And Jesus says, . . . And receive you unto myself; that where I am, where ye may be also.
That is the whole effort of a Master. The Master wants to destroy the disciple so that the disciple also becomes a Master. The Master’s work is complex. First, he persuades you to become a disciple, he “coos” to you, seduces you to become a disciple. Once you are a disciple, he starts killing and destroying you because unless you are destroyed as a disciple you will never become a Master.
And the real Master is one who wants you all to become Masters. That is the goal. Everybody should become an emperor, a king, a queen. The slavery – visible, invisible – has to be completely destroyed. All kinds of imprisonments around you have to be burnt down. Your freedom has to be made utter, ultimate.
And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas saith unto him. Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Thomas is one of the most-loved disciples of Christ, one of the most innocent. The others are a little bit knowledgeable.
When Jesus says And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know, nobody else said anything. They must have kept quiet. Nobody knows where he is going, nobody knows the way which he is going to follow but only the most innocent of them is ready to ask.
Thomas says,
Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
We have never been there.
Thomas was one of the most intimate and closest disciples. When Jesus came to India, Thomas followed him. Indian Christianity is older than any other Christianity in the world. The Indian Church is the oldest Church in the world because Thomas was the first apostle to come to India. Indian Christianity was started by Thomas.
Thomas asks, “We know not where you are going and which way you are going. And how can we know? – we are ignorant.”
The real disciple never pretends to be knowledgeable. If he does not know, he is ready to say he does not know because that is the only way to learn from the Master. The knowledgeable disciples never learn a thing.
I have a few here too. When they ask questions, their questions have a different quality – as if they are asking for the others’ sake. They have no problems of their own. Sometimes they write in their questions too “This is not my question – just for the others’ sake . . . People will be enlightened. Many people have this question in their minds and it will be good if you discuss it. But it is not any personal question!” This is their question, but they cannot even confess that this is their question. “It will help others.” Tricky people.
Once a man came to me and he said, “One of my friends has become impotent. Can you suggest some meditation that can be helpful to him?” I looked at the man, and I went on looking at him. He started trembling and perspiring. He said, “Why are you looking at me so hard?”
I said, “Can’t you send your friend? He can say that one of his friends has become impotent. Can’t you say even that? Have you become so impotent that you cannot even say that a problem has arisen in your being?”
Now he wants to know what can be done, but he does not want to show that the problem is his. Some friend . . . Now he is being diplomatic. Many questions come which are diplomatic: the questioner himself knows already; there is no problem for him. All the other disciples kept quiet, only Thomas asked. And because of these small gestures, Thomas became more and more close, intimate to Jesus.
Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
This statement is of immense importance, and has been tremendously misunderstood by Christians, misinterpreted. This statement has become a protection for the priest, for the dogmatist, for the demagogue. Christians have taken it to mean that nobody ever comes to God unless he comes through Christ – that means Jesus, son of Mariam. Nobody comes to God unless he comes through Jesus. They have meant, or they have interpreted it in such a way, that Christianity becomes the only right religion. All other religions become wrong. All other religions are against God – only Christianity.
Jesus saith unto him, I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
What does he mean? These priests and the missionaries and the Christians who go on converting the whole world to Christianity, are they right? Is their interpretation right? Or has Jesus something else? He has something utterly else.
In the Bhagavad Gita also there is a statement which Hindus go on misinterpreting. Krishna has said to Arjuna . . . And almost the same quality of closeness existed between Arjuna and Krishna as between Jesus and Thomas – the same relationship. And the same flowering had happened, and the same statement had bubbled up out of that relationship. Krishna said to Arjuna: Sarva dharman parityajya mamekam sharanam vraja: Drop all religions, forget about all religions and come to my feet because it is only through me that one reaches to God.
Now Hindus are happy with this statement. Krishna has said so clearly: Forget all religions. Drop all kinds of other religions and hold unto me. Hold to my feet – Mamekam sharanam vraja. Come to my feet; they are the bridges to God – the only bridges.
Both statements happened in the same kind of situation. Arjuna must have been very very close when Krishna said this. And so is the case with Thomas – he must have been very close. Christ must have been showering like flowers on Thomas when he said this. You will need that loving understanding of a Thomas, only then will you be able to understand the meaning of this. You will need that loving intimacy of an Arjuna; only then will you be able to understand the statement of Krishna. Both are the same, both mean the same – and both have been misinterpreted.
