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CHAPTER 25
28 December 1977 pm in Chuang Tzu Auditorium
Prem means love, gaffar is a Sufi name for God. It means: one who forgives, love-forgiveness, that will be the whole meaning, or love-forgiveness. And that is one of the very fundamental secrets: if you can love and forgive, then nothing else is needed. If you cannot forgive, you cannot love; if you cannot love, you cannot forgive. Only great love knows how to forgive, and only great forgiveness knows how to love, otherwise everybody has limitations. If you cannot forgive you will not be able to love. Everybody commits mistakes; that is human, to err is human. To forgive is divine. And the more you forgive, the more you start moving towards the divine; you start transcending humanity. And the higher you reach, the more love becomes possible.
So remember these two things: love unconditionally and forgive unconditionally, and you will not accumulate any karma, you will not accumulate any past. You will not accumulate any bondage around you, and you will not have any barriers to -your vision.
Once barriers disappear from the vision, God is everywhere. If you can forgive and love then you will find him everywhere; wherever you turn he is there. He is not only in the saints; he is in the sinners too. You cannot see him in the sinner because you cannot forgive him. You cannot see him in the ugly person because you cannot forgive him.
Once you start forgiving, the distinction between the sinner and the saint is lost, the distinction between good and bad disappears. There are no more distinctions; you start seeing the one, the distinctionless. There is no man, no woman, no black, no white, no Indian, no American. There is pure energy, and that pure energy is God.
And the community where you have been... It is good sometimes to escape from the world, but only sometimes. It should not become a fixed attitude, otherwise it is disruptive. Once in a while escape to any commune, vegetarian, fruitarian, anything. Once in a while it is very good to change the total
pattern of your life; then come back to the world and you will have a new approach, a new attitude and new eyes to see with.
But remember, escape should not become your style of life. That’s where everything goes wrong.
That should not be. An escapist cannot grow. He has chosen the easier course and through the easier course there is no growth Growth needs constant challenge, growth needs encounter. Growth needs struggle; it needs problems to be solved, settled. If there is no problem to solve, nothing to settle and you have escaped into a kind of primitive life, there will be silence but that silence will not be very much alive. Sooner or later you will also feel that you are dying and you are losing your intelligence.
That has happened in India so much that we know more of it than anybody else in the world. Down the centuries, the Indian mind has been escapist: go to the Himalayas, reduce your life needs to the minimum, live in a cave. In a way there is no turmoil, no anxiety, you live very silently. But I have been to many caves in the Himalayas – I have never come across a single monk with intelligent eyes... stupid. You will become stupid, because intelligence needs continuous sharpening, and where will you sharpen your intelligence if you move into a cave and just go once in a while to beg and you have no other problem? By the time people start knowing about you, they bring fruit, they bring milk, and then there is no need to go anywhere; your needs are small and they are fulfilled. And you start vegetating. To be vegetarian is good, but don’t start vegetating!
So once in a while, whenever you have time, go to the mountains, to some commune, enjoy that life too. And it will be good, it will be a good challenge. To suddenly move from the turmoil to the silence is a great change, but then come back. The real test is in the world and we go and grow only through the world.
Escapism is slow suicide. Never choose escape. But I am not saying that once in a while as a holiday it is bad; it is perfectly good. Always gain something from the mountains, from the silence, from meditation and come back to life to test it, to see whether it works there. If it works there then it is true; if it doesn’t work there, you have been simply deluding yourself; you have been in a kind of hallucination. You were believing.
It happens – if you go to the Himalayas, it is silent there; you can mistake the Himalayan silence for your own silence. It is cool on those heights and it is very very beautiful, but that beauty is not yours, it belongs to the Himalayas. The moment you come back to the plains it is lost, so what is the point? If you can bring it to the marketplace, then it is yours.
Keep that in mind: go wherever you want, always learn and bring it to the world. Even if ten percent of it can be carried to the world, that ten percent is yours; that Himalayan silence is not yours. That ten percent is better than one hundred percent because it is yours. And by and by it will grow.
A day comes when the marketplace becomes your place of meditation; it is almost like a cave – when you are alone in the crowd, and nothing disturbs you. All kinds of disturbances are there, all distractions are there, but nothing distracts, nothing disturbs; you remain untouched and aloof. Then it is beautiful, then you have arrived home. It is a long journey. Don’t choose the short-cut; that is illusory. How long will you be here?
... Do one or two groups here. And next time, come for a little longer period, at least for two months. There are many groups which will be of immense help to you. I see much potential in you. Just a little work and things will start moving.
[The new sannyasin says: I’ve started to stand off and observe things and it looks as if... people are destroying themselves. The world is destroying itself.]
Don’t be worried about these things, mm? If you can save yourself you have saved the world. These are unnecessary problems and you cannot do much about it. If it is going to be destroyed, it is going to be destroyed. So what? Every planet has to die one day. Maybe the time has come for the earth to die; nothing remains forever. Just as people die, planets die, stars die. Everything is alive one day then dies one day. Maybe the day has come. So nothing to worry about! Nothing will be lost; the universe will be perfectly happy. If humanity is gone no problem arises out of it. Without us existence has been there forever. Without us it will be there, perfectly beautiful; there will be no problem. The moon will not miss us.
The people who are pessimists think that this is just destruction; that is not so. If the ecology is destroyed, if humanity comes to a point where life becomes impossible here, then we will find something. Maybe we will find sky cities which can float, big balloons. We will find sea cities which can float or we may start migrating to some planet.
