Nasruddin Hoja
(The Nasreddin stories are
known throughout the Middle East and have touched cultures around the world.
Superficially, most of the Nasreddin stories may be told as jokes or humorous anecdotes.
They are told and retold endlessly in the teahouses and caravanserais of
Asia and can be heard in homes and on the radio. But it is inherent in a
Nasreddin story that it may be understood at many levels. There is the joke,
followed by a moral and usually the little extra which brings the consciousness
of the potential mystic a little further on the way to realization.- OSHO on
Nasruddin Hodja)
Wit, common sense, ingenuousness, ridicule... and the kind of
humor that reflects human psychology, exposes the shortcomings of a society,
criticizes even state and religious affairs yet always settles matters amicably
are the elements which together create a special kind of logic, the Nasreddin
Hodja logic. These features of the stories make the 13th century character
Nasreddin Hodja immortal. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to consider him
one of the main building blocks of folk thought, and his humor, one of the best
in the world.
Nasreddin Hodja stories were spread by word of mouth
over a vast area mainly in the lands under the domain of the Ottoman Empire and
the lands where Turkish was spoken. In certain countries, the Hodja character
was almost his "twin brother" or a "competitor", and it
other countries only the name Nasreddin Hodja was modified in the stories.
Today, Nasreddin Hodja stories are told in a vast geographic area extending
from East Turkmenistan to Hungary and from Southern Siberia to North Africa.
The stories have been translated into many languages.
( ‘Serious things cannot be understood
without
humorous things, nor
opposites without opposites.’
Plato)
[Since not much is
known about Mulla Nasruddin’s biography
and that he is known mostly by his wit
and wisdom and his humorous stories, we had to source it from several articles, in bits and pieces….]
Origins and History
Mulla Nasrudin tales have been passed down for many centuries. It is
thought that the Mulla Nasrudin character is based on a real man who lived in
the 1300s. However, many countries claim to be the origin of the actual Mulla
Nasrudin character and his tales, and it remains uncertain where the man lived
and the stories started.
But whatever the origins of Mulla Nasrudin
are, pinpointing them has become a trivial point. As generations went by, new
stories were added, others were modified, and the character and his tales
spread to broader regions. The types of themes and wisdom in his tales have become
legendary products of a variety of people’s observations and imaginations. And
although most of them depict Nasrudin in an early small village setting, the
tales deal with concepts that have relevance to today’s universe and people.
Today, Mulla Nasrudin stories are told in a
wide variety of regions, and have been translated into many languages. (It can
only be assumed that some regions independently developed a character similar
to Mulla Nasrudin, and the stories have become assimilated together.)
In many regions, Mulla Nasrudin is a major
part of the culture, and is quoted or alluded to frequently in daily life.
Since there are thousands of different Nasrudin stories, one can be found to
fit almost any occasion.
Sufis also use Nasrudin stories frequently as learning and
meditation tools, similar to the way Zen Buddhism practitioners use koans.
Let
us look at a joke and see whether we can both enjoy it and lean something.
I ( not me) heard this one at a party given by
the Afghanistan Society of the School of
Oriental and African Studies at London University. People had been
invited to tell tales, and one young woman stood up and told it:
There was once a philosophy don who had had
little social life. One day he had to
attend a conference and wondered what would happen if he was expected to
talk to a woman.
He asked a friend what he should do.
‘No problem,’ said the friend. ‘Women are
interested in two things: families and
dieting. Mention one or the other and you can have a reasonable
conversation.’
So the academic went to the conference and,
when the time came when he found himself
obliged to talk to a woman, he felt adequately prepared.
‘How is your brother?’ he asked, sure that the
family aspect was bound to start the
conversation correctly.
The woman looked at him oddly. ‘I haven’t got
a brother,’ she said.
‘Well,’ thought the scholar, ‘there is still
the second subject.’ He asked, ‘What do
you think of turnips?’
The woman said, edging away from him, ‘I do
not like them at all.’
The don was not a man of the brain for
nothing, and he was now sure that, with
his philosophical training, he could initiate a really good conversation
on the basis of what had gone before.
‘Tell me,’ he enquired, ‘If you did have a
brother, would you like turnips?’
If you try to think of two things at once, you
lose both; so one should enjoy the joke
before looking for a meaning.
