18 Love\'s the cosmic cosmetic

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‌CHAPTER 18

Love’s the cosmic cosmetic

18 October 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Anand means bliss, madhura means wine: bliss wine. And I sell it!... Now you are lost somewhere deep. It is good; there is no need to understand.You are intoxicated with me, you are drunk, so

how can you understand? But later on you will understand, mm? – there is no hurry. Good!

Deva means divine, neehara means nebulous, the nebula out of which the whole existence has arisen, the state of formless energy. When the universe was not yet solid, when everything was vaporous like a cloud, it was immensely potential. It was pregnant with the whole universe but nothing had taken shape yet. That state is called ‘neehara’. Then forms arise out of that nothingness; out of this potential the actual world arises, becomes solid, concrete, defined. Then everything becomes separate, has a name and a form and a shape. In that beginning there was no name, no form, no shape; the bible says there was only darkness. In darkness shapes disappear. In the night, you don’t know what is what. You cannot figure out where this tree ends and where it begins and where the rock isIn darkness forms disappear again.

The bible is true when it says, ’In the beginning there was darkness, and god said, “Let there be light.”’With the light, form arises, so in the morning again things start becoming defined, distinct, separate. When you fall asleep your form disappears; then you are nobody. A king may be sleeping by your side, a beggar may be sleeping by your side, but all three of you disappear. Nobody is a king, nobody is a beggar, nobody is rich, nobody is poor, nobody is beautiful, nobody is ugly. In that deep sleep forms disappear again.

Neehara is the beginning and the end of the world. And I would like you to create this state inside you – a psychological darkness, a psychological formlessness, a psychological chaos. It was chaos;

the cosmos came out of it. The chaos was pregnant with the cosmos, but it was not a cosmos; there was no order. It was utter freedom.

To go into that freedom again is to become a buddha... to lose the idea of who you are, to lose your identity, to lose yourself and your centre, and again fall into that primal innocence. And that’s my whole work here.

Sannyas is just a beginning of that journey which will take all that you have from you. All that you can claim as yours will be taken away, all that you think is your identity will be destroyed, given to fire. And then the formless eternity remains – and that is really you!

[A sannyasin newly returned says he feels very empty. That’s very good! says Osho... that’s really great! Just let me see your emptiness – and checks his energy.]

Close your eyes and go into it and whatsoever happens, even if you feel like dying and the body falls, you allow. Don’t be afraid – I am here – you just go in. I will take care: go in and let it happen!

Good! Come back; this will do for the time being. Very good! Drop all fear of it and it will become a full emptiness – full of itself. Emptiness turns into fullness if you accept it, if you welcome it, if you receive it with reverence. If you don’t receive it – if you are a little bit frightened, scared – it remains empty, it remains negative. To turn the negative into positive is the whole alchemy of turning the baser metal into gold. Emptiness is a baser metal. In itself it is not of much value; it is just empty. But if you welcome it with great love, respect, if you embrace it, suddenly the quality of it changes. Through your acceptance it becomes a positive emptiness. Then it is no more empty... it is full of itself. It has a kind of fullness, overflowing... and that’s what god is!

So you have to go into it again and again, and many times it will be coming. It will hang around you, it will knock at your doors, so receive it; it is a guest. Love it! There is nothing more valuable than it. If you can transform it into fullness, then there is nothing more to be done. But people go on missing. Sometimes it comes – they miss because they become afraid, they become antagonistic to it. They start holding themselves, controlling themselves. Remember, control has to be avoided now. Control creates conflict. You and the emptiness function as enemies, and then there is conflict. In that conflict much energy is dissipated, unnecessarily... and it is very valuable energy, very precious energy.

It is a great opportunity knocking on your door. If you become afraid, you close and lock the door and escape inside somewhere and hide under a bed, you will miss it. It may not knock again. It may knock again after many years or many lives... one never knows. You are just very close to something that can prove a transformation. You can miss, and the way to miss is to remain in fear. In fear one starts controlling; in control one becomes antagonistic.

