9 Only dare-devils reach that which is called god

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‌CHAPTER 9

Only dare-devils reach that which is called god

9 January 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Indradanu means rainbow – but better than rainbow. Indra is the god of rains. In the east everything is thought to be divine and everything is thought to be full of the divine. The god of rains is indra, and danu means the bow. So it is god indra’s bow. The rainbow is the god indra.

Indra means the god of rains, indira means the goddess of rains.… And anand means bliss... goddess of the rain of bliss.

And bliss is a rain shower. When it really happens it is almost like rain showering. When it happens one is soaked with it, bathed in it. And all that is needed for it to happen is just vulnerability; nothing else is required. One should not protect against it, that’s all.

There is no need to seek god. If we don’t protect ourselves against him, he is ready to seek us any moment. The problem is not how to seek god – the problem is how not to protect ourselves against him.

In trust one starts becoming vulnerable. In trust one becomes insecure and does not cling to securities.

It is better to die with god than to live alone.

It is better to be lost with the unknown than to remain with the known. Because the known has nothing in it – it is already known. That which is known is already finished. It is going to be just a repetition, a boring circle. With the unknown is life – the known is dead – but with the unknown is insecurity. With the unknown comes trembling because one is not aware of where one is going and

what is going to happen... because things become unpredictable, and one is no more capable of controlling and manipulating. Hence we protect and always keep to the safer side. That’s how we go on missing.

God is dangerous, and people who keep themselves to the safer side always miss. Only daredevils reach that which is called god.

So become more vulnerable, mm? Drop more and more armours from around you. There is nothing to fear, because all that is, is going to disappear. The body will be gone... the mind will be gone. All the relationships will be gone. The money will be gone, the life will be gone. All is going to go, so what is the point of becoming afraid? It is okay; if it is going to go, it is going to go. One relaxes... one is not disturbed. And one does not make any arrangements to protect.

In that unprotected state of mind, god penetrates. In that helpless state, god becomes your help. When you are losing all ground, he becomes your very ground.

Blessed are those who are helpless. Blessed are those who don’t have any ground to stand on, because for them only god can become the ground. Cursed are those who have safety, protection, security, insurance, because they will not know what god is, and without knowing god, life remains unknown.

[The new sannyasin said she had done primal therapy, arica, and est – and that she liked est best.]

Est you liked? That’s very good. Do a few groups here too, mm? And remember only one thing: Est helps you to open but it has no transcendental message in it. It brings you out of the prison, but then you are left. It does not help you to befriend the sky. It does not help you to befriend the stars and the moon and the sun.

It helps you to break the chains, but it doesn’t give you freedom – which is a totally different thing. To break the chains is a must to get it – so it is a very necessary step – but just to break the chains is not enough. You may break the chains, but if you have not been able to make contact with freedom, sooner or later you will create new chains. And the next time you create chains they will be far better than the first – more strong, more cunning, more subtle.

It is not only a question of breaking the chains – because we have become accustomed to chains, we have lost the taste for freedom. In fact, we don’t think chains are chains – we think they are ornaments, decorations. We think of them as if they are something aesthetic, and without them we feel naked.

It has happened many times.… It happened in the french revolutionThe revolutionaries released

the prisoners of the gaol, but they were surprised. By the evening, half of the prisoners returned and they said,‘We don’t want to go!’ The revolutionaries said,‘This is nonsense! What are you saying? You don’t feel grateful?’

They said,‘Grateful? We are very angry!’ Somebody had lived in the prison for thirty years, forty years... there were even people who had lived there for fifty years. It was the biggest prison in france – the bastille – and it was meant only for life prisoners.

They said,‘We cannot live outside. It is impossible! We cannot tolerate the noise and the mad people all around. Where are our chains? because we cannot sleep without them.’

