Osho on Meher Baba – And these are the two possibilities: whenever enlightenment happens, either a person becomes absolutely silent or he bursts into song. These are the two possibilities. When Meher Baba attained he became silent. Then his whole life he remained silent. When Meera attained she started dancing and singing. These are the two possibilities: either one becomes absolutely silent or one’s whole life becomes a song. Kabir’s life is that of song.But remember, in his song there is silence. And always remember also, in Meher Baba or people like that there is song in their silence. If you listen attentively to Meher Baba’s silence, you will be full of a song, you will feel it showering on you. And if you listen to Kabir silently, you will see that his song is nothing but a message for silence. The madman, if in the hands of enlightened people, can achieve enlightenment faster than your so-called sane people. In the East there has been a longstanding tradition… in this century one man revived it again — his name was Meher Baba. He went all over India seeking and searching for mad people. In all the madhouses, anywhere that he heard there was a madman, he would go. He traveled all over India his whole life, searching for mad people.His disciples asked him, “Why are you wasting your time with mad people when sane people are available to work upon, and they want your time?” Meher Baba said, “You don’t understand. To bring a sane person out of his sanity is very difficult. But to bring out a madman is very easy because in a way he is already out, but from the back door. He has tasted something of the outside; we have only to show him the right door and say, “Please don’t go out from the wrong door, go from the right door. Being out is perfectly right, but choose the right door.” And Meher Baba turned many mad people into enlightened people. It is a strange world. Here, really great things are never rewarded. Nobody has bothered about Meher Baba. Mother Teresa will get a Nobel prize because she looks after poor orphan children, and nobody thought of giving a Nobel prize to Meher Baba who really did a miraculous job — and he was the on]y man, after centuries. Sufis call the madman masta; masta means intoxicated. The madman and the enlightened man both have to pass through a certain stage, that is, getting out of reason, out of their mind. They have to cross the same boundary: by the wrong door or right door, they both cross the same boundary, and while they are crossing the boundary they both become mastas — intoxicated. But the enlightened person soon regains his balance because he has made the effort to get out of the mind; he is prepared to get out of the mind, he is ready to get out of the mind. The madman has got out of his mind unprepared. He was not ready. He has simply fallen out of his mind — it is an accident. Enlightenment is never an accident. One of the greatest works Meher Baba did in his life — he lived just near Poona and he is one of the greatest masters — and never has it been done before: he traveled all over India for years, just making contact with such mad people. Not doing anything else, just doing one thing: moving from one village to another, making contact with such people who have gone mad, who are on a better ground than you but some help is needed — just a push. Just a push so that again rivers become rivers, mountains become mountains; again they achieve a new identity. Just here in this city a few years ago was a man, Meher Baba. He lived more than thirty years in silence. He was announcing every year that he would be speaking. The date would come, his disciples would gather, they would come from faraway lands — and again he would not speak. He could not manage a connection between silence and language. Meher Baba is certainly an enlightened person. But every enlightened person finds himself in different situations. Meher Baba’s situation was very unique, because in the history of Parsees there is no such thing as enlightenment. The Parsees were very angry when he declared that he is God himself, because to Parsees, to Mohammedans, to Christians, this declaration that “I am God” hurts very much. They want their God to remain as far away as possible, so they can go on doing whatsoever they are doing. God standing just there… and you were going to hit your husband with the pillow… it doesn’t look right. But he is standing there — that’s what millions of believers think, that he is everywhere present. So remember: when you are hitting, look around and hit some suspicious place where you think God might be, rather than hitting a poor husband! Meher Baba lived in a strange situation. Parsees were denying him, Jainas and Buddhists would not accept him; Mohammedans, Christians, Jews would deny him because he was saying he is the whole God, what to say about the only begotten son? The only possibility was that a few Hindus may gather around him, and that’s what happened. Finally, only a few Hindus were around him. And as he died, his movement died too. Because he could not manage to be a master. He remained a mystic. He tried, but as a master, he was a failure.
