Shocking them into action

I saw a funny interview with Osho Rajneesh on You Tube recently. Like always he was shocking. Asked about the late Mother Theresa (then very much alive) he told the interviewer that she “should jump into a lake!” His followers burst into laughter. Well I would not go that far! But I have always wondered what made him tick. Perhaps it was this very trait that he had of disparaging every thing revered by others. No doubt it is healthy to hear someone say such things with nonchalance.

I remember the late John Abraham (A iconoclastic movie director from the south of India) jumping up on his seat in the audience and calling the speaker on the podium a liar while the poor man was explaining some intricate system of thought. The speaker lost face and the listeners roared with laughter. That was good, though John was always afraid of the police and of women he was never afraid of himself and that none of us conditioned by our up bringing can claim to be. It does not matter whether the person criticized is eminent or not. What matters is the freedom to hold on to your opinions and express them no matter what.

It is like a breath of fresh air when it happens. It makes us think. It makes us feel good, not because something revered is pulled down, but because it makes us laugh at ourselves and our silly convictions about life, society and everything.

But Osho classified Adolf Hitler as the greatest idiot among politicians in that interview and that was rather disappointing. Well, Hitler was shrewd and some of the idea’s he let out in his book Meincamf were not that of an idiot but was that of a person born to lead. He may have made political blunders, like invading Russia at the wrong time but was like every one else a creature of circumstances. Osho corrected himself later in the interview by stating that Churchil and Stalin would have not been on the scene if Hitler was not there in the first place. This correction was in another context I know but I believe that the man knew calling names can go only just that far.

One of Oshos observations was very pithy. He said he liked to shock people out of their complacency into thinking for themselves.

Yeah he is right, all our thinking is done by others, sad is it not?