Veeresh asks: Beloved Osho, You have always been an inspiration to me. You give me the courage to continue to do my thing and not compromise in my work, even though I feel like an outcast almost everywhere I go. I need you to say it is okay for me to keep on being a misfit.
It must be Veeresh.
Veeresh, you are not only okay, you are just perfect!
The people who have gathered around me are all misfits in the rotten society. Any intelligent person is bound to be a misfit in a society which is dead, out of date, superstitious, based on belief systems. Only retarded people can be the fit ones. It is fortunate that you are not retarded.
Anybody who fits with me is bound to be a misfit everywhere else.
I have been a misfit my whole life – in my family, in my religion, in my country – and I have enjoyed it all the way, because to be a misfit is to be an individual.
To fit with the existing established order is to lose your individuality.
And that’s your whole world.
The moment you compromise and lose your individuality, you have lost everything. You have committed suicide. The people who are fit in the world are people who have destroyed themselves.
The real misfit is a humble man.
That’s why nobody
can absorb him.
He is free because
he is free of the ego.
Certainly it needs courage, a tremendously strong sense for freedom; otherwise, you cannot stand alone against the whole world. But to stand against the whole world is the beginning of such a great joy, rejoicing and blessing that those who have never been misfits cannot understand it. All the great names in the history of man were just misfits in their society. All the people who have contributed to the happiness of man and the beauty of the earth have been misfits. To be a misfit is a tremendously valuable quality.
Never compromise on any point.
The very compromise is the beginning of your destruction.
I do not mean that you have to be stubborn; if you see something is right, go along with it. But the moment you realize that something is not right, then even if the whole world feels it is right, it is not right for you. And then stick to your position – that will give you stamina, strength, a certain integrity.
My sannyasins are all misfits in the world. […]
And to be a misfit does not mean to be an egoist. If you are an egoist, sooner or later you will compromise. When you find any group of people, any society, any country, which helps you to be more egoistic, you will immediately fit with that society.
The real misfit is a humble man.
That’s why nobody can absorb him.
He is free because he is free of the ego. […]
The people who are obedient, who have no individuality, no freedom of expression, never say no to anything, are always ready to say yes, even against their wills – these are the people who gain much respectability in the world. They become presidents, they become prime ministers, they are honored in every possible way, for the simple reason that they committed suicide. They are no longer living, they are simply fossilized.
Here, people are alive. How can you fit living people into a certain pattern? Every individual is unique.
And why should he fit into another’s mold?
The whole misery of the world can be explained very simply: everybody has been cut, molded, arranged by others without their even bothering to find out what he was supposed to be by nature. They don’t give a chance to existence.
From the very moment the child is born, they start spoiling him – with all good intentions, of course. No parent does it consciously, but he was conditioned in the same way. He repeats the same with his children; he knows nothing else.
Even at the cost
of losing your life,
don’t compromise.
A compromised man
is a castrated man.
A man who dies for his
individuality and freedom
dies with joy,
and all the blessings
of existence are his.
The disobedient child is continuously condemned. The obedient child is, on the other hand, continuously praised. But have you heard of any obedient child having become world-famous in any dimension of creativity? Have you heard of any obedient child who has attained the Nobel prize for anything – literature, peace, science? The obedient child becomes just the common crowd. All that is added to existence is added by the disobedient.
Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the most significant persons of this century, refused to accept the Nobel prize. And when he was asked why, he said, “To accept the Nobel prize is in some way to compromise, is in some way to receive respectability from a society with which I am not in agreement. Perhaps the Nobel prize will weaken me.
“They are so respectful to me – how can I go on fighting against everything they believe in: against their God, against their morality, against their politics?” He said, “Accepting the Nobel prize will be selling myself – that I cannot do.” And he was perfectly right.
So, Veeresh, remember never to compromise, whatsoever the cost.
Even at the cost of losing your life, don’t compromise.
A compromised man is a castrated man.
A man who dies for his individuality and freedom dies with joy, and all the blessings of existence are his.
I have lived continuously as a misfit everywhere, and I have enjoyed it, every inch of it, every drop of it. It is such a beautiful journey, to be just yourself. You go on discovering your being, your potential, and one day this discovery leads you to the ultimate flowering of your being. That ultimate flowering I have called enlightenment. You become luminous.
Why have very few people become enlightened in the world? The question has been asked of me again and again. The reason is very simple: they did not dare to remain misfits, condemned, dishonored, rejected their whole life. That’s why very few people have been individuals, and very few people have reached to the ultimate explosion of their being. There are people who start, but sooner or later they compromise, seeing the dangers of being just yourself. […]
So, Veeresh, no compromise, whatever the consequence. Even if death comes as a result, you will be able to receive death dancingly. Only individuals can receive death dancingly, because only individuals know that there is no death, that it is only a transformation from one form into another form.
The old house has become dilapidated and you enter into a new house. Of course, the old house may think you have died, because you have disappeared. Here you die; and there, immediately, you find a new house, a new form.
Individuals slowly slowly become aware that there is no death. And if they blossom totally, become enlightened, they know it absolutely, with a tremendous relaxation: that they are eternal beings, they are immortal. The whole universe is theirs. They have been here always; they are here now, and they will be here forever. They are an intrinsic part of existence, there is no question of death.
And this is exactly where life should lead you:
To the experience of deathlessness.
Osho, From Death to Deathlessness, Ch 33, Q 1
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