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‌CHAPTER 26

26 August 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

[Osho gives a three-year-old girl sannyas. The mother says her daughter wants to ask Osho about dying. She wants Osho to tell her where everything goes when it dies.]

That’s very good.All children are interested in death; it is one of the natural curiosities. But rather

than answering them – because all answers will be false...

So never answer – just say that you don’t know, that we will die and we will see. And let that be a very very tacit understanding about all those things for which you don’t know the answers.

When a child asks anything that you don’t know accept your ignorance. Never feel that acceptance of ignorance can be harmful; it never is. Parents always think that to accept that we don’t know will be harmful, our images will fall down before the child, but in fact just the opposite is the case. Sooner or later the child is going to find that you never knew and still you answered and you answered as if you knew. And the day it is recognised, the child will feel that you have been cheating, and then all respect disappears. Sooner or later the child is bound to find that the parents are as ignorant as anybody else, as powerless as anybody else, as groping in the dark as anybody elsebut they

pretended – and that pretension is very destructive. So whenever there is something you don’t know, say ‘I don’t know; I’m searching and seeking.’

And death is one of those things about which nothing can be said except one thing – that we go back home, we go to the same place from where we have come. We don’t know either. We come from some unknown source and we go back to that unknown source. Death is the completion of the circle, but both ends, the beginning and the end, are hidden in mystery.

It is just as if a bird enters into a room from one window, flutters there for a few seconds and escapes from another window outside. We know only when the bird is inside the room. We don’t know from

where it comes; we don’t know where it has gone. All that we know is that small time, that interval, when the bird was inside the room. We had seen the bird entering from one window and escaping from another window; we don’t know from where or to where.

And this is the state of the whole of life. We see a child is born; the bird has entered – from where nobody knows. And then one day a person is dead; the bird has flown. And life is just between birth and death... a small passage.

Make the child aware of the mystery. Rather than giving the answer it is better to make the child aware of the mysterious that’s all around, so the child starts feeling more awe, more wonder. Rather than giving a flat answer, it is better to create an enquiry. Help the child to be more curious, help the child to be more enquiring. Rather than giving the answer, make the child ask more questions. If the child’s heart becomes enquiring, that’s enough; that’s all parents can do for the child. Then the child will seek his or her own answers in his or her own way. Never give answers. That has been one of the most dangerous things that man has practised down the ages, the greatest calamity – that we are very arrogant when we give answers; we lose all humbleness. We forget that life remains unknown – something ‘x’. We live it and yet it remains unknown; we are in it and yet it remains unknown. Its unknowability is something that seems to be fundamental. We have known many things but the unknowability remains the same – untouched. Man has progressed in knowledge much, much is known every day; thousands of research papers go on being added to human knowledge, thousands of books go on being added. But still the fundamental remains the same. Before the fundamental we are humble and helpless.

So help her to feel the mystery more and more, mm?

Deva means divine, paradha means mercury.… Mercury is a symbol of constant change, of aliveness, of flux, of liquidity... and these are all the qualities of a sannyasin. A sannyasin should be like mercury – never predictable, never confined by any structure.

A sannyasin is absolute freedom. You cannot catch hold of it, you cannot keep it in your fist. There is no way to imprison that quality of consciousness; it is utter freedom.…

[A new sannyasin tells Osho she is a salesman in the West.] Salesman? Start selling me too!...

It is needed!...

It is needed... many more people are hungry and they need it. It is very essential. Millions are missing it and they don’t know how to find; they don’t know where to move. In fact they don’t even know whether they need it or not.

The greatest problem is that man is unaware of his own basic need. If you know that you are hungry you will do something- to find something and you will find something or other, but if you are not even aware of your hunger you are going to die.

Just think of a person who is hungry and by some mechanism is prevented from being aware of hunger. He is bound to starve himself and die, and he will never become aware that he could have

lived if he had eaten. The hunger was there, he was there, but something was disconnected between the hunger and his mind. That’s what has happened between our need for god and our mind. A lingering suspicion is felt that something is missing... but what is it? By and by we start becoming adjusted to this feeling that something is missing. We tend to forget it because it is inconvenient and uncomfortable.

