All over the world, and in the West more so, people have been taught not to be happy, not to enjoy life, not to be ecstatic. People have been taught that to be happy is somehow to be guilty. People have become deep down very much conditioned: when they feel happy, they almost always feel guilt arising. When they feel sad, everything is good. When they are depressed, nothing is wrong When they are serious, there is no guilt.
Have you watched it? Dancing with a woman, suddenly you feel guilty. Making love to a woman, suddenly you feel guilty. Enjoying your food, suddenly you start looking guilty. Have you watched? Whenever there is happiness something of guilt arises in you. This never happens when you are sad; when you are depressed, when you are carrying a long face, then this never happens. But if you are smiling… people even feel afraid to laugh; they laugh reluctantly, as if they are going to do something wrong. The whole humanity has been conditioned to be unhappy. All happiness has been condemned as sin.
That's why saints are pained as if they never laugh. Christians, in fact, say that Jesus never laughed. This is absurd! If Jesus was an Enlightened man, only he is entitled to laugh. But Christians say he never laughed. Have you ever seen a picture of Jesus laughing? So dead, dull, serious, deathlike.
All Jesus' pictures are falsifications; they cannot be about the real Jesus. This real man must have been totally different, because we know he enjoyed drinking — it is impossible to think of a person who enjoys drinking and not laughing. He enjoyed women — it is difficult to think of a man who enjoys women and not laughing. He was friendly, almost in love, with a prostitute, Mary Magdalene. It is difficult to move with a prostitute — he was not moving with a Catholic monk, not with a priest, not with the Pope… with a prostitute! These were the condemnations against him.
And he was moving with simple people, simple folk — carpenters, farmers — very uneducated people. You cannot expect them to be serious. He was not moving with scholars, with professors, with vice-chancellors — no.
He was moving with very simple people, ordinary people, down-to-earth people. It is impossible to think that he was not laughing. Late in the nights they would enjoy food and drink. He must have been gossiping, he must have been telling jokes.
But Jesus has been depicted as a serious man. And Christians say he never laughed. Then what is the function of an Enlightened man? If Jesus cannot laugh, then who is going to laugh in this world?
OSHO
