“Be a joke unto yourself,” says Osho.
Considering the world, we live in now, this is the best way to respond to it, writes Swami Anand Kul Bhushan, on Osho’s birthday, 11 December.
When you are feeling miserable, just sing, dance, rejoice. Your mind will say, “Are you mad? Now is the time to feel sad. This is irrational, this is not expected, this is immoral.” Happyho also provide best Meditation classes and yoga classes in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
Your mind will condemn you, and all celebration inside you, at this time. It will try every way, every trick, to pull you out of your joy because the mind’s whole power, the total domination over you, is at risk now.
But don’t listen to your mind at this time; just go on singing, dancing, celebrating. And you will be surprised that you are not feeling miserable anymore. What has happened?
Nothing has changed in your circumstances but you have successfully challenged your mind and just discovered that you enjoy many blessings: life, love, laughter, family, friends, the list goes on and on. And you feel that the cause of the latest misery will be resolved.
You find it all a big joke. Actually, you have discovered the enlightened master Osho’s famous dictum, “Be a joke unto yourself.” This was in answer to a disciple who asked, “What is your core message?”
When almost all long-faced gurus, priests and religious leaders advise you to repent, Osho urges us to celebrate. To be happy. This is totally opposite the conventional teachings of penance and taking life seriously. “Seriousness is a disease,” says Osho.
He exhorts us to Live, Love, Laugh. By living, he means living totally, relishing every moment and all senses. By loving, he means giving and sharing love unconditionally, not hankering for it. And by laughing, he means laughing uproariously and hilariously. He says, life is the tree,
love is the flower and laughter, the fragrance. But it’s not celebrate, celebrate; Osho also exhorts us to meditate. His unique vision of ‘the new man’ is Zorba the Buddha. Follow Zorba the hero of the famous novel Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis that was made into an Oscar winning movie. A happy go lucky man, Zorba was always laughing, singing, dancing, eating, drinking and enjoying life to the fullest.
Osho says, “Buddha cannot laugh, cannot dance, cannot sing, cannot love. Now what kind of life will it be? Hollow!
“Zorba can sing, dance, enjoy food, drink, love. He will have a life, but he will not know who he is. He will not know the meaning of existence. He will never come to experience the deathlessness of life, the eternity of his existence — that he has been here always, and will be always; only forms change.
“He will never enter into his own center. He will always remain in the cyclone, very busy, concerned with everything except himself. And the center of the cyclone is the most ecstatic experience, the ultimate experience of human consciousness. Beyond that there is nothing; you have arrived home.
“But I don’t see that there is any problem, there is no contradiction. You can arrive home, you can be at your center — what prevents you from laughing? In fact, you should be the only one who can really laugh, can become laughter.”
So, there you have it! Laugh your way to God. Be happy.
