Mind thinks. Meditation knows.

This is a very fundamental reason why man cannot become meditative or why very few men have dared to become meditative. Our training is of the mind. Our education is for the mind. Our ambitions, our desires, can only be fulfilled by the mind. You can become president of a country, prime minister, not by being meditative but by cultivating a very cunning mind. The whole education is geared by your parents, by your society, so that you can fulfill your desires, your ambitions. You want to become somebody. Meditation can only make you a nobody. 

Who wants to become a nobody?

Everybody wants to go on higher on the ladder of ambitions. People sacrifice their whole life to become somebody. 

Alexander was coming to India. A madness had entered in his mind: he wanted to conquer the whole world. Everybody has a little bit of that kind of madness, but he had the whole chunk. And while he was coming towards India, passing the boundaries of Greece, somebody said to him, ”You have been asking many times about a mystic, a very strange man, Diogenes. He lives nearby. If you want to see him, it is a few minutes’ walk, just by the side of the river.” Diogenes was certainly a very strange kind of man. In fact, if you are a man you are going to be a strange kind of man, because you are going to be something unique. He lived naked... he was one of the most beautiful men possible. But he always used to have a lighted lamp in his hand day or night, it made no difference. Even in the day, in the full light of the sun, he was holding his lamp while walking on the streets. People used to laugh at him, and used to ask him, ”Why are you carrying this lamp, unnecessarily wasting the oil and becoming a laughingstock?” 

And Diogenes used to say, ”I have to keep it, because I am looking for the authentic, real man. I have not come across him yet. I come across people but they are all wearing masks, they are all hypocrites.”

He had a great sense of humor. To me, that is one of the most important qualities of a genuine religious man. While he was dying, he still kept his lamp by his side. Somebody asked Diogenes, ”You are dying. Let us know about the man you were searching for. Your life is ending; have you been successful in finding the authentic man?” 

He was almost on the verge of death, but he opened his eyes and said, ”No, I could not find the authentic man. But I am happy that nobody has stolen my lamp yet because all around there are thieves, criminals, all kinds of robbers, and I am a naked, unprotected man. This gives me great hope: my whole life I carried the lamp and nobody has stolen it yet. This gives me great hope that some day the man will be born whom I have been looking for; perhaps I have come too soon.” And he died.

So many stories about him Alexander had heard and had loved. He said, ”I would like to go.” It was early morning, the sun was rising. Diogenes was lying on the sand on the bank of the river taking a sunbath. Alexander felt a little awkward, because Diogenes was naked. He also felt embarrassed because this was the first time that somebody had continued to lie down in front of him . ”Perhaps  the man does not know who I am.”

So he said, ”Perhaps you are unaware of the person who has come to meet you.” Diogenes laughed. He also used to have a dog. That was his only companion. Asked why he had made a dog a friend, he said, ”Because I could not find a man worth making a friend.” He looked at the dog who was sitting by his side and said, ”Listen to what this stupid man is saying. He is saying I do not know who he is. The fact is, he himself does not know who he is. Now what to do with such idiots? You tell me.”

Shocked... but it was a fact. Still, Alexander tried to make some conversation. He bypassed the insult. He said, ”I am Alexander the Great.”

Diogenes said, ”My God.” And he looked at the dog and said, ”Did you listen?” that was his constant habit, to refer to the dog – ”Did you listen? This man thinks himself the greatest man in the world. And that is a sure sign of an inferiority complex. Only people who suffer from inferiority pretend to be great; the greater the inferiority the more they start projecting themselves higher, bigger, vaster.”

But he said to Alexander, ”What is the point of your coming to me? A poor man, a nobody, whose only possession is a lamp, whose only companion in this whole world is a dog, who lives naked.... For what have you come here?”

Alexander said, ”I have heard many stories about you, and now I can see that all those stories are bound to be real you are a man... certainly strange, but in a way immensely beautiful. I am just going to conquer the world, and I heard you are just residing here. I could not resist the temptation to come and see.”

Diogenes said, ”You have seen me. Now don’t waste time, because life is short and the world is big  you may die before you conquer it. And have you ever considered... if you succeed in conquering this world, what are you going to do next?  because there is no other world than this. You will look simply foolish. And can I ask you, why are you taking so much trouble conquering the world? 

You call me strange, who is just having a beautiful sunbath. And you don’t think yourself strange, stupidly strange, that you are on your way to conquer the world? For what? What will you do when you have conquered the world?”

Alexander said, ”I have never thought about it, to be frank with you. Perhaps I will relax and rest when I have conquered the world.” 

Diogenes turned to the dog and said, ”Do you listen? This man is mad. He is seeing me already resting, relaxing ,without conquering a thing! And he will relax when he has conquered the whole world.”

