CHAPTER 27
31 May 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium
Deva means divine; the word ‘divine’ comes from the same root as ‘deva.’ Basir is a sufi name for God – it means: all seeing. Your full name will mean: a divine way of seeing. Ordinarily what we see may not be there. It may be just our minds projecting something from the within. We see what we believe; our belief creates our vision. That is an undivine way of seeing. If you look into facts with a prejudiced mind, you will never find the reality. You will always impose your opinion upon the facts. And the facts are very polite, very humble, very liquid. you can give them a mold, a form. They take the shape of your mold very easily.
That’s why there are so many philosophies in the world, so many ways of seeing things. And each philosophy thinks it has arrived, that it has found the solution to all problems, that it has found the remedy. And each philosophy claims ‘This is the truth, the ultimate truth.’ But no philosophy has it, no philosophy can have it, because philosophy is basically speculation. It is a game of words, logic, thoughts. It is creating a system out of thinking and then imposing the thinking on reality. And because reality is very polite, it is always ready to oblige you. So whatsoever you want to see, you will see. This is undivine seeing.
Divine seeing is seeing without any prejudice, seeing without any preconceived thought, seeing without any concept – just seeing, pure seeing, with no idea. Nothing is being imposed. Your eyes are empty; then they are divine. You are not trying to prove something. You have not decided beforehand, you don’t have any a priori mind. In fact, you don’t have any mind. The eyes are just open like a mirror, ready to reflect whatsoever is the case. Only then does one arrive at truth. And that’s the difference between philosophy and religion. Philosophy is nothing but a mind game. Religion is a totally different thing: it is approaching reality without the mind. It is putting the mind aside; it is looking direct, immediate. Then the reality is tremendously beautiful... and that reality is God.
So God can never be found by a person who believes. Believers never find God – their very belief becomes the hindrance. And so is the case with the non-believers, because they only believe in the opposite. Non-believers are as much believers as the believers. Their beliefs are different: one believes that God is, one believes that there is no God, but both are beliefs. Between the catholic and the communist there is no difference. Between the hindu and the mohammedan there is no difference... just different beliefs.
The real seeker gets rid of all kinds of beliefs – theistic, atheistic. He simply gets rid of the whole mind-accumulated past. He simply drops the whole baggage. He looks with empty eyes. The real seeker is always an agnostic; he says ‘I don’t know.’ And all real search starts from that point, when you can say totally, honestly, existentially ‘I don’t know.’ That is the greatest beginning, the only beginning in fact, and then your eyes are capable of seeing the truth. One has to approach truth naked, with no clothing of thought, belief, philosophy, consolations, prejudices, conditionings.
This is the meaning of your name: start dropping beliefs. And I am not saying to move to anti-belief, no; I am simply saying be without belief. And then reality is so close, just by the corner – once you are ready to reflect, to reflect it as it is.
[Osho explains, Deva Raquiba means the divine witness... that is the whole process of meditation: the essence of all meditation is to become a witness.]
Prem means love, Samada is a sufi name for God. It means ‘the ultimate centre of existence towards which we all have to turn; the destiny, the goal.’ We can go as far away from the centre as we wish, but with each step further away from the centre we will be getting more and more in misery. So sooner or later one has to turn to God. Samada means: towards whom everybody is going to turn sooner or later. Your full name will mean: love, the God towards whom we have to turn.
The whole teaching of Jesus depends on a single word and that word is ‘repent’. The english meaning of the word repent has gone in a wrong direction; it has nothing to do with repentance. The original aramaic simply means ‘return’; repent means return. And the constant emphasis of Jesus again and again is ‘Repent, repent! The kingdom of God is very close by.’ He means ‘return’; he is trying to remind you about ‘Samada’.
