beard

Every child, if left and helped to grow according to his own sensibilities, will bring something beautiful into the world, some unique personality. Right now everybody is a copy of everybody else.

This very vice-chancellor, when for the first time I entered the university, looked at me and asked, "Why are you growing a beard?"

I said, "I am not growing it, it is growing. Don't ask nonsense questions. On the contrary, I can ask why you are cutting your beard."

He said, "Settled. I will not ask anything and you will not ask anything."

I said, "No. You can ask anything, but you have to have the courage to receive the answer. You have to say that you asked a wrong question. I am not growing it, I am not pulling my hairs every day so that they grow; I am not watering them. You are shaving twice a day. My hairs are natural and you are unnecessarily becoming a woman."

He said, "What?"

I said, "It is so easy to understand. Do you think a woman would look good with a beard? The same is true about you--without a beard, you look just like a woman. A little weird, but..."

He said, "I promise never to disturb you, but don't spread these ideas in the university, that I look like a woman, a little weird."

I looked as I wanted. I lived as naturally as I wanted. That has given me a tremendous sense of peace and integrity. There is no regret. There is no complaint against life, only deep gratitude. turnin07

beard

He said, "No, your case will be considered, but I'm becoming curious about something else... you sit down. Would you like to have some coffee or some tea?"
I said, "No, you just first tell me what your curiosity is."
He said, "My curiosity is about your small beard" -- it was just starting to grow -- "Why you are growing a beard and moustache and long hair?"
I said, "You are asking a wrong question. I'M not growing them, they are growing. In fact, I should ask you why you have been shaving your beard and your moustache, because that is a positive act, and you have to be responsible for it and answerable. Nature has not given beards to women -- just think of a woman who starts growing beard and a moustache! And it is not impossible; she just needs a few injections, a few of the hormones that grow the hair of the beard and the moustache."
I said, "Just imagine -- would that woman look like a woman? Could you fall in love with her if, by some magic, you can again be given your youth?"
He said, "My God! A woman with a beard?"
"But," I said, "yours is a similar case; a man without a beard is no different. You have been imitating women."
And there is an unconscious reasoning, because the man feels women are beautiful -- perhaps if he also takes away the beard and the moustache, he may look more beautiful. He's a hundred percent wrong. It is one thing that women go on tolerating, him because it is a man's society and he develops ideas and enforces them on everybody else who is in some way dependent on him. But if women are free to express their feelings, a beard is as natural, a moustache is as natural as your nose. You don't shave it.
Be proud of your qualities. Increase them, refine them because they are the path towards godliness.
---
Osho
Sermons on Stones
Chapter17, 1987