For fifty years a person had slept with heavy chains on his hands, on his feet, in a dark cell – for fifty years! He had become accustomed to it. Those chains were no more separate – they had become part of his body-image. They were not separate, against him – they were part of his body. The weight, the noise that these chains made – it was part of his life... that’s how he has started feeling himself. Now suddenly you have taken him out!... The darkness of the cell and the security – and you have thrown him outside in the world!

Now, a man of seventy who has entered into the game when he was twentyHe doesn’t know

anybody outside. All friends are gone, his family is gone; he is completely a stranger. Now he has to think again: how to earn, how to arrange for bread and butter, and where to stay at night. For fifty years he had dropped all those worries. It is a fixed routine: every day he is given something to eat, every day he is given somewhere to sleep. Everything is going perfectly in a routine way – he is settled. Now you unsettle him, and you think he will feel grateful?

That was a great revelation to the revolutionaries. Nobody would have ever thought that prisoners would come back and demand their chains and their cells and would not like to go out! This is how it happens in life too.

Est is very good. One of the most important things that is growing in the west is est, but it is still negative. It is just the beginning. It has still no spiritual part in it. It is a revolutionary step, but the prisoners will come back, because that imprisoned state has such a deep investment. Unless you start loving the sky and the open world, you are bound to fall back to the old pattern sooner or later.

So here my emphasis is less on breaking the negative, more on growing the positive. The negative has to be broken, but not in too much of a hurry. Let the positive grow and let the negative be broken. The positive should always be ahead; then you will not fall back.

I am not in a hurry to take all the rotten coloured stones that you are carrying in your hands. I know they are stones but you think they are diamonds, so my knowing is not the question. You think they are diamonds, so for you they are diamonds. I am not in a hurry to take them away.

Rather, on the contrary, I would like to give you some diamonds so the comparison arises in your own consciousness between what a diamond is and what an ordinary stone is. Then there is no need for me to tell you,‘Drop these stones.’ You will start dropping them. In fact even if I say,‘Don’t drop them,’ you will laugh at me – you will think it is ridiculous. But first let the diamonds be there; then by and by you will unburden yourself of all the stones.

The positive must penetrate first. Let it be just a window from where you can make a contact with the sky, but let the contact be there first – then come out of the prison. Let the sun penetrate from the window – only for a single moment. Let the fragrance of the flowers enter from the window and surround you – let the positive happen first, and then the negative is not a big problem. Otherwise the negative becomes too much of a problem. It takes much energy to shatter it, and once shattered, you are simply ready to enter into it again in a new way. Maybe you may choose another prison – a better one, more modern, more contemporary – but you will choose.

So do a few groups here too, but more emphasis has to be on the positive. and, as I feel you, the best meditation for you will be just sitting and listening to me and absorbing me as much as you can. Let my energy be absorbed.

That will be the first window which will make available to you something of the beyond. And you can do it very easily – it is not even going to be an effort. You can simply fall in tune with me very easily.…

Deva means god and sakshin means witness – a witness to god. We all have to become witnesses to god. and to become a witness to god one has first to become a witness.

Ordinarily we live a very unconscious life. we move, we do things, but we are not alert... as if we are moving in sleep. A slumber surrounds our being. Sometimes you say things you never wanted to say. You only recognise it when you have said them. Sometimes you do things – you repent. In fact you are puzzled about how you could do such a thing. It feels as if in spite of yourself you have done it.

To become a witness we have to drop all slumber. Mm? One has to become more aware of what one is saying, what one is doing. So let this name be your work too. Work more consciously, eat more consciously, talk more consciously. Even a slight movement of the hands can be done consciously. You can move the hand very consciously knowing what you are doing, or you can just do it mechanically. So bring more and more witnessing to your activities.

One day when all your activities have become aware, suddenly there is a great revolution in your being – you become a witness to god. That is the meaning of becoming a saint. A saint is one who has become a witness to god. A saint is one whose presence in the world proves that god exists.…

[A sannyasin who is leaving says: I want to come back. I want to finish what I have to do in Germany,, and I’m afraid I’m going to change my mind when I go back.]

