GIVING

FOR                               NO     REASON

BELOVED OSHO

YOU OFTEN SAY, "I WOULD GIVE, BUT ONLY TO THE DESERVING."
THE TREES IN YOUR ORCHARD SAY NOT SO, NOR THE FLOCKS IN YOUR PASTURE.
THEY GIVE THAT THEY MAY LIVE, FOR TO WITHHOLD IS TO PERISH.
SURELY HE WHO IS WORTHY TO RECEIVE HIS DAYS AND HIS NIGHTS IS WORTHY OF ALL ELSE FROM YOU.
AND HE WHO HAS DESERVED TO DRINK FROM THE OCEAN OF LIFE DESERVES TO FILL HIS CUP FROM YOUR LITTLE STREAM.
AND WHAT DESERT GREATER SHALL THERE BE, THAN THAT WHICH LIES IN THE COURAGE AND THE CONFIDENCE, NAY THE CHARITY, OF RECEIVING?
AND WHO ARE YOU THAT MEN SHOULD REND THEIR BOSOM AND UNVEIL THEIR PRIDE, THAT YOU MAY SEE THEIR WORTH NAKED AND THEIR PRIDE UNABASHED?
SEE FIRST THAT YOU YOURSELF DESERVE TO BE A GIVER, AND AN INSTRUMENT OF GIVING.
FOR IN TRUTH IT IS LIFE THAT GIVES UNTO LIFE -- WHILE YOU, WHO DEEM YOURSELF A GIVER, ARE BUT A WITNESS.
AND YOU RECEIVERS -- AND YOU ARE ALL RECEIVERS -- ASSUME NO WEIGHT OF GRATITUDE, LEST YOU LAY A YOKE UPON YOURSELF AND UPON HIM WHO GIVES.
RATHER RISE TOGETHER WITH THE GIVER ON HIS GIFTS AS ON WINGS;
FOR TO BE OVERMINDFUL OF YOUR DEBT IS TO DOUBT HIS GENEROSITY WHO HAS THE FREEHEARTED EARTH FOR MOTHER, AND GOD FOR FATHER.

All the religions of the world teach charity, service, giving. But look at the world they have created -- there is neither any charity nor any service nor any giving. They have used beautiful words, but their beautiful words are like the words of a blind man who is talking about light. His words may be beautiful but they don't carry any truth.

Almustafa is giving you one of the most important secrets of transforming your life. He says:

YOU OFTEN SAY, "I WOULD GIVE, BUT ONLY TO THE DESERVING."

This is what all the religions have been teaching. The Buddhist scriptures are full of teachings that you should give only to the Buddhists because they are the deserving. And the brahmin scriptures are full, teaching everybody to give and share and serve -- not those who need, who are starving, who are dying -- but give to the brahmins because they deserve it. They have all misled humanity; hence this mess all over the world.

Almustafa is bringing you something of a very original insight -- fresh, unpolluted. It cannot be a borrowed truth because there is no scripture in the world from which it can be borrowed. It is a heartfelt experience.

THE TREES IN YOUR ORCHARD SAY NOT SO, NOR THE FLOCKS IN YOUR PASTURE.

They simply give out of their abundance. If a tree is heavy with fruits, even if there is no one to take those fruits the tree is going to return them to the earth. It cannot go on living so heavily laden, burdened with abundance.

Give out of your abundance.

THEY GIVE THAT THEY MAY LIVE, FOR TO WITHHOLD IS TO PERISH.

Life is a constant movement. Whenever the flow stops, there is death. All full stops belong to death; life is unaware of any full stop.

The really authentic religious person gives because he has; he gives because if he does not give it, it will perish, and with its perishing he will also perish. The religious person shares. It is not an obligation to anybody. On the contrary, the person who receives is obliging you because he has saved you from a burden that could have killed you.

THEY GIVE THAT THEY MAY LIVE, FOR TO WITHHOLD IS TO PERISH.

Look into your own experience. The moments of giving are the most pleasant moments. The greatest joy comes to those who can give without any distinctions. The question is not to whom you are giving, the question is that you are so full, your giving is your overflowing. And overflowing is the dance of life, the song of existence.

Cling to it, hold it and it is going to die. It needs a continuous movement to live, just like your breathing. Try to hold it, out of fear -- who knows whether it will come back or not? -- and you will be committing suicide. Because you go on giving your breath... and it is a giving, whether you are aware of it or not. And the more you give, the fuller is your giving, the healthier you are, the younger you are.

