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‌CHAPTER 19

19 April 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Prem means love, Narayana means God – love is God. And all else is just pseudo. All that goes on in the name of religion is just counterfeit... except love. Love is the real phenomenon that transforms. All else is just ritual. The ritual pacifies, consoles, but does not transmute. People need it, it is a kind of tranquilliser. Going through the same ritual, they remain occupied with it. That’s what the ordinary religion is.

Society drives you crazy and the religion somehow keeps you as you are, adjusted. The so-called religion is in the service of society, there is a secret conspiracy. Society does not allow you sanity, it enforces patterns which drive you insane and then from the backdoor religion goes on helping you, consoling you, keeping you quiet, teaching you how to be obedient, teaching you not to rebel, keeping you afraid of hell, keeping you hoping about heaven. It continuously goes on giving you dead rituals, which help, but the help is very temporary.

Love transforms. Love is the only true religion. And it is not a ritual. It is moment-to-moment new, you cannot repeat it. It always goes on renewing itself It never becomes a pattern, it is a flow. And love needs nothing, not even God. But by being loving, one comes to God. Love need not have a belief in God. Love opens the door and one realises that God is. It is not a belief – it becomes an experience. That is the meaning of your name.

Anand means bliss, Deep means light – light of bliss. Misery is dark, bliss is light. Whenever one is in misery one is clouded from everywhere, closed in one’s own dungeon cell. All windows and doors are closed – no light penetrates. One is cut off from the world of light. Bliss is light but light comes only when you are open. The more open you are, the more light enters.

So open all the windows and doors of your being. Don’t hide – come into the open. All is light there and all is delight there. We go on hiding for no real reason but just because we have been taught to

hide. There is no real cause for it. The whole panic is a created panic but once one has learned a certain mechanism it starts functioning autonomously.

People have been taught to hide. They have been taught not to trust. They have been taught that man is naturally bad, that life is naturally dangerous, that unless you keep very alert you are going to be cheated and deceived. If you don’t protect yourself you will be lost. These things have been put into the unconscious from the very childhood. They have become part of our foundation and because of them we go on hiding.

The reality is just the opposite: man is not naturally bad, man is naturally good. Nobody really wants to do bad, and if somebody is doing bad it simply means that he has been a victim of circumstances and situations so he has been forced to do that. No thief is happy to be a thief and no murderer is happy to be a murderer. They have been forced. In fact they are Victims; they have been compelled by the logic of situations. They have been brought up in such a way that their whole being has been poisoned.

Just the other day I was reading about a murderer. When he was going to be killed, photographers and newspapers and media people and the TV and radio all gathered. The murderer started laughing and they asked ‘Why are you laughing ?’ He said ‘If you had come before I may not have murdered! Nobody ever paid any attention to me. But I am happy – at least now you have come. I will not be here but my picture will be in the newspaper and on the TV. People will know that I was here, that I existed.’

He says something of tremendous insight: ‘If you had come earlier I would not have become a murderer.…’ And that’s what psychoanalysis says: if a child is not given attention he is going to become either a criminal or a politician – which is synonymous. He will find ways to attract people’s attention, he will hanker for attention. If he can find legal ways, then he will become a politician. If he cannot find legal ways, if people have already taken those routes and they are too crowded, there is too much competition, he will take to the illegal.

Any politician can become criminal at any moment; if he is not succeeding he becomes criminal. Any criminal can become a politician; if he is succeeding he starts becoming a politician. They are the same people, the same kind of people. And the motivation is simple: they have not been given attention so they know they need people to give to them. If people are loving and pay attention to each other, listen to each other, are careful, all that seems to be so evil will disappear. Man is not naturally bad, man is naturally good. Everybody enjoys doing something good – everybody, without any exception.

So start trusting and start opening. The more you have the experience of people, the more those old ideas will disappear. You will know that people are good, that people are loving. And they are just like you: as you are hiding because of fear of them, they are hiding because of fear of you. This is such a stupid world! They are also doing the same: they are afraid of you – that you may do some harm if they come out. If they are unprotected and vulnerable, who knows what you are going to do to them? You are hiding from them and they are hiding from you. This goes on and on between individuals, between nations, between communities; this goes on and on.

America is afraid of Russia – the same logic; Russia is afraid of America. Both are looking at the other to see if the other is preparing for war. This is a very very strange situation! America goes

on watching what Russia is doing – creating a new bomb, a new device to kill, and immediately America has to create better bombs, better devices to kill. When America produces Russia is afraid and Russia produces. Nobody is there to see that you are both afraid of each other! But this is how the whole of humanity is existing.

Start opening up. This is the meaning of your name. Start opening up and you will start feeling blissful, you will feel great light coming to you. Light and delight are two aspects of the same coin.

Naveeno means the new. Meditate over the new. The mind clings with the old, it always prefers the old. The day you start choosing the new, the mind starts dying. Whenever there is a conflict between the old and the new, always choose the new because the new is life. God is with the new, in the new. The old is just a footprint on the sands of time. God has moved from there. Life is no more there, it is just a memory.

