I have told you a story…
When India was divided into two nations, India and Pakistan, a rumor was heard that there was a madhouse just on the boundary. Neither India nor Pakistan was interested to take the madhouse. But something had to be done. It had to go somewhere.
Finally, the chief superintendent of the madhouse called all the mad people and asked them, “Do you want to go to India?”
They said, “No, we are perfectly happy here.”
The superintendent said, “You will be here. Don’t be worried about that. Just tell me – do you want to go to India?”
They all looked at each other and they said, “People think we are mad! Something has gone wrong with our superintendent. If we are going to be here, then the question does not arise of going to India. Why should we go to India?”
The superintendent was in a difficulty how to explain to these insane people. He said, “Then, would you like to go to Pakistan?”
They said, “No, not at all. We are perfectly happy here. Why should we go anywhere?”
He again tried to explain to them that, “You will be here, whether you choose India or Pakistan. You are not going anywhere.”
Then they said, “It seems to be very strange. If we are not going anywhere, then why should we even be asked about it? We are here.”
It was impossible to convince them that it is not a question of physically moving to India or Pakistan. It is a political question: “Under which country, within which boundary do you want to remain?”
Finally it was decided by the officials that the madhouse should also be divided into two parts. One will be in India, one will be in Pakistan. They raised a huge wall, just dividing the whole madhouse in two.
And I have heard that the mad people still climb up on the wall, talk to the people on the other side and say, “We cannot figure it out. We are here, you are here, but you have gone to Pakistan and we have gone to India – just because they have raised this wall. And the strangest thing of all is that they think we are mad.”
It is a mad world. All boundaries are absolute nonsense. Anything that divides man from man is inhuman, uncivilized, uncultured. But nobody asks whether nations are a fiction, and because you never ask, you start believing in the reality of nations. Then arise questions of responsibility towards the nation. You even have to sacrifice your life for the nation, which is a fiction. No such thing exists anywhere, no India, no Germany, no Japan, no America. It is a single planet, one humanity.
– Osho, Sat Chit Anand, Ch 30, Q 1 (excerpt)
ONE TUSK 