Remember this. It is impossible to help others till you have obtained some certainty of your own. Resist the temptation to help others. It is evil unless you have obtained some certainty of your own. Don't try to be a guru, don't try to be a helper. because you will disturb; you will create more problems. Remember well that you cannot help. you cannot guide anyone. unless you have got the inner light. When the inner light is there, the help, the guidance, will flow from you.

 

Resist the temptation. The temptation is great, because the ego feels very fulfilled. Someone comes to ask your advice. The temptation is there to give advice without knowing what you are doing, without being aware that you don't know. If someone asks you whether God is, you are not strong enough to say, "I don't know." You say something. Either you say, "Yes. God is. I am a believer," or you say, "No, God is not. I am a disbeliever," but in both.cases you give advice. In both cases you confirm something that you don't know.

 

Remember this, for the spiritual seeker a very basic, very significant point: whatsoever you really know, confirm only that. If you don't know, it is better to say, "I don't know."

 

Someone asked Albert Einstein once, "What is the difference between science and philosophy?"

 

His reply is one of the wisest. He said. "If you come to a scientist and ask a hundred questions, about ninety-nine he will say, 'I don't know.' Only about one will he say, 'I know. But this too,' he will say, 'is only relative knowledge. Tomorrow it can change. It is not absolute.'

 

"If you go to a philosopher and ask one question, he will give a hundred answers. And with absolute conviction that this is so. If someone says something else, he will be condemned to hell. 'He is wrong!'"

 

That's why philosophy leads nowhere. Answers and answers and answers leading nowhere. Answering so much and not even answering a single question. The basic thing is lacking: the philosopher is not strong enough to say, "I don't know."

 

The scientist is stronger. He can say, "I don't know." And even when he says, "I know," he says, "Up until now this has been true. But I cannot say anything about tomorrow. Things may change, many new facts may become known and then the truth will have to be readjusted."

 

I would like to tell you that yoga is also a science; it is not a philosophy Meditation is a science: it is not a philosophy. Remember this, don't guide anyone unless you have a certain knowledge, a certain experience. And even then, tell others that "this is my experience. It may not be so for you. It is how I have come to it. Your way may differ; it may not prove true for you. So don't take my advice blindly. You can experiment with it. It is an open experiment."

 

Then you can be of some help. Otherwise. you can create disturbances. Don't get tempted. Don't advise unless you really know. Don't guide. First be a disciple; don't try to be a master. Mastership will come. When your discipleship has become complete and total, the master will emerge within you. But not before that moment, not before that time. Wait for it. It happens.

 

- Osho, "The New Alchemy: To Turn You On, #14"