News Release
New Delhi, April 1 2002
Mulla Nasrudin, the laughing Sufi mystic popularized by Osho in his discourses celebrated Osho World’s second birthday – no, Mirthday! – in a rip-roarious manner on April Fools Day renamed as Mulla Nasrudin Day.
Well-known humourous poet Surendra Sharma led a jam-packed Osho World Galleria in Ansal Plaza into a laughter safari for more than an hour. The chuckles turned into full-throated laughter and then into uncontrollable guffaws as he related tantalizing jokes about the perils of matrimony. The event stared off by Osho setting the stage with Mulla jokes in his inimitable style. Later, a noted TV Producer-Director Col. Raj Kapoor a.k.a. Swami Raj Bharti also contributed some choice anecdotes to keep the laughing momentum that will be maintained in the ensuring Mulla Nasurdin Week up to 7 April.
At 6 p.m. every evening until Sunday, Osho World Galleria in New Delhi’s Ansal Plaza will be rocking with laughter, as Osholovers will share rip-roaring jokes of the Mulla. A favourite of Osho in his discourses, these Mulla jokes with a deep spiritual message will also be related on tape by Osho. It will all add up to an hour of uninhibited laughing meditation that has proved so popular at the Galleria.
But who is this Mulla Nasrudin? Replies, Osho, “Born in Iran, Nasrudin is a Sufi mystic, a little crazy, but always tremendously wise.
“To be Mulla Nasrudin means two things: Be foolish in your wisdom and be wise in your foolishness. It is a very great contradiction. Be wise in your foolishness and be foolish in your wisdom. You should be aware of the fact that Mulla Nasrudin is a Sufi device. It is to make you clear that life is wise in its foolishness. And when you try to be wise you become a fool. The greatest wise people are like fools. And the greatest foolish people are those who pretend that they are wise. If you have to choose, choose the fool and you will become wise. Don’t choose to pretend wisdom, otherwise you will become a fool.”
Explains Osho, “Mulla Nasrudin is a simple man with utter purity — every act in his life is full of wisdom, but on the surface looks a little crazy. He belongs to the same category as Bodhidharma, as Mahakashyap. But he is a little more eccentric than any of them. Who has recognized Mulla Nasrudin? Very few people. Who has recognized Mahakashyap suddenly laughing? Only Gautama Buddha. Ten thousand monks were present but nobody could understand this eccentric behavior. But it was arising out of the empty heart, from a clarity of vision. Only another man of the same clarity can understand it. The Japanese awakened soul Hotei has been called the laughing Buddha. For what is he laughing? — his whole teaching was laughing.”
Osho concludes, “Buddha’s message in short is: Be a light unto yourself. And mine? Be a joke unto yourself! Being a joke unto yourself, you will be a bliss for everyone.”
Swami Chaitanya Keerti