Don’t be worried about these things. My own approach is that whenever some problem arises, it is good; it helps the mind to find a solution. For example, people suffered for many many centuries because of darkness, cold, then they invented fire. Not that they had not known about fire; fire was there sometimes, wildfire in the forest. They knew about it but when it became too much and their life was being destroyed, then onlyNecessity is the mother of invention; they invented. Since then
we have been inventing and inventing and inventing. Now we have come upon a point where we are destroying ecology. Nothing to be worried about! And you will not be there to face it so why be worried? (laughter) The people who are there will take care! I think Gaffar will not be there. At least for the thirty, forty years you are here, things will continue; nothing to be worried about.
If petrol disappears, we will find something; that is the only way to find. Who knows? – some day our cars will run by water; there is no problem in it. If petrol disappears we will have to find something. Maybe just the sunlight or maybe just air or just water. And who knows? one day we may have vehicles which run only through willpower! (laughter) It is possible, and man only finds out things when things become impossible, otherwise why bother? Petrol is available, so go on! When you have finished with petrol then you have to think about it.
Only a big problem, a big crisis, brings a change in human consciousness. That’s how we have been growing. One day we killed so many animals that life became impossible, so we started cultivating; it was the same problem Just think of those people who had lived only on hunting. They hunted too much and they killed so many animals that it became impossible. They must have been suffering in the same way. They must have asked,‘Now what? How are we going to survive? We have killed so many animals.’ Then they stumbled upon cultivation.
This is how humanity has been surviving. And the problem has always been there some way or other; the problem has to remain there. Out of the problem one grows. So never be pessimistic, mm?
The American intelligence is pessimistic; it only thinks of the coming doom, doomsday. Ecology is destroyed, this is destroyed, that is destroyed, petrol is finished and the water and air are polluted. It is perfectly right, it is happening, but it cannot be stopped either.
The only way to go beyond it is to find some solution. Not that you can replace ecology; that is not possible. Man cannot go back, man can only go ahead. Maybe that’s why so much energy is put into going to the moon and to Mars. Maybe within thirty, forty years we will need a great migration. We have been migrating down the ages. We have been migrating only on the earth, from one continent to another continent. When food was finished on one continent, we migrated to another continent. Now, we can migrate to another planet and it will be a beautiful journey, don’t be worried. At least I’m not worried at all... about anything. Whatsoever happens is good. Rather, you meditate! Good.
[A visitor, who has been invalid for several years, says: Did you bring me here?] Yes! Become a sannyasin...
[She answers: You really think so, that I should become a sannyasin?]
Yes! That’s why I have called you. You have to think about it? It is better not to think but become a sannyasin without thinking.….
Thinking will not lead you anywhere; thinking goes round and round. One has to come out of the circle. Non-thinking is always helpful. One has to be foolish sometimes; only then can one do something, otherwise it is impossible. If you fall in love and you go on thinking and thinking, you will not be able to do anything. It is a kind of fall in love.…
[She then asks: Are you the person whom I feel I’ve been in contact with since the summer?] Right! And now the contact has to grow deeper.…
It is always difficult, it is very difficult, but now, slowly, slowly, you will not wonder. Things will become more clear and messages will become more clear.…
It is difficult to decide, mm? Once you are here for a few days, slowly, slowly, you will start recognising me... because those intimations are very vague. By their very nature they are very vague because they are not physical, they are astral. And your astral vision is not very clear.…
So you have just seen through a dark glass, mm? just fragments, something, but not a clear-cut picture. But that will settle... that’s not much of a problem. I will clean the dark glass; it will settle.
It will be good if you stay at least six weeks. That will be good; then you can do a few more groups and things will settle. And what should we do about your sannyas?
[She asks again: You really feel I should?... ]
I feel, but unless you feel, I will not give, because my feeling is not the only thing; you have to feel it too. So I think, wait, mm? – your feeling has to come. Then the meeting will be good, otherwise I
will give sannyas and you will not be able to receive it totally. Just do these groups; things will settle. Good!
[A sannyasin says: I don’t smoke (dope) because it scares me, it’s too intense. I smoke occasionally but I know how much more I could be feeling when I don’t smoke. I want to learn to feel without smoking.
Osho suggests she do the encounter group, and she says she is scared about the violence in it.]
Don’t be worried, mm? At the most they can kill you! More they cannot do. Think of the worst and hope for the best.
Encounter will do much, it will be immensely helpful, mm? because this question of sensitivity and aliveness... it requires that something be broken. Something is covering you like a crust, and because of that crust you cannot see deeply, you cannot hear deeply, you cannot contact reality.
That crust is taken off by psychedelic drugs, chemically, forcibly; it is violent act through chemical change. The curtain is pulled away and for a moment you can have a glimpse, but that will remain only for the moment and again the curtain will be there. The next day you will find yourself more dull than ever. Then more of the drug is needed, a greater quantity, and that can destroy the whole chemistry of your body. The best way is to destroy that crust not chemically but consciously, and that’s what the work of Encounter is. Don’t be afraid, mm? – I will tell them to kill you; don’t be afraid! Good!
[Another sannyasin says: Please help me to feel more.]
Mm mm, that will happen in its time, just don’t be worried. Feeling cannot be cultivated, cannot be imposed. One has to wait; when the spring comes, it blooms. And it is coming; don’t be worried about it, you need not tell me about it. That is my work: to look after that. If you are too conscious about it that will be a hindrance, because consciousness will mean only one thing, self-consciousness. You cannot be conscious without the self and your very self-consciousness will not allow you to relax. You will be checking again and again and saying, ‘The feeling has not come yet, the feeling is not coming yet, I am missing... I am missing,’ and that Will create more mess.
You forget about it now it is my business! You are my sannyasin, now it is my work. Once you are my sannyasin it is my work. If you are not a sannyasin, then it is your work. The day you take sannyas, you can relax. Then you can trust me; whenever it is right it will happen.
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