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‌CHAPTER 7

7 April 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Deva means divine, Mudra has many meanings. The most fundamental meaning is gesture, the literal meaning is gesture. God happens in a certain gesture, in a certain state of mind, in a certain state of body when everything is in tune and all is harmonious, when there is no conflict within and no fragmentation either. There is unison and there is great silence. That is called mudra, that gesture of silence. In that gesture God happens. That is the first meaning of mudra.

The second meaning is the seal. Man, and not only man but everything else, has a seal of God, everything has God’s signature. That also is the meaning of mudra, that we are not unsigned, that we are not blank papers. We may know it, we may not, but God’s signature is there in our being. We are part of Him, we are His projection, His message. We live His life and He lives through us. It is not only that we live His life – He lives His life through us; it is an interdependence.

This seal has to be known, recognised, and when one understands that one has the signature of God, one feels accepted. Then this universe is yours, it is your home: you are not an alien, a foreigner, a stranger, you are not an outsider. And that signature can be read... that is the real scripture. It is on each leaf of a tree, it is on the wings of the birds, it is on each ray of the sun, it is in each reflection of the moon. God’s hand is everywhere – invisible, because we are blind; otherwise it becomes visible. That is the second meaning of mudra.

And the third meaning is that which you have imagined... not exactly the same but very close. The third meaning is the Tantra meaning. It is the meeting such as happens when man and woman meet and in deep sexual love, the orgasm happens. In the orgasm the man and woman are both lost, both lose their egos. The man is no more man, the woman is no more woman, they are not separate. For a moment at least, they are one. In that moment they know the glory of oneness, the splendour of oneness. In that moment all fear disappears, all paranoia disappears, all schizophrenia disappears. In that moment there is no neurosis: that moment is the most normal moment of life, as it should

be actually every moment. Hence the attraction of sex – it is not just attraction of sex, something deeper is hidden in it.

So the so-called saints and the mahatmas go on preaching against sex, but nobody listens. Something is there and that is something that is hidden in sex but is beyond sex. It releases oneness, the egos disappear... and that is the first glimpse of mudra – the lowest, but the first.

Actually the same happens on a vast scale with existence – that the individual ego disappears in the universal. That is called mahamudra, the great mudra; that is the meaning you have got in your mind. Mudra means orgasm, the ordinary sexual orgasm between two individuals. Mahamudra, the great mudra, means the orgasm that happens between the individual and the whole. That is samadhi, that is enlightenment, and once that has happened, all has happened. Then there is no more to life. Life has given you all, its infinity, its eternity.

[A sannyasin, returning to the West to work in stained glass, says an exuberant thank you.]

Much more is going to happen – it will continue. And always remember that it is never the end. People settle very early on. They settle at the minimum, while the maximum was possible. That’s why you see so many miserable people in the world. It is just their fault. They didn’t dare enough, they didn’t trust enough; in fact, they had no imagination. They settled with something very ordinary and thought ‘This is all there is to life.’ Life is infinite! You can go on and on, it is an endless exploration.

You never come to the limit because there is none. You never come to a point really where you can say ‘Now this is the end.’ Remember it always, in all dimensions that is so. Wherever you start feeling like stopping and are feeling that this is more than one can expect – this is what love is, this is what meditation is, this is what joy is – remember: much more is possible. Improve upon it. Search, seek, and you will find that something more is always there. That is the way to grow.

People settle very early in their life. And the day you settle is the day of death. After that you never live, because life is in exploration – there is no other life. It is in seeking, searching, waiting, it is in dreaming, hoping. The day one thinks ‘Now things are as I wanted them to be’ one relapses into death. That’s why so many dead people go on living a life which is not really life. To keep it alive one has to be always on the go, one has to be adventurous. Adventure is religion, the greatest adventure is God. You are always reaching, reaching and never really arriving.

Between the potential and the actual there is always a gap, because the potential is infinite and the actual is always finite. What you are doing is never what you can do. You are more than that and you are always more than that. You are more than your acts, than your doings, than your creations – your paintings, your poetry, your sculpture, whatsoever it is; you are always more than that. The creator is always more than the creation; there is the hope of growth. And the creator will always remain more than his creation.

If one remembers this, life has a thrill. It is constantly moving into new breakthroughs, constantly crossing new barriers, new hurdles, reaching to new peaks, to new visions, to new skies and new horizons.

So go on moving, and whenever you can, come back.

[Osho checks the energy of a sannyasin newly arrived.]

This is the right way to say things. Language is very inadequate. There are things which can be said only by energy, because energy is something beyond the mind. It is still unpolluted by the mind, still unconditioned by the society. Energy still belongs to God, the mind belongs to the society, and there is an unbridgeable gap between the mind and the energy. Whenever you are in the energy you are with God and whenever you are in the mind, you are with man.

