Someone from Japan once sent Mahatma Gandhi
three statues of monkeys.
Gandhi lived his whole life
without understanding their meaning.
Or whatever he understood
was misunderstood.
He even asked those who had sent them—
they too did not know.
You have seen those three monkeys.
In pictures, in statues.
One monkey sits with hands over the eyes.
One with hands over the ears.
One with hands over the mouth.
Gandhi interpreted them
as only Gandhi could.
He said:
The monkey covering the ears means—
do not listen to bad things.
The monkey covering the mouth means—
do not speak bad things.
The monkey covering the eyes means—
do not see bad things.
But a more wrong interpretation
is impossible.
Because the one who decides
not to see bad things
will first have to see them—
otherwise how will he know
that they are bad?
By the time you close your eyes,
you have already seen.
And there is a danger with seeing—
if the eyes see even a little
and then close,
the image begins to appear inside.
That poor monkey
will be in great trouble.
The same with hearing.
To decide not to listen to bad things,
you must first listen.
And once heard,
closing the ears will not help—
the sound will begin to echo within.
No.
This is not the meaning.
The meaning is this:
Do not see—
until seeing inwardly becomes necessary.
Do not listen—
until listening inwardly becomes inevitable.
Do not speak—
until something from within
demands to be spoken.
This has nothing to do with the outside.
But people like Gandhi
understand everything from the outside.
This is an inner matter.
And do not think
these monkeys are meant for monkeys.
In Japan, these statues exist
because it has long been said there
that the human mind
is a monkey.
Those who have understood the mind
have always known this.
Darwin understood very late
that man comes from the monkey.
But those who understand the mind
have always known—
man’s mind itself
is a monkey.
~ Translated from Nirvan Upanishad by Osho (Hindi Discourse), Discourse 1
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