Any kind of awareness leads to the ultimate. Now, the awareness can come from any sense out of the five. You can listen to music and it will do…you can listen to anything and it will do. You can see the clouds and the sunsets and the birds flying in the sky and seeing will do. The only point to be remembered is: your mind should not function; your sense should remain unclouded by the mind.

To represent this, the long ears. Now, how to represent in marble the method of listening? This is a beautiful representation. But there are foolish Jaina scholars, just as foolish as the Christians, who think that every tirthankara has such long ears; without such long ears nobody can be a tirthankara. Tirthankara means exactly the same as Buddha or Christ; that is Jaina terminology. Now nobody has such long ears, hence nobody is a tirthankara. This is stupidity, not understanding, not any sympathetic approach. And then it can be criticized very easily.

These so-called believers help the non-believers in fact, because they give them causes to confute, to argue against religion.

My approach is that of a poet, not of a historian.

The second question:

Osho,
I so often come to the point where there is no more sense, worth and meaning in my life. Everything that I start to do leads me to this point. And the rivers and oceans that I know are rivers and oceans of illusions, dreams and fantasies, having nothing to do with Tao.
Please, would you help me to understand all these illusory circles.

Life lived unconsciously cannot have any meaning. In fact, life has no meaning in itself Meaning arises when consciousness arises in you; then life reflects your consciousness, then life becomes a mirror, then life echoes your song, your celebration, your inner music. Hearing those echoes you start feeling significance, meaning, worth.

Living an unconscious life you can go on changing from one work to another; it is not going to help. Maybe for few days when the work is new and there is excitement you may feel good. You may again project your illusions, you may again start expecting: “This time it is going to happen. Maybe it has not happened up to now, but this time it is going to happen.” Again you will be frustrated. Every expectation is bound to bring frustration.