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‌CHAPTER 19

7 October 1976 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Anand means bliss and vandan means blessing. Bliss is a blessing – it is not something that you can do anything about. It is not something that depends on your effort – it is a gift. One has just to open towards it, that’s all. One has just to be available to it. If you don’t create any barriers for it, it will reach you. So no positive effort is needed, no pushing of the river is needed. That’s the meaning of your name, and that has to be your work.

So become as effortless as possible. And when I say effortless, I don’t mean to become lazy. When I say effortless, I mean don’t strain for it. Go easily.

There is a saying of JesusHe says to his disciples, ’Look at the lilies in the field – they labour

not.’ It is true that they labour not, but just the contrary is also true – that they make all the efforts that they can, but that effort is effortless. Their roots are continuously working underground seeking sources of water, nutrition. On the top it may seem that they are not working, but every plant, every tree is working. Their leaves are continuously working with the sun rays, transforming them into vitality, into D vitamins. With the air the tree is continuously working, breathing in, breathing out, but still Jesus is true when he says, ‘They labour not.’ It is effortless effort. There is no labour in it; they don’t strain for it. They remain in a let-go and they let life work through them.

So don’t misunderstand me when I say don’t make any effort. I mean make all the effort that you can but remain effortless in it; labour not, don’t strain. Take it easy.

In the East a calamity has befallen millions of people because they thought that there was no need to do anything. Everything is a blessing of God – if He wants to give, He will give. Hence so much poverty in the East – so much illness, disease of the mind, this and that. People have become almost dead. In the West just the opposite extreme has happened. That too is a calamity. People

are simply working and working, and straining and straining and never giving a chance to God – not even a small space to Him to do something for them. Both are stupid extremes.

The intelligent man is always in the middle. The way of intelligence is the middle way – so you do, and yet don’t strain; you make efforts. yet remain effortless. This is going to be a paradox. but once you start working soon you will have the hang of it. It is a click that one day suddenly happens.

You are walking... you have gone for a morning walk and suddenly it clicks. and you know that you are not straining – you are simply going. There is no strain. no tension. There is no goal... you are not moving anywhere. Out of sheer energy it is happening. Sometimes you’ll find, looking at the sky, a song arises in your heart and you start singing. You will feel that there is no effort. It is not that you are doing it – it is happening to you. You have just become a vehicle.

Bliss is a blessing. It is a gift. Nobody can attain it but it is available to everybody. If you are open, it happens.

God is a gift – that is the meaning of vandan.

[The new sannyasin says: I have had training as an engineer, and I work hard.]

Continue to work but don’t work hard. That’s what I have felt – you have been working hard and you have to relax. You have to remember. because whenever people relax they move to the other extreme. The work continues, but the work becomes worship. The work continues but it is more out of love, and there is no more any achieving mind.

The goal is not important, the result is no more important – it is irrelevant in fact. One simply works because one enjoys. Then there is no strain. One is not working for any reward. One is simply working because one is alive. One is working because one is so vital. so energetic, and the energy needs to be transformed into creativity. One works like a mother works for the child, a lover works for his beloved, a woman works for her man. Then one works for God.

He has given so much – we respond to His gifts. Whatsoever we can give is not much, but just a gesture is beautiful. God has given infinite treasures to you; you may know it, you may not. We cannot give anything in return – we have nothing to give. But still as a gesture we work, and we transform our work into worship. And unless work becomes worship, work is neurotic. Unless worship becomes work, worship is false.

Worship without work is pseudo. Humbug, bogus, a sort of hypocrisy, and work without worship is neurotic, obsessive, a compulsion. When work and worship meet, suddenly you are just in the middle of both, enjoying both together and a great alchemical process sets in. You are both active and passive because worship is passive and work is active. You are both man and woman because worship is feminine and work is masculine. When work and worship meet, your yin and yang meet, and there is great jubilation inside your being – you have come home, your circle is complete. That’s why a man whose work has become worship has a tremendous grace around him. He is a full circle – nothing is missing.

Everything is as it should be... one is contented. One is so much blessed that one can bless the whole life.

Gyan means knowledge and shreya means virtue. Have you heard one of the very famous sayings of Socrates? – ‘Knowledge is virtue’. That is the meaning of your name – Gyan Shreya: knowledge is virtue.