The misinterpretation comes from the priest and the politician – those who try to convert religion into organizational, political strategies.
Jesus saith unto him, I AM the Way . . .
I AM . . . That has to be understood. It does not mean Jesus, it simply means the inner consciousness: “I am” – the inner life. This consciousness inside you, which you call “I am,” this “I am” is the only way. If you can understand this “I am,” what it is, what this consciousness is, you have found the way. It has nothing to do with Jesus, it has nothing to do with Krishna. When I say to you “I am the gate” it has nothing to do with me! That I AM is the gate. The gate is within you, the way is within you, the truth is within you. You have to understand who this is calling himself “I am” within you, what this consciousness is, what it consists of.
If you can go into your consciousness, if you can feel, see, realize the nature of your consciousness, that is the way. Meditation is the way – not Christ, not Krishna, nor Mohammed. Who am I? – this question will become the way.
Raman Maharshi is right when he says that only one question is relevant: Who am I? Go on asking this question, let this question become a fire in you. Be aflame with it! Let every cell of your body and your being, and every fiber of your existence pulsate, vibrate with it. And let this question arise from the deepest core: Who am I? And go on asking; don’t accept any answer that is given by the mind. You have been reading the Upanishads, and in the Upanishads, they say “You are God.” And your mind will say “Why are you asking again and again? I know the answer: You are God. And keep quiet!” Or if you are a Christian and have been reading the Bible again and again, you know: The kingdom of God is within you. So, “Who am I?” – “The kingdom of God. Now keep quiet!”
No answer from the head has to be accepted. No answer from the memory has to be accepted. No answer from knowledge has to be accepted. All answers have to be thrown in the whirlwind of the question “Who am I?” A moment comes when all answers have gone and only the question remains, alone like a pillar of fire. You are afire with it! You are just a thirst, a passionate quest: “Who am l?” When the question has burned all the answers, then the question burns itself too, it consumes itself. And once the question has also disappeared, there is silence. That silence is the answer. And that is the door, the gate, the way, the truth.
Please be careful. When Jesus says I AM the way, he means the one who calls himself I AM within you is the way. It has nothing to do with Jesus. Just by holding the feet of Jesus you are not going to go anywhere. Just by praying to Jesus you are not going to go anywhere. Listen to what he is saying.
Each Master throws you back to yourself because ultimately God is hidden in you as much as in the Master. You are carrying your light within yourself. You just have to turn back; you have to look inwards.
I AM the Way, the Truth . . .
Yes. In your very consciousness is the truth. When you become fully conscious you become the full truth. When you are absolutely conscious, it is not that you face truth as an object, you are the truth, it is your subjectivity, it is you. That’s what Upanishads say: Tatwamasi: Thou art that.
. . . and the Life . . .
Three things Jesus says: It is the life – I AM, consciousness, awareness. This is life – the life that you know, the ordinary life. Then the second: I AM the Way – the way that joins the ordinary life with the extraordinary life, the way that joins Adam with Christ, the way that joins body with soul. And the third thing: I AM the Truth. Jesus has said all the three things.
You are that right now because I AM the Life. And you have the way too, hidden behind you, within you: I AM the Way. And you are the ultimate goal too, the destiny. You are the beginning and the middle and the end. You are Adam, Jesus and Christ.
. . . no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
No man has ever entered into God unless he has entered into his consciousness, until he has entered into his “I am”-ness. This is the meaning. This is the meaning of Krishna, and this is the meaning of Christ. This is the meaning of all the Masters. […]
Forget all that Christians have been saying. Those dogmatic assertions are all chauvinistic. Forget what the theologians have put on top of Jesus’s pure statements. Put aside all that has been taught and go directly into these sayings, and meditate. And immense will be the benefit. You will be blessed.
This is one of the greatest stories of human history, of human transformation. How Adam becomes Christ. How unconsciousness becomes luminous. How the ordinary is transformed into the extraordinary. How the worldly becomes suffused with the other-worldly. How matter is transmuted into consciousness.
Enough for today.
-Osho
From I Say Unto You, Vol. 2, Discourse #9
Also see Three Stages of Human Consciousness: Adam, Jesus and Christ.
And Jesus was a Buddha.
Here you can listen to the discourse excerpt I AM is the Way.
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