CHAPTER 22. OF THE PRIESTS
They have refined their arguments. They don’t have anything else to do, they only argue. It is better, to PASS THEM BY QUIETLY AND WITH SLEEPING SWORDS. Don’t fight with them. Because you are new, you have not yet experienced the truth – that is the problem. They can disturb you, they can lead you astray. You don’t know the truth, nor do they know the truth, but they know the arguments, sophistry. They can convince your minds for anything they want. All priests belong to the category of the sophists. One of my vice-chancellors was a world-renowned law-expert. He had three offices: one in London, one in New Delhi, one in Peking, and he was running continually from Peking to Delhi, from Delhi to London. He had the biggest cases on his hands – of maharajas, kings, queens – but he was a drunkard. He earned enough money; and when he retired, he donated the whole of the money so that a university could be founded. So he was the founder vice-chancellor of the university that he created. I used to go for a morning walk, and he was the only one whom I used to meet on my morning walks. By and by we became very friendly and very close. One day I was talking about sophistry, and he remembered one of his cases that he had fought in the Privy Council, in London. The case was between the Maharaja of Jaipur and the Maharaja of Udaipur. It was a big case but the night before he drank too much, and in the morning there was still the hang-over. He went to the court. In his drunkenness he forgot completely that he was fighting for the Maharaja of Jaipur. Everybody was astonished because e started criticizing the Maharaja of Jaipur. He gave great arguments, brought all the precedents, all the legal support. Even the judges were looking at each other: What had happened to this man? – he was supposed to fight for the Maharaja of Jaipur. The man who was going to fight for the Maharaja of Udaipur could not believe what is happening: Now what is he going to do? He was so convincing, that at lunch-time, when the court dissolved, his secretary said, ”What are you doing? Are you fighting for the Maharaja of Jaipur or for the Maharaja of Udaipur?” He said, ”I drank too much last night. I do not know for whom I am fighting, for what I am fighting, but I had to say something. Do you think I was on the wrong side?” The secretary said, ”Absolutely wrong – and you have convinced the judges. Even the advocate who is going to argue against you, feels completely lost, because you have done his job already.” He said, ”Do not be worried. So I am for the Maharaja of Jaipur. Just you remain standing by my side and go on pulling my coat, so I don’t forget again. I am still not absolutely out of the influence of the alcohol: I look at the judge and I see two judges and I know – that is my criterion.” In the second half, after lunch, he said to the judge, ”Before lunch I spoke in favour of the Maharaja of Udaipur and against the Maharaja of Jaipur. That was only half my argument. I was preparing the ground. These are the arguments that can be given by the opposing advocate. Now I will begin to destroy all those arguments, because I am here to protect the Maharaja of Jaipur and his interests.” This was a new revelation to everybody and even the judge could not believe that he would be able to contradict what he had established so clearly. But he contradicted it. Now he argued against himself and he won the case. Zarathustra: A God That Can Dance
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Osho