There has been a great controversy about it down the centuries. Ordinarily people think that just by knowing something you are not transformed. People think that they know that anger is bad but still they get angry. People know that greed is bad but still they are greedy. People know that eating too much is not good but they eat too much; they drink, they smoke. But Socrates has said that knowledge is virtue. If you really know, you can never go against your knowledge. So if somebody knows that anger is bad and yet gets angry, only one thing is proved – he does not know that anger is bad.

And I fully agree with Socrates. Once you really know something, there is no need to practise it. It automatically comes into your practice. When you know something. it starts changing you – immediately. If knowledge has to be practised, that simply shows that knowledge is borrowed, it is not your own. If knowledge has to be practised it simply shows that you are enforcing something, that your eyes do not agree with it, that your own heart is in disagreement with it, that your own being is not willing to go that way – hence practice is needed. If you really understand a thing, that very understanding is a revolution, a radical change.

This is one of the very pregnant sayings – ‘Knowledge is virtue’. Socrates means that you need not try to become virtuous. The only thing to know is what is good. So only meditation on what is good is needed. And that meditation will become the mutation. If knowledge itself does not change you, nothing else can. But people think that borrowed knowledge is their knowledge; that is where they get deceived. So never believe a single word that is borrowed.

You can accumulate great knowledge by borrowing from scriptures, books, teachers, universities, libraries. You can become almost an encyclopedia, but you will remain dead because even the encyclopedia is not enlightened. You can become a walking encyclopedia, but it will be just a burden that you will be carrying. A very small iota of truth known by your own being is the way of meditation.

So if you feel that you are angry. don’t say that anger is bad – that is borrowed. Drop that nonsense! If you feel angry, meditate on it, look, observe, watch what it is. Have a feel of it on your own – don’t be pulled and pushed by others – have a direct experience of the anger. When you feel the fire and the poison of it yourself, and when the idea arises that anger is suicidal – not as an echo of somebody else: a Buddha, a Jesus; no, out of your own understanding – that very moment anger disappears. The energy that was becoming anger is available. Now you can do much with that energy because it is pure energy; it is fuel. It is power. That same energy can become compassion. The same energy that is involved in greed becomes sharing. And the same energy that is being destroyed by hatred becomes love.

So remember this. By giving you this name I am simply indicating your whole path for the future. This is enough. If you can do this much, nothing else is needed. You will become a perfect sannyasin.

Prem means love and vishwa means the universe; the universe of love. Vishwa has many other meanings also. It means the space, the infinite space, because that’s what the universe is. And love

basically is nothing but entering an infinite space. Love is an opening into a world of no boundaries, into a world which ends nowhere. Love begins but ends never; it has a beginning but no end.

Remember one thing: ordinarily the mind interferes and does not allow love its infinity and its space. If you really love a person, you give him infinite space. Your very being is just a space for him to grow in, to grow with. The mind interferes and tries to possess the person, then love is destroyed. The mind is very greedy – the mind is greed. The mind is very poisonous. So if one wants to move into the world of love, one has to drop the mind. One has to live without the interference of the mind. The mind is good in its own place. It is needed in the market; it is not needed in love. It is needed when you are preparing a budget, but it is not needed when you are moving into inner space. It is needed when there is mathematics; it is not needed when there is meditation. So the mind has utility, but the utility is for the outside world. For the inner it is simply irrelevant. So become more and more loving... unconditionally loving. Become love. Become an opening – and you can become very easily; that’s why I am saying that.

When I say something to somebody I say it only because I see the possibility very close by. Just a little turning and you will have a totally different being. Love is going to be your work in life, so just be loving.

Birds and trees, earth and stars. men and women – everybody understands it. Black and white, there is only one language that is the language of the universe – that language is love. So become that language. and once you become love, you become prem, a totally new world will open for you with no boundaries. That’s what vishwa is – an infinite space to be, to grow. So make love. your meditation.

Always remember that the mind is the cause of helping people to become closed. The mind is very afraid of opening because the mind exists basically out of fear. The more fearless a person is, the less mind he uses. The more fearful a person. the more he uses the mind.

You may have observed that when you are afraid, when there is anxiety, when there is something that troubles you, the mind comes into focus very much. When you are anxious, the mind is there too much. When you are not anxious, the mind is not so much.

