Seems like I'm becoming an Osho fan.More words of wisdom from Osho...
A great emperor used to go around the town astride his horse every day early in the morning. It was a beautiful and gratifying experience to see how the city was growing continuously, how his capital city was becoming more and more beautiful. He had a dream. He had always wanted to make his city the most beautiful place on earth. Everyday he stopped his horse and watched an old man, who must have been 120-twenty-years old, working in the garden, sowing seeds, watering trees – trees which would take hundreds of years to come to their youth, trees that would live for 4,000 years.
The emperor was puzzled: this man is half in the grave. For whom is he sowing these seeds? He will never be able to see their fruits and their flowers. It is impossible that this man will live to see the outcome of his labour. One day the emperor could not resist his temptation. He jumped down from the horse and asked the old man, "I have been passing by this place every day. The same question keeps arising in my mind every time. Now it has become impossible for me not to interfere with your work, although it will just need a few moments. I want to know: for whom are you sowing these seeds? These trees will grow slowly, become young, flower, blossom and bear fruit, when you will not be here." The old man looked at the emperor and smiled. He said, "If this had been the logic of my forefathers, I would not have been able to get fruits and flowers and this beautiful garden. I am a gardener for generations. My father and my forefathers planted seeds; I have eaten their fruit. What about my children? What about my children's children? Had they also shared your opinion, there would have been no garden.
"And as far as sowing the seeds, when the spring comes, seeing green leaves coming out is such a joy that I completely forget how old I am. I have remained young because I have continued to be creative. Death is compassionate to me because I am keeping pace with existence. You are young but you are asking questions like a man who is dying. The reason is, you are uncreative." The only way to love life is to create more life, to make life more beautiful, more fruitful, more juicy. Don't leave this earth unless you have made it a little better place than when you had found it. And by creating more life you will be transformed, because one who can create life has already become part of godliness.
Excerpted from Reflections on Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, Osho
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