Question : Beloved Osho, Although at the time i looked, felt, and behaved more like a mafia heavy than a meditator, you gave me the name, dhyan vipal. Over two years have passed since i took sannyas, and although some people still say i look like a gangster, i don’t often feel, and very seldom behave like one. Moments of silence and peacefulness have penetrated my tough outward exterior and have become more prolonged and frequent. The longer i spend here with you, the more i see the possibility of really becoming the name you have given me. Do you think it will help if i drop my sunglasses and toothpicks?
Osho : Dhyan Vipal, the first thing: you need not be worried about what the fifty million mosquitoes say. You simply be yourself. If you like your sunglasses, there is no question of dropping them. But if you yourself are feeling that they are unnecessary, or they no longer suit your new individuality that is arising, then certainly you should drop them — but not because of what others say.
Always remember, I am absolutely against any change because of the opinion of the crowd. If you look like a mafia heavy, it is perfectly good. If you look like a gangster, that’s great. I need all kinds of people. I trust in variety. A few mafia guys are certainly needed! So I don’t think you have to drop your sunglasses and toothpicks, because once you drop them somebody else is going to pick them up — here there are many mafia guys. It is better you keep them.
But if you feel that the changes that are happening in you … you may never have thought about it, that when changes in your inner being start happening you want to wear different kinds of clothes, you want to have a different haircut. Because whatever you use — your clothes, your sunglasses, your hats, your shoes — are extensions of your mind. They are not just there by accident, you have chosen them; they show some quality in you.
So if the inner quality changes and suddenly you find that something has become outdated, it no longer fits with you, you have to drop it; but not because others are saying to drop it. Never listen to anybody. All these wise guys who go on advising everybody to do this, do that, these are very dangerous people. Their whole effort is to impose their ideas on others. I am not at all in favor of interfering in anybody’s private affairs.
Now, your sunglasses are absolutely a private affair. You are not doing any harm to anybody. Why should somebody get upset? There are people who will get upset because you are wearing sunglasses; it is their problem if they get upset. Let the whole world be upset, but don’t drop your sunglasses. You don’t know about all these wise guys, what their situation is.
You stick to your own individuality. Yes, if inner changes need outer changes, you have to listen to your inner voice. Always go according to it; that is your guide, and nobody else has the right to interfere in your life.
The pope is working on a crossword puzzle on Sunday afternoon. He stops for a moment, scratches his head, then asks the cardinal, “Can you think of a four-letter word, meaning woman, that ends in u-n-t?”
“Aunt,” replies the cardinal.
“That’s it,” says the pope, blushing. “Have you got an eraser?”
These are the wise guys, who are advising everybody. They are the representatives of God. Particularly the pope is infallible — and still he needs an eraser! Don’t be bothered by anybody. Simply be authentic and true to yourself. It will be something grand to see a mafia guy becoming a Gautam Buddha, with his sunglasses over his eyes, with his toothpicks, looking like a gangster. The world needs … just one variety of Gautam Buddha, one size, one shape is boring.
I am in support of every kind of person — of all sizes and all shapes, of unique personalities, of individualities which have no parallel anywhere — becoming enlightened. But this is possible only if you don’t become a follower, if you don’t become a believer, if you don’t imitate; if you simply listen to your own still, small voice, and without any fear, trusting it courageously, go on moving wherever it leads. Only then will we have in the world different flowerings, with different fragrances, and a world immensely rich.
The crowd hates uniqueness; it likes similarity. It wants you all to be the same. It does not want you to stand alone, separate, a sunlit peak. The crowd hates individuals — I love individuals. And the mind of the crowd has been the most destructive mind. My suggestion to my people is, never be influenced by the crowd. Try to remain aloof, try to remain yourself. Only then is there a possibility that someday your night will come to an end and a new dawn, a new beginning, a new birth, a new ecstasy, a new dance, a new song will overwhelm you.
That new dawn is very close, you just have to remember to be yourself, authentically, sincerely. Up to now mankind has lived as a crowd. From now onwards, if mankind wants to live at all it has to live as individuals, not as crowds.
Source – Osho Book “The New Dawn”