In the case of this one – and of most other
jokes – there are lots of useful meanings to be extracted from the story. Your
immediate reactions can tell you something
about yourself tried the joke on a man who swore that it showed up the
foolishness and shallow thought-patterns
of philosophers. He was delighted to find this in the story, since he had disliked such people for years. In other
words, his reaction told us something
about him. Unfortunately, it did not help him much, since he could not
believe that his opposition to
philosophers was in the nature of a fixation.
Now let us look at the tale as a structure,
and take out individual parts. First, it shows assumptions: the assumptions of
the university man that all he needed was a couple of points and that he would be
sure to be able to use them effectively.
Few
smaller shots ..
”What’s
the best way to teach a girl to swim?” a friend asked Mulla Nasrudin.
”First
you put your left arm around her waist,” said the Mulla. ”Then you gently take
her left hand
and...”
”She’s
my sister,” interrupted the friend.
”oh,
then push her off the dock,” said Nasrudin.”
The Loan Request
Nasrudin struck up a conversation with a stranger.
Ar one point, he asked, “So how’s business?”
“Great,” the other replied.
“Then can I borrow ten dollars?”
“No.
I don’t know you well enough to lend you money,”.
“That’s strange,” replied Nasrudin. “Where
I used to live, people wouldn’t lend me money because they knew me; and now
that I’ve moved here, people won’t lend me money because they don’t know
me!“
Humour is important as
a spiritual technique because it is an eminently practical rather than theoretical tool in helping free the human
mind from conditioned thinking and behaviour.
Humour can produce a
sudden switch-over from one way of looking at things to another by breaking
expectations and mental patterns. The indirect approach of humour “can slip
behind the defences of our usual logic
and pierce the protective armour of conventional thought.”
A sense of humour, or lack of it, is a
reliable guide for distinguishing between real and false spiritual teachers.
“The way to flush people out who keep their inflexibility hidden is to
test whether they can endure humour or
not.”
Traditionally it has
been noted by genuine mystics that the professionals, those who have no
enlightenment but plenty of obsession, can be easily discovered because they
lack a sense of humour. Humour, here, be it noted, is not to be assumed in those who merely giggle a lot, or
those who understand only the
banana-skin variety: indeed, these two forms of behaviour are the types
most often found in pseudo-mystics.
As a shock-applier and tension-releaser and an
indicator of false situations, humour,
certainly to the Sufi in traditional usage, is one of the most effective instruments and diagnostic aids
(People do not know where to look when they are seeking enlightenment.
As a result, it is hardly surprising that they may attach themselves to any
cult, immerse themselves in all manner of theories, believing that they have
the capacity to distinguish the true from the false.
Nasruddin taught this in several ways. On one occasion a neighbour found him down on his knees looking for something.
"What have you lost, Mulla?" - "My key," said Nasrudin. After a few minutes of searching, the other man said, "Where did you drop it?" - "At home." –
"Then why, for heaven′s
sake, are you looking here?" - "There is more light here."
This
is one of the most famous of all Nasrudin tales, used by many Sufis, commenting upon people who seek exotic
sources for enlightenment.)
The Triplets
Nasrudin’s wife was pregnant and due to
give birth any day.
One night, as they both slept, she turned
to him and said, “Husband, the baby is coming.”
And on her saying so, Nasrudin lit a candle
and watched his newborn baby come out.
But minutes later, he watched as yet
another baby come out. And just minutes after that, he watched his wife give
birth to a third child.
Finally,
after seeing three babies ___ , Nasrudin blew out the candle.
“Why did you do that?” asked his wife.
“Well,” said Nasrudin, “while the light was
on, one child was born, and then another, and then another. If I had kept it
on, who knows how many more there would be!“
The Sufi Teaching
Figure Mulla Nasrudin Mulla Nasrudin is a traditional Middle Eastern teaching
figure who personifies the ‘wise idiot’
folk-hero. Mulla Nasrudin is the
classical figure devised by the dervishes partly for the purpose of halting for a moment situations in
which certain states of mind are made
clear. The Nasrudin stories, known throughout the Middle East, constitute one of the strangest achievements in the
history of metaphysics. Superficially,
most of the Nasrudin stories may be used as jokes. They are told and retold endlessly in the teahouses and caravanserais,
in the homes and on the radio waves, of
Asia. But it is inherent in the Nasrudin story that it may be understood at any one of many depths. There is the joke, the
moral – and the little extra which brings
the consciousness of the potential mystic a little further on the way to realization.
