Osho,
I want to defend my male race. Existence gave man the capacity to fight against existence, to swim against the stream, to be a doer, to say no. Hearing you and your therapists, I tried to drop this and this effort to drop only gave me misery. I don’t believe existence made me a man in order to become female without ever blossoming into the full potential of my maleness, of my mind. Please comment.
“Swami Antar Mario, Germany is the only land in the whole world which is called the fatherland. Every other land is called the motherland. I said I love the German people, except for a small inheritance that they have been carrying for centuries – a male chauvinist idea of themselves. It has created two world wars and it may create the third. It is not new that Mario is saying, “I have to defend my male race.” This very idea of defending and the idea that he has to fight existence, he has to be a doer, he has to say no. Here, trying to drop effort, he has not been able to. He only became more miserable.
“What kind of man are you, if you cannot drop effort? How are you going to defend the male race? Many women are dropping effort, and you cannot drop effort. You are defeated already.
And why this fear of let-go, of going with the current? Why this fear of saying yes to existence? – just an ego trip.
“It is one of the ugliest things in anyone, because it is the wall that prevents you from seeing beyond yourself. You are surrounded by a prison of your own and you cannot see beyond the walls, you don’t know the sky, you don’t know the stars, you don’t know that this whole existence is in a tremendous let-go. Everything is effortlessly moving. The trees are growing. Do you think they are making any effort to grow? The stars are moving with tremendous speed. Do you think they are making any effort? You are breathing. Do you think it is something to do with your effort? Your heart is beating. Is it something to do with you and your doing? If it was dependent on your doing, in sleep you would forget to breathe, you would forget the heart, whether it is beating or not. And then no chance… In the morning you would not even be able to remember that in the middle of the night you forgot to breathe. Once finished, finished.
The whole of existence is in a tremendous let-go.
“Adolf Hitler exploited the German race only because of this male chauvinistic mind. He himself was not a giant intellectual. He was a retarded schizophrenic, a psychologically sick person, but he impressed the whole German race with all kinds of stupid ideas. For example: Germany was not ruling over all the world because of the Jews. It is as absurd as to say that Germany is not ruling over all the world because of the bicycles. Unless we destroy bicycles, there is no chance for Germany to rule over the world. What have the poor Jews done? But he was convincing because he shouted loudly.
“He organized big rallies which proved to people that they must be wrong, he must be right; he killed more people than anybody else in the whole history of man. But he is not responsible alone: every German is responsible. You supported him; you supported the very idea that you have to fight with existence to prove your manliness. You have to say no. But remember: a person who cannot say yes will always remain insane.
“No belongs to death, yes belongs to life. Life is yes-saying.
The deeper your yes, the deeper your surrender to existence, the greater is your bliss. Otherwise you become absolutely mechanical, like robots.
“And the very idea that you are special above any other race is simply nonsense. If Germany can drop this male chauvinistic attitude, can accept women as equal to men, not only will Germany be at ease and in peace, it will help the whole world to remain in peace. War can be dropped. Instead of war, more love, more friendliness, more joy can become our daily experience.
“Helmut’s new car has just been delivered. So he offers to give a lift to some of his friends who are going to a wedding. Unfortunately he has not even been told how to start the car, so after he has finished bluffing for a while, he confesses his ignorance.
“The others are also German, not too smart either, but luckily at least Herman can read. He reads out from a button near the steering wheel: “Push to start.” So they all get out to push.
“A German traveling salesman has been on the road for weeks, when he sees a sign which reads: ‘Mother Murphy’s House of Pleasure, straight ahead.’ He drives on a mile and the sign is repeated. This goes on every mile, until he reaches the last sign, which says: ‘You are here! This is it! Mother Murphy’s House of Pleasure!’
“He is feeling pretty horny, so he pulls into the drive, where all he finds is a little wooden shack, but he decides to try it out.
“He walks in and finds a little old lady sitting in a rocking chair. He apologizes and is beginning to leave, when she says, ‘You are in the right place, sonny. This is Mother Murphy’s. Just give me fifty bucks and go through that door over there.’
“So he goes through the door and finds himself in the backyard, and the door locks behind him, so he can’t get back in. He is really angry, and looking around, he sees a small sign in the next field, so he goes over to read it. It says: ‘You have just been screwed by Mother Murphy.’