It is needed. You will become my walking salesman! That’s why I create sannyasins. The purpose is to send them to people who are hungry and who have forgotten completely that they are hungry. Just seeing you, seeing your joy and seeing your happiness, something will start stirring in their hearts. They will start enquiring, and once they enquire, they are caught. That very enquiry starts their journey. If we can help people just to enquire, that’s enough. Then they start groping. Something clicks and their minds start feeling their need; then they start knowing what is missing.

In the ancient times it was never so. Everybody was aware that god was missing and everybody was trying and searching and finding. Now people are still trying but they try something else – a good house, a good job, more money, this and that, and they think these are the things that are missing. Once they have these things there will be no problem. But they are living in a fool’s land.

Once these needs are fulfilled, suddenly for the first time there is the real problem. Now they have a good house, a good family, a secure job, money, everything. Suddenly everything falls flat and they recognise that the thing that was missing is still missing. It is missing even more so, because now all is there that they used to think would be a fulfillment. It is there and there is no fulfillment.

Nothing fails like success in the world: once you succeed you have come to the brink of failure. Those who are not successful can go on hoping but what is there for the successful to hope for? what is there for a Rockefeller to hope for? He has all that can be hoped for... more than he could have ever dreamed. Now what?

That’s why it happens that when people are a little richer they become religious... when a society becomes a little affluent. It is not just accidental that I have more Germans from Europe than anybody else – because they are now the richest people in Europe. It is not accidental. When there is richness, suddenly one starts feeling that richness won’t do; then the real need is felt.

So Germany needs many salesmen and many saleswomen, mm?

[Osho explains the meaning of Prem Neelesh – god of the sky of love. And love has the quality of the sky – the same depth, the same infinity, unboundedness, the same purity]

Millions of things happen but the sky remains unpolluted. Everything else becomes polluted – the air becomes polluted, the water becomes polluted. There is only one thing in existence which remains unpolluted – the sky. Because it is not; it is just a name for emptiness, a name for space, spaciousness. So clouds come and go, and the sky remains untouched.

That is also the quality of love. It is the only thing which is incorruptible, which no poison can destroy. And it is not that clouds don’t come – they come. Jealousy comes, that’s a cloud; possessiveness comes, that is a cloud. Anger comes, hatred comes – these are clouds. And sometimes the clouds are so many that you cannot even see the sky. It is completely covered but it is still there, and absolutely pure.

So always remember: the mind can become very much clouded by anger, but don’t be too worried about it. The sky behind remains there, always virgin; its virginity cannot be destroyed. Clouds come and go but there is something which never comes and never goes – that is the sky. And that’s what love is.

The experience of love is liberating and the experience of love gives you infinity – an experience, a taste, of infinity. So become more and more like the sky and like love. Be less and less identified with the clouds, with moods, whims, ideas, emotions, sentiment; become less and less identified. The day that one suddenly shifts one’s whole consciousness from the clouds to the sky is a day of great realisation.

And both are there; it is only a question of emphasis. You can see both – both alternatives are always possible. So always seek the infinite, look for the infinite, and beware of the finite because the finite is only momentary. It is only tentative, it is arbitrary; it is accidental. The infinite is essential, and with the essential there is joy; with the accidental there is misery. If you get too attached to the accidental you will be in misery because the accidental cannot remain forever.

That which remains and remains and which there is no way to lose – that is what has to be searched for.

[A sannyasin who is doing the encounter group says: A lot of fear coming up, a lot of anger coming up... just everything. It’s been very exciting.]

Mm mm, it is good when one starts becoming more alive. When one starts becoming more alive these things come up. They will go, they are not going to stay long; just don’t repress them again. Because we go on repressing, we go on carrying them as a substratum. Encounter must have broken some layer and things have started coming out. It is pus oozing out, but it has to be thrown out. Once one is free of pus, one is heathy and whole. Then life has a new beginning and is far more grounded.

