Osho – These religions go on giving you hope. Hope is the poison; it keeps you dragging, waiting for the moment when the hope, the promise, will be fulfilled.
Christians are waiting for Christ to come back. He said to them again and again, ”I will be coming soon on the clouds of glory, with a divine body, for the salvation of all those who believe in me.” He has not come, and I can say to you categorically: he is not going to come again. What did you do to him when he was here? That experience is enough to prevent him – because I know if he comes back, you will crucify him again. But the hope….
Hindus are hoping, because Krishna has promised – all these prophets go on promising – Krishna has promised that whenever there is misery, whenever there is irreligiousness in the world, whenever virtue disappears, whenever things are not as they should be, ”I will be coming.” For five thousand years everything has been wrong – but there is no sign of his coming back. But Hindus still go on living in hope, still they go on repeating the promise of Krishna, that soon he will be coming. This keeps people unconscious of the reality. It is opium – very subtle, very psychological.
The contented man has been created by this opium: here be contented, and there you will be immensely rewarded for your contentment. Don’t be bothered about the rich and the luxurious. It is just momentary; soon the rich will be suffering in hell. Don’t be jealous of them and don’t be competitive with them. Be contented.
India, perhaps, is the oldest country in the world; its religions are certainly the most ancient religions. But in India not a single revolution has happened, and it has been suffering for thousands of years. Starvation, poverty, sickness – it has been living in a nightmare, but with the opium of hope: that the Hindus are the privileged people of God, and this is only a momentary life. The suffering is just a test of your faith. Once you have passed through the test, all the joys of heaven are yours. That’s why I said I don’t want the contented man. That is false, pseudo, sick, retarded, believing in lies.
I teach contentment. And the basic principle of contentment is to drop your ego. Don’t think for a single moment, ”To be or not to be.” Just not to be is the rule. What have you gained by trying to be? Just for a change try not to be, and you will be amazed. The moment you are not, there is contentment, there is silence, there is beauty, there is bliss. Meditation is only a methodology to make you aware that your only disease is your ego, and your only health is egolessness.
The discontented man is suffering from his ego. He is comparing his ego with others. Somebody is more beautiful than you, somebody is stronger than you. Somebody is richer than you, somebody is more powerful than you. All around there are people who have something which you don’t have. You have to complete against the whole world – by any means, right or wrong, but you have to reach the top.
Sometimes I think of Edmund Hillary standing on the highest mountain, the Himalayan peak, Everest. There is not even space for two persons to stand together. And whenever I think of it, I think of poor Edmund Hillary. He must have looked silly. Now what to do? You have reached the top of the world, but what now? Jump and commit suicide. Whatever you can attain, you will remain discontented.
Napoleon Bonaparte was not a very tall man, he was only five feet five inches. But I don’t see any problem. I am five feet five inches. I have tried to figure out why he was puzzled; I am not puzzled. Even if I were seven feet, my feet would touch the ground. At five-five they still touch the ground, so what is the problem? But Napoleon was very much disturbed, because his soldiers were taller than him, his bodyguards were taller than him. That was giving him a continuous feeling of inferiority. One day it happened, he was trying to put a nail in the wall to hang a picture. His hand was not reaching to the right spot, and his bodyguard said, ”Sir, you need not bother about it, I can do it – I am higher than you.”
Napoleon Bonaparte imprisoned that guard, and told him, ”You used wrong language. You are taller than me, but not higher than me!” That poor guard had unconsciously used a word that touched a deep wound in Bonaparte. Bonaparte had everything, but discontent was there.
There are ordinarily two types of people in the world: the discontented and the repressed discontented. I need the third type of man to evolve: the man who has no ego; hence, he cannot be discontented. Contentment is not something to be practiced. When discontent disappears, you find contentment has always been your nature.
Do you think a small bush is discontented because just by the side of it a tall cedar tree is standing, reaching to the stars? Do you think a small rose bush is discontented? There is no discontent in nature anywhere, except in the mind of man. It has been created by the politicians, by the priests, by the educationalists. Every child is being told to come first.
Source – Osho Book “From the False to the Truth”