24

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‌CHAPTER 24

27 December 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium

Deva means divine, rashid means unerring quality. God is unerring, that is the meaning, and whatever mistakes happen in life, they happen because of us, not because of God. So never complain, and whenever you see something is going wrong, remember: it must be going wrong because of you.

Everything goes right if we surrender to God; everything settles, becomes harmonious. With God there is no mistake possible; with God all is good. The moment the ego arises and starts asserting its own way, its own idea, then we go astray. The ego is always erring, the non-ego never errs. That is the meaning of rashid. So whenever you see something is going wrong in life, remember it must be because of the ego. It is always so, it is necessarily so; it is never otherwise. And whenever something is going right and things are flowing and life is a blessing, remember to thank God, because things are good only because of him.

So whatsoever good happens, it is through God, and whatsoever wrong happens, it is through you. You have to allow that idea into your heart; that will become your prayer. Once that sinks deep in the heart it will transform your whole life. Ordinarily we do just the opposite: if something goes well it is because of us; if something goes wrong, it is because of God. When we are succeeding, it is we who are succeeding; when we are failing, it is fate, it is destiny.

Turn the whole attitude upside-down: whenever things are moving, flowing, are beautiful, it is because of God. If some block, some hindrance, some problem arises, then the ego must have come in. Search for it and you will always find it there. Remove it, and the mistake is removed and you come back to the path.

Prabhu means God, shahida means a witness – a witness to God. And we are the only witnesses he has. We can become his proof, we can become his disproof. Our life can become a witness

to God’s existence, and our life can become a witness to God’s not existing. God is not a logical conclusion, he is not an intellectual conclusion at all. His only proofs are the people who realise him.

Somebody asked Ramakrishna, ‘What is the proof of God?’ He said, ‘I am the proof of God; I have seen him. Do you want to see?’

That desire to see should become an intense desire, so intense that it is like a fire and it burns you completely, consumes you completely. The thirst becomes so much that there is nothing else but thirst. In that passionate, fiery state of consciousness God happens, and then one becomes a witness.

There is no need to believe; there is only need to see. Only seeing can be believing. Ordinarily the so-called religions have been teaching just the opposite: they say, ‘Believe then you will see.’ But if you believe and then you see, your seeing is more or less imaginary. It is according to your belief, it is an auto-hypnosis. I say, ‘See, and then believe.’ The first and the basic thing is to see. And seeing is possible. Why settle for believing? Believing is secondary. Jesus says, ‘God is’, I say, ‘God is’, and you believe; it is second-hand. God has to be known first-hand; then only is he known. Your name is the beginning of a great journey. You have to become a witness; you can become... just a little effort, just a collecting yourself together, just a putting of all your energies into one direction and it will happen.

Gopal is a name of Krishna, the Hindu god. Gopal means the cowherd. He loved cows and he was a cowherd, hence he is called gopal. Venu means flute – Gopal’s flute, Krishna’s flute. Just as the cross is the symbol of Christ, so the flute is the symbol of Krishna. And it is far more important than the cross, because the cross is a sad symbol somehow, signifying death.

The flute is life, love, song, signifying celebration. Krishna is the only god in the world’s mythology who is a dancing god, and the world needs a dancing god.

The world is already so sad. The cross is not needed, the world is already on the cross. People are suffering so much; they need a little dance, they need a little celebration. My approach towards religion is that of dance and laughter and song. And venu is also significant, because it literally means a bamboo flute. The bamboo is hollow within, and that’s how a seeker should be – hollow, empty, so that God can flow through, so that God can sing a song through you. God is ready always to sing a song, we just have to become flutes. So become a flute... a deep surrender, a total emptiness.

[The new sannyasin explains that her mother has been ill for thirty-five years and in coma for seven days. Her mother said she wanted to die but the doctors were insisting on keeping her alive. She doesn’t know whether to return to the States now or after her mother dies.

Osho suggests she stay here for now because the doctors could prolong her mother’s state for a long time. That’s the difficulty in America, he says: it is so difficult to live and so difficult to die!]

I think there is no need to go. Just be here, mm? – because they can prolong things for months. There is nothing to be done. Here just make it a point every night before you go to sleep to pray for her for five minutes; pray for her death, not that she should survive others. Pray that she should

leave the body. Enough is enough. Pray that she should be liberated from the body; there is no need for her to linger on.

Just be here, meditate here, do a few groups. And when she has left the body, go; then you be with your father. But start this prayer, mm? – that will be a help.

Relax about your mother; it is good if she dies. Sometimes life is good, sometimes death is good. Nothing is good in itself; it depends. So help her to leave. Every night, just help her to leave. And send this handkerchief to your father to put on her heart. Leave it there on her body; it will help.