We are keeping God behind us. A one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn is needed. Man is miserable, not because he has committed any sin; he is miserable because he has turned away from God. You can call it the original sin. And once you have committed that error – and we all have committed it – life itself goes on punishing us. It is not that God is punishing anybody. Our own going away is a punishment. It is just as you go away from the garden: the farther away you go, the hotter it gets. The cool breeze is no more, and the fragrance of the flowers disappears. The closer you come to the garden, the more you feel the cool breeze again, the fragrance of the flowers and the greenery and the shade of great trees.
Let sannyas be the turning point. That’s what sannyas is all about: a return journey. One starts moving inwards rather than moving outwards. One starts looking within rather than without. And the kingdom of God is within. The greatest treasure is there but we have become beggars; we have completely forgotten our own treasure.
So this initiation is nothing but a reminder of who you are, to remind you that you are not a beggar, that you are a born emperor, that we have to claim our kingdom. Ask and it shall be given; knock and the door shall be opened unto you; seek and you will find. But the search has to be in a new dimension: it has to be withinward. That is the true pilgrimage. Your body is a temple – God is already there, but you don’t have the time or you don’t have the courage to look in. You are afraid of facing reality. People go on finding new escapes, new escapes from themselves. And these are the people who will say that sannyas is an escape, that meditation is an escape, that religion is an escape. In fact, just the opposite is the case: religion is not an escape. It is facing reality, it is encountering your being. And those who are running away from it are really the escapists.
[Osho checks the energy of a sannyasin who is leaving.]
Something is happening and it will continue to happen, so don’t be afraid – because back home you may get scared. Strange things are possible. Nothing is dangerous, but just because they will be strange spaces into which you have never entered, you may get frightened. You may start thinking you are going crazy or something. And don’t go to anybody for any advice, because whatsoever their advice is will be dangerous; they will not know what is happening to you. So if something happens, you can write to me. And you are now capable enough even to have contact with me from Africa – there will be no problem.
But if something strange happens, don’t talk about it, otherwise people will think you have gone mad. Your family will think to take you to the hospital or the psychiatrist. And the western psychiatry and psychoanalysis are still very rudimentary, very primitive, very physiological. In fact they don’t deserve the name of psychology yet. They are not the science of the soul – that is the meaning of psychology; they don’t believe in the soul. They have reduced man to a mechanism. That is one of the greatest insults that has happened to humanity.
Man has been humiliated very badly, and because of that humiliation he has lost all sense of direction. There seems to be nowhere to go, there seems to be nowhere to grow. There is nothing higher than man and man is nothing but an animal – a little more cunning, a little more sophisticated, that’s all; his mechanism is a little more sophisticated. The difference between man and animal, according to modern psychoanalysis, to psychiatry and science, is only quantitative; there is no qualitative difference. So if something strange happens which cannot be understood then you are thought mad. You need electric shock, you need insulin shocks, hospitalisation and all kinds of torture.
So avoid that, because much is possible. Something has broken, a crust has been broken. Many things will surface and they will all be beautiful. You have to go into them, nourish them, cherish them. And I will be with you, mm ?
And you want to start a small centre there?... This will be the name of the centre: Majida. It is a sufi name for God – it means ‘the glorious one, the majestic one.’
When God enters your life, ultimate meaning enters your life. Then each single pebble has a message, then there are sermons in stones. That is the meaning of ‘Majida’: one who brings splendour to life.
So start a small centre, help people to meditate. And whenever possible, come back, because this is your home.
[A sannyasin couple are leaving. The man says he feels inhibited by their relationship of three years and blames the woman. She says she feels sad. It has become more intense here.]
Things become clear here, that’s why they look intensified. You start becoming more alert about things that you have been ignoring, things that you have been postponing, things that you are somehow tolerating. Those things become clear here because you go through so many therapy processes. A clarity comes – you start seeing what you have been doing to your life and to the life of the other.