It has to be loved. Emptiness has to become your beloved. You have to lose yourself in it and it has to lose itself in you. Let there be a deep orgasm with this emptiness, let it be a love affair. Soon you will see that the emptiness is no more empty: it is full! It is the fullest experience that is possible to human consciousness.

[A sannyasin says: I feel I’m burning.I feel it now.

Osho checks her energy.]

Yes, it is there, mm? but it is something that is going to help you immensely. It is energy arising; when it arises for the first time it feels like burning. Soon it will settle and you will feel very very cool.

Do a few groups here, mm? It will settle; it is nothing to be worried about.

This energy is beautiful energy. It will settle; soon it will become light. Fire can burn and fire can also become light; both are its possibilities. It is your inner fire. For the first time it is starting to move. Soon it will be absorbed by the system, will become adjusted, and then you will feel a kind of light rather than a burning sensation. That light is very cool, like moonlight.

After the groups remind me again how you are feeling about this sensation, mm? Good... good!

[Osho initiates a seeker and asks: Have you ever become aware of a white spot on your throat? Have you seen it? She replies: Yes... I wasn’t aware it was on my throat – I just see a white spot.]

Yes, it is exactly on the throat centre. The whole energy comes there and stops. It is good that it comes up to there. That is the fifth centre; only two are above it. Once the energy is released from the throat centre you will simply not be on the earth, mm? You will simply start flying into the sky! It is rarely so prominent as this is.

You have a very very vibrant energy but it has to be released from the throat. Chanting will be of immense help – chanting and swaying.

Prem means love, mantra means chanting. Let chanting be your love, and let love be your chanting. You can sing anything that you like, even gibberish will do. The real point is not what content your chanting has, the real point is that the heart starts flowing in chanting. You can innovate things and there is no need to do a formal chanting. Just sitting silently, swaying, chant anything that comes to you... any absurd noise, meaningless. Listen to the moment and let it come from the heart.

That will be far more helpful than a formal chanting – aum, ram, allah – because each moment the need is different. If you do formal chanting, sometimes it will help; sometimes it may not help. Sometimes it can be even a hindrance, because one never knows what is the need exactly at this moment. Nobody can decide what sound will help at this moment. That’s why I am not in much favour of people like maharishi mahesh yogi who go on giving a word, a mantra, for your whole life. That is foolish. That is as if you give a medicine to a person and you tell him that this medicine will do for his whole life. This time maybe this medicine is helpful – he is ill in a certain way – but tomorrow he may not be ill and the day after tomorrow another illness may be there. The mind is very complex and it goes on changing like the climate, like the weather. Something is helpful this moment, next moment it can become a hindrance.

So people who give mantras for your whole life are dangerous people. Even if they can decide what your need is at this moment, it cannot be decided forever. There is no way to decide it. You will change tomorrow, you will change after one month, one year; you will be a different person. After a few years it will be almost impossible for you to think that you were some other kind of person. But it is going on continuously: the body is changing, the mind is changing. Scientists say that in seven

years the whole body changes; each single cell is new. The body is very slow, the mind is very fast; it changes every moment. So my idea of chanting is a spontaneous chanting.

Yes, sometimes you feel like ‘allah’; go into allah. It is a beautiful word, but there is no need to become addicted to it. Sometimes you feel to say ‘ram’ or ‘aum’, or sometimes you can create just your own.… With words, with any sound. That which appeals in that moment just listen to and go into it. Just ‘ah... ah...’ will do; anything will do. It has to come from you. Not something to be imposed from a pattern taken in the past; it has to come in the moment. And sometimes nothing may come... just sway. Sometimes something inner may happen so that the chanting may not come outside but will be inside, like a vibe trembling there.

That is the meaning of mantra. A mantra has to be a spontaneous feeling. Needs change and mantras change. And nobody can decide; only the person can decide in that moment. The decision has to be a heart decision, because the heart is always in the present.