It is a well-known fact that ordinarily we breathe very superficially. We have almost six thousand small openings in our lungs, but it is very rare that anybody breathes with his full lungs. The healthiest person you know breathes only through two thousand small openings. But the other four thousand openings remain without any oxygen -- which is your life. That's why exercise, or running, or jogging, or swimming helps you -- because you breathe deeply. But before you can breathe, you have to empty your lungs of all carbon dioxide that goes on collecting. If your lungs become full of carbon dioxide, you are dead.

The trees around you here also breathe, but they breathe carbon dioxide. So when you breathe out, you are giving to the trees. They need carbon dioxide -- without you, they will die. And they exhale oxygen -- without them, you cannot live. But in his blindness, man goes on cutting trees, not knowing that he is cutting his own life.

I have observed minutely all kinds of people. The miser breathes the shallowest. He clings even to the carbon dioxide which is his death. But we have made up strange things, strange ideas of humanity, and because they have been repeated so often you have forgotten completely to question them.

Do you know that not a single case in the whole history of man has happened that a man has died by heart attack while making love? It cannot be just coincidence. People are having heart attacks in all kinds of situations. The one situation in which the heart attack does not happen is while you are making love. And the simple reason is, while you are making love you start breathing more fully, more deeply. You are giving, and in your giving is your life.

Do not be worried about whether the person deserves it or not. That is the question and the concern of the miser.

I have observed people who are not misers. They will not have heart attacks. Your whole life is an organic unity. Whatever you do, it reflects your whole personality in all directions.

Almustafa is right:

SURELY HE WHO IS WORTHY TO RECEIVE HIS DAYS AND HIS NIGHTS IS WORTHY OF ALL ELSE FROM YOU.

If existence is willing to give that person life, you cannot give him a cup of tea? If existence is ready to keep him alive for seventy, eighty or more years; if existence never thinks of whether he deserves it or not, what are you giving that you are so much concerned about? In fact, you don't want to give. You want some excuse: "I am not giving, not because I am a miser -- I am not giving because there is nobody who deserves."

AND HE WHO HAS DESERVED TO DRINK FROM THE OCEAN OF LIFE DESERVES TO FILL HIS CUP FROM YOUR LITTLE STREAM.

But the brahmin scriptures say, "Give only to the brahmins. Then it is charity, then it is virtuous." They never say, "Give to the sudras, the untouchables." In fact, they need. But according to the ugly classification of Hinduism, they don't deserve.

And we are so blind that we never see that the real person who deserves is the one who needs. He may be a thief, he may be a murderer -- who are you to judge? In your very judgment, you have shown your inhumanity.

I have heard that in a master's small cottage far away from the town, one fullmoon night a thief entered.

The master was awake. He had only one thing, a blanket -- half he used as his mattress and half to cover himself. In the day, he used the same blanket to cover his nakedness because he had no other clothes.

Seeing the man in the fullmoon night -- because the doors were open, the windows were open and the moon was coming in.... The thief was well known. The master closed his eyes, because to keep your eyes open... if the thief knows it, it is disrespectful to his humanity. If he has come miles from the town to steal from a poor master's house, he must be in great need.

He wept. He covered himself under the blanket... "What will he find in my house? He will have to go eight miles again empty-handed. If he had just informed me two or three days before, I could have begged all over the town, collected something for him. This is not the right way to come to a poor man's house." He is not concerned that he is a thief. He is concerned that he has nothing that the man can steal and be satisfied.

Inside the house there was darkness, and the master was worried -- he may stumble, fall, may get hurt. So he lit a candle and went inside, following the thief.

The thief looked back: suddenly the light had come into the darkness, and as he saw the master, he was frozen with fear. "If this man says a single word, the whole town is going to believe him."

But the master said, "Don't be afraid. I have come just to help you. Inside the house it is very dark. Moreover, for thirty years I have lived in this house and I have not found anything. Just accept me as a partner: whatever we find, we can divide it fifty-fifty. Or, if you want to keep it all, that too is okay because I have not been able to find anything. It is yours; you are the finder."

The heart of the thief was touched. He had heard the word "compassion" but now he came to know it for the first time in his life. No condemnation, no judgment. On the contrary, he was going to help him to steal from his own house.

The thief said, "Just forgive me, master. I was unaware that it was your house; otherwise, I would not have dared to enter."

The master said, "But you cannot go empty-handed, and I have only this blanket. Outside it is too cold. Please, accept this blanket."

He gave his blanket and the thief was amazed that he was naked inside -- that was all he possessed. The thief tried to persuaded him....