When everything is going well and there is no fear, the mind lags behind. When things go wrong the mind simply jumps ahead of you, it becomes the leader. In times of danger it becomes the leader. The mind is just like the politicians. Adolf Hitler has written in his autobiography, ‘Mein Kampf’, that you should always keep the country in fear if you want to remain in the leadership. Keep the country always afraid that the neighbour is going to attack, that there are countries who are designing attack, that they are preparing to attack – go on creating rumours. Never leave people at ease, because when they are at ease, they don’t bother about the politicians. When people are really at ease, politicians are meaningless. Keep people always afraid, then the politician is powerful.

Whenever there is war the politician becomes a great man. Churchill or Hitler or Stalin or Mao – they are all products of war. If there were no second world war there would be no Winston Churchill and no Hitler and no Stalin. War creates, gives situations for people to dominate and become leaders. Exactly the same is the politics of the mind.

Meditation is nothing but creating a situation where the mind has less and less things to do. You are so unafraid, you are so loving, you are so peaceful; you are so contented with whatsoever is happening that the mind has nothing to say. Then the mind by and by lags behind, lags behind, and more and more distance is created.

One day the mind completely recedes – then you become a universe. Then you are no more confined to your body, no more confined by anything – you are pure space. That’s what God is. God is pure space.

Love is the way towards that pure space. Love is the means and God is the end. [To a sannyasin recently arrived from England]

Do a few groups here, mm? They are just an excuse: you forget yourself in the group, and from the back door, I start working on you!

And in the group drop your reason, don’t analyse. Go with the process – whatsoever it is. Later on you can analyse as much as you want, but as I see it, analysis is your problem – you think about things too much.

Reason is good to a certain extent – then it becomes a barrier, a great barrier. It is good as far as the known goes, but when the unknown comes in it is simply impotent. The whole purpose here is to arrange a date with the unknown... to help you to move towards the unknown. So put your reason aside for these three months.

Do you know the meaning of unmada? It means mad. I have given you that name. So just put reason aside and just enjoy feeling. Don’t analyse and don’t ask why, for what. Simply do whatsoever I say to you, and enjoy it. Three months can prove a total revolution in your life. Simply surrender and just work for three months without any analysis, without bringing in reason. After three months you can think about whatsoever you want, you can bring reason back because then it cannot destroy anything.

Once you have experienced something, reason cannot destroy it. But before experiencing it, the reason can create barriers and you may not be able to experience it at all. So first experience and then analyse; then think about it, philosophise – never do vice versa.

In the West and now also in the East people are learning a very foolish thing. They say, ‘First we must know, only then can we experience.’ But there is no possibility of knowing without experiencing. They say. ‘First God should be proved – then we can pray.’ But prayer is the only proof. Unless you pray you have no proof of God. They say, ‘First we should be convinced that meditation helps,’ but there is no way to prove it.

If you meditate, that very experience becomes your proof. So for three months simply forget all your training, analytic acumen, skill – forget all about it. For three months just be here, a very primitive man. The primitive man is very pure – he lives from the heart, and from the heart the being is very close. From the head the being is very tar away. From the head the moon is closer and the being is very far away.

That’s why the head people have reached to the moon, but have not yet been able to reach the being. They will never reach. They will reach Mars, they will reach farther and farther away, but they will never come home.

From the head everything is close except the being. The being is very close to feeling. So for these three months, feeling has to be your style. Feel more, enjoy more, celebrate – and much more is going to happen.

[A sannyasin says: I feel I need a laughing meditation. I feel very tired and mechanical.]

A laughing meditation will be good. You can start it. When you laugh, laugh through your whole body – that’s the point to be understood. You can laugh only with the lips, you can laugh with the throat; that is not going to be very deep.

So sit on the floor in the middle of the room and feel as if laughter is coming from the very soles of your feet. First close your eyes and then feel that ripples of laughter are coming from your feet. Mm? they are very subtle. Then they come to the belly and become more visible; the belly starts shaking and trembling. Then bring it to the heart; then the heart feels so full. Then bring it to the throat and then to the lips. You can laugh with the lips and the throat, you can make noise which looks like laughter but it will not be and it will not be of much help. It will again be a mechanical act.

When you start laughing remember that you are a small child. Visualise yourself as a small child. When small children laugh, they start rolling on the floor. If you feel like it, start rolling. The whole thing is to get totally involved in it. The noise is not so meaningful as the involvement. And once it starts, you will know.

