They are all enlightened
people. I don't deal with unenlightened people at all. I have never
come across any unenlightened person. Since I became enlightened I
have been coming across enlightened people - enlightened men,
enlightened women, enlightened dogs and donkeys. Enlightened trees
and rocks and stars. The whole existence exists in enlightenment,
that's its very rhythm.
So what are you talking about?
And this is not a program. It is a very very mad chaotic phenomenon, it is not a program. It is chaos.
And you ask:
Hundred percent. Whoever comes to me is enlightened - what more do
you need? If they persist not to realize it, that is their joy. That
is their freedom! This much freedom every enlightened person should
have - that if he wants to behave in an unenlightened way, he has to
be allowed. If even this freedom is lost, what type of enlightenment
is this? A few people choose to behave unenlightenedly, perfectly
good. Sometimes they behave this way, sometimes that way - that too
is good.
All is accepted here. And I am not result-oriented at all. 'Result'
is a dirty word - even though it is not four-lettered, it is dirty
all the same. It is result that has poisoned the whole humanity.
We live the moment; it has intrinsic beauty. It has not to be
sacrificed for any other moment. When you are result-oriented you go
on sacrificing the present for the future. And the future never
comes - whenever it comes it is the present. You again invest it,
again sacrifice it, for the future. You miss.
We are not result-oriented at all. Each moment has its own beauty,
and the beauty is intrinsic. Each moment is an end unto itself, it
is not a means to any other thing. So we are not result-oriented.
And we are not counting who has become enlightened and who has not
become enlightened. Why bother? From the very beginning all beings
are Buddhas.
But there are people who go on counting inside themselves.
Mulla Nasruddin was entertaining a guest. And he was bringing things and then he brought samosas. And he was forcing and forcing - 'Take one more, take one more.' And the guest said, 'I have already taken five, now it is enough.' Nasruddin said, 'Not five, you have taken nine, but who is counting?'
People go on counting deep inside, and they go on saying 'Who is
counting?'
The person is new - Jack Vaught. I can understand his difficulty, he
must be puzzled - who is enlightened? who is not enlightened? So
many enlightened people, is it possible? So many Buddhas? Because in
the West you have been very miserly - you say Jesus is the only
begotten son of God. Has God gone impotent since then? You are so
miserly that only one begotten son. And what has He been doing since
then? Then Nietzsche is right when he says God is dead. Nothing is
happening, He must be dead.
In the East we are not miserly. That's why we can say with joy:
Since the very beginning all beings are Buddhas. Buddhahood is not
something that has to be conferred upon you. That foolishness also
exists in the Christian mind - even a saint has to be recognized by
the church. Even the word 'saint' is ugly, it comes from 'sanction'.
When the church sanctions and declares that 'This man has become a
saint' then that man becomes a saint - as if it is a Ph.D. or D.Lit.
degree. Mm? Some university confers it upon you and then you become
a saint.
Here you can declare yourself enlightened. Nobody will prevent you.
One woman, Oma, goes on informing me, 'I have become enlightened,
Osho.' There is no problem - Oma can become enlightened, everybody
can become enlightened, everybody IS enlightened. But I suspect -
because her continuous effort to inform me creates suspicion. She
needs sanction. Just the other day, Ananda Prem - Oma's disciple -
she wrote a letter to me, that 'Oma says she has become enlightened:
"You can go and ask Osho".' But why ask me? Who am I to declare you
enlightened or not? If I am to declare you enlightened, that will
not be much of an enlightenment. Who am I? If you have become, you
have become. You have always been - that's what I am saying.
Sanction is not needed at all. No order is needed to be issued, no
formal declaration is needed.
And you need not ask. If you ask, you are suspicious about it. If
you have become enlightened you have become enlightened. In the
morning you don't go around the neighbourhood asking: 'Am I awake?'
Otherwise people will think you are mad. You must be asleep!