baul -xvii-

But remember...

to be loved by one, and to be needed by millions, is not the same.

Even a single person's love, even a single glance of love is enough. And you can collect millions of people, and they can all look towards you, but that will not be satisfying.

That is what politics is.

And what the politician is trying to do.

-

I have never come across a politician...

whose heart is functioning.

The heart is totally dead. But the need is there to be loved, to be needed, somebody to look to. Where to fulfill it? - he gathers crowds. Through the crowds, he tries somehow to fulfill the love need.

But that crowd does not love him.

That crowd is not bothered by him. That crowd is after its own needs. Because he's in power, he seems to be important. They pay their respects to the chair - and the chairman is deceived.

Once the chairman is not in the chair, they don't bother about him. Have you ever observed that once a politician is out of power, he is simply forgotten? Nobody remembers him.

He may live for thirty or forty years, nobody will know about him. By and by, he will recede into darkness. Only once, when he dies... will there be a small notice in the newspapers, that the ex-president or ex-premier is dead.

-

The man who ruled over Russia before Lenin, Kerensky...

lived for fifty years after it like a small New York grocer, and nobody knew about him.

He was the Prime Minister of Russia, the most important man - the revolution happened, and he was thrown out of power. He escaped. For fifty years he lived. Only when he died, did people become aware that Kerensky had been alive for all those fifty years.

Power cannot fulfill a love need.

You can possess great kingdoms... that will not fulfill your love need. But if you possess óne heart... which throbs in tune with you... thén you are fulfilled.


~osho~
the beloved vol.1
(1977) - ch.9