Question 3:

Osho,

Don’t you have enough disciples? What is the need for videotapes of you and your commune?

 

 

Devesh, I have got only one hundred fifty thousand sannyasins in the world – that is just a drop in the ocean of humanity. And if you want to transform the consciousness of man it is nothing; it is just the beginning, it is just a seed. We have to go on spreading this new message – new in a sense, because of the so-called religions, and yet the ancientmost, because whenever anybody has known he has known the same truth.

 

Truth never changes; it is always the same. Who knows it makes no difference, when one knows it makes no difference. Time and space don’t matter. And this is a very special moment in the history of humanity: either man will destroy himself totally or a new man will be born. It has never been so important to transform the consciousness of man, to bring a radical change in the very vision of man as it is today. And we have to do it quickly because time is short. The politicians are piling up atom bombs, hydrogen bombs and whatnot.

 

Just within ten years the power to destroy man has increased seven hundred times. Ten years ago it was enough to destroy humanity; now it is enough to destroy seven hundred earths of the same size. It seems to be simply mad. What is the point? – because we don’t know any other earths yet. Yes, scientists say there are fifty thousand planets with life, but that is only a hypothesis. We may never reach them – we have only reached the moon.

 

And those planets are far, far away. The nearest is four light years away; that means if a spaceship goes at the speed of light – which is impossible or next to impossible because the speed of light is immense… Light moves at the speed of one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second. If we can create a spaceship which can move at this speed, then it will take four years to get there and four years to come back. But it seems not possible to create such a spaceship because when anything moves at such a speed it becomes light; it melts and becomes light. The spaceship will melt and become light and the people traveling in it will become light; they will disappear. At such speed such heat is created that everything becomes light. We don’t know of any metal, not yet, which can resist heat at such a speed.

 

And those planets which the scientists think have life are thousands of light years away so there seems to be no possibility to destroy them. Then why go on piling up more and more atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, super bombs, death rays? For what? Do you want to kill each human being seven hundred times? Human beings die only one time. They are not Jesus Christs who will resurrect so you have to kill them again and they will resurrect and you have to kill them again – seven hundred times. But politicians make arrangements just in case! In such a mad world where mad politicians are so powerful, meditation can be the only way to defend life on earth.

 

Devesh, the inner revolution has to be spread as quickly and as fast as possible. Moreover, I am a twentieth-century man – I don’t believe in bullock carts. You can see my Rolls Royce! But even Buddha tried every possible way in order to reach as many people as he could. Of course, there was no other way so he traveled from one village to another; that was the only possible way to reach people. But how many people could he reach? He could never go beyond one single province, Bihar. In fact the name ”Bihar” comes from the fact that he traveled there; the name ”Bihar” means the place where a Buddha travels, where the awakened one has traveled. The boundaries of the province are the boundaries of his travels. But he could not reach all parts of Bihar either; he could reach only the important places and villages on the way.

 

Forty-two years he traveled; old, ill, but he traveled. He was so old – he died when he was eighty-two – and continuously traveling in the hot climate of Bihar, a physician had to continuously follow him to keep him healthy, to look after him. Why did he travel? For what? – to reach as many people as possible. Mahavira did the same. They each tried in their own ways.

 

Two monks were talking to each other.

”Do you know why Jesus, after his resurrection, appeared to women?”

”No, I don’t,” replied the other.

”So that the news of his resurrection could spread more quickly!”

 

I don’t go anywhere; there is no need now – that is out of date. I cannot reach many people by traveling, but now we have the media available. My word can go to the farthest corner of the earth – it is reaching already. Books are also old ways of reaching people; their days are also over. New methods have been evolved.

 

A videotape is a far better way to reach people because they can hear me the same way as you are hearing me. And just hearing the word without seeing the person is one thing; seeing the person also makes a lot of difference. It is totally different because when you are listening to me on a tape recording or on records you will not be able to see my hand, which says more than I can say with my words. You will not be looking at my eyes, which have much more to say than words can convey. Something will be missing, something of immense value – the person will he missing. You will be hearing only a ghostly voice.

