The World is Very Close to Its End

Sarjano, you will have to stop your giggling in the heart. This is not a device. There is no time left for any device at all. Your giggling is simply a rationalization: you don’t want to believe that the world is going to end because you don’t want to change. You want me to say to you that this is only a device, so that you can relax – relax in your fixed pattern of life. But I cannot lie to you.

When I use something as a device, I tell you it is a device. But this is not a device either to transform the world through you or to change you through the world. I am simply stating a very sad fact. Your giggling is nothing but an effort to erase the impact which I am trying to create.

Giggle about everything else, but not about your transformation. That giggling is your unconscious trying to deceive you, telling you something or other will happen, so you need not worry.

…it is an urgency
which man has
never faced before

The unconscious does not want to disappear. Your unconscious is nine times more than your conscious; it is nine times more powerful too. And you have to be very alert not to be caught in the powerful unconscious; otherwise, it will close all the doors, all the possibilities, all the potentialities of transformation.

I am in absolute support of your giggling about everything in the world except the transformation that is needed within you. And the problem is that you are very serious about everything in the world, and only non-serious about your own interiority.

During his world tour, the Polack pope arrives in America. When he comes out of the plane, there is a big crowd standing on the runway waving flags, shouting, “Elvis, Elvis!”

The pope looks at them, full of holiness, kisses the ground and says mildly, “My children, look: I am not Elvis, I am the pope.”

He enters the airport hall and notices a mass of people standing there, dancing, waving flags and shouting at him: “Elvis, Elvis!”

A little bit indignant, he blesses the people, and very softly he says, “Oh no, my dear sheep, I am not Elvis, I am the pope.”

Later on, when he finally reaches his hotel, he can’t believe his eyes: in the lobby, hundreds of people are crowded, waving flags, yelling, “Elvis, Elvis!”

A little bit puzzled now, he puts his hands together, makes a cross, smiles as divinely as possible and announces, “No, my beloved little lambs. No, I am not Elvis, I am the pope.”

Centered again, he goes upstairs to his suite, opens the door and suddenly sees two beautiful naked women are lying in his bed, waving little flags, shouting ecstatically at him, “Elvis, Elvis!”

Immediately, jumping out of his clothes, he starts singing, “You ain’t nothing but a hound-dog…”

…this crisis is so big –
perhaps it may help
you to wake up

Your unconscious is always there, so powerful that if it gets any chance – pope or no pope – the unconscious will be the winner. You have to make your consciousness so strong that the unconscious slowly, slowly becomes weaker and finally dies. That’s the meaning of the enlightened man: one whose unconsciousness has disappeared, whose whole being is full of consciousness.

Whatever I am saying, it is my absolutely clear vision that the world is very close to its end. Don’t giggle it away. Don’t find rationalizations; they won’t help.

There is no time to waste in any unconscious consolations. An immediate transformation is absolutely needed; it is an urgency which man has never faced before. In a way, you are unfortunate that soon there will be no future. In another way, you are very fortunate because this crisis is so big – perhaps it may help you to wake up.

Osho, The Hidden Splendor, Ch 14, Q 2