And it will be possible... within three weeks you will be able to get the knack of it, and every day you will find new words, new sounds arising in you. The whole point is to go into them totally. When you chant ‘allah’ then chant it totally. Be drunk with it, be lost in it. Let the chanting remain – you are no more there; the chanter disappears into chanting. Then even a single minute’s chanting will give you such joy, and such energy will be released from the throat.

This chakra in yoga is called ‘visudha’ – the throat chakra. Visudha means purity; this is where energy is purified. This is where energy is mutated, because beyond this is the sixth centre, the third eye, called the ‘ajna chakra’ in yoga. When the energy moves from the visudha to the third eye it has become pure. There is a kind of dynamo in the throat that changes the quality of the energy... makes it more refined, more subtle, more delicate, more soft... makes it possible for the higher chakra to absorb it.

It is like crude oil and refined petrol; it is like diesel and petrol. Diesel is crude, unrefined, and out of the diesel comes a refined petrol, and then the petrol can be refined even more and it becomes white petrol. It is just like that. Up to the throat centre, visudha, the energy remains crude, primitive. From there it is refined; then it becomes possible for the higher centre to eat it. The higher centre can only eat a very refined energy, and this is so in all of nature.

You eat a fruit from the tree. In the fruit is vitamin C; you cannot absorb vitamin C directly from the sunrays. The tree absorbs it first, transforms it and makes it possible for you to digest it. The tree goes on eating the earth. You cannot eat the earth but it is the same earth that you are eating in a fruit. The tree has transformed the energy; now it is ready for you. It is refined; your body can absorb it. That’s why in the east we have been against eating meat for a certain reason.

It is so low that through that energy you cannot move upwards. It is very crude, and it is out of violence. The east became vegetarian for a certain reason. It has nothing to do with vegetarianism, mm? – it has something to do with the inner work of the energy. The trees make it the most refined. Animal food, animal meat, even milk, is not so refined.

And this visudha chakra functions as the refinery. Once energy is released, the sixth centre, the ajna, starts absorbing it. And when it has been absorbed by the sixth only then can it move to the

seventh. And on the seventh it becomes your flowering. That’s why the seventh is called ‘sahastrar’ – the one-thousand-petalled lotus; there is nothing beyond it. Energy is there and a great amount is there. So let chanting be your path. Here also we have a chanting group; join that too. Join the music group, do sufi dancing. Anything with dance, music, sound, will be helpful.

Prem means love, lavanya means beauty. And remember love is the only beauty there is. When you love you are beautiful. When you don’t love the beauty disappears; when you hate you become ugly.

Everybody wants to be beautiful but very few people try to be loving, hence very few people in the world are beautiful. And have you watched one thing? – each child is born beautiful. It is very difficult to find an ugly child... all children are beautiful. Then where do they disappear to? – in the desert of life somewhere. It is very rare to find a beautiful grown-up person. Somehow beauty disappears, ugliness settles. The day mind becomes cunning and is no more loving, ugliness starts. Remember that!

Be as loving as possible, to the maximum, and then you will see that your capacity to love is growing every day. If you love at the maximum you go on expanding: your maximum limit becomes bigger and bigger and bigger. And it can go on increasing, it can go on expanding; it can become as big as the universe itself. And when it has become that big, then there is benediction. That is the meaning of meeting god: when your love has spread all over the place, when everybody is included in your love, when nothing is excluded.when your love is unconditional.

So lavanya is a special kind of beauty. The english word, beauty, is not as meaningful as lavanya. In sanskrit we have many words for beauty, many, showing different qualities of beauty. Lavanya is that beauty that comes in love. When you see two persons in deep love suddenly you see a beauty surrounding them. When two persons look into each other’s eyes with deep love, their faces have a grace, an elegance that is not of this world. Lovers have a charm around them, a magnetism that comes from the beyond. That beauty is called ‘lavanya’ . It is not all kinds of beauty: you cannot call a beautiful painting lavanya, no. Only a human being, suffused with love is lavanya, is beautiful. Sanskrit is a very rich language in that way – the richest it seems – because it can express nuances which cannot be expressed in any other language.

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