PYTHAGORAS IS THE FIRST EXPERIMENT in creating a synthesis. Twenty-five centuries have
passed since then and nobody else has tried it again. Nobody else before had done it, and nobody
else has done it afterwards either. It needs a mind which is both – scientific and mystic. It is a rare
phenomenon. It happens once in a while.
There have been great mystics – Buddha, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra. And there has been great scientists
– Newton, Edison, Einstein. But to find a man who is at home with both worlds, easily at home, is
very difficult. Pythagoras is that kind of man – a class unto himself. He cannot be categorized by
anybody else.
The synthesis that he tried was needed, particularly in his days, as it is needed today – because the
world is again at the same point. The world moves in a wheel. The Sanskrit word for ’the world’ is
SAMSARA. SAMSARA means the wheel. The wheel is big: one circle is completed in twenty-five
centuries. Twenty-five centuries before Pythagoras, Atlantis committed suicide – out of man’s own
scientific growth. But without wisdom, scientific growth is dangerous. It is putting a sword in the
hands of a child.
Now twenty-five centuries have passed since Pythagoras. Again the world is in a chaos. Again the
wheel has come to the same point – it always comes to the same point. It takes twenty-five centuries
for this moment to happen. After each twenty-five centuries the world comes into a state of great
chaos.
Man becomes uprooted, starts feeling meaningless. All the values of life disappear. A great
darkness surrounds. Sense of direction is lost. One simply feels accidental. There seems to be
no purpose, no significance. Life seems to be just a by-product of chance. It seems existence does
not care for you. It seems there is no life after death. It seems whatsoever you do is futile, routine,
mechanical. All seems to be pointless.
These times of chaos, disorder, can either be a great curse, as it happened in Atlantis, or they can
prove a quantum leap in human growth. It depends on how we use them. It is only in such great
times of chaos that great stars are born.
Pythagoras was not alone. In Greece, Pythagoras and Heraclitus were born. In India, Buddha and
Mahavira and many others. In China, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Confucius, Mencius, Lieh Tzu, and
many more. In Iran, Zarathustra. In the brahmin tradition, many great Upanishadic seers. In the
world of Judaism, Moses.... All these people, these great Masters were born at a certain stage in
human history – twenty-five centuries ago.
Now we are again in a great chaos, and man’s fate will depend on what we do. Either we will
destroy ourselves like the civilization that destroyed itself in Atlantis – the whole world will become
a Hiroshima; we will be drowned in our own knowledge; in our own science we will commit suicide,
a collective suicide. A few, a Noah and a few of his followers, may be saved, or may not be.... Or,
there is a possibility that we can take a quantum leap.
Either man can commit suicide, or man can be reborn. Both doors are open.
If such times can create people like Heraclitus and Lao Tzu and Zarathustra and Pythagoras and
Buddha and Confucius, why can they not create a great humanity? They can. But we go on missing
the opportunity.
The ordinary masses live in such unconsciousness that they can’t see even a few steps ahead. They
are blind. And they are the majority! The coming twenty-five years, the last part of this century, is
going to be of IMMENSE value. If we can create a great momentum in the world for meditation, for
the inward journey, for tranquillity, for stillness, for love, for God... if we can create a space in these
coming twenty-five years for God to happen to many many people, humanity will have a new birth,
a resurrection. A new man will be born.
And once you miss THESE times, then for twenty-five centuries again you will remain the same. A
few people will achieve enlightenment, but it will remain only for a few people. Here and there, once
in a while, a person will become alert and aware and divine. But the greater part of humanity goes
on lagging behind – in darkness, in utter darkness, in absolute misery. The greater part of humanity
goes on living in hell.
But these moments when chaos spreads and man loses his roots in the past, becomes unhinged
from the past, are great moments. If we can learn something from the past history, if we can learn
something from Pythagoras.... People could not use Pythagoras and his understanding, they could
not use his great synthesis, they could not use the doors that he had made available. A single
individual had done something immense, something impossible, but it was not used.
I am trying to do exactly the same again; I feel a very deep spiritual affinity with Pythagoras. I am
also bringing you a synthesis of East and West, of science and religion, of intellect and intuition, of
the male mind and the female mind, of the head and the heart, of the right and the left. I am also
trying in every possible way to create a great harmony, because only that harmony can save. Only
that harmony can give you a new birth.
But there is every possibility that what was done to Pythagoras will be done to me. And there is
every possibility what was done to Pythagoras’ followers will be done to my sannyasins. But still,
even knowing that possibility, the effort has to be made again. Because this is a valuable time. It
comes only once in twenty-five centuries when the wheel can move in a new way, can take a new
direction.
You all have to risk, and you have to risk all that you have. And risk it with great joy! because what
can be more joyous than to give birth to a new man, to become vehicles for a new man, for a new
humanity?
It is going to be painful as every birth is painful. But the pain can be welcomed if you understand
what is going to happen through it. If you can see the child coming out of it, then the pain is no more
pain – just as the mother can accept the pain of the child’s birth. The pain is irrelevant: her heart is
dancing with joy – she is going to give birth to life, she is being creative. She is making this world
more alive; a new child is being born through her. God has used her as a vehicle; her womb has
proved fertile. She is happy, in great joy. She rejoices, although the pain is there on the periphery.
But when this great joy is there, the pain simply functions as a background and makes the joy even
more loud. Remember...
My sannyasins can become an energy womb, an energy field. A great synthesis is happening here.
East and West ARE meeting here. And if we can make this impossible thing happen, man will live in
a totally different way in the future. He will not need to live in the same old hell. Man can live in love,
in peace. Man can live in great friendliness. Man can live a life which is nothing but a celebration.
Man can make this earth divine.
Yes: this very earth can become the paradise and this very body the Buddha.
Osho - Philosophia Perennis, Vol. 1