Individual “jokes” from the collection have
found their way into almost every
literature in the world, and a certain amount of scholastic attention
has been given them on this account – as
an example of culture drift, or to support arguments in favor of the basic identity of humour
everywhere. But if because of their perennial
humourous appeal the stories have proved their survival power, this is
entirely secondary to the intention of
the corpus, which is to provide a basis for making available the Sufi attitude toward life, and
for making possible the attainment of
Sufic realization and mystical experience.
Man
Searches for Joy
One
day, Nasrudin began talking to a man from another town. The man lamented, “I am
rich, but I am also sad and miserable. I have taken my money and gone traveling
in search of joy-but alas, I have yet to find it.”
As
the man continued speaking, Nasrudin grabbed the man’s bag and ran off with it.
The man chased him, and Nasrudin soon ran out of the man’s sight. He hid behind
a tree, and put the bag in the open road for the man to see.
When
the man caught up, he located the bag, and his facial expression immediately
turned from distress to joy. As the man danced in celebration of finding his
bag, Nasrudin thought to himself, “That’s one way to bring joy to a sad man.”
Run like hell!"
Please, mister, will you ring
that doorbell for me?" asked little Nasrudin.
The gentleman obliged with a
beaming smile.
"Now, sonny, what else
should I do?"
"Run like hell!" said
Nasrudin.
Nobody really knows
who Nasrudin was, where he lived, or when. This is truly in character, for the whole intention is to
provide a figure who cannot really be characterized, and who is timeless. It is the
message, not the man, which is important
to the Sufis. This has not prevented people from providing him with a spurious history, and even a tomb.
Many Sufi tales
concern Mulla (Master) Nasrudin, a kind of Middle Eastern . Everyman who is
sometimes court jester, sometimes cracker-
Not
surprised
barrel philosopher, sometimes village
sage and sometimes buffoon. He combines native shrewdness and insight in a way that helps him see to
the heart of a situation that his more
analytical “betters” cannot. He also illustrates, in exaggerated form,
the kind of fallacious thinking that
hobbles the more sophisticated.
The Mulla is variously referred to as very
stupid, improbably clever, the possessor of mystical secrets. The dervishes use
him as a figure to illustrate, in their teachings, the antics characteristic of
the human mind.
A
little piece
The
doctor was giving some bad news to Mulla Nasrudin about his wife. "This is
a serious case," the doctor said. "I hate to tell you, but your
wife's mind is gone, completely gone."
"Well, I am not surprised," said Nasrudin.
"She has been giving me a little piece of it everyday for fifteen
years."
Not
so dangerous..
"Now that you are married,
Mulla, I suppose you will take out an insurance policy?"
Mulla Nasrudin's friend told him
at work.
"Oh, no," answered
Nasrudin. "I don't think she's going to be so dangerous."
Why artificial ?
Mulla Nasrudin left his young
wife alone on the beach for a few minutes. When he came
back, he saw a crowd of excited
people gathered at the water's edge. "What's the matter?" he asked a
cop.
"They just pulled some dame
out of the water," was the reply.
The Mulla investigated and found
that the rescued party was his wife. "What are you doing to her?" he
cried. "We are giving her artificial respiration," was the answer.
"Artificial, hell," screamed Nasrudin. "Give her the real thing.
I will pay for it."
Some jokes and humorous stories are used as
correctives to help people whose narrow and
single-minded attitudes block higher understanding.
Humorous tales contain valuable structures for
understanding. Their use also helps to
weed out people who lack a sense of humour. Sufis hold that people who have not developed or who have suppressed their
capacity to enjoy humour are, in this
deprived state, also without learning capacity in the Sufi sphere.
Some of the Mulla
Nasrudin stories make fun of self-important people who lack a sense of humour, exposing the superficiality and
triviality which masks as something higher.
You
are the first one
Nasrudin was sitting in the main street of his
own town, fishing. The hook on his line
was hanging into a large pot of water.
The
one who was considered the village’s fool was sitting upon a wall at the side
of the road, fishing inside a bucketful of water.
The village’s learned man came around and asked him, prou
“You fool, how many have bitten today?”
“Not many, Eminence. You are the first one!”
The intention behind a
Mulla Nasrudin story is to apply the elements, experiences and inter actions
contained in the story to one’s own life situation and experience.