The master said, "Don't wound me any more. Next time when you come just let me know in advance; I will make arrangements, and if you need a certain thing you can mention that too. There are so many lovers in this town, so many disciples and devotees, I assure you. I am ashamed because my blanket is old. It is not worth giving to anyone... but just see my helplessness and be kind enough to accept it. I will remain grateful to you for my whole life."

The thief was in a dilemma: what to do? He had never seen such a man. He touched the feet of the master, took the blanket -- because now it was too difficult to refuse -- and rushed out of the home, because it was getting too hard to remain in his presence. He had seen emperors and he had seen generals but he had never seen a human being.

As he was going out, the master said, "Remember, don't forget. You have made me so happy. For my whole life, I have been a beggar. I have never known the joy of giving. You have turned me from a beggar into an emperor by receiving my old and rotten blanket. Your heart is large, your understanding is deep. Come again and again."

As the thief left, the master was sitting, shivering. It was so cold... and he saw the full moon from his window and he wrote a small haiku which means:

Why has the existence made me so poor?

Only this moment, encountering the thief

I have felt my poverty. If I could give him this beautiful moon, I would have given it also.

The question is not whether the person to whom you are giving something deserves it or not. The question is whether he needs it or not. Give to him out of love; give out of respect. Don't destroy anybody's dignity.

AND WHAT DESERT GREATER SHALL THERE BE THAN THAT WHICH LIES IN THE COURAGE AND THE CONFIDENCE, NAY THE CHARITY, OF RECEIVING?

This is simply a virgin statement. Nobody -- no Krishna, no Buddha, no Jesus -- has ever been able to assert such a deep truth: ...the charity of receiving. They have all been talking about the charity of giving.

Feel obliged to those who receive from you. Look at their courage and confidence -- they could have refused. Look at their charity. They have allowed you to shower on them just like a cloud which is heavy with rain. And when there is a cloud heavy with rainwater and showers, do you think it goes all around finding who deserves it? Does it rain more in the brahmin's field and less in the poor sudra's field? It is unconcerned. It is simply grateful to the thirsty earth that receives it with joy. And all over, the joy comes into green foliage, flowers with fragrance. Suddenly the dry land is no longer dry -- it is full of juice and full of life.

But still, the thirsty land has done a charitable act: it has unburdened a cloud. It has freed the cloud -- now it can move more easily in any direction the wind is blowing.

But no religion has ever thought about it. In fact, the religions have been concerned with the money and power that can come from rich people. They were really trying to persuade the rich to give... but in such a roundabout way.

Reading a Buddhist scripture on charity, I was amazed at how cunning is the mind of people you think are religious. I don't think those words have been uttered by Gautam Buddha himself, because they were compiled after his death. And he had been speaking for forty-two years continuously, so there are so many schools -- exactly thirty-two schools -- with different scriptures saying that "This has been asserted by Buddha." Now there is no way to decide.

But reading... first it talks about the beauty of charity, the virtue of charity, the reward that you will get in the other world if you are charitable. And in the end it says, "But remember, give only to those who deserve." And it defines who the people are who deserve. The definition is such that only a Buddhist monk will fit into it. Give to a bhikku, the Buddhist monk -- he is not saying exactly to the Buddhist monk, but he gives a definition which is applicable only to a Buddhist monk.

And the same is true about Hindus and about Mohammedans and about Christians. But none of them has really thought about the charity of receiving, because they were not concerned about themselves; they were concerned about the money -- how to get it, how to allure people to donate, how to convince them that whatever they are giving is a good business, because they will be receiving much more in the other life.

Here, Almustafa rises to the highest consciousness possible.

AND WHO ARE YOU THAT MEN SHOULD REND THEIR BOSOM AND UNVEIL THEIR PRIDE, THAT YOU MAY SEE THEIR WORTH NAKED AND THEIR PRIDE UNABASHED?

Who are you? You are giving something mundane -- money, bread, clothes, shelter for the night.