 

I will use films, television, videotapes, tapes, every modern technique to spread the message. I belong to the twentieth century totally, wholeheartedly. And I love this century; I am not against it. I love science and its technology. It is in the wrong hands, but that always happens. Whenever something significant is discovered it always falls into the wrong hands first for the simple reason that they are very quick people, cunning people.

 

Even the discovery of atomic energy can be a blessing to the world. But it has fallen into the hands of the politicians. It should be in the hands of mystics; then there would be no need to be afraid of a Third World War. Then we could fill the whole earth with affluence; then poverty could disappear for the first time from the whole earth. Poverty could become a thing of the past. Much illness could disappear. Man’s life could be prolonged to almost impossible limits. Three hundred years would not be a difficult target; each person could live three hundred years very easily because scientists say the body is capable of living far longer than it lives.

 

People die at the age of seventy just because they have always been dying at that age. It has become a fixed idea in the mind – in the collective mind it has become a fixed idea; it is a kind of auto-hypnosis It can be changed. Even the very program in your cells can be changed; they have the program. When a child is born his cells have the program how long he will live, but that program can be changed. If we can split the atom we can split the living cell and change its inner program; we can give it a new program, we can make it live three hundred four hundred, five hundred years; we can give it a program which will keep it healthy forever, young forever. Old age can disappear. This is possible now.

 

Science has released tremendous power, but it has fallen into the wrong hands and the right hands are not there. We have to create the right hands; we have to create the right consciousness for that. Hence, Devesh, I will go on working with all the modern media to reach as many people as possible.

 

I am already reaching. You can see here people from almost every country. There is not a single country in the world now where my sannyasins are not. And they are creating a stir everywhere. They are hound to create a stir, they are bound to create a new kind of revolution – the real revolution. Political revolutions are not revolutions; only spiritual revolutions are revolutions because unless the inner being changes, no outer change is going to help.

 

And, remember it, I am not an old type of saint: ”Why bother about disciples and why bother about reaching many people? It is not a question of bothering at all – I am enjoying it tremendously! It is not in any way work for me; it is play. And it is urgently needed, too.

 

I can understand Devesh’s question because he works in the film department in the commune. He is sitting there just behind the video camera. He must the getting puzzled – why? He has written many questions of the same type. Just two days ago when Prem Chinmaya left his body he immediately wrote a question to me: ”Osho, even Prem Chinmaya s departure and the celebration were videotaped. Can’t a sannyasin die in peace?”

 

But he was already dead! Now you can do whatsoever you want – videotape him, film him… And K.B. was arranging his head for the right position – you can do anything now! Chinmaya must have been around laughing, enjoying. He must be saying to himself, ”Gosh, had I known it before I would have died sooner! They are doing well!” He must have enjoyed it.

 

And he died in utter peace, he died in absolute peace. And your videotape cannot disturb him. His cancer was not disturbing him, how can your video-tape disturb him? He was in immense pain, but he remained a witness. He died a beautiful death. That’s the way a sannyasin should die. Now Nartan has come. Just yesterday he wrote a letter to me: ”I was fortunate to come and to see Chinmaya s departure and the celebration because I am also suffering from cancer; the doctors have said, ’You have only two years left.’ And I have come to be forever here.” Nartan was happy to see the way Chinmaya died and the way everybody celebrated his death.

 

I teach you not only to celebrate life but death too, because death is the climax of life, the crescendo. If you have lived your life really you will celebrate your death too. And he died so beautifully, in such deep surrender. Even Nartan was immensely happy to be present. Now his fear of death is gone. In fact, he is looking forward to it. So, Devesh, get ready!

 

– Osho, “Tao: The Golden Gate, Vol 1, #4, Q3”