For two to three days you may not be able to feel whether it is happening or not, but it is going to happen. But bring it from the very roots – just as a flower comes to a tree: it travels from the very roots. By and by it comes up. You cannot see it anywhere else. Only when it comes and flowers on top can you see it. But it is coming from the roots, from very deep underground. It has travelled along from the depths.

Exactly the same way laughter should start from the feet and then move upwards. Allow the whole body to be shaken by it. Feel the trembling vibration and cooperate with that vibration. Don’t remain stiff – relax. Cooperate with it. Even if in the beginning you exaggerate it a little, it will be helpful. If you feel that the hand is shaking, help it to shake more so the energy starts rippling, streaming. Then start rolling and laughing.

This is in the night before you go to sleep. Just ten minutes will do and then fall asleep. Again in the morning, the first thing – you can do it in your bed. So the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning. The night laughter will set a trend in your sleep. Your dreams will become more joyous, more uproarious, and they will help your morning laughter; they will create the background. The morning laughter will set the trend for the whole day. Whatsoever you do in the morning, first thing – whatsoever it is – sets the trend for the whole day.

If you become angry the first thing, that becomes a chain. One anger leads to another anger, then another anger leads to another. You feel very vulnerable. Any small thing gives you a feeling of

being hurt; it feels insulting. One thing leads to another. Laughter is really the best thing to start with, but let it be a whole thing.

In the whole day, whenever there is an opportunity, don’t miss – laugh. This you have to do for ten days, and then tell me how things are going. Good.

[A sannyasin says he is starting to blossom, and asks Osho to give him a big push.] Don’t be greedy! (much laughter)

... Things have started. You will be blossoming slowly. but that’s very good. Everybody has his own pace. and there is no need to hurry it up. because if something is done to force it, that creates a strain. So go with the natural pace. You are a slow walker; you are not a runner. If you run there is more possibility that you will stumble and fall rather than reaching anywhere. Go very slowly.

There is an old zen story, a korean storyTwo monks crossed a river – one was very old and one

was very young. The younger was the disciple and the older one was the master. When they got to the other shore, they enquired of the ferryman how far the town was because they would like to reach it before sunset. They had heard that once the sun sets. the doors of the town are closed and then they will not be able to enter.

The ferryman said. ‘The question is not of distance. Only one thing I can say – go slowly; don’t go fast. If you go fast you may never reach before the sun sets. If you go slowly. I promise.’

They thought the ferryman was mad. It was illogical, because he said, ‘Go slowly. If you go fast you will never reach; then don’t blame me. If you go slowly, I promise you will get there in time.’ They thought he was was a madman, talking nonsense, and they ran, because the sun was almost on the horizon and setting and it was dangerous to be left out of the town. It was a wild forest and it was going to be night. It would be impossible to survive the whole night. It was getting cold and they were hungry; they needed rest and food, so they rushed.

And of course as the ferryman said, it happened. The old man stumbled upon a rock and broke his legs. The ferryman had tied up his boat and collected his things and followed them slowly. When he came across them he said, ‘You fools! I told you, but nobody listens to me. People think that I am mad. This is a hilly track. You should go slowly, only then you can reach.’ But now you will be left; you cannot reach with these broken legs. The young man had to carry the older one. The whole journey was delayed; they couldn’t make it.

It is a very beautiful parable. It says that there are goals in life which can be reached only very slowly. This flowering of meditation is a very very slow process in a way. So savour it, celebrate whatsoever is happening and don’t hanker for more – and more will be happening.

It has nothing to do with your hankering. It is going to happen. The process has started.the bud

has started opening. Now in its own time it is going to flower. There is no need to force it open because if you do, the bud may look as if it has flowered, but it will not be a real flowering, and there will be no perfume. That perfume is possible only when it takes its time and ripens inside. So simply go slowly:

The mind will tell you many times, ‘Rush fast. Time is short. Life is short and many more things have to be done.’ Never listen to the mind. There is no shortage of time – infinity is available. If you can be patient, things can happen very fast. If you can be infinitely patient, right this moment it can happen, because in that patience all barriers disappear. Then one is so at ease, that in that very at-easeness, the blossoming is possible. But be happy – things have started moving.

I was a little worried about you. Ordinarily I am not worried about people, but I was worried about you. You were looking really sad, very dull, negative. But it has changed.

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