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‌CHAPTER 18

18 June 1978 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Deva means god, bhumika means introduction – introduction to god. And life is an introduction to god. It is not against god, as the old religions have been teaching again and again. It is not antagonistic to god – it can’t be. It is god’s extension, it is his manifestation, it is his song. How can it be against him? It has not to be renounced; it has to be lived in great gratitude: It is an introduction, a process of learning, a game of hide-and-seek with god.

The whole of life is an opportunity to know. The so-called worldly person misses it because he thinks that this is all... as if you think the introduction to the book is all and you finish with the introduction, you never enter into the book. That will be foolish. That’s what is happening to millions of people: they think this is all – eat, drink, be merry – and then death comes and all is finished. Dust returns unto dust and nothing is left. That is one kind of foolishness.

On the opposite extreme another kind of foolishness has existed in the name of religion, spirituality, other-worldliness. They say ‘Renounce this world. This is against god. Unless you renounce it, you will not be able to know god. You can become his beloved only if you renounce the world. By renouncing it you will earn the capacity to be with him.’ That too is absolutely foolish, but that’s how it happens: the mind moves from one extreme to another extreme. So the indulgent person becomes the renunciate; it is the same kind of mind. Just in the middle of these two extremes is the truth.

Life is an introduction to god. It is not all – neither is it nothing. It is not just eat, drink and be merry. It is that too, but not just that; far more is hidden behind it. And man is not only dust, he is divine too – a miracle, divine in the dust, an immense mystery.

So life has to be lived in its totality, and still with the continuous remembrance that this is not all – much more is awaiting you. Grow up, expand, open. Neither become an indulgent nor become a renunciate. That’s my sannyas: just be exactly in the middle. Love life as god’s manifestation.

Deva means god, parinita means married to – married to god. That is the real marriage; all else is only a futile search. People become married to many things – they become married to money, they become married to power, prestige. There are a thousand ways to get married to the world, but there is only one way to be married to god; and that is to learn how to love unconditionally.

God is not a person sitting somewhere. He is the consciousness present in everybody, the diffused life; that’s what god is. You cannot find god anywhere, because he is everywhere. To be married to god means to be married to existence – to the trees and to the birds and the sun and the moon and the people and all that that implies: the whole. This marriage to the whole makes a person holy.

And this is what sannyas is all about: a marriage to the whole. It is one of the greatest adventures. If one really goes into it, one is bound to find the home for which one has been searching for so many many lives. Sannyas is a door into the divine.

But first one has to become very conscious of the marriage. Unless one feels a commitment to the whole one cannot go in search, because the search is risky. One has to risk all that one has – the old identity, the past, the name, the form. One has to risk all. Unless one is in deep love with the whole, one cannot take that much of a risk.

People want to know truth but without any risk, hence they go on missing. People want to know what love is, but only to a certain extent so that they can manage, control, manipulate. But these things are such that you cannot stop anywhere – you have to go the whole way. If you go the whole way, only then do you go. And going the whole way is difficult because the ego has to be left somewhere far behind. The ego has limitations. You don’t have any limitation – the ego has limitations. You can go to the very end of existence, but the ego cannot; it will cling to its small world.

Let this initiation into sannyas become an involvement, a commitment. Only a person committed to truth comes to know it. Don’t be just curious – be involved. Many people miss life and all the celebration that it contains. They miss because they never feel courageous enough to commit themselves to anything. They remain passers-by, spectators, on-lookers, but they never participate. And existence can be known only in one way, and that is participation. It can be known only in one way and that is love. You have to enter into it. One cannot be a spectator; a spectator is wasting time. Mysteries are open only to those who participate.

So sannyas is not a sort of formality. That’s why I have reduced the formality to the very very limit. I have dropped almost all the formalities of old sannyas; now all that has remained is just symbolic. My approach is that one should not get lost in formalities. Formalities are okay to begin with, bu one should not remain there. They are good as a jumping board, but they are only a jumping board. Then you have to go into the sea, and you have to face all the dangers and all the joys. And each danger brings joy because each danger overcome brings victory. Each danger is a new challenge to your being. It provokes all that is asleep in you, it awakes all that is asleep in you.

Let me become your challenge. I will provoke all that is asleep in you, and much is asleep! People live only at the minimum – maybe one-hundredth part of their being, and ninety-nine percent of their being remains unlived. That’s why there is so much misery; there is bound to be. Joy is when one is aflame, when the whole being is dancing, nothing left behind.

And that is possibleI would like it to become available to you.