Don’t be afraid. This idea is not coming from your mind, so don’t be afraid. The mind cannot change it. It may try, but it cannot be changed. Nothing to be worried about.

I have penetrated you beyond your mind, so there is no problem. When it is only in the mind, there is a problem. If you are convinced through the mind, then it is not reliable; it may change. Anything can change the mind – the mind is very accidental. Any small thing can change the mind. It is just ready to change. The mind is a whore. It has no devotion, no commitment, no involvement.

But I have touched something deeper in you. You may not even be aware of it, because to become aware of it is very difficult. But I know my people. When I have touched them somewhere deeper than the mind, I can see it clearly. Then nothing is going to change. And confusion is natural with me.…

When Gurdjieff was dying, he opened his eyes, and these were his last wordsHe looked around

at his disciples. They were there crying. The master was leaving – and he was a rare man, a very rare man. It takes centuries for humanity to produce a man like Gurdjieffa rare flower. So naturally

there were tears and people were sobbing.

He laughed and he said,‘So, I am leaving you in a fine mess!’ Those were his last words – and then he closed his eyes and died!

Confusion is natural. If you come to me you are going to pass through a chaos, because all that you have thought before becomes meaningless. All that you have becomes futile. Your whole past is simply nullified... simply washed away. All that belonged to you no more belongs to you.

The past is the certainty. When the past is gone, certainty is gone. The past is the certainty because the past is certain – now nothing can be changed about the past. You say,‘Why is the past certain?’ It has happened. Good, bad, happy, unhappy – it has happened. Now there is no way to change it. So when you have the past as your belonging, you are certain – the future is uncertain. With the future is confusion.

I make you available to the future and I try in every way to cut you away from the past – hence the confusion. But to be confused is better, because with the future there is growth. To be certain is smug. Only pig-headed people are certain. Stupid, idiotic people are certain. They have no future – they have no confusion either.

Those enigmatic words of gurdjieff are of tremendous significance. He says,‘So, I am leaving you in a fine mess!’ And the disciples have not been yet able to find out the meaning... what he really meant. And with no commentary, he died – the sentence was not even complete. Just an atomic statement – nothing before, nothing after. Suddenly he said it and died.But I know what he means.

He has destroyed their past – that’s why he laughed. He was happy that they were in confusion now. With confusion is the possibility of growth. With confusion is the possibility of search. With confusion you start exploring. When you are certain there is no need to go anywhere – you are certain. With certainty is death. Life moves through chaos, in chaos. Yes, only out of chaos are stars born. So don’t be afraid of confusion! Confusion is the quality of intelligence.

Only intelligent people can be confused – can afford to be confused. Unintelligent people cannot afford to be confused, so they never come to me. They cannot come – it is too risky. They know that I will confuse them, and once they are confused they cannot figure out who they are and what they are doing, and what is going to happen.

I confuse you so that you start searching for who you are. You start looking again and again at yourself – at who you are. I take away your old identity – which is your certainty – and throw you into the darkness. Now you have to find out your own way.…

[Osho recounted the zen story about the disciple who had to leave his master’s home late at night and pass through a dark forest before he would reach his village.

Seeing that he looked apprehensive, the master asked the disciple what was bothering him. The disciple said the night seemed so dark and he had no light, whereupon the master lit a candle and gave it to the disciple.

Somewhat more confidently, the disciple made for the door. Just as he was about to leave, the master suddenly leant forward and blew out the candle, advising the bewildered disciple that only one’s own light can be of any help on the way; a borrowed light is useless.]

Go in the darkness. Find your way. Danger is there – but through danger, something integrates. Through danger, one becomes aware. Through search, one comes home.

So don’t be afraid. You go in confusion – I blow out the candle, and I send you into the darkness. Only one thing I know – that I have penetrated deeper than the mind, so I will remain there like a seed, working. And things that have started are not going to stop – they will grow. And whenever you can come, come back, mm? Good!

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