It happened once that I was traveling from one village to another village. There were no railway trains in that area, and my chauffeur was new, and there were two towns with very similar names. So he got into the wrong town in the middle of the night. It was a Mohammedan town. I wanted just to rest for the night.
The first question was, "Are you a Mohammedan?"
I said, "Is it necessary to be a Mohammedan? I will only be sleeping under the shelter of your house."
They said, "If you are a Mohammedan, you are welcome. If you are not a Mohammedan, we are sorry" -- because that is what their preachers have been telling them.
Hilariously, my chauffeur was a Mohammedan, so he said, "In the next house, you are not to speak at all. You look perfectly like a Mohammedan, there is no problem. You just don't speak and I will manage. I will say, `My master, my boss, is in silence."'
I said, "Try it." It worked! I received all their hospitality, even more because I was keeping silence. But in the morning when we were leaving, I said, "It will only be right to make you aware that I am not a Mohammedan and I'm not keeping silence. Of course, my chauffeur is a Mohammedan."
They were really angry and annoyed. The whole town gathered. My chauffeur said, "What trouble are you creating? It was just a question of two minutes more. If you had kept silent, they all would have welcomed you and thought a great saint, a sage had blessed their house, their town."
I said, "But it was not true. I agreed with you because I was feeling too tired and sleepy."
But things became too hot. My chauffeur said, "You have to do something, because these are all fanatics." Anybody who belongs to an organized religion is a bigot and a fanatic because his basic understanding is that only his religion is right and all other religions are wrong. He may say so, he may not say so.
Seeing the situation -- and I had to reach a certain place in time, and the joke had gone already too far -- I laughed and said, "You people are so simple and innocent. Can't you recognize a Mohammedan when you see one?"
They said, "We can see, you look like a Mohammedan."
And I said, "As for my silence, this was my last night of silence. That's why I'm speaking now."
And they all laughed and they all hugged me and they said, "Whenever you want, you are welcome. Whenever you pass along this route, all houses are open for you."

WHO ARE YOU THAT MEN SHOULD REND THEIR BOSOM AND UNVEIL THEIR PRIDE, THAT YOU MAY SEE THEIR WORTH NAKED AND THEIR PRIDE UNABASHED?

Is this an act of charity? This is not charity. Charity imposes no conditions, charity knows no conditions. Charity simply gives and feels grateful that you received, that you did not reject.
SEE FIRST THAT YOU YOURSELF DESERVE TO BE A GIVER
-- that should be your concern: are you worthy of giving? --
AND AN INSTRUMENT OF GIVING.
FOR IN TRUTH IT IS LIFE THAT GIVES UNTO LIFE -- WHILE YOU, WHO DEEM YOURSELF A GIVER, ARE BUT A WITNESS.
Can you find something more beautiful ever asserted? Life gives to life, while you are unnecessarily fulfilling your ego that you are the giver. How can you be the giver? You had come naked without anything, and you will leave this world naked and without anything. And just in between these two nakednesses, you become a possessor, a giver.
Everything belongs to existence.
One who understands, sees himself as only an instrument through whom life gives to life. And he is just a witness.
...
But that will record for the coming humanity that all these politicians are the enemies of democracy, freedom, humanity -- of the birth of a new man.
AND YOU RECEIVERS -- AND YOU ARE ALL RECEIVERS -- ASSUME NO WEIGHT  OF GRATITUDE....
Almustafa is continuously showering as many beautiful roses on you as possible.
AND YOU RECEIVERS -- AND YOU ARE ALL RECEIVERS,
because we have all received life. We are all receiving life-giving air every moment. We are receiving from the fruits, life; from the water, life. We are all receivers. Don't get into the egoist idea that "I am a giver." The moment you think in terms that you are a giver, you burden the person to whom you are giving. You humiliate him, it is really a very subtle insult. And he will continue to carry the burden that he's grateful to you.
ASSUME NO WEIGHT OF GRATITUDE, LEST YOU LAY A YOKE UPON YOURSELF AND UPON HIM WHO GIVES.
RATHER RISE TOGETHER WITH THE GIVER OF HIS GIFTS AS ON WINGS;
FOR TO BE OVERMINDFUL OF YOUR DEBTS IS TO DOUBT HIS GENEROSITY WHO HAS THE FREE-HEARTED EARTH FOR MOTHER, AND GOD FOR FATHER.
There is no need for anyone to feel that "I am the giver" and there is no need for anyone to be grateful to the person. It is life that gives. You are both the wings of the same bird. Rise high together, don't be separate as giver and receiver.
It is something to be continuously remembered: share, and forget all about it. The giver has to forget, the receiver has to forget. Both should be grateful towards life because it is life which gives.
To life, you are only a witness.
I would like to add only one thing which Almustafa has forgotten. The receiver is also a witness, not only the giver. They are both witnessing the tremendous drama of existence and life.
If it can happen that there is no giver and no receiver, but only a life moving continuously between two shores of the ocean, then you are tasting for the first time something of what I call godliness.

Okay, Vimal?

Yes, Osho.

From: The Messiah, vol. 1