People have become so dead because they go on living with the old and in the old. One can be alive only if one moves constantly with the new. There should not be a single inch’s gap between you and the new. One has to keep step with the new, then life grows, life attains to higher and higher peaks of joy. Life becomes orgasmic. When one starts living the new, worries simply disappear, because worries appear only when you cling to the old and the new is knocking on the door. The worry simply means: you are clinging with something which is no more and you are avoiding that which is. That is worry. You know deep down that it is no more, it is gone and you know deep down that the new has come. But still you want to pretend, you want to deceive yourself. And one can deceive oneself; millions of people are deceiving themselves. But that deception simply destroys all the possibilities of being blissful, of being alive, of being celebrating. One creates great anxiety and a great split.

Your being wants to move with the new and your mind clings with the old; you are torn apart. Just be totally with the new. There is no way to be with the old. Don’t try to do the impossible. Just go on moving slowly, joyously, with the new and never look back; there is no need to.

This is how a sannyasin should live. Then new doors open every day; in fact every moment new revelations arrive. The more capable you become of seeing and understanding the new, the more the new goes on showering. It becomes a flood of joy.

[A sannyasin says he is not sure whether to be a therapist or help his brother on his farm.

Osho tells him: That is far better! Forget about therapy. If you can find a chance to be with trees and plants and the farm animals then forget all about people. Rather than helping people to be sane, you yourself be sane; that will be far better! Whenever anything natural is there as an alternative, never choose anything artificial.]

[A visitor says he has much uncertainty about taking sannyas.]

That is always there when you are taking a decision, it always precedes any vital decision. When you are taking a vital decision to change something, great anxiety precedes it. That’s natural. The anxiety simply says that the old is familiar and the new is unfamiliar – what are you going to do? The mind says ‘Cling to the old’ and the being says ‘Go and explore the new.’ That is the anxiety. It always precedes any great decision. But there is no need to take much note of it. It will disappear

the moment you have taken the decision. It will remain there if you don’t take the decision, it will persist. It will become a torture, it will be an agony, a nightmare. It can be relieved immediately; if you take the decision it is relieved. Then the mind relaxes. It knows ‘Now you have taken the jump there is no point in persisting.’ But you can wait – if you want to torture yourself you can wait a few days more. But it is going to happen. I have decided!

My feeling is: just take the jump and let this anxiety disappear. Why waste energy in anxiety? The same energy can be used for the adventure. And always remember one thing: whenever it is a question of choosing between the old and the new, always choose the new because with the new something is possible. With the old you have lived and nothing has happened, so what is the point in going on repeating it?

Just the other day I was reading a story. The man worked in an office for thirty years. Then the day of his retirement came and the boss gave a party. He spoke, praised the man, but said ‘This man worked one year in our office.’ The man was puzzled, he said ‘What are you saying? I worked thirty years!’ The boss said ‘You worked one year thirty times but not thirty years! You moved round and round but it was the same work. You worked only one year!’

That’s how people go on living – the same rut. Always listen to the call of the new and go with it. Anxiety will be there – go in spite of it. Your whole mind will say ‘Don’t go.’ Go in spite of it.

Something in you which is deeper than the mind, bigger than the mind is ready. It is just the fearful mind that is shaking and is feeling nervous. But still, if you want to feel this anxiety for a few days, you can; that is your choice. I am ready to relieve you this very moment!

What should I do? Mm? Just look at me and...

[The visitor says: I don’t think I’ve ever made a decision before!]

That’s what I feel. So let this decision be your beginning! One has to decide some day or other... and this is a good decision to start with. Then close your eyes and become a sannyasin! Mm? Don’t feel afraid! There is nothing to fear. Look – so many sannyasins! Mm?

If you want to remain in this, you can. Think about it for three more days, but those three days will be such a torture. And I will haunt you!

So wait three days, mm?... or right now? You have never taken any decision, that is true; that’s why it seems so difficult. You have lived like a driftwood... with no direction, with no destination. You have lived just accidentally, that’s why it is so difficult. But any vital decision gives integration to being, makes you centered, gives you a feeling that you are.

So if you cannot say anything, just show me. If you show me three fingers I will understand ‘three days’; if you show one, then right now I make it simple – either one or three! Because if you cannot speak a word, what to do? So either this, or...

Deva means divine, Prem means love – divine love. And that is going to be your path – the path of love. Just get drunk with love. You are not a head type, you can live only through the heart. Up to

now you have lived in the head and that is not natural to you, that is not in tune with your being. So slip down from the head to the heart and start living from there – not in thinking but in feeling. Forget logic, remember love. Become more sensitive and allow all kinds of joys.

Start taking risks, because the heart grows only through risk. The head is a coward, the heart is courageous. It can even go into the mouth of death laughing and singing and dancing. The head is so cowardly that it cannot even go into life dancing, singing and laughing. Even in life it remains so- so, lukewarm, always afraid. It always keeps itself at a distance from everything so that if something goes wrong it can escape. It is the heart that jumps into the centre of things, and in the centre of things is God. It is not on the periphery.

So let this initiation be a shift from the head to the heart.And your anxieties are gone – you will

have a good sleep tonight!

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