Greatest Fear of
All
by Osho
 The greatest
fear in the world is of the opinions of others. And the moment you are unafraid
of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises
in your heart, the roar of freedom.
Buddha has actually called it the
lion's roar. When a man reaches an absolutely silent state he roars like a lion.
For the first time he knows what freedom is because now there is no fear of
anybody's opinion. What people say does not matter. Whether they call you a
saint or a sinner is immaterial; your whole and sole judge is God. And by 'God'
a person is not meant at all, God simply means the whole
universe.
It is not a question of having to
face a person; you have to face the trees, the rivers, the mountains, the stars
-- the whole universe. And this is our universe, we are part of it. There is no
need to be afraid of it, there is no need to hide anything from it. In fact,
even if you try you cannot hide. The whole knows it already, the whole knows
more about you than you know.
And the second point is even more
significant; the second is, God has already judged. It is not something that is
going to happen in the future, it has already happened: he has judged. So even
the fear of that judgment withers away. It is not a question of some Judgment
Day at the end. You need not tremble. The judgment day happened on the first
day; the moment he created you he already judged you. He knows you, you are his
creation. If something goes wrong with you he is responsible, not you. If you go
astray he is responsible, not you. How can you be responsible? -- you are not
your own creation. If you paint and something goes wrong you cannot say that the
painting is the cause of it -- the painter is the cause.
So there is no need to be afraid
of the crowd or of some imaginary god at the end of the world asking you what
you have done and what you have not done. He has already judged -- that is
really significant -- it has already happened so you are free. And the moment
one knows that one is totally free to be oneself, life starts having a dynamic
quality to it.
Fear creates fetters, freedom
gives you wings.
FREEDOM GIVES YOU
WINGS
I have been a misfit my whole life
-- in my family, in my religion, in my country -- and I have enjoyed it all the
way, because to be a misfit is to be an individual.
To fit with the existing
established order is to lose your individuality. And that's your whole
world.
The moment you compromise and lose
your individuality, you have lost everything. You have committed suicide. The
people who fit in the world are people who have destroyed
themselves.
Certainly it needs courage, a
tremendously strong sense for freedom; otherwise, you cannot stand alone against
the whole world. But to stand against the whole world is the beginning of such a
great joy, rejoicing and blessing, that those who have never been misfits cannot
understand it.
All the great names in the history
of man were just misfits in their society. All the people who have contributed
to the happiness of man and the beauty of the earth have been misfits. To be a
misfit is a tremendously valuable quality.
Never compromise on any point. The
very compromise is the beginning of your destruction.
I do not mean that you have to be
stubborn; if you see something is right, go along with it. But the moment you
realize that something is not right, then even if the whole world feels it is
right, it is not right for you. And then stick to your position -- that will
give you stamina, strength, a certain integrity.
And to be a misfit does not mean
to be an egoist. If you are an egoist, sooner or later you will compromise. When
you find any group of people, any society, any country, which helps you to be
more egoistic, you will immediately fit with that society. The real misfit is a
humble man, that's why nobody can absorb him. He is free because he is free of
the ego.
My understanding is that only
people of intelligence, individuality, are rejected. The people who are
obedient, who have no individuality, no freedom of expression, never say no to
anything, are always ready to say yes, even against their wills -- these are the
people who gain much respectability in the world. They become presidents, they
become prime ministers, they are honored in every possible way, for the simple
reason that they committed suicide. They are no longer living, they are simply
fossilized. How can you fit living people into a certain pattern? Every
individual is unique -- why should he fit into another's mold?
The whole misery of the world can
be explained very simply: everybody has been cut, molded, arranged by others
without their even bothering to find out what he was supposed to be by nature.
They don't give a chance to existence. From the very moment the child is born,
they start spoiling him -- with all good intentions, of course. No parent does
it consciously, but he was conditioned in the same way. He repeats the same with
his children; he knows nothing else.
The disobedient child is
continuously condemned. The obedient child is, on the other hand, continuously
praised. But have you heard of any obedient child having become world-famous in
any dimension of creativity? Have you heard of any obedient child who has
attained the Nobel prize for anything -- literature, peace, science? The
obedient child becomes just the common crowd.
I have lived continuously as a
misfit everywhere, and I have enjoyed it, every inch of it, every drop of it. It
is such a beautiful journey, to be just yourself.
FREEDOM FROM, FREEDOM
FOR
Never think in terms of being free
from; always think in terms of being free for. And the difference
is vast, tremendously vast. Don't think in terms of from -- think for. Be free
for God, be free for truth, but don't think that you want to be free from the
crowd, free from the church, free from this and that. You may be able to go far
away one day, but you will never be free, never. It is going to be some sort of
suppression.
Why are you so afraid of the
crowd? ... If the pull is there, then your fear simply shows your pull, your
attraction. Wherever you go you will remain dominated by the
crowd.
What I am saying is, just look at
the facts of it -- that there is no need to think in terms of the crowd. Just
think in terms of your being. It can be dropped right now. You cannot be free if
you struggle. You can drop it because there is no point in
struggling.
The crowd is not the problem --
you are the problem. The crowd is not pulling you -- you are being pulled, not
by somebody else but by your own unconscious conditioning. Always remember not
to throw the responsibility somewhere on somebody else, because then you will
never be free of it. Deep down it is your responsibility. Why should one be so
much against the crowd? Poor crowd! Why should you be so much against it? Why do
you carry such a wound?
The crowd cannot do anything
unless you cooperate. So the question is of your cooperation. You can drop the
cooperation just now, just like that. If you put any effort into it, then you
will be in trouble. So do it instantly. It is just on the spur of the moment, of
spontaneous understanding, if you can see the point that if you fight, you will
be fighting a losing battle. In the very fighting you are emphasizing the
crowd.
That's what has happened to
millions of people. Somebody wants to escape from women -- in India they have
done that for centuries. Then they become more and more engrossed in it. They
want to get rid of sex, and their whole mind then becomes sexual; they think
only of sex and nothing else. They fast, and they will not go to sleep; they
will do this and that pranayama and yoga and a thousand and one things --
all nonsense. The more they fight with sex the more they are enforcing it, the
more they are concentrating on it. It becomes so significant, out of all
proportion.
That is what has happened to
Christian monasteries. They became so repressed, just afraid. The same can
happen to you if you become afraid too much of the crowd. The crowd cannot do
anything unless you cooperate, so it is a question of your alertness. Don't
cooperate!
This is my observation: that
whatsoever happens to you, you are responsible. Nobody else is doing it to you.
You wanted it to be done, so it has been done. Somebody exploits you because you
wanted to be exploited. Somebody has put you into a prison because you wanted to
be imprisoned. There must have been a certain search for it. Maybe you used to
call it security. Your names may have been different, your labels may have been
different, but you were hankering to be imprisoned because in a prison one is
safe and there is no insecurity.
But don't fight with the prison
walls. Look inside. Find that hankering for security, and how the crowd can
manipulate you. You must be asking for something from the crowd -- recognition,
honor, respect, respectability. If you ask them, you have to repay them. Then
the crowd says, "Okay, we give you respect, and you give us your freedom." It is
a simple bargain. But the crowd has never done anything to you -- it is
basically you. So get out of your own way!
 This article was excerpted from
Courage:
The Joy of Living Dangerouslyby
Osho.
All rights reserved. Published by St.
Martin's Press, NY.
Info/Order this
book.
About The
Author
This article has been excerpted, with permission, from
"Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously" by Osho, who is one of the
best-known and most provocative spiritual teachers of the twentieth century.
©1999 Osho International Foundation. For more information, visit www.osho.com
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