[A sannyasin says: I feel like I’ve landed on the moon.I think if I knew what the fear was it wouldn’t

be there. A feeling that just that anything can happen.anything!

Osho checks her energy.]

There is great fearand it is unaddressed. There is no cause to it, there is no reason for it. Maybe

that is what is creating fear. When there is a cause for it you know what the cause is, and when there is a cause you can find explanations, you can analyse, you can have something to cling to. But there is a quality of fear – it comes once in a while – for which there is really no cause.

This is what existentialists call ‘angst’, anguish, existential fear – not of this or that but of sheer existence. Because being is constantly surrounded by non-being; being exists in non-being. Being is almost like an island in the ocean of non-being. The being is very tiny and the non-being is vast.

It is just this sheer vastness of non-being, and amidst this non-being, this small being. There is no other reason for fear: that feeling is enough to take the earth below one’s feet. One starts falling into an abyss and because one cannot pinpoint it and say ‘I am afraid of this or that’, more anguish arises, because there is nothing to explain it away.

People go to psychoanalysts not really to be treated but just to find out the reason for their misery. And the psychoanalysis helps immensely, not because it is a cure but only because it supplies explanations. And when the person thinks he knows the explanation he feels very good. Now things are very clear. Now he can verbalise, now he can intellectualise, rationalise.

So this is something which once in a while everybody comes across. And it is good if one can go through it; there is no need to avoid it. If you avoid it, you miss an opportunity. If you can go through it, in the beginning it will look like a breakdown and very dangerous, as if the whole past is disappearing, one is dying. But soon one starts feeling safe, secure – in the very insecurity of it. One relaxes into non-being and all fear disappears. So what looks like a breakdown in the beginning proves to be a breakthrough in the end.

Just go through it and don’t try to find causes. Because the mind will try. The mind will say this or that is the reason why I am getting afraid. There is no reason for it. Simply go into it every night for forty, fifty or sixty minutes. Just silently sitting in the room, allow all non-being to flood your being. Let the island of being disappear into non-being. Become a nothingness. Accept the fear and go into it, and you will come out of it very fresh, very alive, and very fearless.

To be fearless, one has to go through fear and this kind of fear. No other, ordinary kind of fear will do. Mm? there is a fear that your boyfriend may leave you. That is a fear but that is ordinary because

you can find so many other boyfriends; it is not much of a fear. There is fear that you may not have money enough to live, but one can always do something about that. These fears are just very trivial, they are not existential. People live in those fears, that’s why they never become fearless. This is the fear one has to live through.

So don’t try to find any explanation for it; there is none. Just go into it. Watch and go into it as deeply as possible. Go with all fear, but go. Go in spite of all fear. And something beautiful will come out of it, something like a rose flower will be born out of it. Your being will become more and more integrated. If one accepts the challenge of non-being, being integrates. So there is nothing to worry about, mm ? The fear is there and you have to go into it. Good.

[An sannyasin says her children have become unruly, unmanageable, even beating her up.] Just leave them to themselves!...

Simply leave them to themselves, just don’t be too concerned, mm? You are too concerned, that’s why they look anarchic and they look disorderly.…

There is no need to stop, let them have their own way. Simply don’t come in their way. And they will cool down. If you try to stop them they will react. Now it will not be possible and you will become very tense.…

You will not like to hit them, you will not like to punish them. If you punish them you will feel hurt; if you don’t punish them, you feel as if they will be destroyed. Nothing is going to be destroyed. This world has been going perfectly well and all kinds of children are absorbed in it. No problem.

Simply relax. And once they see that you have relaxed utterly, and you are not worried at all what they are doing, they will become very very cool and understanding themselves. The best way to control children is... If you can become a little chaotic, they will become controlled. Jump and dance and sing and they will start thinking ‘What has happened to our mother? (laughter) Is she crazy or something?’ And they will start thinking ‘If neighbours come to know, what will they think?’ They will start controlling you and trying to hush you up!

The best way to control them is this: you do whatsoever you want to do and let them do whatsoever they want to do. And you will be surprised. Even small children – this always happens – if they see that nobody is looking after them and that they even have to look after their mother, they become very very silent and disciplined. They start playing the role of the parents. Somebody has to do it; there is a kind of continuous balancing in life. If you try to discipline them, they will react against it. Teach them to be anarchic and, when guests come, to do whatsoever nuisance they can do. And just watch for four weeks. It will be difficult for you for four weeks but you will be surprised – slowly you will see that they are becoming suspicious of you. Let them come to me to say ‘It is becoming very difficult, how to control our mother?’ Don’t be worried!...

Everything as it is is perfectly good. They are just hippies and nothing else... and India needs a good quantity of hippies!

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