I used to go on my horse

I used to go to many places. Why? There is no why. I just liked to go. I like to be on the go. Do you get it?… on the go. I am a man who has no business here, or there, or anywhere. I am just on the go. Let me say it in other words: I am on the merry-go-round. Now I think you get it.

I used to go on my horse, and seeing those horses in Princess Anne’s wedding procession I could not believe that England could have such beautiful horses. The queen is just homely – I don’t want to say ugly, just out of politeness. And Prince Charles is certainly not a prince; look at his face! You call his type of face princely? Perhaps in England… and the guests! The bigwigs! In particular, the high priest – what do you call him in England?

“The archbishop of Canterbury, Bhagwan.”

Great! Archbishop! A great name for such a dash-dash-dash. Otherwise they will say that because I used such words I cannot be enlightened. But I think everybody in the world will understand what I mean by dash-dash-dash – even the archbishop!

All those people, and I could only love the horses! They were the real people. What joy! What steps! What dance! Just sheer celebration. I immediately remembered my own horse, and those days… their fragrance is there still. I can see the lake, and myself as a child on the horse in the woods. It is strange – although my nose is under this mousetrap I can smell the mangos, the neem trees, the pines, and I can also smell my horse.

It is good that I was not allergic to smell in those days, or, who knows, I may have been allergic but unaware of it. It is a strange coincidence that the year of my enlightenment was also the year of my becoming allergic. Perhaps I was allergic before and just not aware of it. And when I became enlightened, the awareness came. I have dropped the enlightenment now. “Please,” I am telling existence, “drop this allergy so that again I can ride a horse.” That will be a great day, not only for me but for all my sannyasins.

There is only one picture, which they go on publishing all over the world, in which I am riding on a Kashmiri horse. It is just a picture. I was not really riding, but because the photographer wanted me to be photographed on a horse, and I loved the man – the photographer, I mean – I could not say no to him. He had brought the horse and all his equipment, so I said okay. I just sat on the horse, and you can even see from the picture that my smile was not true. It is the smile when a photographer says, “Smile please!” But if I can transcend enlightenment, who knows, I may transcend allergy to horses at least. Then I can have the same kind of world around me:

the lake…
the mountains,
the river…
only I will miss my grandmother.

Devageet, you are not the only Jew here. Remember, you are not in a hurry. I am in the hurry, my bladder is hurting! So please… I always want to have the last word. Devageet, you would have been such a good nagging wife. Really, I mean it! Just find a nice boy and go on honeymoon. Look, you are already thinking that I have released you. Don’t be in such a hurry. Your bladders are not bursting! Now….

That’s good.

This is fabulous! I have just used this word for the first time in my life… just fabulous! I don’t know what it means, but when your bladder is bursting, who cares!

Osho, Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Ch 10 (excerpt)