PART V



PART V

Teaching and Travelling

1957-1970

Osho is appointed professor at Sanskrit College Raipur

Not all the Masters have been able to express even the one percent; many have remained silent seeing that they have no skill.
When I decided to become a teacher in the university, a few of my friends who were aware of what had happened to me asked me, "What are you going to do?"
I said, "It will be good if I can be a teacher for a few years, it will help me tremendously: it will give me the skill. Now I have something to express, I have something to share, but the skill is needed. The best teacher is one who can help the last person hearing him, the lowest in intelligence, to understand. Of course the best ones will understand easily, but you have to keep aware of those who are not that intelligent."
And humanity, the greater part of humanity, is not intelligent at all. It lives in a very stupid way; it lives in mediocrity. Its consciousness is so much covered with dust and rust that its mirroring quality is completely lost. It cannot reflect anything, it cannot echo anything. Great skill is needed; only then can one percent of the experience be expressed. guida06

When I graduated from the university I immediately went to the education minister of Madhya Pradesh. He was also the chancellor of the University of Sagar, where I had postgraduate degrees in psychology, in religion, in philosophy. Now that same person is the vice-president of India.*
I went directly to him. I told his secretary, "I am going to meet the chancellor of my university, not the education minister, so don't come in between me and the chancellor. He knows me, he has been coming to the university every year for the convocation address. He has even addressed under my presidency the philosophical department of the University of Sagar. He knows me."
He informed the education minister, who called me in. He said, "What is the matter?"
I said, "I have passed from your university, and I have topped the whole university. This is the gold medal. I need a teaching job in any university."
He said, "You qualify absolutely. All the way you have been a first-class first, and finally you have topped the university, so you will get a place. And I know you personally, and I have always loved and respected you. Because you have been presiding over the meetings in the university where I was a guest speaker, I have heard you."
So he looked at my papers, the application, and then he said, "One thing is missing, your character certificate."
I said, "I know it. But do you want me to have a character certificate from someone to whom I cannot give a character certificate?"
He scratched his head. He said, "Perhaps you are right. What about your vice-chancellor? What about your head of the department of philosophy?"
I said, "You know perfectly well my vice-chancellor is a drunkard. Do you want me to get a certificate from a drunkard about my character? I cannot certify my vice-chancellor for his character.
"My head of the department of philosophy has never lived with his wife, has been living with another woman. He keeps his wife and children in Delhi just to avoid them, so that he can have all the women he wants. Do you want me to get a character certificate from him? I know him better; perhaps you don't know him that well."
He said, "It is a difficult problem."
I asked him point-blank, "Do you want to give me a character certificate? Do you think you are qualified? No politician in this country is qualified to give me a character certificate. Either you accept my application without the character certificate, or you refuse it. And I am here and you are asking for a character certificate. Look into my eyes! Look into my face! And do you have any understanding? Then don't ask foolish questions."
He immediately gave me an appointment in a college. I took the appointment order from his hand. He said, "This is not the right way, it has to go through the post."
I said, "When I am going to the college myself, why unnecessarily waste postage stamps?"
He said, "You are a strange fellow."
I said, "That's correct. But to be a strange fellow does not mean a man without character."
So I took the appointment order, and the next day I appeared in the college where he had appointed me. 1seed04 
*Note:1989

I used to live in Raipur. I lived there only for six months just through the mistake of government bureaucracy. I was to be appointed to Jabalpur but some idiot wrote Raipur instead of Jabalpur. And I saw it happen, because I was there, in the capital. So I told the education minister, "Give the letter to me, hand to hand, and I will go immediately. Why bother about sending it by post?--I am here." I looked at the letter--Raipur? But I said, "There is no harm; for a few months let us be in Raipur. I will be absolutely useless there because the college is a Sanskrit college and I have no qualifications for that college. So I will enjoy myself as long as I am there--there is no work for me."
So I went there. The principal said, "But your qualifications are for a philosophy department, and we don't have any philosophy department. This is a Sanskrit college. There is a linguistic department, but you don't have any qualification for it."
I said, "I know. But what to do with bureaucracy? They have given me a holiday, so don't create trouble. They have sent me, and this is given to me directly by the education minister"
When I said "education minister," the principal thought it better to accept me, perhaps I was related to the education minister or something--because never before had anybody come with an order delivered directly. It is the formality that the order go through the post. It was so unusual, unprecedented, that he told me, "Can you wait in the common room, just for a few minutes, and I will call you."
I said, "But remember, I am going to remain here, otherwise I will call the education minister immediately." And I knew what he was going to do. His clerk was in his room and after five minutes he called me.
The principal had phoned the education minister to say, "This order has not reached us by post. Somebody can just arrange a false, bogus order and come. Moreover he is not qualified for this college at all, so what are we to do?"
The education minister said, "First accept him, and then we will see where to send him, because I don't know what has happened. I was not aware that something had gone wrong, so we will see." The clerk told me in the evening that the principal had phoned the education minister to confirm my post.
Next day I gave that principal a good beating; I said, "Now I have to phone him too, to tell him that you are trying to disobey his order. And you deceived me: you told me to sit there, and you phoned the education minister. He is my friend, and if anybody is to go from this college it will be you; you will have to go. I can immediately arrange for you to be transferred through the same bureaucracy who sent me here. I know the clerk who has done this--you will be transferred."
He said, "Don't create trouble. I was just checking to be sure that I am not in trouble later on. You be happily here."
I said, "No more asking from the department!"
So for six months neither the department bothered, nor the principal bothered to do anything. And I was not at all interested in making a fuss about it: it was going perfectly well. I lived in the campus in the Sanskrit college, but for almost the whole day I remained in my quarters. Once in a while sometimes I would go to the library or just chitchat with the professors and come back again. There was nothing else for me to do. person18

Osho writes to a friend:
Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya
Raipur
23 September 1957
Respected Deria ji,
I have come here the day before yesterday. I have been appointed by the State government in Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya (College), Raipur. I had joined the college the day before yesterday itself: the heart was very sad at the time of signing in: a feeling persisted as if the moments of freedom are coming to an end. Teaching in a college feels to be very dead: it does not impart any message of life. In the heart of my heart I know that I am not for all this, but one will have to wait for that moment and the day when one will be able to engage in that work which will truly make my 'I' my 'I'. That day I will become a dwija, the twice-born: I will be born again. 'I' will be truly born. I am incessantly praying for that day.
How is Satya? My love to all. By 5th or 6th October I am reaching home. The rest is all fine. My respects to honourable Lal Saheb and others. What are you doing: write.
Rajneesh Ke Pranam letter04

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