Deva means divine, siddhana means one who has arrived – divine arrival. And as far as I’m concerned, you have arrived, but it has yet to become a reality as far as you are concerned. For me it has happened – I can see through and through – but it may take a little time for you to realise the truth, that you have arrived, that this is your home, that the search is finished, that there is no need to search any more, that now you can relax, that now you can celebrate, that now, from this moment, life is not going to be work but play, that you need not think in terms of goals any more, that all that is given is more than one needs. You can drop the tensions and the anxieties. And you have lived with them long enough – it is time, and you are ripe. But it will take a little longer time for you to recognise the truth.

In the East they say that it is not the disciple who finds the master but the master who finds the disciple... and it is absolutely true. The disciple cannot find the master; there is no way for the disciple to even decide. How can he decide who is the master and who is not?

But a moment comes in the disciple’s life when some unknown energy takes possession of him and he is pulled in a certain direction, sometimes even in spite of himself, even against his resistance, helplessly. If he co-operates, things start happening soon; if he resists, they still happen – they only take a little longer time. But once a master has chosen a disciple, then there is no going back, it is the point of no-return. If the disciple chooses the master, he can go back; he can decide some day to leave the master.

In fact he does not know what is truth, who has attained it, who has it. And there are a thousand and one pretenders. The pretenders are very articulate, they have to be: they have to survive in the marketplace. They are very consoling and they use all the gimmicks possible to trap people.

It is very difficult for the disciple to choose. He is not yet there; how can he choose? One first has to be to choose. One first has to be aware to see. The disciple is blind. If he can recognise the master, he can recognise god himself, there is no problem – because to recognise the master is to recognise god himself. The disciple is groping in the dark. He has no experience of light, so even when he comes to an enlightened person he cannot see, because his eyes know only darkness. They know only one language, that of groping, searching. They don’t know the language of non-search, of non-seeking, of being; they know only the language of becoming.

The master is a being and the disciple is trying to become something. It is very difficult, almost impossible, for the disciple to choose the master. The master has to choose the disciple. And once a disciple is chosen by the master, it is the point of no-return, there is no way back. One has to face the reality, and one has to go deeper and deeper into it every day.

Now that you have heard and you have come, co-operate. The mind resists – its resistance is subtle. Be aware of it!

[Osho gives a sannyasin an energy darshan.]

There is no need to talk either. Something is happening which is not expressible. Something is moving inside which has never moved before. You are in the grip of some unknown energy – that is the beginning. Relax and allow it to possess you utterly, totally.

You are still holding yourself a little bit. That is natural; there is always fear of losing control. But in the search for god all control has to be lost. And fear arises because if one loses control, one appears to oneself as if one is going mad. But to know god is the privilege of madmen only; the so-called sane go on missing. The so-called sane only collect rubbish. All that is immense, all that is really essential, significant, is available only to those who are ready to drop all calculation. That’s what appears like madness.

The calculative mind remains superficial. The calculative mind is basically a mind of fear. Because of fear it calculates, it doubts. It is continuously feeling insecure, it is afraid of everything; everybody seems to be against it. There is another mind deeper than this mind – call it the heart – that is non-calculative. Love arises out of it and poetry and religion.

The non-calculative mind means trust. There is no need to calculate – one trusts. There is no need to fear: we have come out of this existence, we are part of it. The existence is not inimical to us, so why fear? It protects, it sustains, it nourishes. You have to leave the calculating mind, otherwise it will create disturbances in your being. But something is moving in the non-calculative, something greater than you, something vaster than you – it has to be allowed. You will be flooded; you will be washed away and something totally new will arise in its place.

The religious story of man is the story of the phoenix. One has to utterly disappear, be burned, one has to disappear into flames – only ashes are left behind. Then a new being with a new presence, with a new body of light, with a new soul of immortality, with a new vision which is total and whole, arises. That is the whole meaning of Jesus’ resurrection. It is not a historical fact; it is a spiritual phenomenon.

Relax, and even if you go, don’t be worried, mm? The fear is there that if you go away, then what will happen? Here you are close to me, you can take risks easily; alone, it may be difficult. So fear arises, but don’t be afraid. You will never be alone; I will always be with you. You have come to that point where I can be available anywhere. So go; be anywhere and you can invoke my help at any time. You can call me any time and you will find me as present as you are finding me in this moment. Just great love is needed, and space and time become irrelevant. Intensity of love is the only closeness. Physical closeness is just an appearance. And now you can: if you decide to, you can love intensely; you are just on the threshold. And whenever it is possible, come back.

[A sannyasin says she feels happy. Osho gives her an energy darshan.]