... It will help her to go out of the body easily. Our attachments are so deep with the body that even if it is ill and consciously we want to die, unconsciously we cling.

If the unconscious clinging stops, she will die immediately. The body is ready to die, just the mind is clinging. And consciously she may say that she wants to die, but that is just superficial. Deep down she wants to live. Deep down one goes on hoping against all hope: maybe something happens and she will be healthy again; she will be again able to walk. Who knows? – some miracle drug may be invented; one goes on hoping.

And particularly a person who has been ill for thirty-five years, who has not lived, naturally clings to life more. This is the paradox: ordinarily we think a person who has been ill for thirty-five years and paralysed for fourteen years should desire to die, but this is not right reasoning. The desire to die happens naturally only when one has lived his whole life, when one has lived so deeply that the fruit is ripe to fall. But she has not lived.

She is sixty-eight but we should reduce thirty-five years from her life. So she has lived only thirty years, and that too is now just a dream somewhere in the past. She may have started forgetting about that too and wondering whether she was ever alive.…

So when you have not lived you cling more. Just send this (a handkerchief) to your father, and tell him that this is from me. Put it on her heart and leave it there, and it will help.

[A sannyasin who is an ashram resident has recently returned from the West. He says that he has never had to work in his life and now he would like to.]

It will be very helpful for your growth if you can get into work. It will change many things which are lingering around.

Much has happened, but if you put your energies into work much more will happen: you will become more centred, more rooted. And to work for me will give you the greatest joy of your life. So start doing something... but don’t make it a heavy thing.

Don’t be too serious about it, otherwise soon you will get tired, and then the mind will start saying that it was better to drift the way you were drifting before, do whatsoever you like and don’t do whatsoever you don’t like.…

Get into it very playfully. Don’t consider it a work; consider it your meditation, your love for me, and then things will be different. The work will not tire you, will not exhaust you; on the contrary it will revitalise you continuously.

... Start doing something, whatsoever you choose, but then put your energies into it.

[A sannyasin asks about going to Goa or doing the primal group. He says in the past he has been in therapy in a very self-judgemental way – like ‘This is no good, and I am no good’.]

First rest in Goa, mm? then we will decide whether you do Primal or not... By that time problems may be different, problems may have changed, your mind may have changed; there is no need to worry right now. Just go to Goa and rest on the beach and when you come back, then ask me.

A group should not be done with the idea of improving yourself but with the idea of knowing yourself. These are two different approaches. To know oneself is a totally different thing. To improve, to become somebody, to be that or this, to have some perfectionist ideal in the mind, is a totally different thing. With that idea of improving, judgement comes, and then condemnation and misery that you are not this and you are not that, that you are closed and that you have to be open, that you have to be loving and you are not loving, and you have to be truthful. The whole nonsense of the ages, the whole spirituality enters.

There is no end to it; you remain always in anguish and anxiety you are torn apart. You are one thing and you want to be another thing and that is impossible, because the greedy man wants to be non-greedy, the violent man wants to be non-violent, the closed man wants to be open, the man who constantly lies wants to be truthful. We ask the opposite. It is the farthest, the other extreme, that we want. So we demand the opposite and then we are split, and that split will create problems for you.

The group has nothing to do with improvement that’s the great change that has happened. The group is not trying to make you more open or anything; the group is simply helping you to see what you are, who you are. It has no future programme in it; it is just an awareness of the present. It does not create a split.

Christianity creates split, Hinduism creates split, but this humanistic revolution of psychology is a totally different thing. It does not create any split. That’s why I have accepted groups in the ashram, otherwise I would not have allowed them. I have accepted them because they don’t require any ideals; they simply bring light to who you are. Nothing has to be changed.

And it is not that the change does not happen; I am not saying that. The group does not ask for any change and yet the change happens. In fact, that’s why the change happens. When you see who you are, in that very seeing, a thousand and one changes start moving. Not that you try to become open; seeing the fact that you are closed, you open. You don’t create an ideal of openness against the state of closedness. Seeing the state of closedness, you suddenly open; it is not something that you have to do.

... Just go and rest in Goa and enjoy! For one month forget everything else; then I will put you into many things. So you can rest and you can tell your mind that ‘After one month, I am to go into many things, so why not rest at this moment?’

And Goa may prove a great group. Dance and sing and be mad on the beach... with the sun and the sand. Then come back and then we will see: if [you] remain the same, then I will suggest something

or if things have changed, then I will suggest something else. Just first go and rest. There is nothing to be worried about. Take it easy!

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