 

This is my competition with my own self, not with others. I should not remain where the last sunset left me; when there is a new sunrise I should surpass myself, transcend my own self.

 

Such education can liberate. It teaches you the art of transcending your own self. The education which teaches you the art of competition with others can never liberate.

 

It is important to understand that those who are waiting to leave others behind run all their life, reaching nowhere, because there is always someone or other running ahead who has to be left behind. But if one is busy in transcending one's own self, one day he reaches where nothing remains to be transcended. Mahavira reaches there, Buddha reaches there, Christ and Krishna reach there.

 

There one reaches the supreme state of transcending one's own self. The name of this supreme state is the experience of godhood, the supreme experience, liberation, beyond which there is no further movement or reaching.

 

Where is that ultimate goal? The name of that ultimate goal is liberation, moksha. When a person transcends himself in every respect, nothing remains to be transcended, then liberation happens. But those who remain busy in getting ahead of others never reach the ultimate point in transcendence. Why? Because "the others" are many. It is neither easy nor possible to be ahead of everyone - no man has been able to do that so far. There are a few mysteries, because of which nobody has ever been able to do that. Have you heard of anybody who would have claimed that he is first, that nobody is ahead of him? No Napoleon, no Sikandar, no Nehru, can dare to say that there is nobody ahead of him. Nobody can dare to say that.

 

There was a scientist named Peare who was experimenting on some insects called dung beetles.

 

These insects are wonderful - they always follow their leader. As long as the leader continues to crawl along, the others also continue to do so; none stop. They too have this human habit. Several types of insects suffer from many of the human diseases - like following the leader.

 

Peare took a round plate and put ten or fifteen insects on it. The insects started going round and round it with their leader. The plate was round, so the path was never ending. Until the insect leader stopped, the other insects could not stop - and when the followers are continuing to crawl after him, how can the leader stop? It will be embarrassing for him. So the leader keeps going, all the other insects keep going. Alexanders and Napoleons carry on, the followers carry on. If the leader stops, the other insects will call him unsuccessful, making it necessary to choose another leader. If the follower insects stop, the leader calls them cowards!

 

In the end, the insects started dying of exhaustion, one after the other. They could not understand that there was no end to their journey, because the journey was going round and round.

 

If we look at man carefully, no one has reached to the end of this journey ever. This only shows that our journey is also going on on some circular path, round and round and round. Still there is always someone ahead of us and someone behind us. That time never comes when one is ahead of all, or is behind all - and thus the journey continues till one tires and dies. Not only those insects of Peare but man too dies because of a similar exhaustion of a circular journey. The other travelers move you out of the way and continue their journey. But no one looks at the fallen ones closely, to see if he is also traveling to a similar end. Up until today, no man has ever been successful in the journey of competition. He will never be. That journey has no end to it - it goes on in circles.

 

But there is another journey of transcending one's own self, always rising higher and beyond one's own self. It has no relationship with anyone else. I call education that which does not teach getting ahead of others, but teaches to go ahead of and transcend one's own self. The day a man is initiated in learning to transcend his own self, completely new doors of happiness open before him, hitherto unknown to him. On the other hand, for the man who is initiated in learning to get ahead of others, new ways to misery, tension, pain and restlessness go on appearing in his life.

 

Remember it well: to force the other behind is to give the other pain. And one who causes pain to others can never attain to bliss, because whatsoever we give to others, that is what comes back to us. Life is wonderful in the sense that we hear the echoes of everything that we give to it.

 

I had once gone to the hills, to where there was an echo point. Whatsoever noise was created there, it used to echo back and forth seven times. One friend created the sound of a barking dog which multiplied seven times and came back, causing the hills to echo with the sound of several barking dogs. It was very disturbing. I asked that friend if it would not be better instead to sing a song. If he did not want to sing, he could create the sound of a cuckoo; it is not necessary to bark like a dog.

 

The friend then sang a song which filled the hills all around with the lovely, echoing, song.

 

I told my friend that the whole of life is like an echo point which returns abuses if abuses are spoken, and returns a song if a song is sung. It returns thorns if thorns are thrown, returns flowers if flowers are showered.

 

Life is a great center of echoes. Whatsoever we do comes back to us. If we are teaching how to make others unhappy, sad or defeated, it will all come back to us, and it will be the only wealth with us at the end of our life. How can such wealth bring liberation nearer? It will bring only hell, unhappiness, pain and bondage nearer.

 

It is surprising that if we spread thorns on someone's path, this act is burdensome, but if we spread flowers it is not a burdensome act. Burdensome means, when the thorns return to us they bring misery and pain, but when flowers come back, there is no cause for misery and pain.

 

Blavatsky traveled all over the world. She had a strange habit: she would carry a handbag in which she kept flower seeds; and wherever she went, whether by train or by car, she was throwing the seeds out on either side. People asked her why she was doing this. She said, "It is time for the rainy season; the water will fall on the seeds and they will sprout and grow into plants. Flowers will come.

 

It will be very beautiful."

 

People said that even if the flowers blossomed, what did it matter to her? - she was not going to pass along the same road again. She said, "I see flowers all around which have grown from seeds thrown by others and I am delighted. I owe a debt to those who sowed those seeds. By throwing these seeds I am paying back the debt. I imagine that others who pass by this road some time will be delighted, even though I may not pass here again. Even in my imagination I feel delighted at that happy prospect and I feel overwhelmed."

 

Have you ever imagined somebody being delighted because of something done by you? Even if you can understand by imagining it that somebody may be delighted because of you, or that somebody's heart may glow because of you, that is enough.

 

What liberates ultimately is education. What leads a man nearer to his soul, nearer to the truth, is education. And who will help you in this? The other? No, nobody else can do this for you.

 

Each day you have to purify your inner gold in fire and let the impurities burn so only the pure gold remains. One has to rise above one's own self continuously. The education that teaches this process becomes liberating.

 

I have told you a few things. I will tell you one more thing and complete my talk. Whatsoever misery, darkness, hatred and violence are born in this world of man are due to understanding false knowledge to be knowledge. If we really want to transform the life of man, a clear distinction between false knowledge and real knowledge will have to be made. Whatsoever teaches the means and methods of earning a livelihood is false knowledge. Whatsoever teaches life - not livelihood but life - is knowledge.

 

So we should have false schools as well as real schools. False schools should be those where one can learn methods of earning a livelihood - because without bread man cannot live. But by bread alone man cannot live either. As it is now, we are calling false schools, real schools. Not only that, we even associate such beautiful people's names with them, such as that of Mahavira. We name a school, "Mahavira Vidyalaya"; Mahavira School. So far there is not a single school on the earth worthy to be named after people like Mahavira. That will take time. Right now all schools are those of ordinary men; not one school of Mahavira is here. But it can be so; if we work, it can be so.

 

I pray to God, and to you, that some day there can be schools of Mahavira, of Buddha, of Christ - of those who knew, of those who lived life and attained to Life.

 

I am grateful to you for having listened to me with love and silence, and I salute the divine residing within you. Accept my salutations.

 

-Osho, "Revolution in Education, #5"