This is no ordinary happiness that is happening, and if you help even a little bit it can become your permanent state. Just don’t fall back into the old patterns. They are all misery patterns. Happiness is not a new pattern, remember; happiness is a state of no pattern.

Misery always has a pattern. It is repetitive, it is a mould: you go on doing the same thing again and again and again. It is never new; misery is always old and ancient, you have tasted it many times. But you are caught in the trap. It has become a rut and you don’t know how to get out of it. Now you have slipped out of it a little bit – a little distance has arisen between you and the old patterns. You can slip back into the old patterns and then the happiness will be lost.

And you will feel more miserable than before, because now you know what happiness is. When one is unaware of happiness, one takes the misery for granted; one knows that this is all that there

is in life. If you have only tasted the bitterness of it and never the sweetness of joy, you. become accustomed to the bitterness. You know this is all, this is the only taste there is. But when you have tasted the sweet and then you taste bitterness again, it looks even more bitter than ever. So falling from happiness back into an old pattern creates misery in a more intensified, multiplied way. So beware!

And this is not a new pattern, because happiness has no pattern. It is a flow – unpatterned, unstructured. Keep flowing, keep glowing, and whenever you start feeling that you are stuck, dance, sing, meditate, remember me, and again you will feel the contact and the energy will start moving.

You will have to learn how not to lose this treasure that you are coming close to... and you will be able to learn. Just help me a little bit.

[A sannyasin who is going to the West says: I feel a bit scared of going back. Scared to lose everything that I’ve felt here.]

That fear is natural it comes to everybody, mm?

Just raise your hands and feel like a tree in the strong wind. Dance like a tree in the rains and the winds... Let your whole energy become a dancing energy. Sway and move with the wind. Just feel the wind passing through you. Forget that you have a human body – you are a tree. Get identified with the tree...

Whenever you feel that you are losing anything, just do this meditation. Go into the open if it is possible, stand amongst the trees, become a tree, and let the wind pass through you. To feel identified with the tree is immensely strengthening, nourishing. One easily enters into the primal consciousness; trees are still in it. Talk with trees, hug the trees, and you will suddenly feel that everything is back. And if it is not possible to go out, then just stand in the middle of the room, visualise yourself as being a tree – it is raining and there is a strong wind – and start dancing. But dance as a tree and you will be able to get the flow that is happening.

It is only a question of learning the art of how to keep it flowing. It is there, and I can understand your fear – going back, getting into the old pattern of life, you may lose it – but I am giving you a key. This will be your key: you can always unlock it whenever it becomes locked.

[A sannyasin says: I tried to make a commitment to love instead of the person to see if that would work for me.]

The very idea of its ‘working’ is creating the trouble. You have to take it as it comes, as it goes. You want to work it out; that’s where you are stuck. What is there to work out? You want to get something other than love – maybe some security, companionship, some safety, a family. What do you mean by saying that it has not worked? And that’s what I told you: make a commitment to love, not to a person. Then whenever it happens, with whomever it happens, it is good. As long as it is there it is beautiful, and when it is not there, you move.

Let love be flowing. There is no need to get hooked into any relationship. But you want to be hooked, and when you can’t get hooked or the other is not getting hooked, you think it is not working. Your

idea of working is creating the nuisance. What else is there? Love is fun! There is nothing more to it. But fun contains all; fun even contains god. To me fun is not just fun – it is sacred.

So when it happens, good; enjoy it to the full. And when you are not after anything else through it, the joy is total. When you are not trying to work it out, there is no problem. If tomorrow the person moves away or you move away, you are grateful. You don’t feel that you have failed, because you were not after anything at all. Love for love’s sake – that’s what I meant.

But you have a very very deep-rooted idea of getting something out of it... a result-orientated, a goal- orientated idea. You have a very orthodox idea of love (chuckling) – that’s where you are in trouble – and the world has moved. And remember, if you find a person with whom you can get hooked, you will suffer, because that kind of thing is always a bondage. When it satisfies your idea of working you will suffer, because then love will disappear. It will be a kind of arrangement – financial, economic, social, psychological, anything, but not love. It will work in a way, it is working.

Millions of marriages around the world are all working, but just look deep down: is any marriage really working? They have all failed. They are hiding their misery and wounds and they are not even courageous enough to show their wounds. They think ‘What is the point? It is better to suffer silently and in our aloneness. What is the point of washing our linen in public?’ So they go on putting on a good face in public but deep misery is behind their eyes.

