Mystic Mantra: Laughter is more sacred than prayers

First of April is universally celebrated as the day of pranks and jokes to lighten up the atmosphere of seriousness of friendship and relationships. We are living in an era of “fake news” and instant social media circulation, which is not fun but irritation to many people. April Fool day is pure fun which is harmless and should be observed that way.

Osho lovers around the world have chosen this day to be dedicated to Mulla Nasruddin, a Sufi and also one of the oldest figures of Sufi anecdotes. Osho made him alive again by telling thousands of jokes in his name.

Spiritual discourses are often very serious and profound, and majority of people do not find it easy to grasp the essence. The enlightened ones and mystic masters create anecdotes, some times very funny and hilarious, weave them in their discourses, to make the profound  things easy to understand. For Mulla Nasruddin, the world is a cosmic joke — and he himself is part of that. Hindus call this world God's Leela, a divine play.

Down the centuries the religion has been very serious affair for most of the believers. It has been too ritualistic and too grim. Being pious or holy became synonymous with seriousness. Hence, the so-called religion deprived people of their natural innocent laughter. By performing so many rituals people became egoistic, the priests and the religious followers started feeling holier than others. Others who were not doing the routine rituals became condemned as unholy or un-spiritual. So not to be condemned by the so-called holy people the ordinary people started performing their religious affairs just not to feel guilty. This conduct made them hypocrites and serious. The whole affair of religion became heavy and serious and most of the people have been living with that burden on their heart. They forgot to laugh and celebrate.

Osho changed it all. He says: Religion cannot be anything other than a celebration of life. And the serious person becomes handicapped: he creates barriers. He cannot dance, he cannot sing, he cannot celebrate. The very dimension of celebration disappears from his life. He becomes desert-like. And if you are a desert, you can go on thinking and pretending that you are religious but you are not. You may be a sectarian, but not religious. You can be a Christian, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Jain, a Mohammedan, but you cannot be religious. You believe in something, but you don’t know anything. You believe in theories. A man too much burdened by theories becomes serious. A man who is unburdened, has no burden of theories over his being, starts laughing.

According to Osho: Laughter is far more sacred than prayer, because prayer can be done by any stupid person; it does not require much intelligence. And Sufis are very playful; they created Mulla Nasruddin. And Mulla Nasruddin is an alive figure, you can go on adding to him — I go on adding.