The day Gautam Buddha became enlightened

The day Gautam Buddha became enlightened, the first question arose in his mind: ”How am I going to say it? And not to say it looks so hard, so inhuman – when there are millions of seekers in the world and you have found what they are seeking, at least give them a few hints, a few guidelines, a little map, a guidebook. Keeping it to yourself and not saying it is very uncompassionate.”

For seven days continuously, he was troubled. This trouble he had never felt before. He had thousands of other troubles; they had all disappeared. Now there was only one trouble, one problem: How to indicate? How to wake up people and shout in their ears so that something reaches their silences?

The story is so beautiful. It is not a story, it is a truth. Beyond this, it becomes a story – but without that story, you will not be able to understand the truth that Gautam Buddha was facing, encountering within himself.

The story is: Gods in heaven became very disturbed. In millions of years... somebody becomes enlightened; it is such a great phenomenon that it should not remain unexpressed. What about those millions of people who are in darkness, in unconsciousness? If the awakened person cannot help them, then who is going to help them? Who is going to show them the other shore, the further shore?

Seven days they waited and they thought Gautam Buddha was not going to speak. So finally they came down with their king, Indra. They touched the feet of Gautam Buddha and asked him not to remain silent. Such a flowering, so rare, should not simply disappear without leaving footprints for others to find the source. Of course all this conversation happened in silence – those were gods from heaven – neither they spoke nor Buddha, but the heart to heart conversation was possible with them.

Gautam Buddha said to them, ”I have been thinking for seven days of all the pros and cons. I don’t see the point of speaking. People are deaf, people are blind. They can hear but they cannot listen. They see and yet they see only the non-essential. So why get into unnecessary trouble?”

But the gods were not so easily convinced.

They went and talked among themselves: ”What to do? because this will be a calamity. A buddha remains silent... and this will be the greatest insult to humanity if Buddha remains silent. It will be the greatest loss to the future, to the coming generations. They will never forgive us. Because only we know that he has arrived, it is our responsibility somehow to persuade him.”

They came to a conclusion – and that conclusion Buddha could not deny. Their argument was very simple: they said, ”You are 99.9 percent right. But have you thought about the few rare souls who may be thirsty, just on the verge, the boundary line and they need just a push? And what is the harm? – you are not going to lose anything. If only a few people can come to the same realization as you, the world will remain in debt to you forever.”

They said, ”You cannot deny that there are a few people in the world who may be just on the verge – but nobody is pushing them, and they are afraid of the unknown. They need someone for whom there is no unknown. His certainty, his authority will help them to take one step. And that’s all – they will be in the same state of consciousness as you are. Don’t deprive us of a few enlightened beings. Humanity is so poor. Make it just a little richer, just a little more beautiful.”

A moment of silence – Buddha closed his eyes and said, ”For those few I will speak, although I cannot speak the whole truth. I cannot speak the most secret but I can speak this much, so that they can move towards the farther star. I can show them the star... my finger. It is not a problem to me. I had not thought about those marginal cases.”  OSHO