Far more positively one can start... because these are all negative emotions. If we go on carrying a lot of negative emotions underneath then our life remains negative. At the most we can pretend that we are not negative. We can smile and we can have a mask, but in fact you are fooling yourself because behind your smile you know there is no smile... and it hurts. When you say ‘I am okay’, you know you are not okay, and it hurts. When you say ‘Everything is beautiful’, you know that you are using a lie... just to save face. By and by one becomes very accustomed to these lies and then they don’t even hurt because one is not even conscious of what one is saying.

All those negativities go on moving in your blood, in your heartbeat, in your breathing, so whatsoever you do, even with good wishes, the consequences are not good. Even if you love your anger will affect your love – although it is hidden. You may not be angry with your friend, with your beloved, you may never show it, but it has its own way of coming in.

Anything negative carried in the system makes life sad, a joyless affair. Then there is no excitement and no ecstasy; one simply lives a routine life, a middle-class life, a bourgeois life. Just because one cannot commit suicide one goes on living, but that is not enough reason to live.

By and by these negative emotions inside go on poisoning you and that becomes a slow suicide. By and by all aliveness disappears; one becomes frozen, cold... a stone. Stones don’t bloom and don’t flower and no fragrance ever comes. And life is worthwhile only when there is fragrance, when there is a kind of dance... when one is so happy that one can thank god... when the gratitude is real, not just a routine prayer. When the gratitude is out of the heart, one can really say ‘I am thankful because you gave me a chance to live and to see and to hear and to be.’

One great Indian poet, Rabindranath, was dying. He was a rare man – particularly in the east where people are very life-negative, where all the religions have been teaching life-negation, where people have been taught for centuries that life is a punishment, that because of your past karmas you are thrown into life as a punishment; when your punishment is over you will go back and then you will never come to life again.

This man, Rabindranath, was dying and a monk came to see him. He said, ‘Pray to god that he should not give you any more life. Pray, because this last prayer is meaningful.’

Rabindranath opened his eyes and said, ‘Stop all this nonsense! I am praying because he gave me such a beautiful life. I am asking that it be given to me again. I am so grateful! What nonsense are you talking? Life was immensely beautiful, and if there was misery it was because of me – I did not know how to live it; next time I will know better. If there was anything that was wrong, it was not because of life; it was just because of me. I was foolish, that’s why there was misery. Not that life is misery; it was just my foolishness. If I suffered, I suffered because of myself; that’s my responsibility. I cannot complain. At this moment when I am dying, how can I complain? How can I ask not to be born again? That will be the greatest complaint against god!’

... And I love this man! This is how it should be!

If you have really lived a life of song and dance and celebration you will thank god from the very bottom of your heart. And this is the paradox – that those who can thank god deeply disappear: they don’t come again. This is the paradox. If somebody asks me I will say that this monk will have to come back and Rabindranath will not. There is no need: he has learned the lesson.

His being is transformed. That’s why he can unconditionally thank god and he can say, ‘If you send me a thousand and one times, I will still be thrilled. Your life is so beautiful, your gift was so immensely precious – how can I thank you? My debt is infinite; I cannot repay it.’

This man is not going to come back. There is no need for him because there is nothing else to learn. He has learned joy, he has learned celebration. He has learned thankfulness, he has learned gratitude – what else is there to learn? He has learned prayer.…

So let those negative emotions come up – don’t repress them. And come back again; whenever you can manage, come back!

[A sannyasin who is leaving says that she has separated from her husband and has two children. The older one, aged twelve, is against anything new which she has done. They are staying with her parents and she does not know how to influence him to accept her sannyas.]

No, don’t try directly; don’t try. Just let him feel you. Just be loving and let him be the way he is. Let him see this difference – that since you came back from india you have become more loving – that’s all, and that will prepare him. Next time when you come, he himself will ask. Don’t you say anything: if he asks, then bring him. And once he is here things will change.

