Osho on Socrates being poisoned

I am reminded of Socrates. The chief justice, who pronounced the judgment of a death sentence on Socrates by giving him poison - that was the Greek way - called Socrates close to him. Socrates had been arguing for days in the court. Nobody was able to argue with him, for the simple reason that he himself had no position. He never proposed anything - any god that you can discuss, that you can argue against or for. He never proposed anything. So you were in a difficult position: whatever you said, he could contradict it. He was a great genius as far as argumentation was concerned. He contradicted everybody, finished everybody. The chief justice was impressed by him.

But in Greece in those days there were only city states and a very different kind of democracy. The whole city had the right to vote on any decision, and a decision on the fate of Socrates was so important that the whole city gathered. Against his will - the chief justice could see that this man was innocent, and this man was a glory to his land. But fifty-one percent of the people of Athens wanted him to be killed. It was just a question of two percent of the people this way or that way:

forty-nine percent of the people were in favor of Socrates' being released. But that was not the question; the decision depended on the percentage.

The chief justice decided - even though he did not want to do such a thing. Before telling the masses, who had gathered to listen to the judgment, he asked Socrates, "Personally I am not in favor of killing you. I would give you a few alternatives. Of course I have to judge against you, because fifty-one percent of the people of the city are against you. You can go out of Athens; there the law of Athens is no more applicable. You can be just on the boundary, so people can meet you there."

Socrates refused. He said, "I cannot go anywhere else. If Athens, which is the most cultured city in Greece, cannot allow me to live, who is going to allow me to live? There I will be more of a stranger.

Here I have lived my whole life. I have not harmed anybody - but still fifty-one percent of the people are against me, they want me dead. Anywhere else the same thing will happen."

The judge had to agree that that was true. He said, "The second alternative is: you can stop teaching, you can take a vow of silence."

Socrates said, "That is impossible! So many people are stumbling in darkness, and I know the way, and I can show them the way. No, I cannot remain silent, seeing people stumbling in darkness and blindness. I will have to speak."

The judge said, "You are making things impossible for me. Then the only alternative is: you have to be ready, because by the evening you will be given poison."

Socrates said, "That is not much of a problem. One has to die one day; perhaps my day has come. I am ready! I just want you to remember that your name will only be remembered in reference to me; otherwise nobody will ever know that you existed."

And it is true. Nobody would have known who the chief justice was if Socrates had not been poisoned and killed. But Socrates certainly is going to remain in the memories of men as long as human beings are here on this planet