You have to drop this idea. You have to learn a totally new concept of love, and that is the true concept of love. That is going to happen in the world. This world has changed – moses and Manu and Mohammed are no more relevant. You have to love the moment. Don’t be worried about tomorrow. Don’t sacrifice this moment for any other moment in the future. That’s what you mean by working out: you sacrifice this moment and you sacrifice that moment and you hope that tomorrow something will happen, and then tomorrow you will sacrifice again. You will go on sacrificing, you will become a martyr. You will reduce the other person to being a martyr too... and it is very ugly to live with any martyr, very ugly. It is horrible, it is hell. Because both are martyrs, both have not lived their lives, both have not enjoyed their lives and they are continuously complaining ‘I have done this for you and what have I got? I am frustrated.’ And the same is the story from the other side, from the other end.

Forget all about it! If you meet a person and the energy flows, good; feel good, enjoy it. If it remains tomorrow, good; if it doesn’t remain, there is no complaint. How can you complain? One is only grateful. Sometimes you will be alone but nothing is wrong in being alone! Sometimes you will be together. Both are to be enjoyed, both have their beauties.

But you have that ‘work ethics’ in the mind; you have the mind of a workoholic. And in America that has remained with people for two, three hundred years. That has been their whole philosophy: things have to work, everything has to be sacrificed for work. Joy in itself is not acceptable. Love as fun is not acceptable; it has to be sacrificed. So mothers are sacrificing for the children and taking revenge. Husbands are sacrificing for the wives and the wives are sacrificing for the husbands, and the children are sacrificing for the parents. Everybody is angry, because the person who sacrifices always remains angry. This whole thing has to change. Everybody has to live for the moment and enjoy the moment; then nobody is angry and everybody is grateful.

Yes, I teach this selfishness. And to me, only this kind of selfishness can become the real foundation of all altruistic love; there is no other way.

So in the days you will be here, give it a try! Live for the moment... Live for the day at the most! If it is too difficult for the moment, then live for the day; but think not of the morrow.

Always remember Jesus’ saying to his disciples: ‘Look at the lilies in the field. They don’t work, they never worry about the future, yet even Solomon will look poor compared to these poor lilies. Even Solomon was not attired so beautifully as they are.’

So whenever this idea of work takes possession of you, remember the lilies in the field. And man has to learn to be like the lilies – that is the right way to live.

[A sannyasin says that she is afraid of sex, of men, of rejection; and that this keeps her aloof from people.]

It is just an absurd fear. It has no base in your energy system, so it can be dropped very easily. Mm, because if some fear has entered into the energy system it becomes very difficult to drop it, because then it is beyond you. It is just in your mind. It must be that your parents, your upbringing, have created the fear of sex.

It comes to many girls, because the parents go on making them afraid. They are afraid that you may lose your virginity, so they create so much fear, they create a fear-wall around you so your virginity is protected. Their whole concern is how to keep the daughter virgin, and the only way they know is to create so much fear that from deep down in yourself you are pulled back from any relationship.

It is just a conditioning – it can be dropped right now.

A handkerchief... (Osho gives her one of his handkerchiefs) You do one thing tonight – a little magic: put it on your heart and for the whole night leave it there. In the morning, burn it, and tomorrow when you come you will immediately be interested in many people! (laughter) This is magic, mm? Nothing else is needed because you just have the idea. And from tomorrow start moving.

All that is needed is to start moving. Nobody is going to reject and nobody is going to do anything to anybody. People are so loving. They are also afraid in the same way as you are; they are also afraid that you may reject.

Do this method tonight. The whole night it has to remain with you and in the morning, first thing, you burn it. And when it is being burned and the flames are coming up, you pour in those flames all that you have accumulated – all fears and all the nonsense that your parents have been teaching you and start a new life from tomorrow. And it will happen so easily, so I will not give you any group. You just keep it with you... keep it with you. Good!

Prem means love, ida means now... and these two words are my whole philosophy: love and now. This is the whole scripture. People love but not now. They say ‘Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, some other time.’ Their love and their now never meet, so love remains a fantasy, a dream. Reality consists of now and only now, so they only dream about love and remain unfulfilled, because without love no-one is ever fulfilled.

There is a great message in your name – that now is the only time there is and love is the only god there is. So worship the god of love... and now! This very moment be loving; don’t postpone. Either now or never. If you choose some other time, you have chosen never. One has to love intensely, passionately.

And this is the only time there is. So sing, dance, celebrate, but now. When the past disappears and the future too, and you live only in the now, life burns bright, it becomes luminous. Then one is aflame. Then there is the grace of god, and great miracles start happening.

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