Opposition
may in fact operate as the reverse
Mulla Nasrudin tales
often illustrate creative ways of thinking in response to external circum
stances. One story shows how supposed opposition may in fact operate as the
reverse. The principle is given human shape and set in the form of a tale in
the East, in order to illustrate how we see social and psychological forces
having an effect contrary to that
intended by their originators, an effect which can be taken advantage of by the perspicacity of an objective
observer.
I
know that judge
Mulla Nasrudin, the standard joke-figure who
often appears in these stories, is about
to engage in litigation, in this tale. He says to his lawyer: ‘If I sent the
judge 100 gold pieces, what effect would
that have on his ruling in my case?’
The lawyer is horrified. ‘You do that,’ he
says, ‘and he’ll find against you, for
sure – you might even be arrested for attempted bribery!’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Quite sure, I know that judge’.
The case was heard, and the Mulla won.
‘Well’, said the lawyer, ‘you did get justice
after all, you can’t deny that . . .’
‘Mind you,’ said Nasrudin, ‘the gold pieces
also helped . . .’
‘You mean you actually sent the judge money?’
howled the lawyer.
‘Oh yes,’ said Mulla Nasrudin, ‘but, of
course, I sent the gold in the other man’s
name!’
In order to show the usual
ways in which mind works and the prejudices we are not aware of, Nasruddin is
not scared of playing, if necessary, the role of a criminal or a philanthrope,
of a bad lot or a respectable person, of a wise or an idiot, of a clever or a
stupid man. In this way, Mullah Nasruddin embodies the teaching modality used
in the Path of Blame (in Persian, Rahimalamat) of assuming a bad action in
order to teach the pupil how to behave, without explicitly criticize him. The
open criticism, in fact, would immediately mobilize the pupil’s resistance,
preventing his learning. On the contrary, when a person sees someone make or
say something, he will judge him through himself. This is what Rumi defined as
Staying in front of a mirror and saying that it is someone else’s image.
In fact, obtaining insights observing
others’ behaviour is easier, since they are as mirrors. Each person we meet is
a mirror that rotates around us. Observing the others is a way of observing
ourselves and it is easier because we are not involved in it. If you are able
to observe, you will see some of our “defects” and/or some of our qualities
reflected in ourselves, of which we were not directly aware. But, through the
others, we will become aware of them. For example, it is much easier to see
other’s stupidity than ours. But, seeing the other’s stupidity, we would maybe
become aware that it is the same one in which we persist.
An example will give a better idea. In
order to underline the problem of the conceited person, who does not understand
that appearance is not necessarily reality, Nasruddin does not hesitate in
playing the role of the village’s fool. As in the following story:
Donkey’s word
One day, one of Mullah Nasruddin's friend came over
and wanted to borrow his donkey for a day or two. Mullah, knowing his friend,
was not kindly inclined to the request, and came up with the excuse that
someone had already borrowed his donkey.
Just as Mullah uttered these words, his donkey started
braying in his backyard. Hearing the sound, his friend gave him an accusing
look, to which Mullah replied: "I refuse to have any further dealings with
you since you take a donkey's word over mine."
Moral of the
story: Mullah Nasruddin is “Muslims” and Qur’an is “Braying
of the Donkey”. The question is this: who would you believe; the Mullah or the
Braying? Science showed us that the Qur’an has got tons of scientific facts
wrong, yet Muslims keep saying the Qur’an is Miraculous. Abul Kasem has shown
us not long ago, in his Qur’anic contradictions series, so many contradictions
in the Qur’an; its unreal. Yet, Muslims keep saying there is not a single
contradiction in the Qur’an. Who are we going to believe: the Mullah or the
Braying (that braying sounds ugly by the way. That is why it is “recited”)
Humor is important as a spiritual technique
because it is an eminently practical rather than theoretical tool in helping
free the human mind from conditioned thinking and behavior.
A
sense of humor, or lack of it, is a reliable guide for distinguishing between
real and false spiritual teachers. “The way to flush people out who keep their
inflexibility hidden is to test whether they can endure humour or not.”
Traditionally it has been noted by genuine
mystics that the professionals, those
who have no enlightenment but plenty of obsession, can be easily
discovered because they lack a sense of humour. Humour, here, be it noted, is
not to be assumed in those who merely giggle a lot, or those who understand only
the banana-skin variety: indeed, these
two forms of behaviour are the types most
often found in pseudo-mystics.
A victim
A humorous story or joke can reveal, both in
its structure and the reactions of people to it, the typical ways in which
people think and are guided by assumptions and preconceptions.