“At least here, drop your German-ness; that is your disease. And it is not only about you. The Indians have to drop their Indian-ness; that is their disease. And the Italians have to drop their Italian-ness; that is their disease.
Nations are just man-made boundaries; races are stupid discriminations; religions are man-manufactured – and they are all dividing man against man.
“Sannyas is an effort to bring a new world into existence, where nobody is a German and nobody is an Indian and nobody is a Japanese; where nobody thinks that he is superior, where nobody thinks that women are inferior and slaves, where equality and equal opportunity to grow is simply accepted as natural.
“I did not say that man has nothing to offer. He has much to offer. In fact all science, all technology is going to be man’s offering to existence, but man has to remember that the works of the intellect and reason are not his highest creations.
The higher creations come from the heart, in songs, in music, in poetry, in dances. Unless you can celebrate, what use is all scientific progress? And without a woman there is no celebration.
“You put a hundred men together and they will all be serious. Just bring one woman in and immediately all their eyes start sparkling, they become interested. Life starts being juicy; something is going to happen. Man without woman is half, and woman without man is half. They are part of one whole.
“I did not say anything in favor of men because men have done so much wrong to women that now it is better not to say anything about men’s talents and genius. It is better to bring out the women’s genius and talents. It is simply a compensation. I know there are a few things which only men can do, and there are a few things which only women can do. That makes life more beautiful and more attractive. Between these two polarities, life becomes a magnetic pull. Between these two polarities of man and woman, many mysteries happen. The whole romance of life, the whole poetry of life, is because of the polarity of man and woman.
“But man has ruled over women for millennia. He has been given every opportunity and chance and woman has been repressed continuously, has been crippled. She has not been allowed to compete shoulder to shoulder with man in life. That’s why we don’t know how many Gautam Buddhas on the women’s side did not get the opportunity to blossom. We don’t know how many Albert Einsteins have simply been denied any possibility for growth.
It is a very strange thing that even dimensions like poetry, music, dance are dominated by men. The greatest dancers in the world have been men, not women. In fact, women should have been ahead of any male dancer. But one needs opportunity. One needs education, one needs training.
“If you bar the whole of womankind from education, training, discipline, you are making the whole society and the whole world poor, unnecessarily poor. My emphasis is to give respect to women – and equality is not against men. It is a world which belongs to you both and you both have to be together to make it as beautiful and as divine as possible.
“Man alone – look at your question, Mario – has been creating only wars. In three thousand years, five thousand wars. Is life just to fight? Is life just to kill, massacre, rape?
Your whole history is full of murder and you call those murderers your great men.
“Alexander the Great… And you don’t see that small murderers are being jailed, sentenced to death, but big murderers become your heroes. It is because the woman has been completely cut off from contributing anything to life; otherwise there would not have been so many wars.
“No woman is interested in war, it is simply against the feminine nature. She is interested in love, she is interested in a beautiful house, she is interested in a beautiful garden around the house. She is interested in small things, but those small things make life worth living. She is not interested in creating atomic weapons, nuclear missiles. She cannot understand what man goes on doing. Is he insane or something?
“Half of humanity is dying of starvation and the politicians who are all men and the generals who are all men go on piling up nuclear weapons. They have already more than they need – seven hundred times more than they need to destroy this whole world. All that is living on the earth – trees, birds, animals, human beings, anything that is living – we have already seven hundred times more than enough material to destroy it. And still they go on piling it up. Do you think this is sanity when half the human race is dying of starvation?
“This is happening because man alone has been contributing to existence. He has not the compassion of a woman; he has only the hardness of a man. He does not allow the softness of woman to influence world affairs.
We need a very balanced life, in which the man and the woman contribute equally. Life will be more peaceful, more lovable, more joyous.
“It will become a tremendous celebration. And in that celebration, my hope is we will be able to go beyond the ordinary, mundane enjoyment into the cosmic bliss, into sat-chit-anand – into truth, into consciousness, into bliss.”
END
Excerpted from: Osho, Sat Chit Anand – Truth Consciousness Bliss, Talk #26 – The Materialist and the Spiritualist