Just meditate and be loving, and if he sometimes enquires about what it is, you can tell him but never in any way persuade him, never! Let him be persuaded of his own accord. He seems to be a strong child and the way to win a strong person is never to go direct, never, otherwise he will become more defensive and will shrink more and will become aggressive against you.

Just be as if you are not interested in any way in converting him, then he will come; he will become interested. Then he will start enquiring. Take books, leave the books in his room so he can see. Play the tapes so if he wants to listen he can, but never in any way give him the hint that you are interested in his conversion, no; otherwise he will become very very stubborn and can create trouble. My feeling is that if you are a little aware and without any interference on your part, he will relax. And it is good that he should be helped to relax, because that will become his whole life’s pattern.

If he is only twelve... And these are the most important days of his life. If he does not change before fourteen then that will remain his style of life. Once the child’s sexuality has become mature then things become difficult to change. So whatsoever he is at the time of sexual maturity he will remain; one tends to remain that.

People’s mental age remains near about fourteen. They never grow beyond that, very few grow beyond that. The body goes on growing; the mind stops. For all practical purposes nature no more helps you to grow. Nature’s purpose is fulfilled by the time a child is ready biologically to produce; nature’s interest is only in that. Once the child is ready to give birth to another child, nature is no more interested; nature’s work is done. Now, if you want to grow you will have to go on your own.

After the age of fourteen if somebody grows it is an individual growth, it is a spiritual growth. Up to fourteen it is biological growth... but millions of people remain near about fourteen. They never take on any other growth beyond that which nature gives them; they are simply stuck there.

So this is a very pregnant time for the child. Simply be non-interfering. It will be difficult for you, but if you love the child then become absolutely non-interfering. Yes, make everything available so if he wants to he can use it. But don’t even hint. If he feels that you will be happy by his coming to india, he will never come. If he feels it is his happiness to come – you are not concerned at all, you don’t care – then he will become interested.

One has to be very very intelligent with children because they are intelligent people. So, just be loving, be helpful, and wait. My feeling is that he will come. I will start working on him through you!

[A sannyasin who has completed some groups, says she has started losing, misplacing, her belongings... ]

It must be that you have just become too happy! It happens... because to remember things one needs a different kind of consciousness. When you become a little happier then you have a different kind of consciousness; you are no more interested in things as you were before. Money does not

matter too much when you are happy; when you are miserable it is everything. So when one is unhappy it is very difficult to lose money; one remembers perfectly. But when one is happy one can lose; one tends to forget the non-essential. It happens to many people – this is not accidental. Mm ? when you are feeling very floating, happy, joyous, you tend to lose your materialist’s consciousness. That is a materialist’s consciousness that keeps you alert about where your moneybag is and where your passport is.

It is a good indication.… You will have to learn a new kind of awareness, non-materialistic. Not that you are concerned with money and that’s why you remember it, no. That is not the right reason to remember it, but one has to remember everything that one is doing. Just as part of training, a discipline for awareness you will have to learn that. Do you follow me? If you are too money-minded, you need not be attentive; you go on remembering money.

It happens sometimes that even in sleep a money-minded person goes on remembering his money. It is very difficult, even when he is asleep, to take his money out of his pocket; he will immediately wake up. So this is one kind of attentiveness that is because we are too much concerned with the money, with this and that.

Once you start becoming a different kind of person this awareness will disappear. You will have to learn another kind of attentiveness. One has to learn to be attentive about everything – not because everything is valuable but because attentiveness is valuable. Then the shift has to change from matter to consciousness.

So now you have to be alert. Not that it is a passport and if it is lost there will be trouble, no, but because you are not to lose any opportunity to be alert; whether it is a passport or anything else, that doesn’t matter. Whether it is money or an ordinary paper doesn’t matter, but you have to be alert. Alertness has to be there; that you will have to learn.

And that happens to many people: the first kind of awareness disappears; they have to learn a second kind of awareness. In the gap there will be a little trouble, mm? so don’t carry too much money with you! Only carry things that you can afford to lose... and the remaining, [ashram] can take care of, mm?

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