Alexander felt ashamed. There was truth, so clear, so crystal clear  if you want to rest and relax, you can rest and relax now. Why postpone it for tomorrow? And you are postponing it for an indefinite time. And meanwhile you will have to conquer the whole world, as if conquering the whole world is a necessary step in being relaxed and finding a restful life. 

Alexander said, ”I can understand... I am looking foolish before you. Can I do anything for you? I have really fallen in love with you. I have seen great kings, great generals, but I have never seen such a courageous man as you, who has not even moved, who has not even said ‘Good morning.’ Who has not bothered about me on the contrary, who goes on talking to his dog! I can do anything, because the whole world is in my hands. You just say, and I will do it for you.”

Diogenes said, ”Really? Then just do one thing: stand a little away from me, because you are blocking the sun. I am taking a sunbath, and you don’t understand even simple manners.”

Alexander remembered him continually. All through his journey up to India and back, that man haunted him  that he did not ask for anything. He could have given him the whole world just for the asking, but he asked only that Alexander move a little away because he was preventing the sun from reaching his body.

And as he was leaving, Diogenes had said, ”Just remember two things, as a gift from Diogenes: one, that nobody has ever conquered the world. Something always remains unconquered ; because the world is multi-dimensional; you cannot conquer it in all its dimensions in such a small life. Hence everybody who has gone to conquer the world has died frustrated.

”Secondly, you will never come back home. Because this is how ambition goes on leading you further and further: it goes on telling you, ‘Just a few miles more. A few miles more and you will be attaining the very ambition of your heart.’ And people go on chasing hallucinations, and life goes on slipping through their hands. Just remember these two things as gifts from a poor man, a nobody.” 

Alexander thanked him  although in the cool morning he was perspiring. That man was such...each thing he said would make you perspire even in the cold breeze on a cold morning, because he would hit exactly the wounds that you are hiding.

Alexander never could reach to being the conqueror of the whole world. He could not reach to the very end of India; he could not reach to Japan, to China, to Australia, and of course America was not known. He turned back from Punjab. He was only thirty-three, but the ambition and the continuous struggle to fulfill it had made him so tired and spent, like a used cartridge. He was only thirty-three, at the prime of his youth, but in his inner world he had become old and was ready to die. Somehow,perhaps in death, there would be rest.

And Diogenes’ shadow was always following him: ”You will not be able to conquer the world.” He turned back, and before reaching Athens, his capital just twenty-four hours more....

Sometimes small incidents become so symbolic and so meaningful. Just twenty-four hours more and he would have at least been back in his capital, in his home not in the real home that Diogenes was pointing at, but at least in the house which we all try to make a home.

The home is inside. Outside there are only houses. But he could not even reach the outside house. He died twenty-four hours before reaching Athens.A strange coincidence: the day Alexander died, Diogenes also died. In Greek mythology, like many other mythologies... In Indian mythology the same is the case: before entering the other world you have to pass through a river, the Vaitarani. In Greek mythology also you have to cross a river; that river is the boundary line of this world and that world.

Up to now, whatever I said is historical fact. But after the death of Diogenes and Alexander, this story became prevalent all over Greece. It is very significant. It cannot be historical, but it is very close to truth. It is not factual.

That’s how I make the difference between facts and truth: a thing may be factual, but still untrue; a thing may be non-factual, but still true. A story may be just a myth – not history, but of immense significance because it indicates towards truth. 

It is said that Diogenes died a few minutes after the death of Alexander. They met while crossing the river  Alexander was ahead, Diogenes was coming behind. Hearing the sound Alexander looked back. It was an even more embarrassing encounter than the first one, because at least at that time Alexander was not naked; this time he was also naked.

But people try to rationalize, try to hide their embarrassment. So just to hide his embarrassment he said, ”Hello, Diogenes. Perhaps this may be the first time in the whole history of existence that a great emperor and a naked beggar are crossing the river together.” 

Diogenes said, ”It is, but you are not clear about who is the emperor and who is the beggar. The emperor is behind the beggar. You wasted your life; still you are stubborn! Where is your empire? I have not lost anything because I had nothing, only that lamp. That too I had found by the side of the road  I don’t know to whom it belongs and by the side of the road I have left it. I had gone into the world naked, I am coming from the world naked.”

That’s what Kabir says in one of his songs Jyon ki tyon dhari dinhin chadariya. Kabira jatan se odhi chadariya – ”I have used the clothes of life with such care and such awareness that I have returned to God his gift exactly as it was given to me.”

The whole society your parents, your teachers, your leaders, your priests they all want you to become somebody special, Alexanders. But if you want to be meditative they will all be against you, because meditation means you are turning away from all ambitions

The Osho Upnishad

Osho