Osho – A GREAT HASSID MYSTIC, Zusya, was dying. His old aunt was always worried about Zusya because he was not following the traditional Jewish religion . . . she was very much worried about him. She was an old woman with all the old orthodox thoughts. At his deathbed she came and asked Zusya, “Have you made peace with God?”
Zusya opened his eyes and said, “But I have never been in and conflict with him! Why should I make any peace with God? I have never struggled against him. I have lived a life of let-go!”
The old woman could not understand the life of let-go, the life of total surrender to the ultimate, to the whole, flowing with the whole. She again asked, thinking that he had not understood; she said, “Have you made peace with Moses?”
Zusya said, “When I am in front of God, he is not going to ask me, ‘Zusya, why are you not a Moses?’ He will ask me, ‘Zusya, why are you not a Zusya?’ I am not supposed to be Moses, otherwise ke would have made me a Moses! Who was preventing him? He never made another Moses.”
God never repeats. He never sends carbon copies to the world. Mahavira is not repeated, Buddha is not repeated, Christ is not repeated, Mohammed is not repeated, Kabir, Nanak — nobody is ever repeated.
And this is what we all are doing: we are trying to be like Moses or like Mahavira or like Mohammed. Zusya is right, his insight is great. He says, “God will ask me, ‘Why are you not Zusya?’ He has made me Zusya and I have to be myself. That is my responsibility.
To be Moses is not my responsibility; that was Moses’ responsibility and that is something between Moses and God. I have nothing to say about it, nothing to do with it; it is not my concern at all.”
The most essential thing is: you have to be yourself. Don’t be distracted by anybody, by any scripture, by any priest, by any politician. Don’t be distracted. Stick to one thing: “I have to be myself.” Don’t be stubborn. Don’t bother about non-essentials. If the rule is to keep to the left, follow it; it is a non-essential thing.
Whether you keep to the left or whether you keep to the right does not matter; it is just a traffic convenience. In India we keep to the left because of the Britishers, because they had the idea of keeping to the left; the Americans keep to the right. Both are okay; there is nothing essential about it. But one thing is certain, that the traffic has to be managed and one has to decide either left or right — the traffic cannot be left in chaos.
These are non-essentials. Don’t start fighting for them; that is a sheer wastage of energy. But about the essential no compromise should ever be made.