Then there are two possibilities. One is: change the partner; another is: change yourself. And the second possibility is worth trying first, because just by changing the partner nothing will happen. You will fall into the same trap with another woman, because you are the same. You will choose a woman exactly like her because the chooser is the same. For a few days things will be good – they are always good for a few days. They are good for a few days because for a few days one can go on pretending. But how long can you pretend? When you live with a person you have to become honest and sincere, and you have to be yourself; then immediately things start falling apart. So every love affair is good in the beginning. Unless you decide to make your love a situation for inner transformation.It can become a great situation; it is! It is a great challenge.
Now these two alternatives are there. The simple alternative is to separate, mm ? You can find another woman, she can find another man, and you can play the game of being happy for a few days again. And again you will be in the same trap, both of you, because she will choose a man like you – otherwise why did she choose you? – and you will choose a woman like her.
I have heard about a man who divorced eight times in his life and again and again discovered that he found the same woman.with a different name, the nose a little bit longer and the eyes a little
different and the hair colour different, but the personality was exactly the same! Because who is going to choose ? Why have you fallen in love with-her? She must have something that attracts you, and the same thing will be attractive again.
This is the cheaper way. The West has chosen a very cheap way to solve it. It is not solving; it is simply postponing. It is a childish way. But I am not suggesting that if you suffer too much then too you have to cling to each other. No, then there is no need. But first try a better alternative; that is: change yourself. Just see what it is that is causing trouble from your side. Never be bothered about what is causing trouble from her side. That is her problem, she has to look after it. Just take account from your side; see what it is that is causing the problem.
Now the problem is there and something has to be done; you will have to do something. First try this. This is a harder task, an uphill task, but immensely paying. If you can change your approach towards her, your attitudes towards her, the trouble that you are creating unknowingly, unconsciously, if you can change all those patterns, you will feel grateful to her.
(To the woman) And you also try! Don’t be in a hurry. You have been together three years – I think you can be together six months more, and this time with very conscious, deliberate purpose – that
you have to make a beautiful relationship out of this. Because my feeling about you is that you are still in love. This is my observation: when love disappears, troubles also disappear. You are still troubled – that is a sure indication that something of love is still there. That love is the hope.
Give it a try. For six months meditate, talk to each other, bring problems to each other, support each other, knowing well that it is a question of six months. Decide a date with the agreement that if you cannot work it out within six months then on that particular date you will say goodbye to each other. You tried your hardest but if it is not going to happen, then it is not going to happen. I am not saying to cling to each other for your whole life. That stupidity has also happened; that is what has happened in the East. And the West is in too much of a hurry, mm ?
My suggestion is that you give it a try for six months. But when there is only a limited time, be total, give it a total try. Even if you don’t succeed, even if after six months you separate, you will separate better persons. And your new love relationships will go deeper than this one. Right now you would again fall into the same trip.
So let it be an experiment of love, of changing. But the whole thing is: don’t try to change the other; that’s what you (the man) have been doing.
Try to change yourself. The other is not your responsibility. People are trying to change the other. That is a very manipulative strategy, very political. It is an effort to dominate the other. And if you start dominating the other, you cannot change the other; she will retaliate, she will take revenge. She will persist, because her ego is at stake. You change yourself, she changes herself. Help each other but don’t try to change the other; that is none of your business.
For six months be together again. Let it be a new beginning, a new honeymoon and a new effort – more. conscious, more deliberate. For these three years you have lived in an unconscious relationship; now for six months live in a conscious relationship. And these six months will be of great benefit. Either you will decide to remain together because it is so fulfilling, or you will decide to separate. But then too you will separate in deep gratitude, deep friendship, with no grudge, with no complaint.
[A sannyasin had been here the previous year, but escaped back to the west. Recently he wrote imploringly to Osho for direction.]
I know escape always comes to everybody’s mind and one can always find excuses to escape from here, but once you have tasted me a little bit you will have to come back – I will haunt you! I can’t leave you so easily. It is better to go with me as deeply as possible, as deeply as you can go into yourself.