‘Many a true word is spoken in jest,’ they say
in England. Having said it, people nod sagely. The ones who laugh at a joke
generally think that it would spoil their fun if the other content of the joke
were examined. Those who look for the moral too often lack a sense of humour.
Because of that, they haven’t a well-rounded enough mind to learn, anyway.
This is an interesting peculiarity of the
current culture, so well-established as to deprive hundreds of millions,
perhaps billions, of people of a great deal of knowledge and experience.
Responding to external
circumstances
Mulla
Nasrudin tales often illustrate creative ways of thinking in response to
external circumstances. One story shows how supposed opposition may in fact
operate as the reverse. The principle is given human shape and set in the form
of a tale in the East, in order to illustrate how we see social and
psychological forces having an effect contrary to that intended by their
originators, an effect which can be taken advantage of by the perspicacity of
an objective observer.
How
Nasrudin Created Truth
"Laws
as such do not make people better," said Mulla Nasrudin to the King;
"they must practice certain things, in order to become attuned to inner
truth. This form of truth resembles apparent truth only slightly."
The King
decided that he could, and would, make people observe the truth. He could make
them practice truthfulness.
His city
was entered by a bridge. On this he built a gallows. The following day, when
the gates were opened at dawn, the Captain of the Guard was stationed with a
squad of troops to examine all who entered.
An
announcement was made: "Everyone will be questioned. If he tells the
truth, he will be allowed to enter. If he lies, he will be hanged."
Nasrudin
stepped forward.
"Where
are you going?"
"I
am on my way," said Nasrudin slowly, "to be hanged."
"We
don't believe you!"
"Very
well, if I have told a lie, hang me!"
"But
if we hang you for lying, we will have made what you said come true!"
Osho on Nasruddin
Mechanism of laughter
Try to understand the
mechanism of laughter and how it happens. If I tell a joke, why do you
laugh? What makes you
laugh. What happens? What is the inner mechanism? If I tell a joke
expectation is
created. You start expecting. Your mind starts searching for what the end will
be. And
you cannot conceive
the end.
A joke moves in two
dimensions. First it moves in a logical dimension. You can conceive it. If
the joke goes on
logically to the very end, it will cease to be a joke; there will be no
laughter. So
suddenly the joke takes
a turn and becomes so illogical that you cannot conceive it. And when the
joke takes a turn and
the result becomes illogical; then the expectation, the tension that was
created
in you, suddenly
explodes. You relax. Laughter comes out.
Laughter is the
relaxation. But tension is first needed. A story creates expectation, suspense
and
tension. You start
feeling the crescendo. Now the crescendo will come. Something is going to
happen. Your backbone
is straight like that of a yogi. You have no more thoughts in the mind. The
whole being is just
waiting. All the energy is moving toward the conclusion. Suddenly something
happens which the mind
could not think of. Something absurd happens – something illogical,
irrational. The end is
such that it was impossible for logic to think about it. And you explode.
The whole energy that
had become tense inside you suddenly gets relaxed. Laughter comes out
through this
relaxation.
”Man is bored. Hence
he needs laughter. The more bored, the more laughter he will need.
Otherwise, he cannot
exist.
”Thirdly, it has to be
understood that there are three types of laughter. The first is when you laugh
at someone else. This
is the meanest, the lowest, the most ordinary and vulgar when you laugh at
the expense of somebody
else. This is the violent, the aggressive, the insulting type Deep down this
laughter there is
always a feeling of revenge.
”The second type of
laughter is when you laugh at yourself. This is worth achieving. This is
cultured.
And this man is valuable
who can laugh at himself. He has risen above vulgarity. He has risen above
lowly instincts –
hatred, aggression, violence.
”And the third is the
last – the highest. This is not about anybody – neither the other nor oneself.
The
third is just Cosmic. You
laugh at the whole situation as it is. The whole situation, as it is, is absurd
– no purpose in the
future, no beginning in the beginning. The whole situation of Existence is such
that if you can see
the Whole – such a great infinite vastness moving toward no fixed purpose, no
goal – laughter will
arise. So much is going on without leading anywhere; nobody is there in the
past
to create it; nobody
is there in the end to finish it. Such is whole Cosmos – moving so beautifully,
so
systematically, so
rationally. If you can see this whole Cosmos, then a laughter is inevitable.
This I call a religious mind:
nonserious, playful, innocent—without any struggle.
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